From my book, "exploring the heavenly sanctuary":
The Colossian heresy
It is worth taking a diversion at this point to consider Colossians 2:16-17:
“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” (NASB)
Some theologians have cited this verse to claim that the weekly Sabbath has been abolished; there are a number of problems with this claim:
a) The Greek does not use the definite article for the word Sabbath; it can be translated as “a Sabbath day”, or “Sabbath days” depending on whether it is a Greek plural or a singular Aramaic transliteration, which is determined by the context[xiii]. If Paul had wanted to refer specifically to the weekly Sabbath he could have used the definite article and said, “the Sabbath”.
b) The use of the term shadow cannot be applied to the weekly Sabbath because it is a memorial of Creation and will be celebrated in the New Earth (Genesis 2:2-3; Isaiah 66:22-23). The term shadow is only applied to the ritual Sabbaths which involved animal sacrifices. In the Jewish calendar there were seven ritual Sabbath days, such as the first and last day of Passover, and the Day of Atonement. These ceremonial Sabbaths were instituted in the time of Moses and ended at the cross. Albert Barnes a Presbyterian commentator wrote:
“There is no evidence from this passage that he [Paul] would teach that there was no obligation to observe any holy time, for there is not the slightest reason to believe that he meant to teach that one of the ten commandments had ceased to be binding on mankind. … He had his eye on the great number of days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law, and not to the moral law, or the ten commandments. No part of the moral law—no one of the ten commandments could be spoken of as ‘a shadow of good things to come.’ These commandments are, from the nature of moral law, of perpetual and universal application.”[xiv]
c) The term “a Sabbath day” does not have to refer to the weekly Sabbath as some have claimed because the Greek word for “festival” (heorte) was used only for those festivals which involved a pilgrimage to Jerusalem[xv]. The Hebrews equivalent “chag” is related to the Arabic “haj” which is used for pilgrimages. The word “heorte” did not cover all the ceremonial Sabbaths, this was why the word for “a Sabbath day” was needed to make the expression complete. The Day of Atonement was called in Hebrew “an appointed time” (moed) but never a “festival” (chag); therefore the term “festivals and new moons” is incomplete. A further expression, “a Sabbath day” was needed to make the formula complete to cover all the ritual days.
d) By looking closely at the Epistle to the Colossians we can reconstruct the context, to better understand the meaning of Colossians 2:16-17:
One of the first elements points to a form of angelology. The Colossian heresy appears to have involved calling on angels as mediators between man and God (Col. 2:18). This is why Paul speaks of Jesus being over all principalities and powers (Col. 2:15), this kind of belief or angelology is known from Jewish writings of that era. Another element was strict adherence to certain diets and ascetic practices. In Colossians 2:16 the term “meat” is applied to all food, it is not confined specifically to unclean or clean foods; this appears to be an ascetic prohibition (Col. 2:21). The idea being if you punish your body enough you will get nearer to God. This stems from the Greek philosophy that material things are evil, so if you are very strict (Col. 2:23) and don’t eat certain foods and observed certain rituals and days you would become more holy and by calling on angel mediators in the spirit realm, they could help you in your spiritual journey. It sounds very similar to the modern New Age philosophy, but resulted in a religion that denied Christ as our personal Saviour. It was essentially an early form of Gnosticism, which focused more on knowledge but lacked true morality and in effect was salvation by works rather than in Christ. Given the context of this heresy, it seems unlikely that Paul was calling for the abolition of the weekly Sabbath. He was speaking against angelology, asceticism, and legalistic ritual practices. The solution was in Christ our Saviour, we don’t need angels, ascetic practices or to observe ritual days in order to be saved. What we should do however is to live a moral life (Col. Ch. 3) something the Gnostics often failed to do. We should put our faith not in strict diets, animal sacrifices or angels but in Christ.
It is clear that Paul endorsed the moral law and godly living (Romans 7:12; Titus 2:12) but at the same time did not want believers trying to their earn salvation by keeping days which involved animal sacrifices which were a shadow of things to come. There is nothing in the Epistle to the Colossians to countenance the abolition of the weekly Sabbath.
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