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How do people live a commandment that was given over a thousand years before their time? This is a question with which many religious people might struggle today. How do those commandments continue to have relevance over time, especially when political, social, cultural, and religious climates are in a state of constant flux? Although divine principles are eternal, their specific application in people’s lives sometimes changes over time. For example, the principle of sacrifice is eternal, but the way sacrifice is practiced has changed. Beginning with Adam and continuing up until the destruction of Herod’s temple in 70 CE, animal sacrifices were performed. In modern times, however, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally focus their performance of sacrifices through offering a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 9:19–20; Doctrine and Covenant 59:8)[1] and through the paying of tithes (Doctrine and Covenants 64:23). Similarly, the Lord taught Moses that the sabbath is “a perpetual covenant. . . . A sign between me and the children of Israel for ever” (Exodus 31:16–17). Just as modern saints today endeavor to find ways to reemphasize the Sabbath day in their communal and family lives, so too did Jews living in the late Second Temple period (200 BC–70 CE).[2]

The late Second Temple period was a time when Jews were faced with colliding political, religious, and cultural forces that pressed their communities to reexamine the Sabbath in light of their circumstances. Their intent was not only to “remember” the sabbath day (Exodus 20:8), but also to “keep” (Hebrew šāmôr) it (Deuteronomy 5:12). Šāmôr is the same root word used to describe a guard or a watchman and emphasizes the Israelites’ responsibility to actively guard, preserve, and protect the Sabbath and its holiness.[3] They wanted to make sure that it didn’t become lost to the modernizing influences of the Greek and Roman worlds in which they lived. This was also a time that coincided with the Sabbath controversies recorded in the New Testament, which will be covered in greater detail in other chapters in this volume. Here it is sufficient to note that those controversies were part of this ongoing discussion on how to keep and protect the Sabbath day.

We are fortunate to have a variety of contemporary sources that document Sabbath observance in this period. These sources, such as the writings of Philo, a Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher (ca. 20 BC–ca. AD 50), and Josephus, a Jewish historian (AD 37–ca. AD 100), as well as Jewish texts such as Jubilees (mid second century BC),[4] 1 and 2 Maccabees (second century BC), the Damascus Document (ca. 175 BC–AD 70), and others[5] have survived to give modern readers an important lens through which to view and interpret some facets of this discussion.

At the outset, it is important to note that these texts do not manifest any normative, unified Sabbath interpretation or praxis during this time period. Rather, what we find is different communities, in different geographical areas, engaging with the question of the Sabbath observance, but often coming up with different answers. Nevertheless, the Sabbath had clearly become an important marker that distinguished the Jewish community in an increasingly pluralistic society. John M. G. Barclay’s observation about Jews in the diaspora is probably also true for Jews living under foreign rule in the Holy Land: “Of all the festivals celebrated by Diaspora Jews, the Sabbath was, in social terms, by far the most important, since its observance was so regular, so noticeable and so socially problematic, affecting . . . not only personal but also financial, legal and political relationships.”[6] As a result, ongoing communal discussions developed over how to interpret and apply the Sabbath command in the various religious and political environments in which they lived. It appears that these discussions enabled the communities to find meaning in the Sabbath command—something that could also provide a helpful model for modern Sabbath observers as they likewise engage in similar tensions and seek to protect, guard, and preserve the Sabbath day in the present world. The communities during this period engaged the Sabbath in three such ways:

1. They reemphasized the Sabbath as a central focus of their covenantal lives.
2. The Sabbath became a marker of their religious identity at a time when many outsiders mocked them and their Sabbath observance.
3. They sought for meaningful ways to apply the Sabbath-day commandment in their family and communal lives since, as noted in the previous chapter, outside of the Sabbath sacrifices at the temple, the Hebrew Bible gave very little practical direction for how the non-priestly Israelites should act on the Sabbath.

To help modern readers better appreciate and understand the Jews’ efforts to keep the Sabbath day relevant, this chapter will first examine the political and religious climate the Jews found themselves in during the late Second Temple period. In many ways this was very different from the environment in which the Israelites first received the Sabbath commandment, and it impacted Jewish religious life in powerful ways. With that background in place, we will then be prepared to examine some of the Jewish texts that provide evidence of Jews grappling with the Sabbath commandment in their world. It is hoped that this discussion will help modern readers in three ways: First, to help them develop a better understanding of some of the circumstances that prompted the variety of interpretations that Jewish groups applied to the Sabbath. Second, to provide a background for, and a more nuanced understanding of, the Sabbath controversies in the New Testament gospels that will be discussed in chapters that follow. Lastly, to offer some models for ways that Saints today might find value in navigating similar struggles in our modern world.

Living the Sabbath in the Late Second Temple Period

During the time that the temple stood and Israel controlled their own government and religion, the Sabbath directives in the Hebrew Bible were apparently sufficient.[7] But as Jews found themselves living in increasingly pluralistic societies, either because of foreign rule, exile, or because they lived in satellite communities spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean, the rise in religious tension was inevitable. On the one hand, “religious tradition and observance assumed an ever greater role in maintaining distinctive identity”[8] and covenantal loyalty; but on the other hand, some of that religious tradition and observance had to be adapted to enable the community to survive. In other words, they had to find ways to thrive in the world they lived in without letting their religious identity become absorbed by it.[9] Observing the Sabbath seems to have straddled both ends of this continuum.

For Jews who focused on covenant loyalty in the late Second Temple period, the Sabbath became one of the important markers in a process that scholar Tom Holmén calls “covenant path searching.” By this phrase he means that Jews were actively seeking for “concrete meaning of the divine covenant in a human life.” It was about looking for ways to “learn how to be loyal to the covenant.”[10] Although many Jewish groups of the time participated in covenant path searching, not everyone did it in the same way with the same focus, which led to some variety in Sabbath interpretations.

Applying the Sabbath Commandment to Rest

Throughout the late Second Temple period, during the political reign of the Greek Seleucids and the Romans, the impact of Exodus 31’s designation of the Sabbath day as a sign of the perpetual covenant was at the fore politically as well as religiously. Josephus viewed profaning the Sabbath as an example of “covenant disloyalty,”[11] and both those inside and outside of the Jewish community recognized the Sabbath as one of the central identifying markers of Judaism.[12] For example, Josephus claims that a Greek historian and geographer named Agatharchides wrote about Jewish Sabbath practice in this way: “There are a people called Jews, who dwell in a city the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day; on which times they make no use of arms, nor meddle with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their hands in their holy places, and pray until evening.”[13] Josephus further states, perhaps with some exaggeration, that “there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come.”[14] By the Roman period, Sabbath-day rest was one of the few things that Roman writers knew about Jewish belief,[15] and many of those writers used it to condemn the Jews for “idleness.” The Stoic philosopher Seneca “found fault with the sacred things of the Jews, and especially the Sabbaths, affirming that they act uselessly in keeping those seventh days, whereby they lose through idleness about the seventh part of their life.”[16]

While it is true that some Roman political leaders made concessions for Jewish Sabbath observance,[17] at times they viewed it as a stumbling block against the peace and stability of their empires. As a result, some Romans attacked Jews during the Sabbath. According to the author of 1 and 2 Maccabees, the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes IV declared it unlawful “for a man to keep sabbath days or ancient feasts, or to profess himself at all to be a Jew” (2 Maccabees 6:6).[18] Apparently some Jews welcomed the new Hellenistic way of life that Antiochus IV promoted (see 1 Maccabees 1:11–15) and “consented to his religion, and sacrificed unto idols, and profaned the sabbath” (1 Maccabees 1:43); however, 2 Maccabees glorifies those who instead refused to capitulate and conform. For example, it describes a group who refused to accept Antiochus’s ban and continued to meet secretly in a cave on the Sabbath. When they were discovered, they refused to defend themselves from the ensuing attack because of “their respect for the most holy day” and, as a result, were burned to death (2 Maccabees 6:11). Additionally, Jutta Leonhardt explains that, according to Philo, a Roman governor “attempted to destroy Judaism by interfering with its most prominent customs, beginning with the Sabbath rest from work.”[19]

Such political antagonism combined with the increasing pressure of cultural and religious assimilation may be behind the flurry of Jewish texts in the late Second Temple period that seek to promote and understand the meaning of the Sabbath commandment.[20] The author of Jubilees reemphasizes the Deuteronomic command to not only “remember,” but also to “guard” the Sabbath: “command the children of Israel, and let them guard this day so that they might sanctify it and not do any work therein, and not defile it because it is more holy than any day” (Jubilees 2:26; italics added).

The question, though, was how the Jews were to maintain the Sabbath in their pluralistic society. Not only were there pressures from Gentile neighbors and overlords, but there was also a wide range of Sabbath interpretations within the Jewish community. Philo, for one, was keenly aware of this wide spectrum. He describes one group, whom he characterizes as living on the theological periphery of the community, “as if they were mere souls unconnected with the body,” [21] who viewed the “written laws as symbols” and therefore saw no value in living the Sabbath laws.[22] He also knew of those who used the Sabbath rest as license for “devoting their leisure . . . to sports, or exhibitions of actors and dancers, . . . run[ning] madly after theatrical amusements.”[23] Although Philo acknowledged the importance of Sabbath symbols, he argued to defend the Sabbath laws: “It does not follow that on that account we may abrogate the laws which are established respecting [the Sabbath].”[24] The difficulty was, however, that not everyone agreed on what those laws were.

As we have seen in the previous chapter, the Hebrew Bible, which gives only limited guidance on how to live the Sabbath, occasionally referred to activities associated with the temple but primarily emphasized that it was a day of rest and focused on a short list of prohibitions of certain types of work. It is clear that by the late Second Temple period, this biblical list of prohibitions was inadequate for the community’s needs. Three texts, Philo’s On the Migration of Abraham 91, Jubilees 2:25–33; 50:8–13, and the Damascus Document (CD X, 14–XII, 6; 4QD^e 10 V, 1–21),[25] are evidence of their need for further clarification. Each text sought to define the work prohibited on the Sabbath by developing their own lists, which both expanded and reinterpreted the biblical proscriptions. Each of these lists provide important windows into the variety of ways the respective authors and their communities were interpreting the Sabbath commandment. Both Jubilees and the Damascus Document seem to be written by those living within the holy land, whereas Philo represents those living in the diaspora.[26] Of the three lists, the one found in the Damascus Document is the most expansive.

In these lists, only two of the biblical prohibitions are specifically mentioned: plowing and carrying burdens. Both Philo[27] and Jubilees include the biblical prohibition against plowing a field (Jubilees 50:12), but neither list makes any mention of harvesting. The Damascus Document, however, uses a more generic prohibition of “walking in a field to do work” (CD X, 20).[28] The type of work is not specified, but could reasonably include both plowing and harvesting. The act of walking should also be recognized as part of the prohibition since it is immediately followed by the injunction against walking more than one thousand cubits (approximately 0.3 miles) outside of the city on the Sabbath (CD X, 21; see also 4Q264a 1 I, 1).

Philo prohibits the carrying of all burdens, which has broader ramifications than Jeremiah’s injunction against carrying burdens in or out of the city or the home. In their lists of prohibitions, Jubilees and the Damascus Document omit Jeremiah’s ban on carrying in and out of the city and focus instead on carrying things in or out of a house or carrying them from house to house, or even to their tents (Jubilees 2:29–30; 50:8; CD XI, 7–9; 4Q265 2 I, 4–5). Thus the emphasis on commercial concerns has been omitted in favor of domestic ones. The Damascus Document extends the prohibited actions even further than those found in Jubilees, expanding the prohibition to include a wet nurse lifting a baby to go out or come into the house, helping an animal give birth, and helping an animal that has fallen into a well or a pit (CD XI, 7–14; 4QD^e 10 V, 16–18; 4Q265 2 I, 5).[29] We know that not all Jews agreed with the last of these injunctions because it was not included in Jubilees’ list of prohibitions, and in Luke 14:1–6 Jesus assumes—with the apparent agreement of the Pharisees—that rescuing an animal in a well was acceptable on the Sabbath. If, however, it was a person rather than an animal who had fallen into water on the Sabbath, it was possible for a rescuer to use his own garment to lift the person up, but “no one should carry a vessel” (4Q265 2 I, 6–8).

In addition, Jubilees and the Damascus Document both reinterpret the biblical directive about gathering manna. A reinterpretation was clearly needed because by the late Second Temple period, no Israelite or Jew had eaten manna for over a thousand years—since the time they had entered the promised land (Joshua 5:12). The issue was further complicated by the question of whether the directive to prepare manna before the Sabbath was specific to the manna and thus not applicable after entering Canaan, or whether it should be metaphorically applied to all food. Even more complicating is the fact that manna was not the only food that the Israelites consumed while in the wilderness—they also ate quail. But the biblical text says nothing about them hunting and preparing quail on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:13; Numbers 11:31–32; Psalm 105:40).

Nevertheless, both Jubilees and the Damascus Document interpret the directive about manna to include all food. They both prohibit eating anything on the Sabbath that has not been prepared the previous day (Jubilees 2:29; 50:9; CD X, 22). They also expand it to include specific directions about drinking water, and Jubilees goes even further and forbids the act of drawing water on the Sabbath (2:29). Like the biblical manna instructions, it only permits drinking water that was drawn the previous day (Jubilees 50.8; see also 4Q251 1). The Damascus Document prohibits drinking any water that has come from outside the camp (probably in accordance with their restriction on walking more than a thousand cubits) or water that was collected in a vessel (CD X, 23–XI, 2). If a person is bathing, however, then he is permitted to “drink where he stands” (CD XI, 1).

Both Jubilees and Philo also include the Exodus 35 ban on kindling fires (vv. 2–3). The content of the Exodus passage is interesting. It paraphrases and combines the Exodus 20:9–10 declaration that the seventh day is a day of rest with the Exodus 31:14 penalty of death for those who defile it by doing any kind of work. Then it follows with just one example of the type of defiling work: “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day” (35:3). The biblical text gives no indication why kindling fire was singled out as the sole example of work. Clearly this prohibition did not apply to the temple sacrifices performed on the Sabbath because of the command that the fire on the altar “shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out” (Leviticus 6:12–13). Jubilees also includes this biblical directive against lighting a fire in its list of prohibitions but does not elaborate on it any further (50:12). Nevertheless, it does not seem to have the same priority afforded to it in Exodus 35 because, rather than being singled out, it is simply included along with several other prohibitions.

Philo also includes the lighting of fire in his list,[30] but unlike either Exodus 35 or the Jubilees list, he attempts to explain why lighting a fire is prohibited. He argues that lighting a fire is a precursor to breaking many of the other Sabbath prohibitions:

Why [the prohibition against lighting fires]? Because, not only mere handicraft trades, but also nearly all other acts and businesses, and especially all such as have reference to any providing or of seeking for the means of life, are either carried on by means of first themselves, or, at all events, not without those instruments which are made by fire. On which account Moses, in many places, forbids any one to handle a fire on the sabbath day, inasmuch as that is the most primary and efficient source of things and the most ancient and important work; and if that is reduced to a state of tranquility, he thought that it would be probable that all particular works would be a stand-still likewise.[31]

Both Jubilees and the Damascus Document lists forbid three actions that are not included in the biblical prohibitions. The first is an injunction against striking an animal, which probably refers to the goading of work animals and is a reminder that even animals were to rest on the Sabbath (see Exodus 20:10; Jubilees 50:12; CD XI, 6).[32] The second is a prohibition against fasting on the Sabbath (see Jubilees 50:13, CD XI, 4–5), which may have been viewed as a practice contrary to Isaiah’s description of the Sabbath as “a delight” (Isaiah 58:13). The third is a sanction against speaking of secular matters. Jubilees specifically bans talking on the Sabbath about going on a journey to buy or sell (50:8). The Damascus Document prohibits talking about “riches or gain,” discussing “matters of work or of the task to be carried out on the following day” (CD X, 18; see also 4QD^e 10 V, 4; 4Q264a I, 5–8), and even prohibits anyone from saying “a useless or stupid word” (X, 17–21; see also 4QD^e 10 V, 3). These prohibitions may have been formulated to ensure that not just deeds but also conversations were focused on matters of holiness.[33]

While there are some commonalities in these intertestamental sources, they each have prohibitions that are unique to their individual lists. Philo includes bringing accusations, conducting suits at law, demanding a restoration of a deposit, or exacting the repayment of a debt. He also includes “any other of the things which are usually permitted at times which are not days of festival.”[34] Jubilees includes proscriptions on lying with a spouse (50:8); riding on an animal; traveling on the sea in a boat; killing anything, including cattle, birds, or fish (50:12); and making war (15:13). The Damascus Document forbids lending anything to another person, sending a foreigner to perform a person’s wishes (probably prohibited Sabbath activities), wearing clothing that has not been properly laundered with water and incense, raising a hand to strike with a fist, wearing perfumes, and staying in a place close to a Gentile (CD X, 18; XI, 2, 3–4, 9–10, 14–15).[35]

All of the variations in these three lists of Sabbath prohibitions are evidence of the fluid nature of interpreting and applying the Sabbath commandment during this period. While these expansions of the biblical injunctions may seem extreme to modern readers, it is important to remember that these laws reflect each community’s ongoing engagement in trying to keep the Sabbath commandment relevant in their lives. Modern readers are reminded that during the late Second Temple period, Jews saw the Sabbath day not as an outdated institution to be ignored and relegated to the distant past but as something that was living and vibrant and important across both time and space.[36]

These differing lists are also important tangible evidence for the beginnings of the Halakic debate within Judaism. In this debate over how to apply the Sabbath commandment, we find the heart of the Sabbath controversies detailed in the New Testament Gospels. The primary intent of the Jews of this period was not to create complicated legal lists but rather to understand how to apply the principle of the Sabbath. The various lists explore the implications of practical questions, such as “how does the Sabbath command apply to the specific situations that our community encounters?” One example of such a situation—going to war on the Sabbath—shows the fluidity of Sabbath interpretations and how one community came to their interpretation. Given the political climate in Judea, this was not simply a theoretical or philosophical discussion, but one that would have very real implications for the continued existence of their community.

The Hebrew scriptures are not helpful in this case because they do not address issues of war on the Sabbath. By the late Second Temple period, however, the community behind Jubilees had determined that engaging in war violated Sabbath rest and thus included it in its expanded list of prohibitions (50:13). This interpretation may explain why some of their enemies specifically attacked Jewish settlements on the Sabbath.[37] However, it is important to note that a similar prohibition is not included in the Damascus Document’s list of Sabbath prohibitions—thus reminding us again of the variety of interpretations.[38]

But it is in the Maccabean literature where we most fully see the fluidity of another community’s application of the Sabbath commandment in times of war. During the Maccabean Revolt (163–160 BC) Jewish soldiers initially refused to “profane the Sabbath day” and defend themselves when attacked (1 Maccabees 2:32–34).[39] They declared, “Let us die all in our innocency: heaven and earth shall testify for us, that ye put us to death wrongfully” (v. 37). The result of their interpretation was that one thousand men, women, and children were slaughtered when they refused to defend themselves (v. 38). These heavy losses created both a practical and theological quandary for the Maccabean leaders: “If we all do as our brethren have done, and fight not for our lives and laws against the heathen, they will now quickly root us out of the earth” (v. 40). If this pattern continued, soon no one would be left to either remember or keep the Sabbath. How would the Sabbath be a “perpetual covenant” or a “sign between [Jehovah] and the children of Israel for ever” (Exodus 31:16–17) if everyone was slaughtered? Thus the Jewish leaders rethought their position: “Whosoever shall come to make battle with us on the sabbath day, we will fight against him; neither will we die all, as our brethren that were murdered in the secret places” (1 Maccabees 2:41). Their interpretation seems to have been limited to defensive battles, because at least some continued to refrain from offensive forays on the Sabbath (see 2 Maccabees 8:24–28; 12:38).

This example is significant because it allows us to see a community who acknowledged and respected the Sabbath command, grappling with its application. As Heather McKay has noted, “The Sabbath law had to be discussed by the community, and then be interpreted, or re-interpreted, to exclude fighting from classes of work forbidden on the sabbath. Such an interpretation would [then] aid the survival of those who wished to keep the Sabbath week by week, thus guaranteeing the continued observance of the Sabbath.”[40]

Sabbath Worship during the Late Second Temple Period

Thus far our discussion has focused on some of the different interpretations about the prohibition of Sabbath work during the late Second Temple period. Yet stopping our discussion here would skew our view of their Sabbath practice. Here we will examine the few texts that shed light on the positive activities Jews engaged in on the Sabbath.

In the Hebrew Bible the Sabbath was considered one of the holy assemblies appointed by God (see Leviticus 23:2–3) and, as we have noted, the activities of that day focused on priestly sacrifices performed in the temple. During the late Second Temple period, however, there were different interpretations about which sacrifices should be performed on the Sabbath. Jubilees, for example, permitted all sacrifices—both the daily and the Sabbath burnt offerings (Jubilees 50:9–11)—while the Damascus Document only sanctioned the latter (CD XI, 17–18).

Yet these texts again give no indication of how those who were not priests “remembered” or “kept” the Sabbath. McKay argues that Jews did not participate in any weekly Sabbath worship until the second century AD.[41] While it is true that there is not much evidence of non-temple worship practices in the Second Temple period, McKay’s assessment seems extreme. Surely the Jews who defied Antiochus IV’s ban on keeping the Sabbath day and met secretly in the cave (2 Maccabees 6:11) were gathered to do something that warranted their deaths. Jutta Leonhardt argues that “most Second Temple Jews . . . would have been surprised by [McKay’s] conclusion.”[42]

The question then is, what did Jews do on the Sabbath day? The author of Jubilees simply states that it was a day to “eat, drink, and bless the creator of all things” (2:21), although there is no explanation of those activities, each of which could be performed in the home. But according to Philo, Jews in Rome were also “in the habit of visiting [synagogues], . . . most especially on the sacred sabbath days.”[43] As we will see below, Philo and texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that in at least some communities, such Sabbath gatherings were to participate in two communal activities: read and teach from sacred scrolls, and participate in communal Sabbath prayers.

In contrast to McKay’s assessment of Sabbath worship, Shemaryahu Talmon has argued that “the liturgical reading from the Law . . . goes back to the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. . . . [and] is one of the earliest components of synagogue worship.”[44] A few texts from the late Second Temple period support such a practice. From Qumran, 4Q264a 1 I, 4–5 reads:

• 4. [ a scro]ll of a book [to rea]d what is written in it on the day of [Sabbath. ]
• 5. [ ] they [will re]ad and teach them. One should not plan [aloud ]
• 6. [ or speak] about all matters of work or about wealth or [gain ]
• 7. [ ] on the day of Sa[bba]th. And one should not sp[eak a w]ord except to [speak words of]
• 8. [holiness. In accordance with the decree one shall sp]eak to praise God. Indeed, one may speak [a word] regarding eating and dri[nking rest].[45]

Although the text is fragmentary, the context clearly deals with Sabbath halakah, and the plural pronouns (“they will read and teach them”) suggests the communal nature of the reading.

Philo confirms that the reading and discussing of scrolls was also an important part of Sabbath synagogue activity in both Alexandria and Rome. In his description of the Sabbath assemblies in Egypt, Philo observes that their gathering was for “reading [their] sacred volumes and explaining whatever is not quite clear.”[46] Elsewhere, he also writes that Jews in Rome “were in the habit of visiting [synagogues] . . . most especially on the sacred sabbath . . . . assembling for the interpretation of the law.” Philo claims that these gatherings had both theological and more practical purposes. They were a time when “human and divine things [were] appreciated, and placed upon a proper footing.”[47] As such, it was a time for self-reflection: a time to evaluate their activities from the previous week in the context of the law, to correct any errors, and to make efforts to guard against repeating them in the future.[48] These gatherings were also a time to “publically cultivate their national philosophy,”[49] reemphasizing that the Sabbath was a means by which Jews sought to identify and establish their boundaries in their pluralistic society.

In one of Philo’s most detailed descriptions of Sabbath activity, he argues that Jewish reading and discussing of the scrolls was simply a continuation of the directions that Moses himself had given:

What then did he [Moses] do on this sabbath day? He commanded all the people to assemble together in the same place, and sitting down with one another, to listen to the laws with order and reverence, in order that no one should be ignorant of anything that is contained in them; and, in fact, they do constantly assemble together, and they do sit down one with another, the multitude in general in silence, except when it is customary to say any words of good omen, by way of assent to what is being read. And then some priest who is present, or some one of the elders, reads the sacred laws to them, and interprets each of them separately till eventide; and then when separate they depart, having gained some skill in the sacred laws, and having made great advances towards piety.[50]

This Sabbath activity of reading from the scrolls is consistent with New Testament descriptions of Sabbath activities in the synagogue. Both Jesus and Paul participated in the Sabbath synagogue by reading and/or commenting on passages from the scrolls (see Luke 4:16–21; Acts 13:14–16).[51]

A second purpose for Sabbath gatherings was to participate in liturgical, or communal, prayers. Although we do not know when Jewish liturgical prayers began, by the late Second Temple period, the practice seems to have been sufficiently entrenched in the Sabbath activities that it was known to outsiders.[52] Liturgical prayers function differently from individual prayers. While an individual’s prayers are generally intermittent and spontaneous acts to express awe and thanksgiving to deity, usually in response to a specific circumstance, liturgical prayers are instead fixed, standardized, and regularly repeated.[53] According to Talmon, “they do not aim at bringing about an immediate response from deity with regard to a specific situation, but rather at safeguarding the continuous, slow-flowing relationship between the worshipper and his [or her] God.” He further notes, “By its standardization, its fixity, and its recurrence, institutionalized prayer serves as an expression of what is common to a congregation (or to mankind), not of what determines the individuality of man. Thus the very institutionalization of prayer reveals a communal spirit and at the same time strengthens the spirit.”[54]

In examining the communal role of liturgical prayers, we see that the Dead Sea Scrolls provide examples of prayers used both by those within the community as well as by those outside of it.[55] For the Qumran community, who rejected the temple in Jerusalem, these liturgical prayers may have functioned as a substitute for sacrificial forms of worship.[56] For example, in 1QS IX, 3–5 we see that sacrificial language is explicitly applied to prayer and, as Esther Glickler Chazon argues, is the “preferred instrument for atonement and service to God”:

When there exist in Israel in accordance with these rules in order to establish the spirit of holiness in truth eternal, in order to atone for the fault of the transgression and for the guilt of sin and for approval for the earth, without the flesh of burnt offerings and without the fats of sacrifice—the offering of the lips in compliance with the decree will be like the pleasant aroma of justice and the correctness of behavior will be acceptable like a freewill offering (see also CD XI, 18–21).[57]

Here we will focus on just one of Sabbath liturgical texts—the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice—with brief references to other texts.[58]

The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice consist of a series of texts that were found primarily in cave 4 at Qumran (4Q400–401, 403–407), but copies were also found in cave 11 (11Q17) and at Masada (Mas1k). The number of copies found in caves 4 and 11 and its apparent influence on other sectarian texts[59] suggests that this was an important text for the Qumran community, though the content does not specifically point to a Qumran origin.[60] The copy found at Masada suggests that its influence was broader than just the Qumran community.

The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice consist of thirteen hymns that collectively describe the heavenly temple and the angelic priests who worship in it. The liturgical nature of the texts suggest that the community recited them as an opportunity “to share in the experience of heavenly worship.”[61] Each of the songs begins with a formulaic statement that calls for the angels to praise God. For example, 4Q403 1 I, 30–33 reads, “Praise (Hebrew hllw)[62] the God of the august heights, you august ones among the divinities of knowledge. . . . The chiefs of the praises of all the gods, praise the God of magnificent praises, for in the magnificence of the praises is the glory of his kingdom.”[63] Although the exact wording of these praises is not recorded, we get some sense of their focus from the following passage describing the praise offered by some of the sovereign (angelic) princes for God’s blessings, justice, kingdom, glory, wonders, power, and holiness:

1. [Psalm of celebration on the tongue of the] third of the sovereign princes. He will celebrate the God of the exalted angels seven times, with seven words of wonderful exultations.
2. Psalm of praise, on the tongue of the fourth, to the Powerful One who is above all [the gods] with his seven wonderful powers. He will praise the God
3. of the powers seven times, with seven words of [wonderful] praise. [Ps]alm of thanksgiving on the tongue of the fifth, to the King of glory,
4. with seven acts of wonderful thanks. [Psalm] of exultation
5. on the tongue of the sixth, to the God of goodness, with seven [wonderful] exultations. He will exult in the King of goodness seven times, [with seven words] of wonderful exultation.
6. Psalm of singing on the tongue of the seventh of the [sovereign] princes, a powerful song [to the God] of holiness with se[ven wonderful songs.
7. He will have to sing to the King of holiness seven times with seven words of [wonderful son]gs. Seven
8. psalms [of his blessings.] Seven psalms of glorification o[f his justice. Seven psalms] of exaltation of his kingdom.
9. [Seven] psalms [of praise of his glory. Seven psalms of thanksgiving for his wonders.] [Seven psalms of exult]ation in his power. Seven [psalms of song] of his holiness. (4Q403 1 I, 1–9)

The praising of God in this liturgy was a time for the angels, and by extension, the community, to rejoice in (Hebrew rnn; 4Q403 1 I, 3–7) and to give thanks to their God (4Q403 1 I, 38; 4Q404 4.6; see also 4Q264a 1.7–8, 4Q504 1–VII, 4–5). This focus on praising God and giving thanks is consistent with the opening to the biblical Psalm 92, which is introduced as “a Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.” Chazon has argued that the focus on praise made the Sabbath prayers distinct from those performed on other days. Their focus was on petitioning God for blessings.[64]

The Sabbath Commandment and Latter-day Saints

Recent changes in Latter-day Saint practice towards a home-centered, Church-supported curriculum place greater emphasis on the increased responsibility of both individuals and families to determine how they will choose to remember and keep the Sabbath day as a sign of their covenant loyalty.

While the specific cultural and economic circumstances that modern Saints face are different from those in the late Second Temple period, I would argue that there is still a sense of shared experience. Latter-day Saints also face the challenge to determine what constitutes work in their modern context. In some cases, biblical injunctions, such as the command against Sabbath commerce, remain relevant in the modern world—perhaps even more so than when they were first given. But in other cases, some of the biblical injunctions seem less applicable. Just as the issue of collecting manna on the Sabbath was no longer relevant for the Jewish communities that we have examined and was thus reinterpreted, so too could it be argued that the issue of gathering sticks and lighting fires is likewise much less germane in the modern world. It does, however, beg the question of what might be understood as the modern equivalents for such practices.

But “remembering,” “keeping,” and “guarding” the Sabbath has always been more than a list of prohibitions, a list of “thou shalt not’s.” I would argue that, for modern saints, there is merit in also remembering the positive ways that Jews in the late Second Temple period sought to remember God and to establish ways to praise and give thanks to him. For them it was a time when they could gather together to study from their sacred texts, sing songs of praise, and give thanks to God. These activities strengthened not only their covenantal relationship with God but also their communal relationships with each other.

For the Sabbath to remain vibrant and meaningful across time, no generation can passively live it based on another generation’s interpretations of it. The Sabbath commandment has always compelled people in every dispensation to actively find ways to understand it and live it within their own circumstances.

Notes

*This essay appeared in a longer form and was originally published as Gaye Strathearn, “Remembering and Keeping the Sabbath Day in the Late Second Temple Period,” in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, eds. Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn & Shon D. Hopkin (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2020), 233–64.

[1] Under the law of Moses, both animal sacrifice and “a broken heart and a contrite spirit” were required by the Lord. See Dana M. Pike, “3 Nephi 9:19–20: The Offering of a Broken Heart,” in Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture, eds. Andrew C. Skinner and Gaye Strathearn (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 35–56.

[2] The late Second Temple period was not the first time that political and religious forces combined to refocus Jews on the importance of the Sabbath command. The fall of Jerusalem and the Exile also brought about a reemphasis on the Sabbath (see Ezekiel 20:12–13, 20–21, 24; 46:1–8; Isaiah 56:2, 4, 6; 58:13–14; Nehemiah 13:15–22).

[3] Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (hereafter HALOT), s.v. שׁמר/sh-m-r.

[4] Scholars are agreed that it belongs to the second century BC but are divided over more precise dates. R. H. Charles argued for a dating between 134 and 104 BC; see The Book of Jubilees (London: A. and C. Black, 1902), lviii–lxiii. James VanderKam argued for 163–161 and 140 BC. See Textual and Historical Studies in the Book of Jubilees (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977), 207–85; see also O. S. Wintermute, “Jubilees: A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (hereafter OTP), 2 vols., ed. James H. Charlesworth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983–85), 43–44. Jonathan A. Godstein argues for a dating between 175–167 BC; see “The Date of the Book of Jubilees,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 50 (1983), 63–86.

[5] One such Jewish text is the Mishnah, a compilation of Jewish oral traditions that was redacted by Judah ha-Nisi around AD 200. It contains many interpretations, including a full tractate dealing with interpretations of the Sabbath command. For a discussion, see Yehuda Brandes, “The Canonization of the Mishnah,” Journal of Ancient Judaism 10, no. 2 (2019): 145–80. While some of the Mishnah’s sayings may reflect first century teachings and interpretations, it is difficult to determine which ones do so. Therefore, this paper will focus on texts specifically from the late Second Temple period. For a discussion of the Sabbath interpretations in the Mishnah, see Avram Shannon’s chapter in this volume.

[6] John M. G. Barclay, Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora: From Alexander to Trajan (323 BCE–117 CE) (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996), 440.

[7] It is possible, of course, that there was a set of guidelines that was never recorded in the Hebrew Bible, but currently we have no way of knowing what these guidelines would have included.

[8] John J. Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 1.

[9] Although the Book of Daniel is set during the Babylonian exile, many scholars argue that it was written during the Maccabean period, as a reaction to the “abomination of desolation” when Antiochus IV desecrated the Jerusalem temple. The text recognized that the Jews were in Babylon for a long time and therefore needed to learn how to successfully survive and thrive in that environment. There were some things that they could compromise on: they started speaking Aramaic—chapter 1 and chapters 8–12 of Daniel are written in Hebrew, while chapters 2–7 are written in Aramaic—and they started taking on Babylonian names (see Daniel 1:6–7). But the book also argues that if Jewish identity was to be maintained, three things could not be compromised: diet (Daniel 1), idolatry (Daniel 3), and prayer (Daniel 6).

[10] Tom Holmén, Jesus & Jewish Covenant Thinking (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2001), 51–57.

[11] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 11.346–47 (11.8.7). James D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways: Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity (London: SCM, 2006), 40.

[12] “At a time when Judaism’s distinctive identity was under constant threat, Torah provided three badges in particular which marked the Jew out from the pagan: circumcision, Sabbath, and the kosher laws. . . . But, even within such [mostly-Jewish] societies, the keeping of the Sabbath was a matter of dispute: what counted and what did not. . . . Torah thus provided the vital covenant boundary-marker. . . . it was Torah, and particularly the special badges of sabbath and purity, that demarcated the covenant people and that therefore provided litmus tests of covenant loyalty and signs of covenant hope.” N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 237–38. Dunn describes the Sabbath as “a badge of ethnic identity and devotion to ancestral custom.” Partings of the Ways, 40.

There were, however, differing opinions about whether the Sabbath day was incumbent upon Gentiles. According to Jubilees, God chose the “seed of Jacob” and he made “known to them the Sabbath day so that they might observe therein a Sabbath from all work” (Jubilees 2:2; English translation in all references from Wintermute, in Charlesworth OTP, 2:58). Gentiles were not required to observe the Sabbath: “The Creator of all blessed it, but he did not sanctify any people of nations to keep the Sabbath thereon with the sole exception of Israel. He granted to them alone that they might eat and drink and keep the Sabbath thereon upon the earth” (Jubilees 2:31). Nevertheless, it has been argued the Elephantine papyri may imply that some Gentiles observed the Sabbath; see, for example, Bezalel Porten, “The Religion of the Jews of Elephantine in Light of the Hermopolis Papyri” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 28, no. 2 (1969): 117, 121; and Sakae Kubo, “The Sabbath in the Intertestamental Period,” in The Sabbath in Scripture and History, ed. Kenneth A. Strand (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982), 57–58.

[13] Josephus, The Life Against Apion, trans. H. St. J. Thackery (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1926), 247–49.

[14] Josephus, Against Apion 405–407.

[15] Horace, Satires, trans. H. R. Fairclough (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1929), 1.9.65–70; Ovid, The Art of Love, trans. J. H. Mozley (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1939), 1.75–78, 413–17; Persius, “Satire 5,” in Juvenal and Persius, ed. and trans. Susanna Morton Braund (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2004), 5.180–84; Plutarch, “Superstition,” in Moralia, trans. Frank Cole Babbitt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1928), 8; Cassius Dio, Roman History, trans. Earnest Cary (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1914),37.17.3; Seneca, as quoted in Augustine, City of God against the Pagans, trans. George E. McCracken (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1957), 6.11; and Josephus, Against Apion 1.22.205–11. See also J. Hugh Michael, “The Jewish Sabbath in the Latin Classical Writers,” American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 40, no. 2 (January 1924): 117–24. For a discussion of Pagan attacks on Jewish Sabbath observance, see Louis H. Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World: Attitudes and Interactions from Alexander to Justinian (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 158–67. For further discussions on the Sabbath day, see Molly Whitaker, Jews and Christians, vol. 6, Graeco-Roman Views (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 63–73; and Heather A. McKay, Sabbath and Synagogue: The Question of Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 11–131.

[16] Saint Augustine, The City of God, trans. Marcus Dods (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009), 182. Speaking of the Jews’ laws, Juvenal says in his satires, “Some happen to have been dealt a father who respects the Sabbath. . . . But it’s their fathers who are to blame, taking every seventh day as a day of laziness and separate from ordinary life.” Juvenal and Persius, 14.96, 106; translation from Loeb Classical Library, 91:466–467. See also Tacitus, The Histories, trans. Clifford H. Moore (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1925), 5.4. In a similar vein, Cassius Dio states that “on the day of Saturn”—that is, Saturday—the Jews “refrain from doing any serious work.” Roman History 37.17.3. Philo, however, takes exception to these charges of laziness: “And on this account too Moses calls the Sabbath, which name being interpreted means ‘rest,’ ‘the sabbath of God.’ . . . And by ‘rest’ I do not mean ‘inaction’ (since that which is by its nature energetic, that which is the cause of all things, can never desist from doing what is most excellent), but I mean an energy completely free from labour, without any feeling of suffering, and with the most perfect ease.” On the Cherubim 2.87. All English translations for Philo are from The Works of Philo, Complete and Unabridged, trans. C. D. Yonge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993). Philo also points out the significance of the Sabbath rest occurring on the seventh day. He states that the number seven is “freedom from seditions and from wars, and is of all the numbers that which is the most averse to contention.” On Abraham 28.

[17] In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus records that Jews were exempt from appearing in court on the Sabbath or Sabbath Eve (see 16.161–63; 167–68), and from military service because they could not bear arms, travel on the Sabbath, or procure food (see 14.224–26). He also records occasions when Roman officials decreed that Jews were not to be interfered with in their observance of the Sabbath (see 14.241–42, 244–46, 256–58, 262–64). Philo reminded emperor Gaius Caligula that Augustus had made special allowance for the Jews to receive their monthly allocations of grain on the following day, whenever it fell on the Sabbath. He records the rippling effects of these kinds of concessions: “Therefore, all people in every country, even if they were not naturally well inclined towards the Jewish nation, took great care not to violate or attack any of the Jewish customs of laws.” On the Embassy to Gaius 158–59. For a discussion on why the Roman leaders were so accommodating, see Robert Goldenberg, “The Jewish Sabbath in the Roman World up to the Time of Constantine the Great,” in Rise and Decline of the Roman World, ed. Hildegard Temporini-Gräfin Vitzthum and Wolfgang Haase (Berlin and New York: W. de Gruyter, 1979), 418–21.

[18] Antiochus IV’s persecution of Jews and repression of Judaism seems to have been a departure from the generally peaceful rule of both the Ptolemies and the Seleucids before him. For a discussion of Antiochus IV’s persecution of Jews living in Judea, see Erich S. Gruen, “Hellenism and Persecution: Antiochus IV and the Jews,” in Hellenistic History and Culture, ed. Peter Green (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 238–74.

[19] Jutta Leonhardt, Jewish Worship in Philo of Alexandria, vol. 84 of Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism, ed. Martin Hengel and Peter Schӓfer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 71.

[20] It should be noted that there are also some Jewish texts from this period that make no mention of the Sabbath, “even where one might expect it to appear, as in the description of the piety of the young man Tobit” and in the writings of “Ben Sira who records the names of some holy days, and refers to the exalting and hallowing of certain (unspecified) days, [but] does not mention the Sabbath at all.” McKay, Sabbath and Synagogue, 44.

[21] It is important to note that the ancient Jews and Greeks did not understand the concept of “soul” in the same way that it is defined in Doctrine and Covenants 88:15—that is, as the body and spirit combined. Rather, they viewed the soul as being something very distinct from the body.

[22] Philo, On the Migration of Abraham 89–90.

[23] Philo, On the Life of Moses 2:211.

[24] Philo, Migration of Abraham 91.

[25] Unless noted otherwise, the English translations for all Dead Sea Scrolls documents are taken from Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, trans. Wilfred G. E. Watson (Leiden: Brill, 1994). These are the major texts, but see also 4Q264a frag. 1 and the discussion in Vered Noam and Elisha Qimron, “A Qumran Composition of Sabbath Laws and Its Contribution to the Study of Early Halakah,” Dead Sea Discoveries 16 (2009): 55–96. By around 200 CE, thirty-nine activities were prohibited in the Mishnah (Shabbat 7) and later incorporated into the Talmud.

[26] Fragments from the book of Jubilees were found in caves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 11 at Qumran, indicating that it was an important book for the Qumran community.

[27] Philo, Migration of Abraham 91.

[28] Lines 5–12 are missing in 4QD^e 10 V, which possibly contained this prohibition.

[29] Noam and Qimron reconstruct 4Q264a I, 1–4 to read that the injunction against carrying on the Sabbath extended to taking up an instrument on the Sabbath (“Qumran Composition,” 65–80). Eibert Tigchelaar, however, reconstructs the passage very differently: “One should not speak a word except to speak words of holiness. In accordance with the decree one shall speak to praise God.” “Sabbath Halakha and Worship in 4QWays of Righteousness: 4Q421 11 and 13+2+8 Par 4Q264a 1–2,” Revue de Qumrân 18, no. 3 (June 1998): 364. See also Richard Hidary, “Revisiting the Sabbath Laws in 4Q264a and Their Contribution to Early Halakha,” Dead Sea Discoveries 22, no.1 (2015): 4.

[30] Philo, Migration of Abraham 92.

[31] Philo, Life of Moses 2:219.

[32] Ben Zion Wacholder, The New Damascus Document. The midrash on the Eschatological Torah of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Reconstruction, Translation, and Commentary, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 56 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 334–35.

[33] See also 4Q264 1 I, 5–8, which forbids any speech, “with the exception of that devoted to God . . . and to Sabbath needs.” Noam and Qimron, “Qumran Composition,” 60.

[34] Philo, Migration of Abraham 91.

[35] For the direction to wear clean clothes on the Sabbath, see also 4Q265 2 I, 1–4. Instead of “medicines” in XI, 9–10, García Martínez translates סמנים (smnym) as “perfumes.” Dead Sea Scrolls Translated, 42.

[36] Philo knows of some Jews who viewed the Sabbath through a symbolic lens and therefore gave no credence to living these types of laws for Sabbath day. While he agrees that there are important symbols in the Sabbath, he argues that “it does not follow that on that account we may abrogate the laws which are established respecting it, so as to light a fire, or till land, or carry burdens or bring accusations, or conduct suits at law or demand a restoration of a deposit, or exact the repayment of a debt, or do any other of the things which are usually permitted at times which are not days of festival.” Migration of Abraham 4.91. For a discussion, see Herold Weiss, A Day of Gladness: The Sabbath among Jews and Christians in Antiquity (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), 32–51.

[37] See 1 Maccabees 9:32–34; 2 Maccabees 5:24–26; 15:1–5; Josephus, Against Apion 1:209–10; Strabo, Geography 16.2.40; Frontinus, Art of Strategy 2.1.17; Plutarch, Superstition 8; and Cassius Dio, Roman History 37:16; 49:22; 65:7.

[38] See also Philo, On Abraham 28; Josephus, Against Apion 1:209; Against Jews 14:224–26; and 2 Maccabees 6:11.

[39] See also Josephus, Against Apion 1:209–10; Frontius, Art of Strategy 2.1.17; Plutarch, Superstition 8. 35–36; Cassius Dio, Roman History 37.16; 49.22.

[40] McKay, Sabbath and Synagogue, 47.

[41] McKay, 251.

[42] Leonhardt, Jewish Worship in Philo, 8.

[43] Philo, Embassy to Gaius, 156.

[44] Shemaryahu Talmon, “The Emergence of Institutionalized Prayer in Israel in Light of Qumran Literature,” The World of Qumran from Within: Collected Studies (Leiden: Brill, 1989), 281–82.

[45] Tigchelaar, “Sabbath Halakha,” 363–64. Talmon has argued that one of the “fundamental differences in patterns of worship between the Covenanters [in the Dead Sea Scrolls] and the larger Jewish community” is “the absence of the liturgical reading from the Law” and “is usually viewed as one of the earliest components of synagogue worship.” “Institutionalized Prayer,” 281–82. 4Q264a, if it is a sectarian text, may call this assessment into some question.

[46] Philo, On Dreams 2.127.

[47] Philo, Life of Moses 2.216.

[48] Philo, The Decalogue 96–98.

[49] Philo, Embassy to Gaius 156–57.

[50] Philo, Hypothetica 7.12–13.

[51] Other New Testament passages refer only to Jesus’s teaching in the synagogue (see Matthew 13:54; Mark 1:21–22; 6:2).

[52] Josephus, Against Apion 1:209; see also Matthew 6:5.

[53] Talmon, “Institutionalized Prayer,” 266.

[54] Talmon, “Institutionalized Prayer,” 266; and Esther Glicker Chazon, “Prayers from Qumran and Their Historical Implications,” Dead Sea Discoveries, 1, no. 3 (1994): 265.

[55] Chazon, “Prayers from Qumran,” 267; and Chazon, “On the Special Character of Sabbath Prayer: New Data from Qumran,” Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy 15 (1992–93): 1–2.

[56] Talmon, “Institutionalized Prayer,” 266.

[57] Chazon, “Prayers from Qumran,” 265.

[58] When it comes to identifying specific Sabbath liturgical texts from Qumran two important interpretive issues arise. First, the fragmentary nature of many of the Qumran texts makes it difficult to identify the Sabbath texts. The process is easier, of course, if the word “sabbath” is present in a surviving portion (4Q504 VII, 4; 4Q403 1 I, 30; II, 18; 4Q404 III, 2; 4Q405 VIII–IX, 1; XX–XXII, 6), but sometimes the identification relies on the inclusion of important Sabbath themes such as “rest” (4Q503 21–28 VII, 10; 37–38 XII, 15), “holiness” (4Q503 37–38 XII, 15; 40–41, 5), describing the day as a “delight” (compare Isaiah 58:13; 4Q503 21–28 VII, 10), or a focus on various aspects of creation (4Q503 21–28 VII, 14). Chazon, “Prayers from Qumran,” 266–70.

The second issue deals with the provenance of the Sabbath texts. Although they were found in the caves surrounding Qumran, the question is whether they were written by the community and its members and were thus reflective of unique Qumran liturgical practices, or whether, like the book of Jubilees, they were outside texts that were adopted by the community but that also reflected practices by other communities. See Carol A. Newsom, “‘Sectually Explicit’ Literature from Qumran,” in The Hebrew Bible and Its Interpreters, ed. William Henry Propp, Baruch Halpern, and David Noel Freedman (Winona Lake, PA: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 167–87. Given the ritual nature of liturgical texts, which “draw upon a common liturgical heritage,” such textual cross-pollination should not be surprising. See Chazon, “Special Character of Sabbath Prayer,” 1; and Newsom, “Sectually Explicit,” 176.

[59] See, for example, the Songs of the Maśkil (4Q510 and 4Q511) and 4QBerakhot (4Q280 and 4Q286–290). See also Newsom, “Sectually Explicit,” 180; and Newsom, “‘He Has Established for Himself Priests’: Human and Angelic Priesthood in the Qumran Sabbath Shirot,” in Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The New York Conference in Memory of Yigael Yadin, ed. Lawrence Schiffman (Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1990), 104.

[60] Yigael Yadin was the first to propose the theory that a member of the Qumran community brought the copy to Masada after the destruction of Qumran. Newsom initially agreed with this position but later argued that its presence at Masada was evidence that the text “was known and used in circles quite distinct from the Qumran community.” “Sectually Explicit,” 180–85.

[61] Newsom, “He Has Established for Himself Priests,” 115–16.

[62] For transcriptions of 4Q400–401 and 4Q403–405 see Carol Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition, Harvard Semitic Studies 27 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985).

[63] See also 4Q400 1 I, 1–2; 4Q400 2.1; 4Q401 1–2; 4Q403 1 I, 30–33, 41–43; 4Q403 1 II, 18–27, 32–36; 4Q404 3.2; 4Q405 6.2–5; 4Q405 8–9.2; 4Q405 20–22.6; 4Q503 29–32 VII, 9, 13; 4Q503 40–41.6; and 4Q503 51–55.9.

[64] Chazon, “Special Character of Sabbath Prayer,” 4–5.