Another statement of sabbath law in Exodus follows:

Yehovah (יְהֹוָ֖ה) was explicit about the purpose of the sabbaths He made for people: that you may know that I am the Lord (Yehovah, יהוה) who sanctifies you.^[1]  Paul wrote to believers in Colossae (Colossians 2:6-17 NET):

Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord (κύριον, a form of κύριος), continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing^[2] with thankfulness.  Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  For in him all the fullness (πλήρωμα) of deity lives in bodily form, and you have been filled (πεπληρωμένοι, a form of πληρόω) in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.  In him you also were circumcised—not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly^[3] body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ.  Having been buried with him in baptism,^[4] you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the^[5] dead.  And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you^[6] alive^[7] with him, having forgiven all your transgressions.  He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us.  He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.  Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days (σαββάτων, a form of σάββατον)—these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ [Table]!

The Greek word translated reality above was σῶμα (KJV: body): Christ is the body which cast the shadow.

I rely now on the Holy Spirit and his continuous infusion of God’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control to quash any impulse to rush out and indulge my favorite sin after reading: He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us.  He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.^[8]

It is extremely interesting to me that where the NET described a believer’s circumcision as the removal of the fleshly body because the NA²⁸ proposed τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός as the more original text, the KJV described it as putting off the body of the sins of the flesh because the Stephanus Textus Receptus had του σωματος των αμαρτιων της σαρκος.  Even if των αμαρτιων was added by a scribe, I doubt that Paul would take offense at this amplification.

He wrote to believers in Rome (Romans 6:1-4 NET):

What shall we say then?  Are we to remain^[9] in sin so that grace may increase?  Absolutely not!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

The NET translators chose live above for two different Greek words.  In—so we too may live a new life^[10]—live was περιπατήσωμεν (a form of περιπατέω) in Greek.  And in—How can we who died to sin still live in it?^[11]—it was ζήσομεν (a form of ζάω).  I don’t have any particular quarrel with translating περιπατήσωμεν live.  But perhaps ζήσομεν in such close proximity could have been translated something like fester to capture the tone better: How can we who died to sin still fester in it?

What appears to be hung out there as a rhetorical question or lament in Paul’s letter to the Romans was actually answered quite succinctly in his letter to the Galatians: One will continue to fester in sin if one does not live (περιπατεῖτε, another form of περιπατέω) by the Spirit: But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.^[12]

The English translation—you will not carry out—is weaker here than the Greek: οὐ μὴ τελέσητε.  The second person plural verb τελέσητε is an aorist subjunctive form of τελέω.  So οὐ μὴ makes this clause a “Subjunctive of Emphatic Negation…the absolute and unequivocal denial of the probability of an event EVER OCCURING at any moment or time in the future.”^[13]  So if I ever bring the sinful desires of the flesh to maturity or carry them out, I am not at that moment living by the Spirit.

It’s not a time to debate a point but to recalibrate my senses to become more accustomed and attuned to the Spirit of God (Romans 7:18-20 NET).

For I know that nothing good lives (οἰκεῖ, a form of οἰκέω) in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I want to do the good, but I cannot^[14] do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but^[15] I do the very evil I do not want!  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but^[16] sin that lives (οἰκοῦσα, another form of οἰκέω) in me.

Paul’s command—κρινέτω, translated do…let…judge, is an imperative form of κρίνω—do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days^[17] makes no sense to me on its surface.  I don’t know how to stop religious people from making religious judgments about religious things.  But if I understand κρινέτω here as rule, things begin to fall into place.

I have sinned.  I have lived, walked, been led by the sin that lives in me rather than the Holy Spirit.  That very moment when I need most of all to get back to living, walking, being led by Christ’s Spirit is the very moment religious people descend with their judgments.  Should they refrain my own religious mind jabbers away at me with similar judgments.  If I turn then to live, walk or be led by the judgments of religious people or my own religious mind, I have still not returned to live, walk, be led by the Spirit of God.  I have refused to enter his rest.

The regulations in the law regarding food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days…are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!^[18]  A believer must be certain of this.  The sabbath laws continued:

A believer bullied by the fear of death into living by these sabbath regulations rather than the Holy Spirit not only exchanges the reality of Christ for a shadow but frustrates the purpose of the sabbath as revealed in the law: that ye may know that I am the Lord that sanctifies (ἁγιάζων, a form of ἁγιάζω) you.^[19]  For indeed he who makes holy (ἁγιάζων, a form of ἁγιάζω) and those being made holy (ἁγιαζόμενοι, another form of ἁγιάζω) all have the same origin (ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες; KJV: are all of one), and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers…^[20]

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? Paul wrote believers in Rome (Romans 7:1-6 NET):

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.  So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.  So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.  But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

In the Septuagint the Greek word translated rest in the description of the sabbath as a holy rest to the Lord was ἀνάπαυσις.  I’ll conclude this essay with Jesus’ promise of ἀνάπαυσις (Matthew 11:28-30 NET):

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (ἀναπαύσω, a form of ἀναπαύω).  Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (ἀνάπαυσιν, a form of ἀνάπαυσις) for your souls [Table].  For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.

Tables comparing Exodus 31:12; 31:13; 31:14 and 31:15 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and Exodus 31:12; 31:13; 31:14 and 31:15 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.  Following those are tables comparing Colossians 2:7; 2:11-13; Romans 6:1 and 7:18-20 in the NET and KJV.