Copyright © 2000 by
Andrews University Press. Cited with permission.
THE SABBATH
AND THE ALIEN
H.
R. COLE
Many scholars in modern Judaism have
discerned universal
dimensions to the Sabbath.1 However, few
writers in earlier Judaism ever
saw them.2 It is almost superfluous to
add that non-Sabbatarian Christians
have rarely seen these dimensions either.
This failure to see universal
dimensions may seem surprising, for three
passages in the Pentateuch affirm that the rg, "resident alien," is to rest on the
weekly Sabbath, along with the Israelite (Exod
However,
rabbinic Judaism has traditionally identified the rg in these passages
as the ger saddiq, the circumcised "righteous alien,"
rather than the ger toshab,
the uncircumcised "sojourning alien." The
ger saddiq was a
newcomer to
Jewish
territory, but not to the Jewish religion.3
By the rabbinic period, the rg was understood in terms of religious
1 E.g., Leo Baeck, "Mystery and Commandment," in Contemporary Jewish Thought, ed.
Simon Noveck (New
York: B'nai B'rith, 1963), 202;
idem, This People
Jewish Existence, trans. Alben H. Friedlander (
Congregations,
1964), 138; Manin Buber, Moses, East and West Library (
1946);
Hermann Cohen, Reason and Hope:
Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann
Cohen, trans. Eva Jospe (Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College, 1993), 87, 116,
117, 225.
Note
the universality implied in the title of Abraham J.
Heschel's book, The
Sabbath: Its Meaning for
Modern Man (New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Young, 1951). See also Roy Branson,
"Sabbath-Hem
of Jewish Unity," JES 15 (1978):
722-732.
2 Philo" has an
extremely universal view of the Sabbath, as he has of the whole of Judaism,
which he strives to present as nothing more than
Greek philosophy in its purest form
("On
the Account of the World's Creation Given by Moses," 89). Genesis Rabbah
11:5 teaches
that if the Gentiles will not keep the Sabbath now,
they will be forced to as they suffer in the afterlife.
However,
the general trend of early Judaism is in the opposite direction, as exemplified
in the way the Babylonian talmud
tractate Sanhedrin 58b and Deuteronomy Rabbah
non-Jews from observing the Sabbath under pain of
death. See also Exodus Rabbah 25:11.
Jubilees
has the seeds of universalism inherent in its claim that the Sabbath is first
observed by
God
and the angels at Creation, but immediately restricts
its observance on earth to
16-22,
30-33). This apocalyptic tradition is continued in Pirke' de Rabbi Eliezer 18-20; Pesikta
Rabbati 26.3,
9. For
more information see Roben M. Johnston,
"Patriarchs, Rabbis, and Sabbath,"
AUSS 12 (1974): 98-101.
3 E.g., Mekilta Exodus
Foot
University Press, 1962), 1:339, 340.
223
224
SEMINARY STUDIES 38
(AUTUMN 2000)
conversion. The rabbinic distinction between the
circumcised and the
uncircumcised alien may at first
sight seem to be an artificial contrivance
to reconcile the apparently conflicting commands
of Lev
Deut
14:21. For the historical critic, it would normally be enough to
develop a theology of the alien and the law for
just one of the supposed
sources, rather than attempting to identify a
coherent pattern across the
board.4 However, the
distinction cannot be dismissed out of hand, for
while the word rg sometimes does refer to
the alien in general,5 at other
times it seems to refer exclusively to the alien who
has been circumcised.6
The
question here is whether it is an appropriate distinction to draw in
the context of the three Pentateuchal
texts where the rg is discussed in
relationship to the weekly Sabbath.
John Calvin accepted that the rg in these passages includes
4 Jacob Milgrom
argues that in the priestly laws, the alien is required to observe the
prohibitive but not the performative
commandments (Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, JPS Torah
Commentary
[
maxim to the Pentateuch as a whole.
Lev
that the phrase, "either the nativeborn or the alien who sojourns among you"
qualifies the
prohibition against working on the Day of Atonement,
but not the immediately preceding
performative command to afflict
one's soul on this day. See Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16:
A New Translation with
Introduction and Commentary, AB, vol. 3 (
1991), 1055. However, Ezra's
distinction itself seems to be contrived. The grammatical
pattern of a performative
commandment followed by a prohibition of work then a list of
who is included is also found in Exod 20:9-10 and Deut 5:13-14. However, no one claims that
the dependents listed are prohibited from working
on the seventh day, but are not included
in the earlier permission to work the other six
days.
5 Lev
practices listed in the chapter, because the
people already in the land have done these
things and the land has become defiled. The fact that
the present occupants of the land are
not a part of
the preservation of the land from the defilement
under Israelite occupation must
presuppose that the Israelites ensure that none of
its inhabitants commit these acts,
uncircumcised aliens included.
6 Exod
will be cut off "from the congregation of
According
to Milgrom's maxim, this command applies to aliens
(whether circumcised or not)
because it is prohibitive rather than performative. However, in Exod
aliens are not counted as part of the congregation of
specifically prohibited from taking
part in Passover in the same breath as all
the congregation
of
It is also possible that in Lev
vs.
33 the priest is said to make for "all the people of the assembly" (lhqh Mf-lk), an
expression that includes only Israelites and
assimilated aliens in Deut 23:3-8 (vss. 4-9, Heb.),
just as (lxWy
tr-fm) does not include uncircumcised aliens in Exod 12:48.
THE SABBATH AND THE ALIEN 225
uncircumcised aliens, but denied any
universal dimensions to the Sabbath
by adding that aliens and domestic animals are
included
not for their sakes, but
lest anything opposed to the sabbath
should happen beneath the eyes
of the Israelites. . . . Besides, if
the very least liberty had
been conceded to them [the Israelites],
they would have done many
things to evade the Law in their
days of rest, by employing
strangers and the cattle in their work.7
There seems to be no evidence in Exod
term rg is being used in a
restricted or a broad sense, or to indicate
whether the alien's rest is merely incidental to
that of the Israelite.
However,
there is evidence on both these points in Exod 23:12
and Deut
5:14.
The purpose of this article is to explore the place of
the alien in these
two texts and to use the evidence as it arises to
test the traditional rabbinic
interpretation and the explanation
given by Calvin.
The Alien in Exod 23:12
On the basis of the "catchword"
principle, the scheme of six years
followed by a seventh year in Exod
23:10-11 naturally lends itself as an
introduction to the scheme of six
days followed by a seventh day in v.
12:8
jrvw
Hvny Nfml tbwt yfiybwh Mvybv
jyWfm hWft Mymy tww
rghv
jtmx-Nb wpnyv jrmHv
Six days you must do your work, but on the
seventh day you must stop,
so that your ox and your
donkey may rest, and the son of your female
servant and the stranger may be
refreshed.
The inclusion of the rg in the Sabbath rest is
clearly not incidental to the
rest of the Israelites in this text. Indeed, the verse
does not even mention the
benefits of the Sabbath rest for "the
addressee and his family..”9 Instead, the
7 John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the
Form of a Harmony, trans. Charles William
Bingham, vol. 2 [
439).
See also Daniel Augsburger, "Calvin and the
Mosaic Law," 2 vols. (DSR thesis, Universite des
sciences humaines de
8 See C. W. Kiker,
"The Sabbath in the Old Testament Cult" (Th.D.
dissertation,
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1968),
90.
9 Dale Patrick, Old Testament Law (Atlanta, GA: John Knox, 1985),92.
This fact does
not mean that no benefit for the addressee of the
command is envisaged at all, nor that the
worship value of the Sabbath is being denied. Instead,
it simply suggests that the Sabbath is here
presented as having a distinctly humanitarian
purpose. Exod 23:1-12 is a list of judgments
outlining humanitarian obligations and Exod 23:14-19 contains a list of judgments outlining
explain why in
226 SEMINARY STUDIES
38 (AUTUMN 2QOO)
addressee is to rest expressly "so that"
(Nfml) his animals may rest
and the son
of his female servant and the alien may be
refreshed.10
The inclusion of the uncircumcised alien in the
statement of Exod
includes all aliens, circumcised and
uncircumcised alike:
Myrfm
Crxb Mtyyh Myrg-yk rgh wpn-tx
Mtfdy Mtxv CHlt xl rgv
You must not oppress the alien. You know the
life of the alien, for you
were aliens in the
The
allusion to the Israelites as aliens in
erstwhile vulnerability as a dependent minority in
a foreign land. It has
nothing to say about their adoption of Egyptian
religious practice.11
Conversely,
the command not to oppress the rg must also have all
aliens
in view, not just those who adopt the Israelite covenant
by being
circumcised.
The Alien in Deut
The Sabbath commandment in Deut 5:12-15 stands
at the heart of the
Deuteronomic
account of the Decalogue. Verse 14 lists those included in the
prohibition against working on the Sabbath and
concludes with a purpose
clause:
jtmxv-jdbfv
jtbv-jnbv htx hkxlm-lk hWft xl jyhlx hvhyl tbw
yfybwh Mvyv
jvmk jtmxv jdbf Hvny
Nfml jyrfwb rwx jrgv jtmhb-lkv
jrmHv jrvwv
Exod 23:10-12 "there is no allusion to the
keeping of a sabbath unto the Lord.
. . in connection
with either the seventh year or seventh day,"
such as is found in Exod
Keil and F. Delitm, The Pentateuch, 2 vols.,
Biblical Commentary, trans. James Martin, Clark's
Foreign
Theological Library, 4th series, vol. 3 [
explain the absence of any mention of benefits
for the addressee of the command.
10 It has been argued that the welfare of
animals, slaves, and aliens is not primarily in focus in
Exod 23:12. Instead, a sacral "'return to the
original state,' a restitutio in integrum,"
is in view, and
they are to rest simply because "they are an
integral part of the creation which. . . ' is to
return to its
'rest'" (Martin Noth, Exodus; A Commentary, trans. J. S.
Bowden, Old Testament
Library [
drawn from evidence in the passage itself. See Niels-Erik Andreasen, The Old Testament
Sabbath; A Tradition-Historical Investigation, SBLDS, no. 7 (
Literature,1972), 135;
Approach to Biblical Law, SBLDS, no. 140
(Atlanta, GA; Scholars Press, 1993), 159.
11 In view of the scattering of the Jewish
exiles, it is understandable that the LXX
translators would interpret the rg primarily as a newcomer to the Jewish religion, whenever
possible. Nevertheless, their translation of Myrg in the last clause of Exod 23:9
as prosh<lutoi
("proselytes") is clearly anachronistic. It would have
been more appropriate if the terms
Myrg/rg had been translated as pa<roikoj/pa<roikoi
("sojourner/sojourners") in both verses.
THE SABBATH AND THE ALIEN 227
However, the seventh day
[is] a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You must
not do any work: [not] you,
or your son, or your daughter, or your male
servant, or your female
servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of
your cattle, or your alien
who [is] within your gates, so that your male
servant and female servant may
rest like you.
"Although only the male and female slave are mentioned in the clause
stating the rationale, it seems clear that they
represent the entire list of
dependents mentioned earlier in the command."12
Accordingly, the extension
of rest to the household, the alien, and the
livestock is not incidental to the
rest of the Israelite householder. Instead, it is
placed on a par.
The inclusion of the uncircumcised alien in the
command of Deut
to the Israelite experience of slavery in
hyvFn
frzbv hqzH dyb Mwm jyhlx
hvhy jxcyv Myrfm Crxb tyyh
dbf-yk trkzv
tbwh
Mvy-tx tvWfl jyhlx hvhy jvc
Nk-lf
And you must remember that you were a slave in
the
Yahweh your God brought you out from there with
a strong hand and with
a stretched-out arm.
Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to
observe the Sabbath day.13
The fact that the Israelites were aliens in
in this verse, but it is implied, in the same way
that the inclusion of the
alien in the rationale of v. 14 is implied.
Accordingly, the issue of the
alien's vulnerability is what is in view, not
the question of his inclusion
in the Israelite covenant through circumcision,
just as in Exod 23:9.
Conclusion and Implications
A universal dimension to the weekly Sabbath is
implied by the
presence of three commands in the Pentateuch that
specifically include the
12 Christiana van Houten,
The Alien in Israelite Law, JSOT
Supplement Series, no. 107
(Sheffield: JSOT Press, Sheffield Academic
Press, 1991), 92.
13 The conclusion of this verse may seem to
suggest that the deliverance from Egyptian
slavery is being advanced as
the reason for Sabbath observance itself, rather than as reason for
extending its privileges to one's dependents.
However, while Exod 20:11 has an introductory
"for" (yk), the reference to
and simply enlarges the command" in v. 15a
"to include remembrance of the Exodus on the
sabbath" (Niels-Erik Andreasen,
"Festival and Freedom: A Study of an Old Testament Theme,"
Int 28 [1974]: 284). The
"therefore" (Nk-lf) of Deut 5:15b may thus
simply be by "analogy of [sic]
Exodus
20:8-11, for. . . no reason for the sabbath per se is really provided here" (ibid). On the
other
hand,
even if Israel's deliverance from slavery did constitute one reason for
Sabbath
keeping, there is no reason to deny that contextually it also serves as a prod
to show
kindness toward one's dependents (see Martin
Rose, 5. Mose,
2 vols., Zurcher Bibelkommentare,
Altes Testament, no. 5.2 [
alien in the Sabbath rest (Exod
rabbinic interpretation has resisted this implication
by claiming that the
rg or alien in these
verses is the ger saddiq, the circummcised "righteous
alien,” rather than with the ger toshab, the uncircumcised "sojourning
allen, who is a newcomer to
Jewish territory, but not to the Jewish
religion. According to John Calvin, the
uncircumcised alien is included,
but simply to prevent any stumbling-block to Israelite
Sabbath keeping,
not because of any benefit he himself might gain.
There seems to be no
evidence as to the validity or otherwise of these
arguments in Exod
However,
an exegesis of the place of the alien in Exod
provides strong evidence that these texts do
include the uncircumcised
alien in their perspective, and that his rest and refreshment
is just as much
apart of the purpose of the Sabbath as the rest and
refreshment of the
Israelite householder.
In Christian circles, the continued observance
of a weekly Sabbath
has generally received wider support than the
continued observance of
other OT sacred times. A number of reasons might be
cited, not least of
which is the fact that the Sabbath is the only sacred
time that is
specifically included in the
Decalogue.14 Rarely has attention been given
to the possible significance of a comparative
study of the Pentateuchal
laws governing the relationship of the alien to
different sacred times, and
it is beyond the scope of this article to
undertake such a study in detail.
nevertheless, on the basis of a
preliminary investigation, it would seem
that the Pentateuch itself does give the
uncircumcised alien a special status
in relationship to the weekly Sabbath, one that it
does not afford to him
in relationship to any other sacred time.15
This distinction may indeed
14 Because of its position
in the substance of the "Ten Commandments," the weekly
Sabbath
retains its binding character on the recipient of the new covenant in a manner
which
does not apply to the sabbatical year or the year of
jubilee" (O. Palmer Robertson, The
Christ
of the Covenants [
15 The uncircumcised alien is specifically
barred from observing the Passover (Exod
Bread
(Exod
the circumcised alien is specifically in view in this
verse. The examination of the context of
Lev
may be specifically in view in commands given with
reference to the alien is apparently
permitted and encouraged to observe the Feast of
Harvest/Weeks (Deut
he does not seem to be required to do so (Deut
alien observance of the Feast of Booths (Lev
Year,
provision is made for the sustenance of the uncircumcised alien while the land
lies
fallow (Lev 25:6) and the uncircumcised alien
attending the Feast of Booths that year is
included in the comprehensive list of people who
are to listen to the reading of the law (Deut
31:11,
12). The provision for the sustenance of the alien may be to ensure his
survival as a
landless individual during the fallow year.
However, his debts are not remitted as the
THE SABBATH AND THE ALIEN 229
offer one justification for the special place of
honor sometimes accorded
the Sabbath in Christian tradition vis-a-vis other OT sacred times.
Israelite's
are, nor is the non-Israelite slave released after seven years, as the
Israelite slave is
(Deut
15:1-18). Likewise, in the Year of Jubilee, Israelite servants are to be
released, whereas
the slaves who are foreigners or the children of aliens
may remain enslaved and be passed on
from generation to generation (Lev 25:47-54). In
none of these cases is there a categorical
requirement for the uncircumcised alien to
participate fully in the observance of a sacred
time, such as we have found in this article with the
weekly Sabbath.
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