OF OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS ON THE SABBATHS AND CIRCUMCISION, FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS
A 1. "And the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbaths, to "do them throughout their generations. An everlasting covenant between me and the sons of Israel, it is a sign in me forever, because in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested." It is a sign for knowing the day of creation and its end. It was fitting that, so long as the things of creation were being worked out, up to that time in Jerusalem, the Sabbaths should be kept. But when the other generation came, and the people who were being created, according to what is said: "Let this be written for another generation, and the people thus created shall praise the Lord," there was no longer a necessity for this people to keep the end of the former creation, but to seek the beginning of the second creation. And what is this, if not that day on which the Lord rose? For from that time the new creation had its beginning, concerning which Paul said: "So if any man be in Christ, a new creation" (II Cor. v, 17). God, therefore, having made the former creation, rested; for this reason, the men of that generation observed the Sabbath on the seventh day. But the second creation has no end; for this reason, it did not rest, but is working even until now. Whence we do not celebrate the day of the Sabbath as in the first instance, but we hope for the future Sabbaths of Sabbaths, in which the new creation does not receive an end, but is made manifest and keeps festival throughout. For this reason the Sabbath was given to the former people, that they might know both the end and the beginning of creation. But to the new creation he did not command the keeping of the Sabbath, so that it might know the beginning in the Lord's Day, and might know that the grace of this is without end.
2. And for this reason he also made known the beginning, that is, the Lord's day, so that you might know the end of the one that has passed away. The Apostle, therefore, writing concerning the former, says: "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son;" and again: "At the consummation of the ages" (Gal. iv, 4; Matth. xiii, 40). Therefore, the first is filled up and brought to its end, not by any other means than as the B C
prophets said: "In the last days I will pour out of my Spirit" (Joel ii, 28). But when the first days have their end, others come to pass, as Jeremiah says: A "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord" (Jer. ix, 25). The first having reached its end, the beginning of the other follows accordingly; for this reason, the Lord rose after the Sabbath. For God did not give the Sabbath to men primarily for the sake of rest, He who says: "The ways of the slothful are hedged with thorns" (Prov. xv, 19); and who commands in the book of Numbers: B "And on the Sabbath day ye shall offer two lambs of the first year without blemish, and two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering and a drink offering, and the burnt offering of the Sabbath in the Sabbaths, in the continual burnt offering" (Num. xxviii, 9, 10). And again, a little earlier, he says: "And ye shall put upon the sacrifice pure frankincense and salt, and they shall be for bread in remembrance, set before the Lord. On the Sabbath day it shall be set C before the Lord continually by the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant" (Lev. xxiv, 7, 8). For if his care were for idleness, he would not have commanded the Levites to set forth, to offer, and to slaughter. For if rest sanctifies, then certainly work defiles; but the Levites were not defiled by working: therefore, rest does not purify. Otherwise, why are the Levites alone deprived of sanctification when they offer, slaughter, and set forth on the Sabbath? So far are they from sinning that they even render God propitious to those who make the offerings.
3. The Sabbath, therefore, does not signify rest, but both the knowledge of the Creator and the cessation from the figure of this creation; as God also bears witness in Ezekiel, saying: D "And I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them" (Ezech. xx, 12). The Sabbath was given, therefore, for the sake of knowledge and not for rest, so that knowledge is more necessary than rest. On this account, the Lord said to those who blamed the disciples for plucking the ears of corn: "If ye had known what this is, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (Matth. xii, 7). For he blamed them for being idle on the Sabbath, because they did not have what is proper to the Sabbath, which is the knowledge of the truth. For this reason, those who had received the law of the Sabbath were commanded to sound the trumpet around Jericho for seven days, in which the seventh day falls. If, therefore, the Sabbath was given for the sake of rest
why are they A commanded to work while blowing the trumpets? But He knew that in blowing the trumpets they were keeping the Sabbath—not by resting, but by acknowledging the Lord who helps them. Just so, in the case of the child being circumcised on the eighth day: there is a necessity to perform the circumcision even on the Sabbath, and yet he who does this keeps the Sabbath, even though he works, because he also acknowledges God. Indeed, the Law, or rather the Lord of the Law, is accustomed to call even those days which are not Sabbaths "Sabbaths," for the sake of the remission of sins and the grace of the knowledge of God. As in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'And on the tenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a holy day of expiation for you, and you shall humble your souls and bring whole burnt offerings to the Lord. You shall do no work on this very day.'" B And after a few words: "'And every soul which shall do work on this very day, that soul shall be destroyed from its people. You shall do no work; it is an eternal ordinance for your generations. It shall be to you a Sabbath of Sabbaths, and you shall humble your souls from the ninth of the month, from evening until evening, and you shall keep your Sabbaths.'"
4. Therefore the Sabbath is not the seventh day, but the remission of sins, when someone has ceased to commit them. C Nor is the Sabbath idleness, but confession and the humiliation of the soul. For the Law did not say "on the Sabbath" definitely, but simply "on the tenth day," which happens to occur often otherwise than on a Sabbath. And yet, because of the expiation, it calls that day which occurs not simply a Sabbath, but a Sabbath of Sabbaths. But if it calls this a Sabbath, and yet commands to work on the Sabbath, then the law of the Sabbath is not primarily for idleness, but for knowledge and expiation, and for cessation from all malice. Therefore, He did not give the Sabbath for the sake of idleness, but that they might know the cessation from creation. For God commanded, saying, "That you may know that on this day the Lord your God rested from the works which He began to do." D Moreover, He wanted them, knowing the end of this, to seek the beginning of another. For the Sabbath was the end of the first creation, but the Lord’s Day was the beginning of the second, in which He renewed and restored the old. Just as, therefore, He commanded that the day of the Sabbath be kept beforehand, as a memorial of the end of the former things, thus we honor the Lord's Day as a memory of the beginning of the second restoration. For He did not create another, but renewed the old, and that which He had begun to make.
A For this reason, the things that were made were finished on the sixth day, and on the seventh He rested from all things; but in the Gospel, the Word, having come, says: "I have come to complete the work." For he who rests from all things signifies that certain things stand in need of a completion, which He, having come, completed. For He says in the Gospel according to John: "The works which the Father gave Me, that I might complete them; the very works which I do, bear witness of Me."
5. For the work would have been imperfect if man had died while Adam sinned: but it became perfect when he was vivified. Therefore, having renewed the creation made in six days, He assigns a day for the renovation, which the Spirit foreshadows in the Psalm, saying: "This is the day which the Lord has made." For God rises like the sun, illuminating the soul of each one; for this reason, even during the saving passion, the sun did not appear, signifying both the end of the previous creation and the beginning of another, which arose from the Savior: which, when the prophet saw, he said: "Behold a man, Oriens [the Rising One] is His name." And again: "But unto you who fear Him, the Sun of righteousness shall arise." For this day is not for all, but for those who are dead to sin and live to the Lord. B For this reason also the law commanded to be circumcised on the eighth day; and the commandment was never to be violated, by which it was signified that after the seventh day there would be a regeneration of all. For circumcision indicated nothing else than our putting off our birth; for we put off him who died on the sixth day, and we are renewed on the Lord's Day, on which that ancient departure was regenerated through the resurrection. For this is what Paul also says in the Epistle to the Colossians: "In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, into hell, in whom you also rose again." For circumcision was a figure of the putting off through baptism, which He commanded to be done in those members by which the body is generated, so that those who were circumcised might perceive that this is a sign of putting off the old man. C For Abraham, having believed, received circumcision, which was a sign of regeneration through baptism. Wherefore, the signified thing having come, the sign ceased; for the circumcision was indeed a sign, but the D laver of regeneration is the thing signified. Having put off
A entirely the old man, that partial signification is superfluous. And just as the Lord's Day is the beginning of creation and puts an end to the Sabbath, so the same day, by regenerating man, put an end to circumcision. For both were brought to perfection on the eighth day: both the beginning of creation and the regeneration of man. Therefore, the eighth day dissolved the Sabbath, and not the Sabbath the eighth day. For on the Sabbath man was circumcised, nor did circumcision rest on the Sabbath; for the eighth day, being the beginning of the re-creation, put an end to the former.
6. A I believe that it was for this reason that circumcision was given. For when Adam heard, "You are earth and into earth you shall go," he died, and his body was corrupted; wherefore they were commanded to put off a certain part of the body, and this the cause of the body's generation, being taught beforehand to put off the whole, so that, as if handing over what was condemned, they might be able to attain salvation. And just as the sacrifices were shadows of things to come, so the circumcision of a part was a shadow of the circumcision of the whole. B And the Word clearly signifies this also in the case of Joshua the son of Nun: for when Joshua, at God's command, was circumcising the people at Gilgal beyond the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun: "Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you. And I called," he says, "the name of that place Galgala." For if circumcision is the removal of the generation in Egypt, then clearly the foreskin is a sign of Egyptian connection and generation. God took this away so that they might no longer be considered as having been born in Egypt, but as children of the promise into which the Lord led them. C Since these things are so, it appears that circumcision was given generally so that the reproach of earthly birth might be removed from the descendants of Abraham, and we might no longer be liable to the [sentence]: "You are earth and into earth you shall go." For the reproach of the transgression was taken away. This, however, was done at that time as a type of the baptism given through Christ. For then it was done in part, as in a shadow; but now, as the Apostle said, we put off the whole earthly generation, being regenerated through the laver, so that we may no longer die according to the first generation, but live according to the circumcision of the putting off of the body, which we put off through the laver. D And as the Lord said to Joshua: "I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from you on this day"; so it could be said much more to each of those who are now baptized: "On this day I have taken away from you the reproach of earthly generation, and the reproach of the corruption of death, on this very day."