Can Nisan 15 be referred to as "the sabbath"?
by Saber Truth Tiger
PART ONE
As "The" Sabbath, not likely. In the Hebrew Bible, the weekly Sabbath was almost always referred to as "the Sabbath". If your Old Testament is translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text then no, Nisan 15 is not a Sabbath.
According to the Hebrew Scriptures (Masoretic Text), Nisan 15 was never designated as a Sabbath. There were three types of Sabbaths: 1) the weekly Sabbath, 2) the land Sabbath where the land had to lay unused every seventh year 3) the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), an annual Sabbath that fell in the seventh month in the Jewish calendar.
There were seven annual holy convocations in the Jewish Year, and six of them forbade only servile work and were never called sabbaths in the Hebrew text. There is a reason why the Day of Atonement was called a Sabbath and the others weren't. It forbade ALL work, not just servile work, just like the weekly Sabbath. Regarding the Day of Atonement read in the KJV Leviticus 16:29, 23:28, 30, 31; Numbers 29:7.
Lev. 16:29 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16%3A29&version=KJV
And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
Lev. 23:28 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A28&version=KJV
And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Lev. 23:30-31 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A30-31&version=KJV
30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Numbers 29:7 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+29%3A7&version=KJV
And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month an holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein:
This was just like the weekly Sabbath. For example, refer to Exodus 20:10, 31:14,15; Leviticus 23:3, Deuteronomy 5:14; Jeremiah 17:22.
Exodus 20:10 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20%3A10&version=KJV
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:
Exodus 31:14-15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+31%3A14-15&version=KJV
14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Leviticus 23:3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A3&version=KJV
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Deuteronomy 5:14 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+5%3A14&version=KJV
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.
Jeremiah 17:22 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+17%3A22&version=KJV
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Notice the Day of Atonement and the weekly Sabbath both prohibit ALL work. So the Day of Atonement has the same definition of the weekly Sabbath.
Furthermore, almost every place in the Hebrew Scriptures where "the Sabbath" is found refers to the weekly Sabbath. So too, apparently in the Greek Scriptures (New Testament). There are a few exceptions (the land Sabbath for example). https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=KJV&quicksearch=%22the+Sabbath%22
and https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=KJV&quicksearch=%22the+Sabbath%22&begin=47&end=73
There are, in the KJV, four holy convocations in the sacred seventh month of the Jewish Year (Tishri) that are called Sabbaths but three of them come from a different Hebrew word (Shabathown) than the weekly Sabbath (Shabbath) and the Day of Atonement uses the usual word for Sabbath. Shabbathown is spelled similarly to the weekly Sabbath but it means "REST". It is even translated as REST elsewhere in the KJV, and is used sometimes with the Hebrew word Sabbath as in "A Sabbath of REST (Exodus 16:23, 31:15, 35:2, Leviticus 16:31, 23:3, 32; 25:4,5.
Exodus 16:23 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+16%3A23&version=KJV
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exodus 31:15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+31%3A15&version=KJV
Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 35:2 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+35%3A2&version=KJV
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
Leviticus 16:31 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+16%3A31&version=KJV
It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
Leviticus 23:3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A3&version=KJV
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Leviticus 23:32 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+23%3A32&version=KJV
It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
Leviticus 25:4-5 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+25%3A4-5&version=KJV
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
Just keep in mind if it forbids ALL work it is a Sabbath. If it forbids only servile work it is not a Sabbath, according to the Hebrew Scriptures. If used in conjunction with the weekly Shabbath it is a "Shabbath Shabbathown" (Sabbath of Rest).
5 Even in the Septuagint (LXX), those three holy convocations in the seventh month are called Sabbaths in the KJV are NOT called Sabbaths. They are called ANAPAUSIS which in Greek means "REST". ANAPAUSIS is also used in the Christian Greek Scriptures (the New Testament) and it means REST there too. https://biblehub.com/greek/372.htm and https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2005-November/036733.html
There are places in the KJV Bible where the new moons, sabbaths, set feasts, solemnities, solemn feasts, assemblies, and such are mentioned together.These are found in I Chronicles 23:31; II Chronicles 2:4, 8:13, 31:3; Nehemiah 10:31,33; Hosea 2:11, Lamentations 2:6, Ezekiel 44:24, 45:17.
I Chronicles 23:31 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I+Chronicles+23%3A31&version=KJV
And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD:
II Chronicles 2:4 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=II+Chronicles+2%3A4&version=KJV
Behold, I build an house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.
II Chronicles 8:13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=II+Chronicles+8%3A13&version=KJV
Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.
II Chronicles 31:3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=II+Chronicles+31%3A3&version=KJV
He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.
Nehemiah 10:31-33 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+10%3A31-33&version=KJV
31 And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
32 Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;
33 For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.
Hosea 2:11 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+2%3A11&version=KJV
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
Lamentations 2:6 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+2%3A6&version=KJV
And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest
Ezekiel 44:24 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+44%3A24&version=KJV
And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.
Ezekiel 45:17 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+45%3A17&version=KJV
And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
After these were written they remained the same until about the second or third century BC when the Jews began celebrating the holy convocations as Sabbaths. The translation of the Septuagint carried the new view of Nisan 15 being the sabbath. Check Leviticus 23:11, 15 for this. The Jewish translators of the Septuagint took the Hebrew words “on the morrow after the sabbath” in Leviticus 23:11 and changed them to “on the morrow of the first day" (of the Feast)”.This means the first day of Unleavened bread (Nisan 15) would hitherto be celebrated as a Sabbath by the Pharisees and rabbinical authorities. The morrow of the first day would be the morning of Nisan 16.
Hence the waving of the sheaf would always occur on Nisan 16 under the Pharisean and rabbinical reckoning. Since “on the morrow of the first day (of the Feast) is the referent for Sabbath in Leviticus 23:15 then it follows that Nisan 15 was called a Sabbath by the Pharisees and later the Rabbis. The Sadducees in the first century AD disagreed with this view. They were known as the Torah literalists of their day and they did not call the holy convocations "Sabbaths". The Pharisees did and they controlled temple worship when Jesus was alive. So, by the time Jesus was crucified early in the first century AD Pharisaical Jews celebrated Nisan 15 every year as a Sabbath and waved the Omer every year on Nisan 16. The Rabbinical authorities chose to honor the second day of the Feast as the day to wave the Omer and start the countdown to Pentecost from that day.
Josephus relates this practice in Antiquities of the Jews in Book III, Chapter 10, verse 5. Read the following:
“But in the month of Xanthicus; which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year; on the fourteenth day of the Lunar month, when the sun is in Aries; for on this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians: the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt: and which was called the Passover. And so we do celebrate this Passover in companies, and leave nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days: wherein they feed on unleavened bread. On every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats, which is added to all the rest, for sins: for it is intended as a feast for the Priest on every one of those days. BUT ON THE SECOND DAY OF UNLEAVENED BREAD, WHICH IS THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH, THEY FIRST PARTAKE OF THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH: FOR BEFORE THAT DAY THEY DO NOT TOUCH THEM (Capitals mine).
Also, the Septuagint translated the three KJV words for sabbath in (Leviticus 23:24, 32, 39) as ANAPAUSIS which simply means rest. Concerning the Leviticus 23 annual holy convocations in the Septuagint, only the Day of Atonement is correctly called a Sabbath. Nisan 15 is called a Sabbath in the Septuagint in Leviticus 23:15. The Hebrew Bible does not call any holy convocation a Sabbath with the exception of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). That's because it forbade ALL WORK.
The Sadducees of course believed differently. They taught the day after the first weekly Passover was the day of the waving of the Omer and taught the fifty-day countdown to Shavuot began on that day. The early Christians adopted the Sadducean method of counting down to Shavuot.
The weekly Sabbath coincided with the so-called annual Sabbath the year Jesus was crucified. The reason it was a "big" Sabbath (MEGAS in the Greek) was the holy convocation coincided with the weekly Sabbath. In the KJV it is called a "high day". In our present time, the Jews refer to the holy convocations as "high" Sabbaths but in John 19:31 the sabbath that was called a "high day" was translated from the Greek word MEGAS, which means big or great. https://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_3173.htm
It's important to keep in mind by the time the KJV was written (1611 AD) the Jewish people had been calling the seven annual holy convocations as "high" sabbaths for more than 18 centuries so the translators took the Greek word MEGAS and translated it as "high" in John 19:31. The Church of England also called their religious days "high" days. However, that's not what John wrote. See the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry (page 411) 1981 edition. Here is how Berry translates it word for word: “The, therefore Jews, that might not remain on the cross the bodies on the sabbath, because [the] preparation it was, (for was great that sabbath)… https://tinyurl.com/3h9amtfm It wasn't a "high sabbath" but simply the weekly sabbath that was MEGALES, big, or great. That was because it was a combination of the weekly Sabbath and a holy convocation. That would indeed be a "great" day.
It's interesting that at least three online versions of the Martyrdom of Polycarp write that Polycarp was seized on a Friday and killed on the Great (MEGA) Sabbath. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/martyrdompolycarp.html This Sabbath (when Polycarp died) fell in February and had no reference to a Jewish holy convocation. It was big because a big event (Polycarp's death) coincided with the weekly Sabbath. Hence, it earned the title of Great Sabbath, just like people call the Friday Jesus died "Good Friday."
However, the bottom line, Nisan 15 is never called a Sabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Pharisees had their own tradition and it was not what the Hebrew Scriptures taught. The so-called Nisan 15 "High Sabbath" was an invention of the Pharisees and their predecessors and the Sadducees in Jesus' day didn't buy it. They disagreed with the Pharisees on this. Nonetheless, the Pharisees controlled temple worship and after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD the Sadducees and their followers faded away and the Nisan 15 Sabbath prevailed upon the Jewish people. Not all scholars agree the Pharisees controlled temple worship though. It is clear the Sadducees held considerable power in 33 AD but there are no surviving writings of the Sadducees from that time period. All we know about the Sadducees are what their enemies the Pharisees wrote about them.
One way we can know that the Sabbath that followed the crucifixion was the weekly Sabbath was the urgency that surrounded the attempt to entomb the body of Jesus before the Sabbath. That wouldn't have been necessary if the annual Sabbath was the one that was bothering them. Nisan 15 forbade only servile work, not ALL work like the weekly Sabbath does.
Take Luke 23:53-56 in CONTEXT. We see in Luke 23:53 the Sabbath was drawing on as Jesus' friends were entombing his body and the women saw where the body was laid. Then, according to verse 56, they returned and prepared spices and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. So, even though they may have finished preparing spices a little past the beginning of the Sabbath, they rested on the weekly Sabbath, that is, the Sabbath according to the commandment. So Nisan 15 fell on the day of the weekly Sabbath.
Luke 23:53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and THE SABBATH drew on. 55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested THE SABBATH day according to the commandment.
Another way to see that Nisan 15 could not be a scriptural Sabbath is to look at Nisan 21, the holy convocation that fell on the last day of unleavened bread. If Nisan 15 was a Sabbath and it fell on a Thursday that means the following Wednesday would be Nisan 21, also a Sabbath. Now, the Jews were to count seven Sabbaths following the wave sheaf offering to arrive at Pentecost, another so-called Sabbath. If Nisan 15 were a Sabbath then Nisan 21 would have to be counted as a Sabbath too. And guess what? You would end up with something less than 50 days to Pentecost. That's because there would only be six weekly sabbaths and the so-called Nisan 21 Sabbath. However, Nisan 21 was never counted over the years as one of those seven consecutive Sabbaths. So if Nisan 21 was not reckoned as a Sabbath why would Nisan 15 be a Sabbath? A holy convocation, yes, but a Sabbath? No.
The fact is though is the Pharisees put their traditions above the Hebrew Scriptures and followed the Greek translation of the Hebrew. Moreover, Pentecost is also a holy convocation and is not called a Sabbath, but the day AFTER the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:15,16).
More: Here is a link to the use of Shabbathown in The Hebrew scriptures: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7677/kjv/wlc/0-1/ Here is a link to the use of Shabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures: https://tinyurl.com/26peahuu Note: The weekly Sabbath was also a holy convocation (Leviticus 23:2,3).
Concerning the word “preparation” in the KJV there were two preparation days in the time of Jesus. There was the weekly preparation for the Sabbath and the annual preparation for the Passover. The Passover had to be prepared for because all leaven had to be cleaned out of the houses the Jews lived in. That required cleaning and inspection.
The preparation for the weekly Sabbath, however, fell on Friday and it was translated in various ways in the literature of the time. For example, the capitalized words below:
The Didache 8:1 reads: “But as for your fasts, let them not be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth days of the week, but do ye fast on the fourth and SIXTH days…” Kirsopp Lake’s translates the second and fifth days as Mondays and Thursdays and the fourth and sixth days as Wednesdays and Fridays.
Judith 8:6 reads: “and she fasted all the days of her widowhood, save the EVES OF THE SABBATHS, and the sabbaths, and the eves of the new moons, and the new moons, and the feasts and solemn days of the house of Israel.
Polycarp 7:1 reads: “So taking the lad with them, on the FRIDAY about the supper hour, the gendarmes and horsemen went forth with their accustomed arms, hastening as against a robber.”
II Maccabees 8:25-26 reads: “And they took their money that came to buy them, and pursued them far but lacking time they returned: For it was the DAY BEFORE THE SABBATH, and therefore they would no longer pursue them.
Antiquities of the Jews 16.6.2 reads: “and they be not obliged to go before any judge on the Sabbath day, nor on the day of the PREPARATION to it, after the ninth hour.”
It was late Friday when the women who came with Jesus from Galilee beheld the entombment of Jesus (Luke 23:55; Mark 15:45-47).
Luke 23:
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
Mark 15:45-47
45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.
They saw Joseph wrap Jesus' body in linen (Mark 15:46) and they would have seen Nicodemus bringing the 100 pounds of spices and wrapping the linen WITH SPICES (John 19:39-42).
John 19:39-42
39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
Why the women needed to buy and prepare spices puzzles me but the historian of "first rank" Luke said they did just that. After preparing the spices the women rested on the sabbath according to the commandment. Then, according to Mark 16:1, the women bought even more spices AFTER the Sabbath was past (Saturday at sunset). There surely would have been vendors that opened their shops on Saturday night for cases just like this. Jesus definitely didn't need it, as he was already wrapped with linen with 100 pounds of spices, and what were the women going to do? Unwrap the body and re-wrap it with their own spices? The Bible doesn't say why so we can only speculate.
To continue this answer see Part Two.