The Meaning of Sabbath According to Mark's Gospel
‘Sabbath’ is a Hebrew word meaning rest – The Jewish meaning is
‘Shabbat’. Sabbath is the day of rest in Judaism. It begins at sunset
Friday and last until sunset on Sunday. In the Ten Commandments the
reason given for the Sabbath being a holy day is that after God had
created the world in six days he had rested on the seventh. Jews keep
Sabbath as a holy day set aside for God. It is celebrated at home,
with a special family meal on Friday evening and with synagogue
worship. Unnecessary work is avoided. Sabbath is a day to be honoured
and enjoyed as a gift from God.
‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,’ said Jesus.
Jesus taught that the law of God was for the benefit of the human
race, not set of petty restrictions. He was not breaking the law when
he healed on the Sabbath, ‘The man with the evil spirit’ ‘The man with
the withered hand’. Because it was obviously the right loving thing to
do. The law was to allow people to rest and worship God, not to stop
them nibbling ears of corn.
The Sabbath, to the Jews was a holy day in which they believed no
works should be done. It was a day of rest; from sunset to sunset. The
Jews believed that working was against the law in which had been set
by the Pharisees.
‘It was preparation day, so Joseph went boldly into the presence of
Pilate and asked him for the body of Jesus’ Jesus wanted to bury the
body before sunset because he believed that the Sabbath was not a time
for working. After the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary (mother
of James and Salome) brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus. This
shows that they also thought of the Sabbath as a day of rest so they
didn’t attempt to visit Jesus’ body before the end of the Sabbath.
This tells Christians that they should spend their special family and
Upon accepting a position to work for the New York Transit Authority, Mary Myers was forthright in informing her supervisor(s) know that she was unable to work any sundown Fridays to sundown Saturdays. (Feazell, 2003) As it relates to keeping “the Sabbath”, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday adherence to set aside this time period for rest and worship. (Feazell, 2003) Consequently, after Ms. Myer begin working for Transit Authority, her scheduled hours were involuntary changed, and she was then required to work on the Sabbath. (Feazell, 2003)
The Meaning of Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday was an incident of January 22, 1905 where unarmed demonstrators marched to the Winter Palace present a petition to the Czar. They were gunned down by Imperial guards in St. Petersburg. The event was organized by Father Gapon, a paid agent provocateur of the Okhranka, the Czarist internal secret police. Father George Gapon founded the Assembly of Russian Factory and Plant Workers, an authorized and police-sponsored organization designed to deviate any unrest away from violent revolutionary activities. In December1904, there was a strike at Putilov plant.
There are four Gospels in the new testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each one writing his perspective story about Jesus, his teachings, his works, his sacrifice, and his resurrection. At the same time, they each seem to elaborate on specific elements of Jesus. The gospel of Matthew writes about the bloodline, the ancestors of Jesus. The gospel of Mark, writes about Jesus as a servant to God. The gospel of Luke, writes about Jesus being the son of a human. The gospel of John, writes about Jesus being the son of God. Having an understanding on the focus of each gospel will help the reader know Jesus and his works better. However, this essay will concentrate on “The Gospel According to Mark,” written in Bruce Manning Metzger, translator of, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version with The Apocrypha (p. 1791). The gospel of Mark is documentation of
Just like the Protestant ethic these people felt they had a calling to serve God and ha...
... sacrifice and ritual of purification. They were therefore banned from the temples and had to perform the rituals by themselves.
In the short story of “The Gospel According to Mark”, Jorge Luis Borges introduces the readers to controversies to the works of missionaries faced by many civilizations around the world. Borges accomplishes this by accompanying the story with ironic symbols and substantial religious references which allow the readers to connect the story to relevant past events. In this short story, Borges ironically criticizes the effects which various missionaries had on different groups of indigenous people. Amongst these effects, a portion of the effects were positive, while a great majority of the effects was negatively impacting the indigenous groups which the missionaries came in contact with.
A writer’s vision and thought can be extracted from the words that they use in their stories. The evangelists in the Bible are no different. They are writing about events from memory; many of them were stories that were passed on generation to generation. Thus, their personal thoughts begin to make an entry into the way that they write their gospel and the words that they use. The evangelist had the final say as to how he would portray Jesus in his story. This was especially true in Mark’s gospel. Being the first one to recount the ministry of Jesus, he was not influenced by other well known accounts. Thus, the understanding that Mark has is seen through the approach that he took to write his gospel, which include both Jesus’ character traits as well as the meaning behind his ministry. When studying the way that Mark wrote the gospel, it can be seen how he perceives Jesus.
In regards to religion, most of the Jewish population practice Judaism. Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, being over three thousand years old (Schub T & Pravikoff D, 2013). One religious practice of the Jews is circumcising their sons. The Jewish Written Law, or Torah, compels the father to make sure that his son is circumcised on the eighth day of life. Although the topic of circumcision is somewhat controversial, the Jews strongly believe that the ritual is created by G-d himself and that “He certainly knows what’s good and not good for us” (Rich T.R., 2011). In addition to religious practices, Jews tend to have a resting day, also known as Sabbath Day. During Sabbath, the Jews avoid any form of work, which includes driving, walking, and even going as far as to refrain from pressing the bedside button in a hospital setting (Schu...
For the rest of my life there are two days that will never again trouble me. The first day is yesterday with all its blunders and tears, its follies and defeats. Yesterday has passed forever bye my control. The other day is tomorrow with its pitfalls and threats, its dangers and mystery. Until the sun rises again, I have no stake in tomorrow, for it is still unborn. With God’s help and only one day to concentrate all my effort and energy on, this day, I can win! Only when I add the burden of those two frightening eternities, yesterday and tomorrow, am I in danger of faltering under the load. Never again! This is my day! This is my only day! Today is all there is! Today is the rest of my life and I resolve to conduct myself through every waking hour in the following manner. . . . For the rest of my life, this very special day, God help me . . . to heed the wise advice of Jesus and Confucius and Zoroaster and treat me. To maintain a rein on my tongue and my temper, guarding against foolish moments of faultfinding and insults. To greet all those I encounter with a smile instead of a frown, and a soft word of encouragement instead of disdain or even worse, silence. To be sympathetic and attentive to the sorrows and struggles of others, realizing that there are hidden woes in every life no matter how exalted or lowly.
Reading Winner describe the Shabbat, which is a Jewish practice of Sabbath, I was very challenged. The Jews take Shabbat very
--inclines the mind to rest. It is not true of a day ending nor the passing of
When Jesus asked his disciples about what people thought about him, they answered that some considered Jesus to be e prophet, some - John the Baptist. But Jesus wanted his disciples to understand his mission, the reason why God brought him to Earth. That is why it was important for him to make sure that people realize who he is and that his sayings are vital for the whole mankind. Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one, above all other prophets. He was sent to suffer for the all human beings and the reasons why his suffering was necessary are described in Mark's Gospel 8:27-9:1.
accomplished something during the day, even when I haven’t. Not only that, it also helps with
Many important themes arose while I was reading the Gospel of Mark. In my week 2 group discussion posts, the themes I listed were faith, power of prayer, forgiveness, repentance, optimism, gratitude and mercy. However there are more that I found in the chapter and I read through it again such as the healing power of God and standing for righteousness.