After Six Days: A New Clue for Gospel Critics
The conception of a preliminary period of ritual preparation for occasions of special sanctity is common to many religions, including that of the Old Testament, where the touching of holy things or coming into the divine presence requires a period of previous abstinence from anything involving cerem...
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1915
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In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 1915, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 94-121 |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | The conception of a preliminary period of ritual preparation for occasions of special sanctity is common to many religions, including that of the Old Testament, where the touching of holy things or coming into the divine presence requires a period of previous abstinence from anything involving ceremonial defilement. In 1 Sam. 21 5 and Ex. 19 10, 15 this period is of “three days.” The longer period of “six days” is required for the supreme occasion when Moses meets Yahweh face to face on Sinai (Ex. 24 16), and this interval becomes as it were stereotyped in the most distinctive of Jewish institutions, the periodic seventh day “the sabbath of the Lord thy God,” to which the preceding six days of toil lead up. The Jew labors and does all his work in the first six days of the week in order that he may rest and enjoy the fruit of his toil the seventh day, just as in the creation Yahweh's activity had led up to a period of satisfied contemplation of all that He had made as “very good.” In like manner the later speculators of both Synagogue and Church expected the toil and turmoil of the six ages of “this world,” each of one thousand years’ duration, to lead up to the blessed repose and fruition of “the age to come,” ushered in by the “thousand years” of Messiah. |
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ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000008348 |