得著應驗的安息日TheFulfilled Sabbath
作者：Craig Blomberg 譯者：誠之
基督徒越來越少在每週保留一天的時間來敬拜和休息，不做任何形式的工作。我們該對此感到不安嗎？複臨安息日會和第七日浸信會的人回答說「是的」，並宣稱安息日必須在星期六。
Increasingly,
few Christians reserve one day each week for both worship and rest from all
forms of work. Should we be disturbed by this? Seventh-day Adventists and
Seventh-day Baptists answer “yes,” and claim that the Sabbath day must be
Saturday.
某些長老會和改革宗基督徒，以及其他受清教徒遺產影響的人，同樣堅定地回答「是」，但他們堅持星期日是基督徒的安息日。還有一些人主張七天中應休息一天的原則，但不必擔心究竟是一周中的哪一天，因為例如傳道人幾乎不能在他們帶領敬拜禮拜的那一天休息。這三種觀點都對嗎？並不儘然。
Certain
kinds of Presbyterians and Reformed Christians, along with others influenced by
the legacy of the Puritans, equally adamantly answer “yes,” but they insist
that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. Still others argue for the principle of
resting one day in seven but don’t worry about which day of the week it is,
since preachers, for example, can scarcely rest on the day they lead worship
services. Are any of these three
perspectives right? Not really.
耶穌宣稱：「莫想我來要廢掉律法和先知。我來不是要廢掉，乃是要成全。」（太五17）。這是個非比尋常的對比。正常情況下，如果有人說他不是要廢掉什麼，他是意思就是說他是要完整地保存它。但在聖經中並不是這樣使用「成全」（或譯為應驗）這個詞的。單單在馬太福音中，它最常見的意思是「使那所預言的事發生」，或「使曾經只部分披露的事有完整的意義」（例如：一22，二15、17、23，三15，四14）。各式各樣的基督徒都認識到，他們不必帶動物到教會去宰殺，作贖罪的祭物，儘管這種做法是整個舊約敬拜制度的核心。基督是我們一次獻上就永遠成全的贖罪祭，所以今天我們遵守利未記中許多獻祭律法的方式，就是信靠耶穌，以求罪得赦免。新約聖經在舊約律法中引入了許多其他的變化，所有的食物如今在禮儀上都是潔淨的，所以可以吃豬肉或蝦（可七19）。我們不需要去一個固定的地點舉行聖殿崇拜儀式，因為我們在任何地方都可以「在聖靈和真理中」聚集敬拜（約四24）。基督徒不需要受割禮，儘管那是猶太人最基本的命令之一，甚至在西奈山的律法頒佈之前就有了（創17章）。相反，今天上帝在「生發仁愛的信心」的基礎上，平等地悅納所有的人（加五6）。類似的變化有很多。
Jesus
declared, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I
have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17; NIV here and
throughout). It’s an unusual contrast. Normally, if someone says he is not
abolishing something, he goes on to say he is preserving it intact. But that’s
not how the word fulfill is used in the Bible. In Matthew alone, its most
common meaning is “to bring about that which was predicted” or “to give the
complete meaning of something that was once only partially disclosed” (for
example, 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 3:15; 4:14). Christians of all kinds recognize
that they do not have to bring animals to church to be killed and offered as
sacrifices for their sins, even though that practice was central to the entire
old covenant system of worship. Christ is our once-for-all sacrifice for sin,
so the way that we obey the many sacrificial laws in Leviticus today is by
trusting in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. The New Testament introduces many
other changes in the Old Testament law as well—all foods are now ritually
clean, so it is okay to eat pork or shrimp (Mark 7:19). We need not go to one
fixed location for temple rituals because we worship anywhere we can gather “in
the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Christian men need not be circumcised,
even though that was one of the most fundamental of all Jewish commands,
preceding even the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai (Gen. 17). Instead, today God
accepts all people equally on the basis of “faith expressing itself through love”
(Gal. 5:6). The list of similar changes
is a long one.
但十誡怎麼說呢？當然，它們在某種程度上是特殊的，尤其是永恆的，而舊約律法的其餘部分卻不是這樣。儘管基督教沿用這種思路已經有很長的歷史了，但聖經中卻從來沒有任何地方這樣說過。整本聖經被看作是一個統一體（雅二8-11）。猶太人相信他們所有的律法都是不可改變的。這就是為什麼他們中的許多人很難接受耶穌是天上差來的，因為祂在挑戰他們永恆的律法。儘管祂完好無損地保留了許多律法，但這並不重要；祂教導說，祂正在開創的人類歷史的新時代，甚至會改變其中的一些律法，這才讓許多猶太人感到憤怒。只有上帝才能改變上帝的律法。但如果基督是上帝，那麼祂就有這個權利。如果祂不是，祂的教導就是在褻瀆上帝。然而，基督徒相信耶穌是上帝。所以，即使一條律法出現在十條誡命中，我們也不能認為它必須一成不變地延續到新約時代。我們必須先看看耶穌和使徒們是如何對待它的，然後才能明白它是否還具有約束力。
But
what about the Ten Commandments? Surely they are somehow special and specially
timeless in ways the rest of the old covenant law is not. Despite a long
history of Christian thinking along these lines, nothing in the Bible ever says
this. All of Scripture is viewed as a unity (James 2:8–11). Jews believed all
their laws were immutable. That’s what made it so hard for many of them to
accept Jesus as heaven-sent; He was challenging their eternal laws. It didn’t
matter that He left many of them apparently intact; His teaching that the new
age of human history He was inaugurating would alter even some of them left
many people incensed. Only God could change God’s law. But if Christ were God,
then He had this right. If He were not, His teaching was blasphemy. Christians,
however, believe Jesus is God. So even if a law appears in the Ten
Commandments, we may not assume that it carries over to the new covenant age
unchanged. We must look to see how Jesus and the apostles treated it before we
can understand whether it is still binding.
那麼，新約聖經對安息日律法，即著名的十誡中的一條誡命（出廿10）有何教導呢？耶穌並沒有像我們所希望的那樣明確地回答這個問題；如果祂這樣做了，我們今天就不會爭論這個問題了。但是在祂與祂子民的宗教領袖的所有遭遇中，祂責備他們如何限制祂在星期六行善，特別是在醫治人的時候。但奇怪的是，祂從來沒有醫治過生命瀕臨危險的人。有一個女人已經殘廢了十八年（路十三10-11）。有一個男人已經病了三十八年（約五5、9）。
What,
then, does the New Testament teach about the Sabbath law, one commandment out
of the famous ten (Ex. 20:10)? Jesus doesn’t answer this question as explicitly
as we would like; had He done so, we wouldn’t be debating it today. But in all
His encounters with the religious leaders of His people, He rebukes how they
restrict Him from doing good on Saturdays, especially when it comes to healing
people. Curiously, though, He never heals anyone whose life is in imminent
danger. One woman had been crippled for eighteen years (Luke 13:10–11). One man
had been an invalid for thirty-eight (John 5:5, 9).
我們可以想像法利賽人懇求基督：祂當然可以多等一天來醫治這些人，這樣祂就不會褻瀆上帝的安息日了。有一次耶穌的門徒在安息日在田裏摘了一些麥穗，大概是要吃麥穗，但沒有任何跡象暗示他們快要餓死了（可二23）。然而耶穌對他們的行為所作的辯護，卻為改變樹立了一個全面的先例：「安息日是為人設立的，人不是為安息日設立的」（可二26)。
We
can imagine the Pharisees pleading with Christ: surely He could wait one more
day to heal these people so He wouldn’t desecrate God’s Sabbath. One time
Jesus’ disciples picked some heads of grain in a field on the Sabbath,
presumably to eat them, but nothing implies they were on the verge of
starvation (Mark 2:23). Yet Jesus’ defense of their behavior sets a sweeping
precedent for change: “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”
(Mark 2:26).
通過在安息日醫治一個手枯乾的人，耶穌教導人們，在安息日行善是合法的（可三4）。任何幫助別人、美化世界、促進神的旨意，獎勵誠實的勞動，或為上帝的子民提供休養或歡樂的行為，在聖經中都被認為是「善的」，因此在安息日就被視為是合法的。這就是第一代基督徒的態度，使他們可以自由地把敬拜從猶太教的安息日或第七日轉移到一周的第一日——主日（徒廿7；林前十六2）。這就是導致星期日被命名為「主日 」的原因（啟一10）。
By
healing a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath, Jesus teaches that it is
lawful on the Sabbath to do good (Mark 3:4). Any behavior that helps someone,
that beautifies the world, that furthers God’s will, that promotes honest
labor, or that provides recreation or pleasure for God’s people is considered “good”
in the Bible and is therefore lawful on the Sabbath. This is the attitude that
gave the first generation of Christians the freedom to transfer worship from
the Jewish Sabbath or seventh day to Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts
20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). This is what led to the naming of Sunday as the “Lord’s
Day” (Rev. 1:10).
但基督徒幾乎沒有把猶太安息日的一切從星期六轉移到星期日。從第一世紀中葉開始，占教會大多數的外邦人信徒，在他們的社區裏就沒有每週的休息日。希臘人和羅馬人根據他們遵循的各種宗教節日日曆，每個月都有幾個節日。但是，除非其中一個節日是在星期天，否則外邦基督徒都必須在一周的第一天（星期日）工作一整天，並在星期天早上黎明前或星期六或星期天黃昏後擠出時間與其他信徒敬拜和團契。直到四世紀初，君士坦丁成為第一個基督教皇帝，星期日才被羅馬帝國合法化為聖日（從而成為假日）。
But
Christians scarcely transferred everything about the Jewish Sabbath from
Saturday to Sunday. Gentile believers, who comprised the majority of the church
from the middle of the first century onwards had no weekly days in their
communities on which to rest. Greeks and Romans had several holidays each month
according to the various religious festival calendars they followed. But unless
one of these holidays fell on a Sunday, Gentile Christians had to work a full
day on the first day of the week and squeeze in worship and fellowship with
other believers either on Sunday morning before dawn or Saturday or Sunday
night after dusk. Not until Constantine became the first Christian emperor in
the early fourth century were Sundays legalized as holy days (and thus
holidays) in the Roman Empire.
許多二、三世紀的基督教作家甚至把守安息日說成是「猶太化」——退回到基督來所要結束的律法主義。他們的說法可能是一種過度反應，除非守安息日的人，無論是守星期六還是守星期天，是想要求別人都必須跟隨他們。畢竟，保羅在羅馬書14章5-6節中寫道：「有人看這日比那日強；有人看日日都是一樣。只是各人心裏要意見堅定。」。這個命令是在第14章其餘部分的背景下出現的，在這裏，保羅解決了羅馬基督徒分裂的問題。爭論的核心是安息日和其他節期，以及飲食律法，關於這些問題，保羅說，總之，不要再互相論斷了（13節）。
Many
of the second- and third-century Christian writers even spoke of keeping the
Sabbath as “Judaizing”—reverting back to the legalism that Christ had come to
end. Theirs was probably an overreaction, unless the people keeping the
Sabbath, either on Saturday or Sunday, were trying to require others to follow
them. After all, Paul in Romans 14:5–6 had written, “One person considers one
day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them
should be fully convinced in their own mind.” This mandate comes in the context
of the rest of chapter 14, where Paul addresses issues that were dividing the
Christians in Rome. At the heart of the debate were the Sabbaths and other
feast days, along with the dietary laws, about which Paul says, in a nutshell,
stop judging each other (v. 13).
歌羅西書2章16更簡單。「所以，不拘在飲食上，或節期、月朔、安息日都不可讓人論斷你們。」在這裏，我們看到了猶太人常見的三合一聖日——每年的節日，如逾越節、住棚節或贖罪日；每月的節期；以及每週的安息日。基督徒可以自由地慶祝這些或不慶祝，其他信徒不能因為他們的選擇而論斷他們。基督的道成肉身是聖日所預示的現實。耶穌的追隨者來到祂面前，祂就給他們24小時、七日完整的安息，就像我們今天要說的，因為祂的軛是容易的，祂的擔子是輕省的（太十一28-30）。我們的一生都是安息日的安息，預示著我們永恆的安息（來四9-11）。
Colossians
2:16 is even plainer: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or
drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a
Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ.” Here we see the common Jewish triad of holy
days—annual festivals like Passover, Tabernacles, or the Day of the Atonement;
monthly feast days; and weekly Sabbaths. Christians are free to celebrate these
or not, and other believers must not judge them for their choices. Christ’s
incarnation is the reality that the holy days foreshadowed. Jesus’ followers
come to Him and He gives them rest 24–7, as we would say today, for His yoke is
easy and His burden light (Matt. 11:28–30). Our whole lives are a Sabbath rest,
foreshadowing our eternal rest (Heb. 4:9–11).
那麼，我是說敬拜和安息對基督徒來說是可有可無的嗎？絕對不是。我們需要兩者，而且我們經常需要兩者。我要說的是，新約聖經堅持認為，我們不敢立法或要求七天中的某一天來敬拜或安息。每個人的身體都是不同的，他們的工作要求、與信徒同工聚會的機會，以及整體的屬靈需要也是不同的。在這個醉心與工作的世界裏，家庭和教會經常因此分崩離析，讓我們得到我們所需要的休息，經常與聖殿的子民一起敬拜。並且讓教會在週六晚上甚至是周間晚上，為那些不能或不願在周日來的人創造更多的崇拜服事。的確，讓我們在如何向未信主的人和完全未得救的人傳福音方面更具有創意。但是，我們不要假裝教會或社會的弊病的靈丹妙藥是回到一些所謂的田園詩般的安息日，而這主要是清教徒首先發明的。
Am I
then saying that worship and rest are optional for Christians? By no means. We
need both and we need both frequently. What I am saying is that the New
Testament insists that we dare not legislate or require one specific day in
seven for either. Each person’s body is different, as are their work
requirements, opportunities for gathering with fellow believers, and overall
spiritual needs. In a workaholic world, which so often fractures families and
churches, let us get the rest we need and worship with God’s people often. And
let churches create more services on Saturday nights or even weeknights for
those who can’t or won’t come on Sundays. Indeed, let’s get far more creative
in how to reach the unchurched and the unsaved altogether. But let us not
pretend that the panacea for our ills in the church or society is returning to
some supposedly idyllic Sabbath that was largely the invention of the Puritans
in the first place.
Craig
L. Blomberg博士是美國丹佛神學院的新約聖經教授。
Dr.
Craig L. Blomberg is professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Denver,
Co.
