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Jubilees bans fighting on the Sabbath and groups it with travel and labor, requiring death for those who disobey. This debate appears in 1 Maccabees, where some refuse to fight yet others decide to defend themselves on the Sabbath.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jubilees 50:12
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
11 This work alone shall be done on the Sabbath-days in the sanctuary of the Lord your God; that they may atone for Israel with sacrifice continually from day to day for a memorial well-pleasing before the Lord, and that He may receive them always from day to day just as you have been commanded. 12 And every man who does any work on it, or goes a journey, or tills (his) farm, whether in his house or any other place, and whoever lights a fire, or rides on any beast, or travels by ship on the sea, and whoever strikes or kills anything, or slaughters a beast or a bird, or whoever catches an animal or a bird or a fish, or whoever fasts or makes war on the Sabbaths: 13 The man who does any of these things on the Sabbath shall die, so that the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbaths according to the commandments regarding the Sabbaths of the land, as it is written in the tablets, which He gave into my hands that I should write out for you the commandments of the seasons, and the seasons according to the division of their days. With this the account of the division of the days is completed.
Date: 170–125 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Maccabees 2:39
Deuterocanon
36 They didn’t answer them. They didn’t cast a stone at them, or block their secret places, 37 saying, “Let’s all die in our innocence. Heaven and earth testify for us, that you put us to death unjustly.” 38 So they attacked them on the Sabbath, and they died—they, their wives, their children, and their livestock—in number a thousand souls of men. 39 When Mattathias and his friends found out about it, they mourned over them exceedingly. 40 One said to another, “If we all do as our kindred have done, and don’t fight against the Gentiles for our lives and our ordinances, they will quickly destroy us from off the earth.” 41 So they decided that day, saying, “Whoever comes against us to battle on the Sabbath day, let’s fight against him, and we will in no way all die, as our kindred died in the secret places.”
Date: 134–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Especially important is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a key topic of debate in late Second Temple Judaism. Jubilees portrays the patriarchs as having obeyed the Torah, despite the anachronism. In his testamentary speech (chaps. 20-23). 'Abraham warns his sons to practice circumcision, renounce fornication and uncleanness, refrain from marriage with Canaanite women, avoid idolatry, eat no blood, and perform washings before and after sacrifice' (Collins 1998, 80). Nudity is an issue in Jubilees (3:31), something that would be of concern during the Hellenistic Reform. In 50:12, making war is forbidden on the Sabbath. This also was an issue during the Maccabean revolt (1 Macc. 2:3941). Jubilees dates to the Hasmonean period ..."
Frederick James Murphy, Apocalypticism in the Bible and Its World: A Comprehensive Introduction (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 166.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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I'd love to have an Ethiopian Bible
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