BibleProject - Hidden Sevens & Practical Sabbath: 7th Day Rest Q&R #2 - 7th Day Rest E12

Episode Date: December 19, 2019

Tim and Jon Responded to these questions: David from Arizona (2:25)My question is, does the frequent occurrence of the number seven and the seventh day in Genesis, Exodus, and the rest of the Bible have more to do with the authors creating design patterns within the narrative to make theological claims? Or is it actually how God himself worked in history? Maybe these are synonymous, but I would love to hear your response.Ashley from Arizona (13:30)I have a question for you regarding Jesus' words during his miracle at the wedding at Cana. When his mother points out that there is no wine, he takes six water pots used for purification and and then puts water in them and then turns those into wine. There seems to be a connection maybe with the six and bringing the best wine out last. But I'm wondering what the connection is between cups of wine in the seventh day. Is that a thing? Thanks so much for your thoughts and all the work you do.Jesse from North New Zealand (20:50)I was wondering about the practical implications of the theological discussion that you've been having. Jews have been practicing Sabbath rest and Sabbath observance for millennia, yet Christians kind of gave up on that a few centuries ago. Should we as Christians go back to Sabbath observance? Is there something more there that I've missed? What are the implications of this Sabbath rest for us as Christians in the world?Jisca from Rwanda (25:34)How do we apply the principle of rest in our time as Christians. What do we do with the inclination to rest on the seventh day? How do we live it out on a daily basis? Thank you.Jon from Malaysia (25:55)I work in the construction industry here, and it's common for people to work six days a week. This has truly made me appreciate the one day of rest that I get every week. However, a lot of my friends who work a normal five-day week say that working six days in today's world can be way too tiring. Could you share thoughts on the practicality of still working six days and resting one day in a modern world? And on the flip side of that, what are the biblical implications if I do not take a break by continually working seven days a week? Thanks for all you do, guys. I love your podcast. Keep it up. Resources:To Hell With The Hustle by Jefferson Bethke The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer God Dwells with Us: Temple Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel by Mary Coloe The Subversive Sabbath by A.J. Swaboda At Home with God: A Complete Liturgical Guide for the Christian Home by Gavin Long  Learn more about what we do and join The Bible Project by financially partnering with us:www.thebibleproject.com/vision Show Produced by:Dan Gummel Show MusicDefender Instrumental by Tents Powered and Distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at The Bioproject. And this is Tim, also at The Bioproject. We are both at The Bile Project currently, and we are doing a question and response episode of a series we've been calling 7th day rest. Let's stay rest. Although the video is probably not gonna be called that. Well, this whole time we were saying,

let's not call it the Sabbath because it's about so much more than the Sabbath. But some of our team members are getting us to think in a bigger perspective that maybe actually calling it the Sabbath might be strategic. More strategic because no one's googling seventh day rest. Explain to me this concept of seventh day rest. Explain to me the concept of the Semitic symbolism of the number seven. But there's lots of people saying,

what's the deal with the Sabbath? That's right. And so we'll get more Google juice if we call the video Sabbath. And it is a big part of what these conversations in this video have been about. And it's actually what a lot of these questions have from you guys have been about

because when it gets practical, we're not practicing the Sabbath year, really so much, or the other festivals. Jubilee, yeah, that's right. It's really more about, can I do this weekly rhythm? Yeah, that's right. And what does that look like? So in our last installment of this series, real time is yet to come out.

We dedicated a whole bunch of time to talk about that issue theologically, in terms of how Christians, in the first generation, in the period of the Apostles and throughout history, have or have not practiced the Sabbath and so on. But you all have sent in a bunch of great questions that are even just very practical, which is regardless of whether you do something from Friday night to Saturday night

or do it a different day of the week. What's the wisdom about this abyss that would be like really restorative for God's people? Yeah. So we're gonna have some questions, talk about that. And then some other good questions too. So here we go. Let's get into it.

Q and R time. Number one, David from Arizona, you expressed a question that was sent in many times over throughout the whole time we've been taking questions on the series. So let's hear your question. Hello, Tim and John. My name is David from Phoenix, Arizona. My question is, does the frequent occurrence of the number seven and the seventh day in Genesis, Exodus, and the rest of the Bible have more to do with the authors creating design patterns within the narrative to make theological claims? Or is it actually how God himself worked in history?

Maybe these are synonymous, but I would love to hear your response. Thank you for all that y'all do, especially the podcast episodes. They have strengthened my faith in Jesus, that helped me embrace my inner Bible nerd. I think this is a great question, and it's a question I think about often when we look at design patterns in the Bible of any sort, because you're like, wow, that was really well-crafted. Correct. And the most logical explanation is they're playing fast and loose with real history.

You know, like, did this thing really happen in seven days or did that really, whatever? Like, was it really? Yeah, that's right. It depends on your cultural conception of how to do history. Yes. But, which is, that's the question. Yeah, so let's just first, let's name it. You know, we went through a handful of design patterns in Genesis one seven days 10 acts of speech in seven days. I was just talking with you this morning I just realized this morning that the entire fled narrative is broken up into 10 acts of divine speech Got speaks 10 times in the course of the flood narrative, too Of course it is a Decreation recreation story. So it's not just the number seven, it's almost all the number symbolism in the Hebrew Bible,

but there's 7, 10, 40, 12 for the 12 tribes. We didn't end up including in the podcast, other little tidbits that are kind of on the cutting floor. The way mimicking Genesis 1, the way that Israelites march around Jericho, for six days, and then rest on the end of each day, and then on the seventh day as when they blow their horns. And they march around seven times, right? And they march around at seven times on the seventh day, after six days of marching.

And it's so clearly a recall of Genesis 1. And on and on. Joshua speaks seven times in his covenant speech at the end of the book of Joshua. So it's pervasive. This seven symbol as completeness or wholeness pervades the design of biblical literature. So the question is, at what point are we fading from what some modern Westerners would call history into just sheer literary creativity? When you say what some modern Westerners call history, I think what we mean by that is what actually happened. That's one meaning of the word history.

Really? Sure. Yeah. But history can also refer to a written account that has been selectively arranged and designed in order to highlight certain connections. I'd be like a creative retelling of history. Well, but any any retelling of history is a creative act because there's no way to actually recreate in event because that event was only experienced by people who have their limited points of view. If somebody writes a history of World War II, it's one person, we're a group, consulting whatever eyewitnesses and sources and so on to a range and account.

That's not quite the issue here. Modern Westerners, the goal, I guess most of the time, is when I'm going to write history, I want to try to write an accurate account, whether or not I'm actually doing it. That's typically the goal. Okay. That's right. So I would say the value is on maximal realism in the representation of the events. And realism, not in the sense of just realistic, but actually matching details. This is what my wife wants when she asks me how my day wasn't work or how my conversation

with whoever was. It's like just replay the whole thing. Has it happened, please? What? Oh, I know, I know that dynamic. So here's the rub, however, are we imposing our cultural conception of what it means to create a written account of an event when we make people from other times in cultures, when we expect that they would represent an event

in the same way. And so I think we're all the way back to honoring the fact that God has chosen to speak to his people through ancient Hebrew, through texts that were written in the literary styles that ancient Israelites read and wrote in. And in the literature of the ancient Near East, it's not only acceptable,

it's the way that you write a narrative recounting an event. The highest value isn't just realistic representation, it's also communicating the meaning, the cosmic meaning in light of their assumption that all events that happen have both a human causal level and a divine causal level. It seems to me we need to allow the biblical authors to speak on their terms and through the literary styles that they were familiar with.

So when you start to see like somebody's speech, like Joshua's speech, and Joshua 24 is divided up into seven speech acts, you know, his covenant speech at the end of the book. So the question is, did he actually stop and like restart seven times, or is in author helping me understand the meaning of that within a series of design patterns? And we're kind of back to our conversation we've had many times over the years. It's like about the gospels, differences in details and the accounts of the gospels.

But does this one feel different to you? No, I mean, not completely. What about Jericho, the six and seven days for Jericho? That one's easier because it's easy to imagine that's what they actually did. Ah, I see, okay. Ah, and so David, that's your question. Is this just a thoracic creativity or is this how things actually worked out in history?

Yeah, maybe at some point, it becomes hard to imagine. It becomes incredulous that there are so many patterns in human history. And last, like David said, God was orchestrating history. Yeah, that's right. So that then it could be written accurately and have all this symbolic meaning. Correct. But were the Israelites really watering for 40 years? Maybe it was 42 years. And they're just like, yeah, it's ran down because that's more significant, geologically. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And different people are going to have different, we're going to land on all into the spectrum here. So on one of the spectrum would be the biblical authors sometimes frame a narrative is happening within a seven-day sequence or a seven

time sequence to make a theological point. Yeah. Even though the source or the oral tradition that they received or are passing on didn't have that, but they add that element to it. And it's not just literary creativity, they're making a theological point to help you see the meaning. So that would be one end of the spectrum. Another end of the spectrum would be that all of these events happened precisely according to the maximal representation of details, including all of these patterns of seven, which means Joshua stopped and started seven times. I would just urge us to open mindedness, to let the literary evidence of the Bible just speak for itself.

Our goal is, regardless of our theological assumptions, is that we just want to hear the Bible on its own terms. And I've had these conversations before is somebody who's maybe on the maximal realistic representation side will say, well, Joshua just happened to like stop and start seven times. That's just what happened. It's like, okay, well, but it's seven times in the whole set of other mountain of evidence of the meaningfulness of the number seven. So I think it's a meaningful thing that we're supposed to see a theological claim at work there. I'm getting more and more comfortable with that.

But I know that the rub for people is where do you draw the line? Yeah, sure. Because one place where you need to, it seems very important to draw the line, is that Jesus writes from the dead. Yeah. Did he die and writes from the dead? Yeah, sure.

Or is that just a way to make a theological claim? Sure. So you could take this argument of, well, we're just taking what happened and talking about the significance. Yeah. And you could take it to a degree where now I've be thrown out the baby

with the bath water. Sure. Sure. And where do you draw the water? Sure. Even there, the timing of the resurrection, for example, was it on the third day? Right.

Was it three days and three nights? Was it from Sabbath, the beginning of a Sabbath to the... Oh man. In which case, there's really only one 20-hour-hour block with a few hours on each other's side. Yeah. So even with other's side. Yeah. So, even with the empty tomb, the way that numbers mean things is how you refer to the empty tomb. So, there are certain details like numbers that we could be a little bit more flex on,

but other details like the women showing up, well, that must have happened. Yeah, that's right. But to say, oh, look, the time that Jesus spent in the tomb is represented by different Numbers in different texts Recognizing that nowhere put you near saying therefore the resurrection did not happen What we're saying is the claim of the resurrection did happen and in different texts the numbers Are giving different Theological nuances and meaning to the resurrection

But it's unwarranted to say, therefore it's all fiction. And I think the same is true for a story like Jericho, the marching six times and then seven mimicking the six days of gathering mana and then not gathering it on the seventh, mimicking the six days and the seventh day of creation. Therefore, the Israelites never had a battle with the city of Jericho. That's an unwarranted conclusion. Am I making any sense? Totally making sense. Yeah. We need more sophisticated categories between fiction and like video security camera

footage. And in between to say an event can be represented using literary creativity, design patterns, and still be a faithful representation of history. This is not the last time we're gonna have this conversation, no, but I know this video raised it for a lot of people. I don't know. There's no tying a bow on that one. No. No.

Thank you, David, for that wonderful question. Live in the discomfort. Yeah. Discomfort for us. I don't think it was a discomfort. To discomfort for us. Most people throughout history. And certainly not for the biblical authors,

because they like, they love the stuff. Well, no, when you're talking, it made me think like, if you didn't do that, it's like people would be disappointed in you. Yeah, okay. So actually, let's look at an example from the New Testament that kind of gets us in the same ballpark.

Okay. Ashley from Arizona has a really perceptive question. Hi, John and Tim. This is Ashley from Arizona. I have a question for you regarding Jesus's words during his miracle at the wedding at Cana. When his mother points out that there is no wine he says my hour has not yet come and then he takes six water pots used for purification and then puts water in them and then turns those into wine. There seems to be a connection maybe with the six and then this idea of bringing the best

wine out last. But I'm wondering what the connection is between cups, wine, and the seventh day. Is that a thing? Thanks so much for your thoughts and all the work you do. Yes, Ashley, very perceptive observation, and then also a great question. Yeah. Our producer Dan has been saying that the questions

have been getting progressively more and more sophisticated people are reading the Bible. Yeah, it's awesome. And yeah, sync things. Yeah, totally. So, this is the first story of seven or seven acts that Jesus will do in the Gospel of John that are called signs. So, seven times Jesus performs some kind of wonder or healing and it's called by the narrator

a sign. This is the first one. And John also tells us that this is the first sign of Jesus and that it revealed Jesus's glory. That's right. To his disciples. Yeah. And he's helping through a party. That's right.

So it invites the reader to see something really significant here. This is an important one. In a narrative that might feel like, well, it's kind of a random thing that happened to Jesus. It is such a random miracle, right? It's like, help someone blind see awesome. Sure. Yeah, yeah, totally. Cast out a demon. Yeah, rad. Yeah, although none of those, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no exorcism in John. Oh, okay. Yeah, but yeah, but the other Blight man. Yeah, that's right. But let's just make a bunch of wine so we can party longer.

So for a lot of things we could do in this story. Let's just highlight the things Ashley highlights. John makes this observation that Jesus uses six huge stone jars that are usually the jars, the types of jars that people would do before ritual purification, either of their hands before they eat, or down in Jerusalem, there were big baths called McVote, or a Jewish form of baptism, where before you go into the temple courts, you immerse your whole body or wash your hands and that kind of thing. So this is a thing, purification, breath water, reliviticus, right? It's a thing. Why does he tell us how many there are?

Right, six. That's interesting. So there's six. And then what Jesus does is take these six and then do one more act that turns the six into this thing that provides for the wedding party. So it sets up a there's six and then there's six ordinary things into a seventh transporacuous. Transporacuous. Into a new thing. Which. A new seventh. Is helping a party continue. Totally. Yeah, completing the wedding party.

It's a whole thing. It's the last thing that happens. And the whole thing of focusing in on what the head waiter, right, or the party host, party sponsor. As he says, as listen, we had some wine before this, but like, this is a good stuff. This is the ultimate. You've kept had some wine before this, but like, this is a good stuff. This is the ultimate. You've kept a good wine for this moment. So this wine that is created out of the six

is presented in the narrative as a completion or culminating moment. So there's no way this is a coincidence. Why John has told us the six is done water jars. Yeah. I've never noticed that. Yeah, it's awesome. So think this, do you remember back when I showed you how the opening chapter of the Gospel

of John has been designed to imitate the literary design of Genesis 1? It's a thing. It's a thing. There's a scholar Mary Klo will make sure her books and the show notes. She's done a lot of really amazing work on illusions to the Old Testament in the Gospel of John. And she has a set of great studies on the literary design of the prologue to the Gospel of John. And he's broken it into six panels, opening line, two triads of three, and then a finishing seventh piece. And the opening line is in the beginning.

Right. I mean, he begins with, yeah. Opening words of Genesis. So the prologue of John is telling you, read this gospel like you would read. Yeah, the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible. And so he's buried sevens into,

there's seven signs, he says, I am seven times. Yeah. There's all kinds of patterns of seven woven in the Gospel of John Which connects us back to David's question, right? The previous question. Mm-hmm. And that's easier though to think. Oh, well, he just chose seven signs. Yeah, it wasn't like there was all Jesus only did seven signs. Yeah, that's a good point He says at the end. I could have chosen many stories. Right. That's right. So Yeah, this the fact that John would recognize six point. He says at the end, I could have chosen many stories. That's right. So yeah, the

fact that John would recognize six stone jars. But that's, but that one, yeah, was there really six stone jars? Correct. Why else would John mention it? Right. Let's tee it up on either side. Let's try and be objective. Yeah, yeah. Maybe like he just was like, I should throw some details in there to maximize the realism. Yeah, let's just say there were six. I don't remember how many there were. Let's just say six. No, I happen to remember. There were six.

I'm going to put some details in. Oh, okay. Well, or there's that side. I mean, there's two ways you could approach it, right? But it has nothing to do with a pattern of creation. Oh, I see. There just happened to be six. I happen to.

And I just happened to mention it. That's right. Yeah. There was other details I forgot, but that one I remembered. That's right. It is an odd detail to manufacture. You know what I'm saying? If he was making it up just to lead the reader to seeing GSX act as like a seventh act,

it's kind of an odd one. It seems more likely that it's preserving a memory and the reason he's included it is because like if we could sit with him reason he's included it is because like, like if we could sit with him, my hunch is he'd be like, dude, you guys won't believe that. We're six stars, like that kind of thing. Really? Or there wasn't six, but he thought,

you know what's gonna really make the story sparkle? Yeah, that's right. Okay. If there were six. Because that helps make the point. Correct. In a much deeper, memorable way that what Jesus is doing is ushering in new creation. That's right. Because that helps make the point. Correct. In a much deeper, memorable way that what Jesus is doing is ushering in new creation. That's right.

And his first work. So, I think both are plausible. We don't know the answer. On either reading, the symbolism of it is the same. And I think it's learning to live without knowing. You know what he said there? You said it wasn't the last time we were going to talk about that. And then we talked about it in the second question.

Okay, so transitioning from Bible number nerdiness into some more practical questions about the practice of the Sabbath, we've got Jesse from New Zealand. Hi John and Tim, this is Jesse from Palmerston, North New Zealand. Thank you for this conversation around the land. Hi, John and Tim. This is Jesse from Palmerston, North New Zealand. Thank you for this conversation around this Sabbath. I was wondering about the practical implications of the theological discussion that you've been having. Jews have been practicing Sabbath rest and the Sabbath observance for millennia and yet Christians kind of gave up on that a few centuries ago.

Should we as Christians go back to Sabbath observance, is there something more there that I've missed? What are the implications of this Sabbath rest for us in the Christian world? Thanks. Thanks, Jesse. Yeah, thank you. That's your question represents a question we've gotten many times, sent in many times throughout the series.

In the next episode of the series, we're going to focus in, specifically on the practice of Sabbath in the Jesus movement, in the early centuries, and especially in the period of the New Testament. So maybe just a bit, a preview or seed, that one thing to notice, because in our modern day, Judaism and Christianity are distinct religious traditions. They're perceived as even different religions, entirely, different faith traditions. And they also have, you know, going on 1900 years,

like really a violent hostility, mostly on the part of Christians towards the Jewish community. So that complicates the matter. That complicates any discussion on this subject here. Because in those first generations of the Jesus movement, the very first generation was all Jewish. And they didn't consider themselves,

now were Christians, and not Jewish. They were Jews who saw their hopes fulfilled in the Messiah. They continued all to Jewish practices. Yeah. And there has been throughout history, whether it's small or large, there has been Messianic Jewish followers of Jesus all along. There has never not been a Messianic Jewish community practicing Sabbath, doing the feast days and so on. They wouldn't use it a little bit of label, Christians. Sure.

They'd say they're Messianic Jews. And they follow Jesus. So there's a very ancient tradition going back to the roots of the movement. So that complicates the matter because it's inaccurate to say, well, Christians gave up the Sabbath or they switched the Sabbath. What Christians are you talking about? Right. The real issue is now, if you're not Jewish, and you want to follow this Jewish Messiah, gave up the Sabbath or they switched the Sabbath. What Christians are you talking about? Right, the real issue is now if you're not Jewish

and you want to follow this Jewish Messiah, then what Jewish practices should you, could you pick up? Correct. And that's what we'll focus on a little more in the next episode that's going to come out. A little plug. Conversations, yeah.

Yeah, but it's just, I thought it'd be useful to say, here, there have been Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Jesus from the very beginning. Jesus went around doing his thing, and mostly with his Jewish contemporaries, and occasionally with non-Jews. And so it is the case that Resurrection Sunday from the very beginning started a unique practice on Sundays. It's referred to in the book of Jude, Jesus' brother, refers to that meal.

He calls it the love feast, the agape feast. There's some reason in English that word love feast. Yeah, scandalous. Yeah, call it the agape. Someone invites English that word love fees. Yeah, scandalous. I call it the agape. Someone invites you to a love feast. But it's the feast where they celebrated God's love, shown in Jesus. Yeah. It's the agape feast. And so you had simultaneously observant Messianic Jews doing Sabbath and doing the Sunday,

resurrection, Sunday thing. So they weren't mutually exclusive. Eventually later on, they were seen to be mutually exclusive for some people. And that's where this division got set up. But anyway, so whether or not you practice Sabbath on Friday night to Saturday night, there is, think of our conversations about the laws

of the Hebrew Bible, even though I'm not a nation an ancient Israelite living in the covenant made at Sinai, there is divine wisdom for me in the laws of the Hebrew Bible. There is wisdom in stopping and resting. And there's wisdom in celebrating and anticipating new creation. It's a cool rhythm. It is a cool rhythm. them in celebrating and anticipating new creation. Yep. It's a cool rhythm. It is a cool rhythm. So we had two questions that raised this issue in interesting regard.

One is Jiska. And then another question from John Chen. Jiska lives in Rwanda, John Chen lives in Malaysia. So let's hear your questions. I think that'll tee up a good conversation. Hello, my name is Jessica and I come from Randa. So my question for these series of rest is how do we apply the principle rest in our time as Christians? What do we do with the information on rest and the seventh day?

How do we live it out on a daily basis today? What can we apply for it? Thank you. Hi Tim and John. This is John Chin from Malaysia. I work in the construction industry here and it's common for people to work six days a week. This has truly made me appreciate the one day of rest that I get every week. However, a lot of my friends who work a normal five day week say that working six days in today's world can be way too tiring Could you share your thoughts on the practicality of still working six days and resting one day in a modern world? And on the flip side of that, what are the biblical implications if I do not take a break by continually working seven days a week? Thanks for all you do guys. I love your podcast. Keep it up. Yeah, great questions. What one the wisdom principle in the Sabbath idea?

And then one question that's really practical about what actually happens when we work too much. I thought this was interesting about the five versus six day work week in different cultures. Right. But yeah, so actually let's start there. You know, all of the biblical language about the Sabbath is six days of work in seven.

Right. Well, there's an interesting, you know, disconnect there between people who live in cultures that do the five day work week with the two day rest, I guess. Yeah, but advocating the Sabbath, and then the question is, well, which one of the rest days do you pick? I don't know, do you go to a traditional one? Try to do Saturday.

Saturday to Sunday. It's a big difference between whether or not you're working your own land, when you're working in your own business, versus being an employee of someone else. That's right. And you're just like, what do I need to do? How often do I need to be here?

Because if you got your own thing, you can work yourself to the bone. Sure, yeah, that's right. If it's farming, I don't know. Like it's farming, it's like. It's farming, it's like the cows don't care what day it is. No, they need to be milked. And the crops don't care what day it is,

and there's always something to do. Yeah, that's right. And it's your place, and you want to keep it up, be a good steward. Yeah, that's right. Or if it's your startup. Yeah, and ancient Israel was much more like that. Yes Right mountain tribal farming communities right in hill country. Yeah, so and in the ancient world It was it was kind of ridiculous to take a day off, right? Yeah, there was not another culture that did it as

consistently Attached to the seventh day. Yeah, there were other culture that did it as consistently attached to the seventh day. There were other cultures that did seventh day religious feast days and stuff like that on occasion, but nothing as consistent as every week. Yeah, don't miss it. Every week. And then in some months, like multiplying

like in the days of in the first and seventh months, yeah, valid days, extra days too. So I think depending on your cultural upbringing that will shape your perception of how much is too many days of work. For me, having been raised in America a six day work week sounds exhausting. Yeah. But for somebody raised in a culture like that, it would just be that's what's normal. Yeah. So John, your question is, what are just the implications if we work ourselves without any rest, which then speaks to Jessica's question about what's the wisdom principle here?

So we haven't really talked about this in the course of the series. Like, if you were to actually do it, let's say it's Friday night, Saturday night, or if you are going to observe the principle in spirit on some other day of the week, what's the value? Like, what's the wisdom there? Why does it matter? Yeah. That seems obvious. Is it obvious? Yeah, yeah. Stephen Covey's 7-Habits of Highly Effective People.

Ah-ha. One of them is sharpen your saw. So you can't just keep sawing. You can't just keep going. It's gonna, the blade's gonna get dull. Yeah, sure, that's right. And eventually you have to stop and sharpen your saw. Yeah.

And I think the human body, if it were a saw of sorts, you need rest. Yes, yeah. Stay sharp. Yes. So just to stay productive,ing makes a lot of sense. So what's interesting is that the two biblical rationales for the Sabbath don't quite match that more modern principle. Not as worth observing. In Genesis 1, the seventh day is when God takes up

his rest. He settles them. He wasn't getting dull. His blade wasn't getting dull. Yeah, it's not like God needs to sharpen this saw, because he gets tired. The seventh day is the day when he completes creation by entering and filling it with his presence. So that's the completion theme. And then once you get into the Exodus, the deliberation theme, the seventh day is the day when you celebrate your journey out of the darkness into, you know, complete life.

So remember in Deuteronomy, the seventh day rest is for you and your slave and your animals because it's the day when you don't care everyone. But it's the day when you remember that you're they're not yours That you all belong to God and so you get the same rest all together So that's more of a you know equality liberation theme so you don't find in the Old Testament the reason this wisdom Reason of like yeah, I mean because it's good for you psychologically too And I which I'm that's I'm not saying that's not legitimate, I'm just saying it's not one of the main biblical emphases about the Sabbath.

It's to remember who's you are, and that you don't own all this stuff and it's not up to you. Yeah. And the history is moving towards an ultimate fulfillment of a union of heaven and earth in the ultimate seventh day rest. That's what the biblical authors care about in developing this theme. It's just interesting because you can develop a lot of other wisdom about the wisdom principle of it. Why it's good for us, dirt creatures, and psychologically, physically, socially, and so on. But it's also, it's worth naming to say those are ways that we are extrapolating from the biblical story line.

Which is what we're supposed to do. I think part of ruling the world as God's image is ruling with wisdom and learning new things, the align with things that we already hold to be true or have us convictions. So I think this would be one of them. Yeah. So here's the thing I think about when it comes to this. If I wanted to apply the wisdom principle of celebrating and thinking about the culmination

of history and remembering who I am and that God owns everything, and I want to know how to do that right. Yes, yeah, sure. Because there's thousands of ways I could do it. And what's kind of reassuring when you're part of an ancient tradition is like, this is how we do it. Mm-hmm, you know, so if I was Jewish, it's just like, here's how we do it. Yeah, yeah, you're just raised into it. I'm just doing it.

Yeah, sure. And it's almost like there's too much freedom. It feels like there's too much freedom to where it's like, where do I start? How do I do it? And how do I do it right? And it feels the same way of like, if I wanted to like, work out

and have a body transformation of some sort. I'm not just going to the gym and just start just doing whatever I feel in the moment or watch just random people doing random things. And be like, I'll just try and lift those weights. I would wanna have a real strategy that makes sense. And I would want someone who understands human anatomy and to like coach me through it. Yes.

And so I feel like we're all kind of out on our own just trying to figure out. And by where all you mean people who aren't Torah observant or Shabbat observant, yeah, yeah, got it. Yeah, yeah, I hear that. And so maybe that's where the wisdom of the Christian tradition of Resurrection Sunday being a weekly day, not just once a year day in the spring, but the weekly day where you get to go with other followers of Jesus. You celebrate God's love shown in Jesus, you sing about it, you give your resources to

your common mission in your neighborhood or city or as a community, and you share time and meals and food with each other. That's a way that Christians for millennia have, I think, lived by this wisdom. Now, it doesn't mean that they're observing the Sabbath, because Sunday is not a Christian Sabbath, technically, or historically. You're saying you can apply Sabbath wisdom to the Sunday ritual. Correct. Yeah, you can do that. It's a day to, this isn't my day, it's a day when I dedicate my time, focus, and energy. But other people might want to actually just do a Sabbath ritual on top of a Sunday ritual.

Yeah, yeah. I know lots of people who do that. So it's, yeah, wisdom. But by nature, wisdom isn't law. It's wisdom, which means that there are times when you need to flex it and mold and adapt it based on culture and setting and season of life and so on. So I think what's hard maybe in the modern western settings when so much of our experience of religion has become therapeutic, that the human, like physical and psychological need for rest, that can take it this interesting turn where it becomes, I don't know. I don't even know what I'm trying to get out here,

but it's just a feeling in the air when I hear people talking about it. Well, I mean, it's such a unique time in history where we're so connected to devices, so you're just always one glance away from your email inbox. Yeah. There's just so much to be doing in your brain to keep spinning and you can just... So I think everyone's kind of realizing like, this is getting out of hand.

Yes. Yes. Sure. My body is in this constant state of like, just go. Yeah, that's right. And we've got to fix this. Totally. Yeah, it's so unhealthy over the long run.

Yeah. So, yeah, that's true. So, yeah, wisdom would say, oh, isn't it interesting how the need to unplug from the modern media fest aligns with this ancient practice. There was for the Sabbath that some Messianic Jews continued to do on the Sabbath that many non-Jewish Christians began to practice this wisdom on Resurrection Sunday every week of recognizing that I need a day to remember that I'm not God.

Usually I suggest books, but I want to suggest a couple because I have a couple of friends who have written about this. We both do. Yeah, yeah. We both do. Yeah, somehow, yeah, Portland, we both, we know like a number of people here in town have written good books on the wisdom of the Sabbath. Yeah, so Jefferson Bathke wrote a book called To Hell with the Hustle. It's a great title. So good.

And then our friend John Mark Comer wrote a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Yep. Also another great reflection on rest. That's right. Yeah, and then I have a former neighbor, and he was a pastor here in Portland until he moved away recently. A.J. Swabota wrote a kind of a short practical theology

of Sabbath called the subversive Sabbath. There are all three really great resources that will get you thinking theologically and creatively about the wisdom of the Sabbath. Lots of creative thinking because it's in the air. There's also a book. I just a friend of mine showed me we've been trying to do like a Friday night thing every once in a while, and we just don't know what we're doing. And then he brought this book.

It's called That Home with God, a complete Lord, surgical guide for the Christian home. Oh, sweet. And it had like, we're an Advent season, and it had like, here's how you could do Sabbath

in the spirit of Advent through a Messianic lens, and had a liturgy of sorts. Yeah, sure. Oh, that's awesome. Some good wisdom in there. Yeah, sure. Oh, that's awesome. Some good wisdom in there. Yeah, totally. Yes.

You know, just maybe as we're nearing the close on this, my initial interest in this whole theme was just seeing the seven day patterns all over the Bible and how prominent it was in the Jubilee announcement of Jesus. So what's funny is when my really began to work this out and realized this is like a theme video, I didn't have on my mind any of the things,

the things that most people want to talk about of the Sabbath, which is a weekly thing and how to do it and why. But it's in the air. Yeah, but I'm really glad that I've been forced to think in those areas too and think about my own mind. But that's a good reminder. And that's how we end the video.

Yes. Is that Jesus says, I will give you rest. That's the main piece of wisdom, which is rest comes through a person. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. The Sabbath has happened to history. The Sabbath has happened to history. In the person of Jesus.

And he called it the arrival of God's kingdom. For him, that was the meaning of the Sabbath, was his inauguration of God's kingdom here on Earth as in heaven. Yeah. So no matter how you apply the wisdom of the Sabbath, that needs to be central to the Sabbath. That needs to be, yeah, that's right, yeah, what's that? Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bial Project Podcast.

All of this month of December, we've been kind of featuring stories, celebrate cool things happening around the Bial Project. And we wanted to give you a little window into the people behind the Italian localization team. Hey, Allison, welcome back. Hey, Dan, thanks. I'm super happy to be here again. Yeah, we've been taking this month, as you know, with these old vignettes at the end of the episodes, highlighting various localization efforts. Yeah, that's right, Dan, and I am excited to get back on the podcast and stay on behalf of our

localization team. Thank you so much for your support. I've actually heard from several people how much they've enjoyed hearing from our Brazilian Portuguese team and the Japanese teams, and we are very grateful to introduce you to one more. Yeah, I had so much fun putting them together. I laughed a lot, and I'm so glad that others are getting to hear them. Yeah, that's great. So when you join and give to the Bible project, you're putting new energy into our ability to make videos and content available in new languages.

So if you want to learn more and join us, you can go to thebibletproject.com slashvision. Yeah, that's awesome. So now you had one more team that you wanted to give a shout out to this month. Who do you have a month? Yeah, the Italian team. So Dan, this is a unique group of people. As you know, our teams are made up of language advisors, translators, voice talent, and animation studios.

And the studio that we're using for Italian is actually the same team that produced the French videos as well. That is so cool. Double dipping. Exactly. So when we find good teams, we try and see how we can continue working with them. And in this case, it was great to learn that they had multiple language skills. So they are able to do both the French and Italian for us.

I only have a singular language skill. Podcasting? If that's today we want to introduce you to their project manager and also the Italian language advisor and also the Italian voice of Tim. Yeah and his voice is amazing, so that's so great Allison, thanks for coming back and let's hear from the Italian team now. Great role tape. Ciao a tutti! My name is Marco and I am the voice talent for the Italian version of the Bible project. I live in Milan in the north of Italy and I am really, really happy to be a part of this project because I think it can bring peace and love all over the world. Bonjour! My name is Simil and I'm one of the project manager for the French and Italian version of the Bible project. I live in the French part of Switzerland.

I said French because we have four national languages here in Switzerland, Swiss German, French, Italian and Roman. Ciao! My name is Valerio and I am the language advisor for the Italian version of the bible project. I live in the south part of the Buita Vietaille, let's say quite close to the hill. Italian is the official language of Italy, of course. Large numbers of Italian immigrated to other countries and someone said that there is another Italy outside of Italy. South and Central America have more Italian speakers that you can imagine. The most living Argentina, which has 1.5 million speakers,

making Italy and the second most spoken language in the country after Spanish, of course. So in the second half of 2019 we got started with the Redescripture series and what I can say is so exciting now to see the first draft videos becoming a reality in Italian. In 2020 we will continue to work on the Redescripture series and are excited that the first Italian videos will be ready and post the only YouTube Please let me thank you very much for your support of the Bible project for Italy and Gazzemile and Arivederci

Thank you very much for your support in making this project possible Merci beaucoup Thank you very much for your support and let me say thank you and goodbye in my language. That is Chao Chao via braccio. If you want to find out more about what we're up to at the Bible project or some kind of big picture dreams that we have for the project as a whole, check out our website, thebibelproject.com slash vision.