# Heidelberg Catechism and the Sabbath



## JM (Dec 30, 2009)

When the original German was translated into Dutch were statements about the sabbath added? Is it true there is no mention of a sabbath in the German or Latin editions?


Thanks.


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## dannyhyde (Dec 30, 2009)

I've never heard this. What's the source?


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## JM (Dec 30, 2009)

Rev. Hyde, it was brought up on different forum but I did a google and found the follow:



> Part of the mandate of the Committee for the Revision of the Heidelberg Catechism was that it had to take as basis the German and the Latin texts of 1563 and the Dutch text of 1611. The German text on this point reads: sonderlich am Feiertag. One dictionary defines Feiertag as \\"holiday, festive day.\\" And it says that the German verb feiern means \\"to celebrate, to honour, to praise\\" and \\"to rest from work.\\" Another dictionary says that Feiertag means \\"feast day, day of rest.\\"
> 
> * Apparently going back to the German text, the Committee chose and proposed \\"feast day.\*\" However, the Synod of Cloverdale did not accept this and changed the wording of the revision so that it reads: \\"especially on the day of rest.\\" Thus we have back the old formulation, although without the word \\"Sabbath.\\"
> The Sabbath Feast Day or/and Day of Rest ?



Not much to go on but I'll continue to look.


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## dannyhyde (Dec 31, 2009)

Feiertag was the word used for holidays/holy days in medieval German lands, yet it was also used synonymously for the Sabbath. As evidence one need only read how Luther's _Large Catechism_ explains the third (fourth for us) commandment:

Our word "holy day" or "holiday" [Feiertag] is so called from the Hebrew word "Sabbath," which properly means to rest, that is, to cease from work; hence our common expression for "stopping work" [Feierabend machen] literally means "taking a holiday" [heiligen Abend geben]. (_The Book of Concord_, ed. Kolb and Wengert, 396)​
It seems to me that the German (feiertag) and Latin (festis diebus) texts are properly rendered by the Dutch, "op den Sabbath, dat is op den rust-dagh."


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## R. Scott Clark (Dec 31, 2009)

Danny is exactly right. 

The last section of Q. 103, in the Latin text I have before me reads:

"atque ita sempiternum illud Sabbatham in hac vita exordiar." (and thus that I might begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.")

See also the Synod of Dort on the Sabbath

There's more on the Sabbath here.


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