Information Wanted by John Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 1, 1875

Information Wanted.

By John Harvey Waggoner

In regard to the Sabbath question, there are two things boldly asserted by Sunday-keepers to which I would like very much, in some way, to see an answer from you.

The first is this:

“Many bright luminaries of the Christian world, such as Dr. Kennicott, Mede, Kennedy, and Akers, have given positive proof from the Jewish calendar that the first day of the Jewish week was the creation Sabbath.”

The second is, that

“Moses nowhere calls the seventh day of the Jewish week the Sabbath, . . . but a Sabbath. It is true that in four places in our English version the seventh day of the Jewish week is called the Sabbath; but NOT ONCE IN THE SACRED ORIGINAL.”

These statements occur in A Sabbath Manual by Rev. Reuben Wescott, A. M. In regard to the last statement we would like to know the exact truth. Please answer through the REVIEW. Yours in Christ. E. P. FIELD.

Aurora, Neb., Dec. 6, 1874.

REPLY.

1. For a full reply to the first of these statements we refer to a small pamphlet by Eld. J. N. Andrews, published at the REVIEW Office, entitled, “Sunday Seventh-day Examined. A Refutation of the teachings of Mede, Jennings, Akers, and Fuller.” 87 pages, price 10 cents. We confidently recommend this as a complete refutation of the sophistries of the authors named above.

It is enough here to notice that the seventh day was sanctified at creation, as the day of Jehovah’s rest. And this same seventh day was kept by the Jews, as we learn from Ex. 16, the fourth commandment, and other texts. The evidence of Scripture is all against the above assertion. When the Lord commanded the Sabbath to the Jews, it was always as the seventh day—never as the first day. And this seventh day, according to the reckoning among the Jews, was identified as the day on which God rested when he made heaven and earth, the seventh day of creation week. A comparison of Gen. 2 : 1-3, and Ex. 20 : 8-11, ought to silence all such vain reasonings as that above referred to.

2. It is sometimes as bad to suppress the truth as to state a falsehood. The effect is precisely the same. In the Hebrew language there are other means of making nouns definite beside the use of the article. They are then called “definite by construction,” and are correctly translated into our language with the article. One means of determining a definite noun is given by Gesenius in his Lexicon, page 240, thus, “the predicate of a sentence does not take the article.” There are exceptions to this rule, but no exception to its application to the word Sabbath. This word is in predicate in Ex. 16 : 23, 25, 26; Chap. 20 : 10; Chap. 31 : 15 first time; Chap. 35 : 2; Lev. 23 : 3 twice; Deut. 5 : 14. In each case the article is omitted agreeably to the above rule laid down by Gesenius. In the following instances it is not in predicate; Ex. 16 : 29; Chap. 20 : 8, 11; Chap. 31 : 14, 15 second time, 16 twice; Chap. 35 : 3; Lev. 23 : 11, 15, 16; Deut. 5 : 12; and the article in the original is found in each of these instances. The word is as definite where the article is omitted as where it is used, in all of these cases; and the article is properly given in our translation.

A candid examination of a few facts of Scripture will show that the conclusion aimed at in the “Manual,” is forced, and does not harmonize with the plain statements of the inspired record. Thus Gen. 2 : 3, says that God blessed the seventh day. Ex. 20 : 11, says he blessed the Sabbath day. The conclusion we must draw from this is precisely expressed in verse 10. “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” As the word Sabbath means rest, and the Lord rested only on the seventh day, it follows that the seventh day, and no other, is the Sabbath of the Lord. This is certainly definite.

Ex. 20 : 11 literally reads; “wherefore the Lord blessed the day of the Sabbath,” and this is in strict harmony with Gen. 2 : 3. The day—the seventh day—received the blessing and sanctification. The seventh day is the Sabbath. Had the Lord blessed any other day than the seventh day he would not have blessed “the day of the Sabbath,” for this is the only day in which he rested, or sabbatized.

Had not the opponents of the Lord’s Sabbath day, or rest day, the power of popular opinion and popular feeling to sustain them, they would hesitate before bringing to notice views so strongly in conflict with reason and Scripture.

J. H. WAGGONER.