The Epistle of Barnabas

Furthermore it was written concerning the[*](The Sabbath) Sabbath in the ten words which he spake on Mount Sinai face to face to Moses. Sanctify also the Sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and a pure heart.

And in another place he says, If my

He speaks of the Sabbath at the beginning of the Creation, And God made in six days the works of his hands and on the seventh day he made an end, and rested in it and sanctified it.

Notice, children, what is the meaning of He made an end in six days ? He means this: that the Lord will make an end of everything in six thousand years, for a day with him means a thousand years. And he himself is my witness when he says, Lo, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. So then, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything will be completed.

And he rested on the seventh day. This means, when his Son comes he will destroy the time of the wicked one, and will judge the godless, and will change the sun and the moon and the stars, and then he will truly rest on the seventh day.

Furthermore he says, Thou shalt sanctify it with clean hands and a pure heart. If, then, anyone has at present the power to keep holy the day which God made holy, by being pure in heart, we are altogether deceived.

See that we shall indeed keep it holy at that time, when we enjoy true rest, when we shall be able to do so because we have been made righteous ourselves and have received the promise, when there is no more sin, but all things have been made new by the Lord: then we shall be able to keep it holy because we ourselves have first been made holy.

Furthermore he says to them, Your new moons and the sabbaths I cannot away with. Do you see what he means? The present sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but that which I have made, in which I will give rest to all things and make the beginning of an

Wherefore we also celebrate with gladness the eighth day in which Jesus also rose from the dead, and was made manifest, and ascended into Heaven.