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Hebrews 4:4 – Seventh Day
One of the connections between chapters three and four unknown to us Gentiles is that while chapter four speaks about a Sabbath rest, chapter three quotes from Psalm 95 which was sung in the Temple on Shabbat and is still part of the Shabbat liturgy in the synagogue. Therefore it is natural for the author to make his point about rest by introducing a quotation from another Shabbat-related passage (used today in the home service before the Friday night meal), Genesis 2:1-3, and speaking in v.9 of a shabbat-keeping.
“Although the author may be think of the rest that comes to believers after they die (Rv.14:13), it seems more likely to me that he has in mind Jewish traditions that equate a day with 1000 years and is therefore speaking of the rest that comes in the Messianic Age or Millennium. For example, Sanhedrin, 97a Rav Kattina teaches that six millennia of ordinary history will be followed by a millennium of Shabbat; the passage draws on Psalm 90:4. . . .” (Stern, p.672)
“Now the writer switches the meaning of the word rest. It is true that these people long ago missed the rest they might have had; but, although they missed it, the rest remained. Behind this argument lies one of the favorite conceptions of the Rabbis. On the seventh day, the day after creation had been complete, God rested from his labors. In the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2 there is a strange fact. On the first six days of creation it is said that morning and evening came; that is to say, each day had an end and a beginning. But on the seventh day, the day of God’s rest, there is no mention of evening at all. From this the Rabbis argued that, which the other days come to an end, the day of God’s rest had no ending; the rest of God was for ever. Therefore although long ago the Israelites may have failed to enter that rest, it still remained.” (ibid., Barclay, p.36)
- While this observation is interesting, I doubt its validity because there is nothing said about the beginning of the seventh day either – and yet we know it began. Had the Genesis writer, Moses, meant to imply something by not mentioning the closing of the day, he would have had to mention the opening of that day. Only then would the silence be loud and clear.
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