Postby LittleBoyDrinkingWine » 09 Jan 2008, 15:07
Many believe that Messiah kept the same weekly Sabbath Day as The Jews of His day. I do not because of what He Himself said in Matthew 16:3, however, until now I have not seen any historical proof one way or the other.
The following is historical proof that Saturn's Day, what is today called Saturday, under our Papal/Pagan Gregorian calendar, was kept by the Jews of the first century. What this means is that the Jews of the first century paid homage to the god Saturn, Satyr, Molech, Remphan, Sikkuth, all the same god, which fulfilled the prophecy about those who worship and sear an oath to YHWH, but also swear by Molech as well in Zeph. 1:5. This same fulfillment is alive and well today.
To me this shows that there was a definite faction at work in the first centruy, even over such subjects as what is the true Sabbath day. Considering the fact that YHWH Himself removered (caused to forget) the Sabbath and Appointments (Holy Days) because Judah's idolatry in Lam. 2:6, I can see why Messiah (knowing the scriptures) did not make an issue of it in the gospels, more than what He did. How could He chastise them, if YHWH purposely took the knowledge of the Sabbath away from them.
Anyway, below is a piece of an e-mail that was sent to me on another forum. It was sent to prove Saturday was always kept since the first century, but in light of what the scriptures say in Zeph. 1:5, Amos 5:21-27, Lam. 2:6, Matt. 16:3, Acts 7:42-43 and other verses that make the case that Israel carried the this same pagan god (called the goat demon or Satyr) out of Egypt (Lev. 17:7), referred to in Acts by Stephen right before they murdered him. Rememeber who Stephen was speaking to. It was the same Jews that Messiah told them that they did not know how discern the signs of the Moedim in Matthew 16:3.
The same thing would happen today if one of us told a almighty rabbi at any local Synagogue that they worshiped Molech the greatest enemy of YHWH.
This same god was resurrected by Jeroboam in 2Chron. 11:15, when he set up this same satyr (goat demon) as their image in place of YHWH using a false calendar system (just like is used today), changing the FOT to the eighth month and all this was prophesied to be the dividing line at the end time when YHWH would stretch out His plumb line (Amos. 7:17) on this very subject of the false god Satyr or Saturn and the false calendar system. The result of that prophecy is that those who hold to the false dictates of the Day of Saturn will be lead away into physical captivity.
Here is the historical data.......
******************************
1st Century BCE
Dio Cassius, a Roman historian, explained the strategy employed by Pompey in taking Jerusalem in 63 BCE:
If they [i.e., the Jews] had continued defending it [i.e., the Temple] on all days alike, he could not have got possession of it. As it was, they made an exception of what are called the days of Saturn, and by doing no work at all on those days afforded the Romans an opportunity in this interval to batter down the wall. The latter, on learning of this superstitious awe of theirs, made no serious attempts the rest of the time, but on those days, when they came around in succession, assaulted most vigorously. Thus the defenders were captured on the day of Saturn without making any defense, and all the wealth was plundered. The kingdom was given to Hyrcanus, and Aristobulus was carried away.
Dio Cassius, Roman History, book 37, Chapter 16, in Loeb Classical Library, Dio's Roman History, Volume 3, pp.125, 127
First century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reported on this same event as follows:
“Nor had the Romans succeeded in their endeavors, had not Pompey taken notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstain from all sorts of work on a religious account."
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 7, Section 3, in The Works of Flavius Josephus, p.618
_______________________________________________
37 BCE
Cassius Dio also recorded the deposing of Antigonus (the son of Aristibolus II, who sought to control the Jews) and the establishment of Herod in Jerusalem in 37 BCE by Gaius Sosius, who was in command of the Roman troops:
The Jews, indeed, had done much injury to the Romans, for the race is very bitter when aroused to anger, but they suffered far more themselves. The first of them to be captured were those who were fighting for the precinct of their god, and then the rest on the day even then called the day of Saturn. And so excessive were they in their devotion to religion that the first set of prisoners, those who had been captured along with the temple, obtained leave from Sosius, when the day of Saturn came round again, and went up into the temple and there performed all the customary rites, together with the rest of the people.
Dio Cassius, Roman History, book 49, Chapter 22, in Loeb Classical Library, Dio's Roman History, Volume 5, p.387
______________________________________________
Albius Tibullus, a Latin poet who lived 54 BCE - 19 BCE), explained in one of his poems why he delayed leaving his beloved Delia, saying: “Either I blamed the birds, or words of bad omen; or that the sacred day of Saturn had held one back. (Tibullus, Elegies, book 1, Elegy 3, lines 17, 18, in Loeb Classical Library. Catullus, Tibullus, Pervigilium Veneris, p.206)
The day of Saturn "held one back" due to it be a day unfit for business, as noted by our next writer.
Publius Ovidius Naso (known widely simply as "Ovid"), was a Roman poet who lived 43 BCE - 18 CE. He wrote:
"You may begin on the day . . . less fit for business, whereon returns the seventh-day feast that the Syrian of Palestine observe"
Ovid, Ars Anratoria 1, 413-416; cf. 1,75-80; Remedia Amoris 217-220
__________________________________________
70 CE
Sextus Julius Frontinus, a Roman soldier, politician, engineer, and author of the first century CE, wrote of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian in 70 CE as follows:
"The divine Augustus Vespasian attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn, on which it is forbidden for them to do anything serious, and prevailed.
Sextus Julius Frontinus, The Stratagems, book 2, Chapter 1, Section 17, in Loeb Classical Library, Frontinus, Page 98
Cassius Dio likewise wrote of this same historical event as follows:
“Thus was Jerusalem destroyed on the very day of Saturn, the day which even now the Jews reverence most. From that time forth it was ordered that the Jews who continued to observe their ancestral customs should pay an annual tribute of two denarii to Jupiter Capitolinus.
Dio Cassius, Roman History, book 65, Chapter 7, in Loeb Classical Library, Dio's Roman History, Volume 8, Page 271
___________________________________________________
Ca. 100 - 112 CE
Publius Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 CE " ca. 117 CE) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. He also wrote of the Jew\'s observance of the day of Saturn. Hutton Webster interpreted it as follows:
Tacitus (Historiae, V, 4) thinks that the Jewish Sabbath may be an observance in honour of Saturn..." (Hutton Webster, Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Morality, New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916, p.244-245)
What did Tacitus say specifically?
They were pleased to have a rest on the seventh day, because it brought a release from work. Later, because they became softened by inactivity, the seventh year was also given to idleness. Some hold it to be an honor to Saturn, or perhaps the Idaeans gave them this part of their religion, who the Idaeansi, as we have said before, were expelled together with Saturn, and who, as we have been informed, were the founders of this [Jewish] nation; or else it was because the star [Saturn] moves in the highest sphere, and of the seven planets exerts the principal part of that energy whereby mankind are governed; and indeed most of the heavenly bodies exert their power and fulfill their courses according to the number seven.
Tacitus, The Histories, Book 5, Chapter 2, in Loeb Classical Library. Tacitus, Histories, Annals, Volume 2, p.180
Now before here any join Tacitus\'s chorus and claim the Jews keeping "Saturn\'s Day" were worshipping Saturn, consider this. Dio Cassius, who also testified of the Jew\'s observance of Sabbath on the day of Saturn, wrote of the Jews and their worship as follows:
"They are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life and especially by the fact that they do not honor any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence for one particular divinity. They never had any statue of him even in Jerusalem itself, but believing him to be unnamable and invisible, they worship him in the most extravagant fashion on earth. They built to him a temple that was extremely large and beautiful...and likewise dedicated to him the day called the day of Saturn, on which, among many other most peculiar observances, they undertake no serious occupation."
Dio Cassius, Roman History, book 37, Chapter 17, in Loeb Classical Library, Dio's Roman History, Volume 3, pp.127, 129.
Does this testimony sound like these Jews that Dio Cassius said kept the day of Saturn were steeped in idolatry to anyone here? Was he describing saturn worship? Was not Saturn a "usual god"?
Facts are facts. The testimony of how many witnesses have cried out here together to state the same fact, namely this: The Jews kept Sabbath on the day of Saturn in the 1st century BCE, the 1st century CE, the 2nd century CE, and on and on!
This was the same Sabbath that Messiah kept. The same Sabbath the diaspora kept. The same Sabbath observed today.