| rdfs:comment | - In Christianity, the Sabbath is generally a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by one of the Ten Commandments (the third commandment by Roman Catholic and Lutheran numbering, and the fourth by Eastern Orthodox and usual Protestant numbering). The practice is derived from Judaism, the parent religion of Christianity; shabbat (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, šabbāt) meaning "the [day of] rest" and entailing a ceasing or resting from labor. The institution of the Old Testament Sabbath, taken as a "perpetual covenant ... a sign for ever" by the people of Israel (Exodus 31:16-17-NRSV), and also applicable to proselytes (Deut 5:13-14, Ex 20:9-10, 23:12), was in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed the creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11).
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| abstract | - In Christianity, the Sabbath is generally a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by one of the Ten Commandments (the third commandment by Roman Catholic and Lutheran numbering, and the fourth by Eastern Orthodox and usual Protestant numbering). The practice is derived from Judaism, the parent religion of Christianity; shabbat (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, šabbāt) meaning "the [day of] rest" and entailing a ceasing or resting from labor. The institution of the Old Testament Sabbath, taken as a "perpetual covenant ... a sign for ever" by the people of Israel (Exodus 31:16-17-NRSV), and also applicable to proselytes (Deut 5:13-14, Ex 20:9-10, 23:12), was in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed the creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11). Biblically denoting a rest day on the seventh day of the week (in Judaism, the period from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall as days are reckoned from sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight), the term "Sabbath" has acquired the connotation of a time of communal worship and now (see the Gospel according to the Hebrews) has several meanings in Christian contexts:
* The period from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, in reference to the Jewish day of rest, observed by some Christian groups, and the order of creation in Genesis 1:5: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." ;
* Rarely, any of the seven annual High Sabbaths, rest days called shabbaton (such as Pentecost); or the Sabbatical Year;
* Sunday, as a synonym for "Lord's Day", in commemoration of the Resurrection of Jesus, a time of communal worship for most Christians;
* Any weekly day of rest, prayer, worship, or ritual, as some Christian leaders practice;
* A symbolic metaphor for the eternal "rest" that Christians claim to enjoy in Christ, rather than some arbitrary weekly observance. Both those who observe a seventh-day Sabbath, and those who adhere to a Puritan Lord's-Day Sabbath, have laid claim to the name Sabbatarians; the term is less frequent for those who hold a different rest day.
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