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YAHWEH has preserved the national "sign" in every generation of His church on earth.

Exo 31:17

"It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

"There is no private inerpretation" but is clear to all and in the mainstream, and well known in every generation.
A Commandment so Great as to be cataloged in the "BIG 10" would never be a mystery of which day it is, not to any one of His people. However it will be widely and chiefly held and known as central to their faith, by the whole nation, whether in rebellion or in obedience. A commandment that even carries the death penalty would not be unknown to any, at any point of the history of His true people. Not to even a single member of his people.

Honoring of the Sabbath in the Historic Orthodox Church
The Eastern (and Western) Orthodox Church Kept Sabbath on Saturday (the 7th day of the week)


Eastern Orthodox Regard Saturday as the Sabbath
In previous articles I have highlighted Sabbath keeping in the Western Churches. However this article will demonstrate how the Seventh Day, Saturday, was the norm at Constantinople (the center of virtually all Eastern Orthodox) up until the Laodecian council. Since then it has remained a holy festival day above the other days of the week.
Liturgical services on the Saturday Sabbath are testified to by many sources which describe Eastern liturgy. Few others but the Eastern Orthodox have preserved official Saturday Sabbath blessings. Specifically the Syrian and Byzantine Rites have preserved honour of the Sabbath.

The Great Schism between Eastern and Western Churches
Several scholars believe that Rome's forcing populations to make the Sabbath a day of fasting (rather than Biblical feasting) contributed greatly to the historic break between the Eastern and Western Christian Church which occurred in 1054 A.D.. To this day, the tradition to honour the Sabbath apart from the other days of the week, remains within the Orthodox church.
Still Regarded A Festal Day
Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the seventh day, which was the ancient Jewish sabbath... In the Eastern church it was ever observed as a festival... From hence it is plain, that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the sabbath as a festival. And the Greek writers are unanimous in their testimony. The author of the Constitutions, who describes the customs chiefly of the Oriental church, frequently speaks of it...Athanasius likewise tells us, that they held religious assemblies on the sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus the Lord of the sabbath. Epiphanius says the same, That it was a day of public assembly in many churches, meaning the Oriental churches, where it was kept a festival (Bingham J. Origines Ecclesiasticæ: The Antiquities of the Christian Church. With Two Sermons and Two Letters on the Nature and Necessity of Absolution. H. G. Bohn, 1856. Original from Harvard University Digitized Oct 19, 2006, pp. 1137-1138).
"In the tradition of our Church, Saturday like Sunday is considered a festal day. Even during the Great Lent the rules of fasting are relaxed on Saturdays and Sundays” (Calivas A. The Great and Holy Saturday. Copyright: 2002-2003 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America).
Early Church Fathers
Many hints of the popularity of Sabbath keeping is found in the writings of early church fathers.
3rd-4th Century Saint and Bishop Methodius of Olympus declared "For since in six days God made the heaven and the earth, and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, so by a figure in the seventh month..., the great resurrection-day, it is commanded that the Feast of our Tabernacles shall be celebrated to the Lord........" (Methodius. Banquet of the Ten Virgins (Discourse 9, Chapter 1). Translated by William R. Clark.From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.,1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/062309.htm>).
Polycarp, the second century Bishop of Smyrna taught the feast days and the Sabbath.
In the “Vita Polycarpi”(3rd Century), the Christian community of Vita Polycarpi is demonstrated to have been keeping the Saturday Sabbath in the same manner the Jews do. They gathered for Biblical instruction and to celebrate Sabbath as a feast day with their bretheren.
Eusebius spoke of “Ebionites” who “used to observe the Sabbath and the rest of the Jewish ceremonial, but on Sunday celebrated rites like ours in commemoration of the Saviour’s resurrection.”
Socrates Scholasticus (fifth century) claimed: “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [the Lord’s Supper] on the Sabbath [Saturday] of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.
Sozomen (fifth century) similarly acknowledged, “Assemblies are not held in all churches on the same time or manner. The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.
In 3rd Century Rome Sabbath observance still occurred (though not as strongly as in the Eastern and Celtic churches) as the following from the Catholic theologian Hippolytus attests, as well as Sunday:
20:7 Those who are to receive baptism shall fast on the Preparation of the Sabbath b. On the Sabbath c, those who are to receive baptism shall all gather together in one place...
b Friday
c Saturday
22:1 On the first day of the week the bishop, if possible, shall deliver the oblation to all the people with his own hand, while the deacons break the bread.
(Hippolytus. The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome. From the work of Bernard Botte (La Tradition Apostolique. Sources Chretiennes, 11 bis. Paris, Editions du Cerf, 1984) and of Gregory Dix (The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr. London: Alban Press, 1992) as translated by Kevin P. Edgecomb http://www.bombaxo.com/hippolytus.html viewed 08/06/09)
In the fourth century, Sabbath-keeping was still going on in Jerusalem:
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, or as some believe, his successor John II…the saint…adds “…Keep away from all sabbathical observances, and do not call some foods clean and unclean because they are all indifferent”[note: Preferring to call all meat indifferent, was the common teaching in abstaining from “all meats”, not just pork. Nevertheless it shows the teaching of rejecting pork was popular enough to speak on. See our article on dietary laws in the ancient church.] (Bagatti, Bellarmino. Translated by Eugene Hoade. The Church from the Circumcision. Nihil obstat: Marcus Adinolfi, 13 Maii 1970. Imprimi potest: Herminius Roncari, 14 Junii 1970. Imprimatur: +Albertus Gori, die 26 Junii 1970. Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, 1971, p. 89).
John Chrystosom in his “Eight Homilies Against the Jews” wrote that there are “many in our ranks” who think alike about the Hebrew feasts and sabbaths, and they observe and keep them together with the Jews.
In EGYPT (OXYRHYNCHUS PAPYRUS – 200-250 A.D.)
"Except ye make the Sabbath a real Sabbath [sabbatize the Sabbath, Greek], ye shall not see the father." The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt. L, p. 3, Logion 2, verse 4-11 (London: Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898)...
In SPAIN – Council Elvira (A.D. 305)
Canon 26 of the Council of Elvira reveals that the Church of Spain at that time kept Saturday, the seventh day. "As to fasting every Sabbath: Resolved, that the error be corrected of fasting every Sabbath." This resolution of the council is in direct opposition to the policy the church at Rome had inaugurated, that of commanding Sabbath as a fast day in order to humiliate it and make it repugnant to the people...
In PERSIA – A.D. 335-375:
"They despise our sun god. Did not Zoroaster, the sainted founder of our divine beliefs, institute Sunday one thousand years ago in honour of the sun and supplant the Sabbath of the Old Testament. Yet these Christians have divine services on Saturday." O’Leary, The Syriac Church and Fathers, pp. 83, 84. (Coltheart JF. The Sabbath of God Through the Centuries. Leaves-of-Autumn Books, Inc. Payson, Arizona, 1954. http://www.giveshare.org/churchhistory/sabbaththrucenturies.html 6/24/06).
Sabbath-keeping in Asia Minor was publicly still going on to at least 364 A.D. or else the Eastern Church would not have convened a Council in Laodicea to excommunicate any who rested on the seventh day. Notice what the Council of Laodicea declared in English and Latin,
CANON XXIX. CHRISTIANS must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ (THE COMPLETE CANONS OF THE SYNOD OF LAODICEA IN PHRYGIA PACATIANA).
Quod non oportet Christianos Judaizere et otiare in Sabbato, sed operari in eodem die. Preferentes autem in veneratione Dominicum diem si vacare voluerint, ut Christiani hoc faciat ; quod si reperti fuerint Judaizare Anathema sin a Christo (Cited in Andrews, p. 362).
But although that Council tried to abolish the Sabbath, sabbath-keeping continued among the faithful. Around 404 A.D. Jerome wrote,
“...the believing Jews do well in observing the precepts of the law, i.e....keeping the Jewish Sabbath…there exists a sect among… the synagogues of the East, which is called the sect of the Minei, and is even now condemned by the Pharisees. The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of , the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe” (Jerome. Translated by J.G. Cunningham, M.A. From Jerome to Augustine (A.D. 404); LETTER 75 (AUGUSTINE) OR 112 (JEROME). Excerpted from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series One, Volume 1. Edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. American Edition, 1887. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

There were Semi-Arians in Armenia who also kept the seventh-day Sabbath in the late fourth century:
Eustathius was succeeded by Erius, a semi-Arian...he urged a purer morality and a stricter observance of the Sabbath (Davis, Tamar. A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches. 1851; Reprinted 1995 by Commonwealth Publishing, Salt Lake City, p. 20).
One text known as the “Apostolic Constitutions” (written in circa 250AD) spelled out that the Sabbath (7th day) and Sunday (1st day) both were festal days where we must neither fast, nor work, but is a day of celebration at with local assembly.
The Apostolic Constituitions (circa 250AD), record:
XXIII...But keep the Sabbath, and the Lord's day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection (Apostolic Constitutions - Didascalia Apostolorum Book VII, Section II. As cited in Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, p. 329 and Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Bk. 7, Sec. 2, Ch. 23, trans. in ANF, Vol. 7, 1885. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody (MA), printing 1999, p. 469)...
XXXIII...Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath-day and the Lord's day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety. We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord's day of the resurrection (Apostolic Constitutions - Didascalia Apostolorum Book VIII, Section IV).
XXXVI. O Lord Almighty Thou hast created the world by Christ, and hast appointed the Sabbath in memory thereof, because that on that day Thou hast made us rest from our works, for the meditation upon Thy laws...Thou didst give them the law or decalogue, which was pronounced by Thy voice and written with Thy hand. Thou didst enjoin the observation of the Sabbath, not affording them an occasion of idleness, but an opportunity of piety, for their knowledge of Thy power, and the prohibition of evils; having limited them as within an holy circuit for the sake of doctrine, for the rejoicing upon the seventh period...On this account He permitted men every Sabbath to rest, that so no one might be willing to send one word out of his mouth in anger on the day of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is the ceasing of the creation, the completion of the world, the inquiry after laws, and the grateful praise to God for the blessings He has bestowed upon men (Apostolic Constitutions - Didascalia Apostolorum Book VII, Section II)
There is a seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions which contains seventeen Sabbath blessings in six prayers that are identical to the Jewish “Amidah of the Sabbath”. This is pre-rabbinic liturgy put together by Ezra the Scribe.

The Celtic Church was Hebrew and Orthodox
The Celtic Church which occupied Ireland, Scotland, and Britain, had the Syriac (Byzantine) scriptures instead of the Latin vulgate of Rome. The Celtic Church, with the Waldenses and the Eastern empire, kept the seventh-day Sabbath.

The hundreds of pre-schism Orthodox Saints of Great Britain bear the strongest testimony of these facts. Today the Eastern churches still venerate most of these. For Britain alone we have cataloged 130 official Saints of England who pre-dated Augustine. An example of the most popular pre-schism Orthodox Saints of England can be found online on such sites as http://www.oodegr.co/english/istorika/britain/British_Saints.htm. Our list of the 130 English Saints before Augustine can be found at http://glastonburyculdee.org/130%20british%20Saints%20before%20augustine.pdf

Hebrew Celtic Law

Not only was the Celtic church using a Syriac Byzantine Bible, but they were more successful in guarding the whole law of YAHWEH.

One example of the Hebrew Celtic Law is the Ex Lieber Moisi.
The Liber ex Lege Moisi, was distributed by Saint Patrick and his successors at every Celtic church, whether in England, Scotland or Ireland.

Summary of contents:
1. The seventh day Sabbath.
2. Slavery and the relationship of master to servants
3. Various capital offences.
4. Compensation in money of “kind” for different crimes.
5. Animals’ offences against person and property.
6. Animals used as food, clean and unclean, and slaughtering.
7. Sex and marriage.
8. Feminine hygiene.
9. Tithes, first-fruits, vows, and offerings of all kinds.
10. Justice, bribery, witnesses, traduction, and usury.
11. Cities of refuge, asylum, and hospitality.
12. Wizards and necromancy and human sacrifices.
13. Inheritance, and the Sabbatical and Jubilees years, debts.
14. Sights of a true prophet.
15. Cursing and blessing.

This formed the basis of beliefs by the Celtic Christians.

The regulations of Adamnan, accepted that people could eat the unclean swine, but not if it was too fat. The pigs must be lean.
The dietary habits of Columba were clearly described as abstaining from meat and ale. (see “Old-Irish Life of Columba”, or “Amhra Chulimb Chille”.)

EARLY ROMAN CHURCH FATHERS
Often the records of their dealings with the early celtic Culdee church are quite telling.

Irenaeus, A.D. 178, says that the church in his time was spread throughout the World; and especially mentions the churches in Germany, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. He adds: "There is no difference of faith or tradition in any of these countries."...

The credit of introducing Christianity into this region has been claimed not only for Paul, but also for Peter, Philip, John, Simon Zelotes, and Joseph of Arimathea...

Venantius Fortunatus, A.D. 560, says: "St. Paul passed over the ocean to the Island of Britain, and to Thule, the extremity of the earth." (Ireland)

...In the biography of Augustine who came from Rome A.D. 596, to convert the heathen Saxons, we are told that he found the people of Britain in the most grievous and intolerable heresies, "being given to Judaizing, but ignorant of the holy sacraments and festivals of the church." That is to say, they kept the Bible Sabbath and were ignorant of the Roman "Sunday-festival." (Mrs. Tamar Davis : "History of Sabbatarian Churches," p. 108. Phila 1851.) ...

John Price, in "The Ancient British Church," (pp 90, 94. Note), says: "The original difference (about Easter) was that the Western church, followed herein by the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch and Alexandria, observed Good Friday either on the 14th of the month Nisan, if it fell on Friday, or, if not, on the next Friday; and Easter on the following Sunday. The Eastern church did not do that way." and then he adds, "There is, however, an unfair insinuation that the British Christians were Judaic in their observance of Easter day, in a letter of Pope elect, John (A.D. 634), to the Scoti; and in Aldhelm's Epistle to Geruntius." This "insinuation," far from being unfair, is rather the more a true statement of the Sabbath observance of the Celtic church, which even celebrated its Easter or resurrection festival on the day which the Scriptures point out as the one on which the Saviour rose from the grave, (which was "late on the Sabbath." Matt. 28:1-4) (Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America" Volume 1, 1910 pp 21-39).
“Adomnan’s use of sabbatum for Satur­day, the seventh day of the week, is clear indication from ‘Columba’s mouth’ that ‘Sabbath was not Sunday.’ Sunday, the first day of the week is ‘Lord’s day.’ Adomnan’s attitude to Sunday is important, because he wrote at a time when there was controversy over the question whether the ritual of the Biblical Sabbath was to be transferred to the Christians’ Lord’s-day.’ — A.O. and M.O. Anderson (editors) Adomnan’s Life of Columba, Thomas Nelson’s Medieval Texts, 1961, pages 25-26.

“The Old Testament required seventh-day Sabbath observance and, reason Adomnan’s editors, since the New Testament nowhere repealed the fourth commandment, the seventh-day was observed by all early Christians. The evidence they adduce suggests that no actual confusion between Sunday and ‘the Sabbath’ occurred until the early sixth century, and then in the writings of the rather obscure Caesarius of Arles. (Ibid., page 26.)...”

The Roman ‘movement’ to supersede the Celtic Sabbath with Sunday ‘culminated in the production of an (apocryphal) ‘Letter of Jesus’, or ‘Letter of Lord’s day’, alleged to have been found on the altar of Peter in Rome; and is said in the annals to have been brought to Ireland by a pilgrim (c. 886). Upon this basis laws were promulgated, imposing heavy penalties for those that violated on Sunday certain regulations derived from Jewish prohibitions for Sabbath. . . . There is in fact no historical evidence that Ninian, or Patrick, or Columba, or any of their con­temporaries in Ireland, kept Sunday as a Sabbath.’ (Ibid., page 28.) (Celtic Sabbath-Keeping Study No. 264, from Cherith Chronicle, April-June 1998, pp. 46-47. http://www.giveshare.org/BibleStudy/264.celtic-sabbath-keeping.html 6/24/06).

People in the British Isles, including Ireland, may be shocked to learn this, but the Sabbath was kept in them by many until an English woman married Malcom III king of the Scots, and later forced Sunday upon her husband's subjects.

Noted theologian James Moffat reported:

It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor, and Sunday, commemorative of the Lord's resurrection, as one of rejoicing, with exercises of public worship. In that case they obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week…

The queen insisted upon the single and strict observance of the Lord's Day. People and clergy alike submitted, but without entirely giving up their reverence for Saturday, which subsequently sank into a half-holy day preparatory for Sunday (Moffat , James Clement. The Church in Scotland: A History of Its Antecedents, it Conflicts, and Its Advocates, from the Earliest Recorded Times to the First Assembly of the Reformed Church. Published by Presbyterian Board of Education, 1882. Original from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Digitized Mar 13, 2008, p. 140).

The queen mentioned above was Margaret who died in 1093. Margaret (who was technically "the Queen consort of Malcolm III") was canonized a Roman Catholic saint in the year 1250 by Pope Innocent IV. Thus, once again political power was used to try to stop people from following the biblical practices of early Christianity.

Thomas Bampfield…contended that the seventh day had been kept in England in unbroken succession until the thirteenth century (Ball B. Seventh Day Men: Sabbatarians and Sabbatarianism in England and Wales, 1600-1800, 2nd edition. James Clark & Co., 2009, p. 21).

It should be noted that because of practices of a few of the Lollards in the British Isles, some Sabbath-keeping would have apparently occurred from the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries (Ball, pp. 30-31 ), so it would havce been unbroken for even more centuries that Thomas Bampfield contended about

Notice a that in 1719 England, John Ozell, a non-Sabbath-keeper wrote the following about some of the Sabbath-keepers:

…People, who…go by the name Sabbatarian make Profession of expecting a Reign of a Thousand Years…These Sabbatarians are so call’d, because they will not remove the Day of Rest from Saturday to Sunday…They administer Baptism only to adult People…The major part of them will not eat Pork, nor blood…their outward conduct is pious and Christian-like (Ozell J. M. Mission Observations in His Travels over England. 1719. As cited in Ball, p. 9).

There even was Sabbath-keeping in China probably beginning no later than 635, as well as beyond:

"It was in the year 1625; the Jesuits had infiltrated the fabric of the Chinese cultured classes, when a sensational discovery was made. A large monument stone inscribed with nineteen hundred Chinese characters, and fifty Syrian words, was unearthed just outside the walls of Chang-An, the ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty. The news of this discovery caused a bustle of excitement in the ancient metropolitan city, and thousands were anxious to know what information about their cultural heritage was hidden in the writing.

The Jesuits, who were regarded as the teachers and scholars, were immediately summoned to decipher the inscriptions. To the astonishment of these haughty priests, there before their eyes, was a description of the prestigious position, and vast extent of the seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Christian Church of the East of a millennia before!

The ancient Chinese characters were inscribed in 781 AD, at the command of Emperor Tae-Tsung, to honor the arrival of an Assyrian missionary and his companions to the capitol in the year 635 AD from Ta Tsin, or Judea. The stone revealed beliefs and practices of the primitive Christian church, which were unrelated and out of harmony with the Roman Catholic beliefs. ...

1837...The Taipings also learned from the Bible that they should observe the Sabbath. It is amazing that although Monday is called Day One and Saturday is called Day Six by the Chinese, yet the Taipings were able to recognize Saturday as the correct Seventh Day Sabbath...The Taiping Christians were asked why they observed the seventh day Sabbath, replied that it was, first, because the Bible taught it, and second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship." - A Critical History of the Sabbath and Sunday...Due to their resolute stand for biblical truths the Taipings were confronted by opposition on every side. The Manchurian dynasty regarded them as rebels and fought against them. In abolishing idols, the Taipings naturally destroyed the images of Mary and the Saints as well as those of the Buddhists. The Jesuits became angry at them. They persuaded the French forces in China to support the ruling Manchus to crush them. (Wong P. THE SEVENTH DAY SABBATH MOVEMENT IN CHINA. Sabbath Sentinel. September-October 2000http://www.giveshare.org/churchhistory/sabbathchina.html 6/24/06).

The Albigneses in France were condemned by various councils. And one, the Council of Albi (sometimes spelled Alby) in 1254 apparently stated:

They savour of Judaism...they observe the Jewish sabbath, but say that the holy Dominical day is no better than any other day; let them be accursed (Quoted in Davis, Tamar. A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches. 1851; Reprinted 1995 by Commonwealth Publishing, Salt Lake City, p. 64).

Others in France were also later subject to the inquisitors. Notice the following account:

On the 14th of September, 1492, about thirty persons were committed to the inquisitional dungeons of Toulouse upon a charge of Judaism...Of there was Anthony Ferrar, who had been a pastor or teacher in the Sabbatarian church of that city. After remaining in prision ten days, he received a visit from an Italian monk named Gregory...

Greg.--But Anthony, you must be a liar and a deceiver, for I have been credibly informed that yourself, and all of your friends, were of the cursed race of Israel.

An.--It is false, we were honest Frenchmen, and Christians, followers of Jesus...

An.--We say that the ten commandments are still binding.

Greg.--Yes, and instead of observing the festivals of the Holy Church, and honouring the holy day of the Lord, on which he rose from the dead, you were accustomed to meet for worship upon the old Sabbath, or Saturday.

An.--We did, indeed, rest and attend divine worship upon the seventh day, even as God commanded (Quoted in Davis, Tamar. A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches. 1851; Reprinted 1995 by Commonwealth Publishing, Salt Lake City, pp. 87-88).

In German-speaking Europe, there were separate groups among those called Anabaptists that were Sabbath-keepers in the 16th and 17th centuries:

During the years 1526 to 1535, then, eight Anabaptist groups may be identified as existing in Moravia...Sabbatarians...

A recent investigation has shown that a few congregations made up of the followers of Marbeck, the Sabbatarians and of Cornelians also continued to exist after 1550...

Even as late as the early seventeenth century Austerlitz was known for its religious confusion. According to one report, there were twelve sects in the town, four of which seemed to have been Anabaptist: Sabbatarians, fratest flebiles (ejulantes), Cornelians and Anabaptists (Clasen CP. Anabaptist Sects in the Sixteenth Century: A Research Report. Mennonite Quarterly Review, VOl. XLVI, July 1972, pp. 256-279).

From Africa, Ethiopia claims a very long history of Sabbath-keeping.

Notice some of the statements by Ethiopian Emperor Galawdewos (A.D. 1540-1559):

We do celebrate the Sabbath, because God, after He had finished the Creation of the World, rested thereon...and that especially, since Christ came not to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. It is therefore not in the imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ, and His holy Apostles, that we observe that day (Quoted in Bradford C.E. Sabbath Roots, The African Connection. L. Brown and Sons, Barre (VT), 1999, p. 26).

Franciscans of Oxford

This order of Glastonbury Culdee Monks, being governed from Glastonbury and Oxford , were known for teaching Hebrew law throughout England and the world.
At the height of the global influence of the Franciscan Order from Glastonbury , the Sabbath was at the foundation of our teachings.
Roger Bacon the Franciscan Friar and Professor at Oxford was also renown as “Proctor of Glastonbury ”. His tomb at Glastonbury testifies to this fact.
The previous Bishops of Lincoln were all closely connected to Glastonbury . ie Hugh of Wells (part of Glastonbury ), Hugh of Avalon, etc. This all proves again Glastonbury being a main source of inspiration for Christenom Globally. (see our numerous Royal and Church Charters that affirm Glasonbury was independent and autonomous from all earthly powers, or any claimed heavenly institutions).
Gilbert of Bytham a successor of the great Oxford chancellor and teacher of the Hebrew law, “the Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grossetste”. and his was the height of the Oxford Franciscan Priesthood(teaching Scriptural Hebrew law). Bytham was “Chancellor of Oxford ” and “Proctor of Glastonbury ”. (see fn. 1 and 2)
The Chancellor of Oxford at that time (Robert Grosseteste) expounded and testified often to these facts, for example, as cited by Coxe on Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties, 284, and Cook’s Historical and General View of Christianity, ii, 301:
“The Great English Friar and Professor at Oxford(and Glastonbury Abbey), Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, went under great efforts asserting that Christians should work and hold fairs on Sunday, while Saturday was the proper day for rest.” (Emphasis added) We must take heed, as the Chancellor Grosseteste wrote in his letter “Mon. Franciscana” that our only TRUE foundation is the Mosaic law (the rest are frauds), as he wrote, “the foundation-stones of the building of which you are the architects — and no one can find others or set others in the foundation — are the books of the Prophets, amongst whom we must count Moses, the law-giver, and the books of the Apostles and Evange- lists. These foundation-stones you place and set in the foundation of your building, when by the gift of dis- cerning spirits you expound these books to your hearers according to the mind of the writers. Take heed there- fore with all diligence not to put among the foundation- stones, nor to use as foundation-stones what are not such, lest the strength of your building, made to rest upon what is no true foundation, is first shaken and then falls to ruin.” Deeply rooted in the 13th Century, Robert Grosseteste k Bishop of Lincoln Here is an excerpt from the larger article written by Bishop Robert Grosseteste (Chancellor of Oxford) in ' Cf. Brewer, Mon. Franciscana, i, pp. Ixxx, li.. With Bacon’s quotes: Grosseteste, the founder of this renowned body of teachers, cannot have failed to impress upon the mind of Roger Bacon his own veneration and love of Holy Scripture. Frequently, says Eccleston, the Bishop of Lincohi urged the friars to study and sedulously to occupy themselves in working at the Holy Bible.' Nor were his exhortations confined to the circle of his imme- diate pupils among the Franciscans. As Chancellor of the University he addressed his letters to the teachers in the theological schools of Oxford , urging them to make the Bible the foundation of all their lectures. " The skilful builder," he says, "sees carefully that all the stones put into a foundation are really proper for the purpose ; namely, that they are such as by their solidity are fit and useful to support the building to be raised upon them. You are the builders of the house of God, raising it upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, etc. ; and the foundation-stones of the building of which you are the architects — and no one can find others or set others in the foundation — are the books of the Prophets, amongst whom we must count Moses, the law-giver, and the books of the Apostles and Evange- lists. These foundation-stones you place and set in the foundation of your building, when by the gift of dis- cerning spirits you expound these books to your hearers according to the mind of the writers. Take heed there- fore with all diligence not to put among the foundation- stones, nor to use as foundation-stones what are not such, lest the strength of your building, made to rest upon what is no true foundation, is first shaken and then falls to ruin. The most proper time, moreover, for placing and setting the said stones in the foundation (for there is a fitting time for laying the foundation and one for raising the building) is the morning hour when you commonly read your lectures. It is proper, there- ' Cf. Brewer, Mon. Franciscana, i, p. 64. fore, that all your lectures be taken especially at that time, from the books of the Old or New Testament, lest otherwise what are not really foundation-stones be laid as if they were." *

St. Joseph and the Culdees

The absolute facts of the Culdee ministers is they all had strict genealogical inheritance as recorded in "the Welsh Genealogies of Saints". The Culdees have demonstrated the best documentation on Levitical ancestry known to man. (There is more on inheritance of autonomous Abbeys from father-to-son in our other articles.)

Another absolute fact of the Culdees is they never considered themselves to be under another foreign Bishop, whether in England or abroad. The Culdee Abbots especially fought for this at Glastonbury , where since Saint Patrick they demonstrated a policy of marriage for Priests and Abbots. That is until the abbey was destroyed and Henry VIII started his new religion for England .

Another other absolute fact about the Culdees is under much peril they fought for the Mosaic law. Under much effort they preserved the Sabbath in every generation, and we have them to thank for the future generations of Christendom. Many documented Culdee families are known for being Seventh Day Baptist and Congregationalists who promoted the freedom to keep the Sabbath, against all odds an threats by the government. Even against laws that banned the Sabbath, they made a way to preserve it under harsh circumstances.

As is most clear from the early Culdee priests, and later documents, they believed in the literal Hebrew Sabbath. The Culdees regarded Saturday, the seventh day of the week, to be the only Sabbath of Christendom.

Later on in this book we cover 130 other Saints from the first few Centuries in Great Britain known to be from the "Old Church" setup by Saint Joseph of Arimathea.

Saint Joseph of Arimathea

The first Culdee at Glastonbury , Saint Joseph of Arimathea, was a member of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem , and the holder of the Twelve Hides at Glastonbury . In the first century he mounted his Hebrew staff of authority in the ground, which blossomed into a tree. Today it is still regarded as the ultimate symbol of Hebrew law over England , through his Levitical (Zadokian lineage) that passed to their chief heir in the order of MelchiZadok, finally to Yahshua Ha Machiac (Jesus the Christ).

Saint Columba, the Culdee

Saint Columba, the Culdee, in following after his compatriots Patrick and Bride, made Glastonbury his headquarters for a period of time (according to Malmesbury). His effects on Glastonbury are evident with the two chapels in the vicinity, named after him (or his successor Columbanus). Being the Culdee, Irish and English Royal descended priest, and Apostle to Europe, surely his headquarters was at Glastonbury before moving to Iona.
At his death bed, his last words were solely to respect and honour the Sabbath of YAHWEH on Saturday. In his dying moments he reiterated that Saturday, the seventh day of the week was the Sabbath. This has been recorded by numerous sources.

Historical Account On Culdee "Primitive" Christians

In “Dialogue on the Lord's Day”, p.189. Published in London: 1701. By Dr. T.H. Morer (Church of England):
"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to that purpose."

In Blair's translation of the Catholic historian, Bellesheim, we read:
"We seem to see here an allusion to the custom, observed in the early monastic Church of Ireland, of keeping the day of rest on Saturday, or the Sabbath"–"History of the Catholic Church in Scotland," Vol. I, p. 86. Professor James C. Moffatt, D. D. , Professor of Church History at Princeton, says: "It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland , to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week."–"The Church in Scotland ," p. 140. Philadelphia :1882.

In "History of Scotland," Vol. I, p. 96. Prof. Andrew Lang says:
"The Scottish Church, then, when Malcolm wedded the sainted English Margaret, was Celtic, and presented peculiarities odious to the English lady, strongly attached to the establishment as she knew it at home .... The Celtic priests must have disliked the interference of an Englishwoman. "First there was a difference in keeping Lent. The Kelts did not begin it on Ash Wednesday .... They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner"

In "Celtic Scotland ," Vol. II, p. 349. Edinburgh : David Douglas, printer, 1877. William F. Skene says:
"Her next point was that they did not duly reverence the Lord's day, but in this latter instance they seem to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early Monastic Church of Ireland, by which they held Saturday to be the 'Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours."–"Celtic Scotland ," Vol. II, p. 349. Edinburgh : David Douglas, printer, 1877. "They held that Saturday was properly the Sabbath on which they abstained from work."– Id. , p. 350.

Michael Herren in his book "Christ in Celtic Christianity", page 37, wrote:
"...the Culdees not only kept the Sabbath on Saturday but they kept it in accordance with the Mosaic law."

In "The Celtic Memory - Gaeldom Revisited" , Wayne Lawrence wrote:
The Celtic Sabbath ('day of repose') was celebrated on a Saturday, the last day of the week and Hebrew holy day.

The Liber ex Lege Moisi (condensed version of the law of Moses), was distributed by Saint Patrick and his successors at every Celtic church, whether in Eng

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

The lights are on; but is anyone home? :-)

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

This was very very very very long. May I ask, what was your point or what part of this did you want to discuss?

fiatlux

I regard Christ as the Sabbath,within him, by grace and the HS, we rest 24/7.

WhatIt'sWorth Loc: Methane Sea, Jupiter

Looks like I will have to get a kindle to read eagleeye's stuff --

and go sit on a pillar for eight years doin nuthin but reading it all

oh -

the PRACTICAL thing that I have seen --

the MOST practical about all this old testymint stuff about SABBATH --

is that a 7th day Adventist church up the road -- for several months SHARED THE BUILDING with some Presbyterians -- this saved enuff funds for both assemblies that the prsbys got their own building -- and the Adventists built a Parochial school on the premises

Makes sense - don't it -- a 'time-share' cuz one does sat and one does sun?

good job - presbys and adventists!

fiatlux

I admire your study, strength of belief, and faith, yet I see differently. But I feel God is big enough for both of us.

WhatIt'sWorth Loc: Methane Sea, Jupiter

Waco Texas needs the

return

OF

the "church under the bridge"

we need an all-out - ecumenical effort

it was a great deal

all "regular" churches - prots - cath - and the 1 gr Ortho
in town

supplied food and servers for the homeless who could come and get fed

the bridge is still there

the people still need Christ -- they need the gospel preached to them --they need to be fed physically also

this was the true religion out of the book of James

Waco, Texas needs to be HEALED by the return of

THE CHURCH UNDER THE BRIDGE

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

All one can do is seek the truth.

fiatlux

Great collection of history and facts: love it. In my read of scripture, the day of rest is 24/7 everyday of the week, thanks to the indwelling spirit of God. "The work is to enter the rest." The Sabbath is Christ, in whom we are to be hidden. Following the Ten Commandments is not living in Christ...and I can prove it.

eagleye13 Loc: Fl

This is the first time I went through this thread.
I posted it just before I went on vacation.
The apostles were to seek the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Joseph of Arimathea and Paul were two of them.
John 10:14
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
The point is Western Europe was settled by the House of Joseph (the 10 tribes of the Northern kingdom) after the Assyrian captivity. They were the lost sheep of Israel; and understood and believed the news brought to them by the apostles.
This is something that most fundamental Christian churches ignore.
Hosea 1:10: "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, [i.e., physical Israelites], 'Ye are not My people', [i.e., they are told by scoffers and disbelievers that they are not physical Israelites], there it shall be said unto them, 'Ye are the sons of the living El (God)'.; [i.e., by the same scoffers and disbelievers who say and tell them they are not physical Israelites, however, these very same ones, scoffer and disbelievers, they tell them instead, these physical Israelites, that "[but]sic 'Ye are the sons of the living El (God), i.e., these very same scoffers and disbelievers who deny the truth that they are physical Israelites, tell them instead that they are Christians.]".

fiatlux

yes, as a little child.