by closing their eyes to the plain teachings of the
Sacred Scriptures about what is proper to eat and
which day is the right one to keep, and they even
try to use this passage of Romans 14 to justify
themselves in their disobedience of God’s plain
commands. When the apostle wrote, “Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind,” he
did not mean to give us license to disregard
God’s holy word. He meant that each of us
rust decide for himself by the study of God’s
rd, and not let another be his conscience.
What does the apostle Paul mean in Colossians 2: 16
by the reference tn “‘the sabbath days”? M. B.
Note first the passage in its setting. Paul speaks
of Christ as “blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was con-
trary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it
to His cross; and having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it. Let no man there-
fore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect
of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the
sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to
come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians
2: 14-17.
In verse 14 Paul clearly shows that ‘the hand-
writing of ordinances’ was taken away, nailed to
the cross. In Ephesians 2: 15 he speaks of the
same thing, saying that Christ has abolished “the
law of commandments contained in ordinances.”
The abolition of the Mosaic law of ordinances
relating to the religious ceremonies and festivals
in use before the death of Christ, was what most
displeased the Pharisees and other traditionalists
among the Jews. (Acts 15:5.) The accusation
against Stephen was this: “We have heard him
say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this
place, and shall change the rites which Moses
delivered us.” Acts 6: 14, margin.
The ordinances of the Mosaic law are not the
Ten Commandments which were written on two
tables of stone by the finger of God Himself.
(Exodus 31: 18; 24: 12; 32: 15, 16.) They were a
larger body of laws, and were written by Moses in
a book. (Deuteronomy 31:9, 24-26.) This
Mosaic law in its entirety was often referred to
as ‘‘the book of the law’’ (Joshua 1: 8), and it is
to it that Paul refers in Galatians 3: 10-12, for
it contained the curses mentioned (Deuteronomy
27 and 28). In it were given the commandments
concerning circumcision, the meat offerings, the
drink offerings, the annual sabbaths or sacred
festivals, the new-moon days. God did not, in the
Decalogue, ordain these to be kept, for the Ten
Commandments teach only the observance of the
weekly Sabbath as a holv day.
In the Mosaic law it was commanded that
several annual sabbaths be observed in connec-
tion with the yearly feasts. These annual sab-
baths did not fall upon fixed days of the week
every year as does the seventh-day Sabbath.
They fell on definite days of the lunar month
regardless of what days of the week those hap-
pened to be.
For example, we find in the Mosaic ordinances
that on the 15th day of the first month came the
first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Servile work was forbidden on that day. The
same was true for the last day of the feast.
(Leviticus 23: 6-8.) The day of Pentecost, which
came 50 days later, was also an annual sabbath.
(Verses 15, 16, 21.) The first day of the seventh
onth was too. (Verses 24, 25.) So was the
Jay of Atonement, which came on the 10th day
of the seventh month. (Verses 27, 28, 30-32.)
The Feast of Tabernacles began on the 15th day
of the seventh month, the first and the last days
being annual sabbaths. (Verses 34-36, 39.)
These were the annual sabbaths, which were
observed “beside the Sabbath of the Lord.”
Verse 38. The weekly Sabbath ordained in the
Decalogue is called ‘the Sabbath of the Lord thy
NovVEMBER — 1944
God.” Exodus 20: 8-11. In connection with
these festivals, meat offerings and drink offerings
were presented to the Lord by the people.
(Leviticus 23: 37.) Also the new moon, or the
first day of each lunar month, was observed as a
holy day in ancient Israel. (1 Samuel 20: 18.)
Paul was referring to these annual sabbaths in
Colossians 2: 16, and not to the weekly Sabbath
day. This is seen by the fact that he calls those
festivals ‘“a shadow of things to come.” The
weekly Sabbath does not prefigure, or fore-
shadow, the work of Christ, but commemorates
the creation of the world. Thus God commands
us to keep the Sabbath holy, “for in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
Does God's Grace Annul
His Law?
(Continued from page 7)
ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the
Lord.” Verse 17.
The two oldest institutions known to
man are marriage and Sabbath observ-
ance. If the statement that “the Sabbath
was made for man” (in Greek, “the
man’’) makes it Jewish, then surely the
same logic makes the statement that the
woman was made for the man (1 Co-
rinthians 11: 9) also mean that a woman
is Jewish and that no one but a Jew has a
right to marry one. “Neither was the
man created for the woman; but the
woman for the man.” Yes, the man was
made before either the woman or the
Sabbath was made. The word “man”
was used by Jesus (Mark 2:27) as a
generic term referring to all mankind—
the whole human race. Therefore, the
Sabbath is, like marriage, intended for
both Jews and Gentiles.
One is right in saying the Sabbath was
given to be a sign both of creation and
redemption. God says of His Sabbaths:
“They shall be a sign between Me and
you, that ye may know that I am the
Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20. He
says also: “I gave them My Sabbaths, to
be a sign between Me and them, that
they might know that I am the Lord that
sanctify them.” Verse 12. Those who
have been redeemed by the blood of
Christ are sanctified as ‘“Abraham’s
seed.” (Galatians 3: 29.) They are also
true Israelites. (Romans 2:28, 29.)
“All Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:
26), but not “because they are the seed
of Abraham, are they all children: but,
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That
is, They which are the children of the
flesh, these are not the children of God:
but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed.” Romans 9: 7, 8.
“And so all Israel shall be saved.” Ro-
mans 11:26. An Israelite is one who
has a clean heart, that is circumcised in
heart. (Romans 2: 28, 29; John 1: 47;
Revelation 14: 5.) “And if ye be Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs ac-
cording to the promise.” Galatians 3: 29.
in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed
it.”” Exodus 20: 8-11.
Such texts as Matthew 24: 20; Luke 23: 55, 56;
Acts 13: 42, 44; 18: 4, 11; and Revelation 1: 10
show that the apostles did not relinquish the ob-
servance of the weekly Sabbath. It is the Lord’s
day. (Matthew 12: 8; Mark 2: 28; Luke 6: 5.)
Does Isaiah 52: 15 support the doctrine of baptism by
sprinkling? D. F. W.
That prophecy does not. In speaking of Christ,
it says in the Authorized (King James’s) Version:
“So shall He sprinkle many nations.”
The Hebrew verb translated as ‘sprinkle’ in
Isaiah 52:15 is nazah in its causative (Hiph’il)
form. Its primary meaning is “to leap, to
spring.” In connection with liquids it is used to
mean ‘‘to leap forth, to spout, to spirt.”’ In its
causative form this Hebrew verb appears 20
times in the Bible, being used 19 times in con-
nection with liquids. It is used with blood in
Exodus 29: 21; Leviticus 4:6, 17; 5:9; 8: 30;
14:7,51;16: 14, 15, 19; Numbers 19: 4; with oz/,
in Exodus 29: 21; Leviticus 8: 11, 30; 14: 26, 27;
and with water, in Numbers 19: 18, 19, 21. In
these instances the liquid indicated is the direct
object of the verb, while the indirect object is
usually indicated by a Hebrew preposition mean-
ing “on,” “upon,” “with,” and ‘“before.”
But in Isaiah 52: 15 no liquid whatever is men-
tioned. The direct object of the verb is not a
liquid but “many nations,” and no indirect
object whatever is mentioned either with or
without a preposition. Thus it appears that the
Hebrew verb in this instance has been errone-
ously translated ‘‘sprinkle,” for it would be
absurd to say that “many nations” are the object
which Christ is to sprinkle as if they were liquids.
Hence, many translations give a very different
rendering to the Hebrew verb in this verse.
Oldest of them all is the Greek text known as the
Septuagint, made about 200 years before Christ.
It says: “Thus shall many nations wonder at
Him.” (S. Bagster and Sons, Ltd., London.)
“So shall He startle many nations.” —-4merican
Revised Version, margin.
“So shall He startle many nations.”— Jewish
Version. (The Jewish Publication Society of America,
Philadelphia.)
“Thus will He cause many nations to jump up
in astonishment.” —I/Isaac Leeser’s Translation.
(Hebrew Publishing Co., N. Y.)
“The more doth He startle many nations.”’—
J. B. Rotherham’s Translation. (The Standard Pub-
lishing Co., Cincinnati.)
“So many a nation shall yet do him homage.”
— James Moffatt’s Translation.
“So shall He startle many nations.”’—7he
Complete Bible, An American Translation (The
University of Chicago Press, Chicago.)
“So shall the nations He startles be many.” —
The Expositor’s Bible.
One learned Hebrew scholar remarks: “The
term rendered ‘startle’ has created unnecessary
difficulty to some writers. The word means ‘to
cause to spring or leap;’ when applied to fluids,
to spirt or sprinkle them. The fluid spirted is
put in the accusative, and it is spirted upon the
person. In the present passage the person,
‘many nations,” is in the accusative, and it is
simply treason against the Hebrew language to
render ‘sprinkle.’ The interpreter who will so
translate will ‘do anything.’ ”>—Footnote by A. B.
Davidson in “The Expositor’s Bible,” Isaiah, Vol. 2,
p. 342. (A. C. Armstrong and Son, N. Y., 1903.)
“The most satisfactory explanation is the one
now approved by most expositors. . . . ‘He will
make spring up,” which springing up is taken
either as the expression of joy or of astonishment,
surprise, or of reverence.”’—7. P. Lange, ‘A
Commentary on the Holy Scriptures,” Vol. 9, p. 577,
(Chas. Scribner’s Sons, N Y., 1884.)
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