An excerpt from "What Can the Sabbath Teach Us About
Child Rearing practices in Ancient Hebraic Society?"
A new research study
by
Samuel Martin
The Sabbath is one of the most important teachings in all of the Holy Scriptures. It is a commandment of God whose roots stretch back to the earliest of times. It is a cultural marker which today and in the past has served to distinguish those adherents of the faith of Judaism. It was a holy day of rest in ancient times about which we have a great deal of information about what it meant to the ancient Hebrews and from this information, we are able to piece together good understandings of the role that this weekly holy day played in the religious and daily life of the ancient Hebrews.
In this paper, we are not going to look at the teaching of the Sabbath with the view to better understand specifically the day itself. No! We are going to use the Sabbath itself as a type of methodology to help us better understand how this day, the practices associated with it, the rituals and the symbolic meanings connect together to paint a picture from which we can make reasonable suggestions about practically how the Sabbath itself affected child rearing practices.
In addition to the Sabbath itself, I intend to also bring in some fundamental Christian theological beliefs which help us to better understand symbolically how important the Sabbath is for Christians and one key aspect of what the Sabbath is designed to show us.
What we are going to find is that in studying the physical aspects and rules associated for observing the Sabbath, we will have a better understanding of the fundamental role that this day played in the religious system of ancient Israel. In addition, when we are open to consider the more symbolic teachings of what the Sabbath meant to convey, we can then expound and extend these symbolic teachings to their reasonable conclusions.
Here we are not speaking of mystical or esoteric teachings which are hidden and mysterious, but rather we are dealing with well-established beliefs that were well known among the general population in the Second Temple period concerning what the Sabbath symbolically taught the ancient Israelite. END
Sincerely,
Samuel Martin
Project Director
New Foundation for Biblical Research
Child Rearing practices in Ancient Hebraic Society?"
A new research study
by
Samuel Martin
The Sabbath is one of the most important teachings in all of the Holy Scriptures. It is a commandment of God whose roots stretch back to the earliest of times. It is a cultural marker which today and in the past has served to distinguish those adherents of the faith of Judaism. It was a holy day of rest in ancient times about which we have a great deal of information about what it meant to the ancient Hebrews and from this information, we are able to piece together good understandings of the role that this weekly holy day played in the religious and daily life of the ancient Hebrews.
In this paper, we are not going to look at the teaching of the Sabbath with the view to better understand specifically the day itself. No! We are going to use the Sabbath itself as a type of methodology to help us better understand how this day, the practices associated with it, the rituals and the symbolic meanings connect together to paint a picture from which we can make reasonable suggestions about practically how the Sabbath itself affected child rearing practices.
In addition to the Sabbath itself, I intend to also bring in some fundamental Christian theological beliefs which help us to better understand symbolically how important the Sabbath is for Christians and one key aspect of what the Sabbath is designed to show us.
What we are going to find is that in studying the physical aspects and rules associated for observing the Sabbath, we will have a better understanding of the fundamental role that this day played in the religious system of ancient Israel. In addition, when we are open to consider the more symbolic teachings of what the Sabbath meant to convey, we can then expound and extend these symbolic teachings to their reasonable conclusions.
Here we are not speaking of mystical or esoteric teachings which are hidden and mysterious, but rather we are dealing with well-established beliefs that were well known among the general population in the Second Temple period concerning what the Sabbath symbolically taught the ancient Israelite. END
Sincerely,
Samuel Martin
Project Director
New Foundation for Biblical Research
