The Sabbath and the Alien

Abstract

Many scholars in modern Judaism have discerned universal dimensions to the Sabbath.' However, few writers in earlier Judaism ever saw them.2 It is almost superfluous to add that non-Sabbatarian Christians have rarely seen these dimensions either. This failure to see universal dimensions may seem surprising, for three passages in the Pentateuch affirm that the 11, "resident alien," is to rest on the weekly Sabbath, along with the Israelite (Exod 20: 10; 23: 12; Deut 5: 14). However, rabbinic Judaism has traditionally identified the py in these passages as the ger saddzq, the circumcised "righteous alien," rather than the ger toshab, the uncircumcised "sojourning alien." The ger saddiq was a newcomer to Jewish territory, but not to the Jewish religion.)