Bible Synapse
Was the Sabbath given because God rested on the seventh day or because he brought Israel out of Egypt?
Hard question · The law of Moses · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Keep the Sabbath holy, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Keep the Sabbath, so that servants may rest as you do, and remember that you were a servant in Egypt and the Lord brought you out.
Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
The Sabbath is a sign between God and Israel for ever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
The objection
In Exodus the Sabbath is grounded in creation: God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh. When Moses repeats the commandment in Deuteronomy, the reason given is that Israel had been slaves in Egypt and God brought them out. Which was the real reason?
The answer
Both. A command can have more than one reason, and these two belong together. Exodus grounds the Sabbath in what God did at creation: Israel’s week is to follow God’s own pattern of work and rest (Exodus 20:11; compare Genesis 2:2-3). Deuteronomy is Moses’ retelling of the law forty years later, a sermon to the next generation on the edge of the promised land (Deuteronomy 1:3-5; 5:1). It begins, “as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee” (5:12), pointing back to the commandment already given, and then presses it home with a further motive: “that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou” (5:14), and “remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt” (5:15). People who had once been slaves without rest were to give rest to their own servants.
Neither passage denies the other’s reason. Exodus itself also ties the Sabbath to God’s covenant with the people he had redeemed, calling it “a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever”, and in the same breath gives the creation reason (31:16-17). Matthew Henry puts it simply: the creation reason ‘ever remains in force’, but ‘it is not the only reason’. Keil and Delitzsch likewise call the deliverance from Egypt the ‘subjective reason’ given to Israel for keeping the day that God had hallowed at creation.
Other answers Christians give
A free restatement
Exodus says “Remember the sabbath day”, Deuteronomy “Keep the sabbath day”, and Deuteronomy also spells out “thine ox, nor thine ass”. Keil and Delitzsch treat these as Moses’ own restatement of the commandments, with variations that do not change the sense.
From the classic commentators
The original reason for hallowing the sabbath, taken from God's resting from the work of creation on the seventh day, is not here mentioned. Though this ever remains in force, it is not the only reason.Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary: Deuteronomy 5, at Bible Hub
of which they are reminded, that their hearts might be touched with it, and inclined to show pity to persons in somewhat similar circumstances; calling to mind how sweet a little rest would have been unto them when in EgyptJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Deuteronomy 5 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Exodus 20, at Bible Hub
- Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary: Deuteronomy 5, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Deuteronomy 5, at Bible Hub