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A PSALM OF A SONG, FOR THE DAY OF THE SABBATH. 1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy mercy in the morning, and thy truth in the night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; with a song upon the harp. The righteous and God-loving men before Moses neither knew nor observed the days of the Sabbaths. Therefore, neither Abraham himself, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor his sons, nor even those who were yet more ancient than these in time, are seen to have known the Sabbath day. Since, therefore, those of the circumcision think to observe the Sabbaths as if accomplishing some great thing, which they do not even observe according to the will of the law, the things that have been said must be set before them. And since the Sabbath signifies a rest, it is written indeed: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made, and he hallowed 23.1168 it; you will say that it is fitting to understand God's rest, and to receive the true Sabbath in a manner worthy of God. For he says that impious men shall not enter into his rest, saying in the psalms, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Therefore it is necessary to understand spiritually God's Sabbaths, and a rest befitting God, of which the impious are not worthy, but only the righteous and the friends of God. Thus indeed we might say that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the God-loving people before and after them, knew and kept the Sabbaths of God spiritually, and entered into his rest. What, then, the Sabbath signifies, it is necessary to consider. The word indicates a rest of God; and it introduces this after the creation of the sensible world. But what other could God's rest be than the occupation with intelligible and super-cosmic things? For when he considers sensible things and is occupied with the works of the world's providence, he is said to be working; and thus must we hear our Savior saying, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work; but when he is with the incorporeal and super-cosmic, and, as one might say, in his own eminence itself, then he is understood to be at rest, and to celebrate his Sabbath. Accordingly, therefore, the men of God also, whenever they are freed from the works that weary the soul (and such are all bodily things and things dear to the earthly flesh), and become wholly directed toward God and toward the leisure and contemplation of divine and intelligible things, then they celebrate the Sabbaths dear to God and the rest for the Lord God. And concerning such Sabbaths he teaches, saying: There remaineth therefore a sabbath-rest for the people of God? and again: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. For the perfect Sabbath, and the perfect and thrice-blessed rest, is in the kingdom of God, above the six-day creation and outside of all sensible things, among the incorporeal and super-cosmic, where pain and sorrow, and sighing have fled away; where, freed from mortal and corruptible life, and observing the God-loving and blessed inactivity, freed from both bodily actions and the slavery of the flesh, being with God himself and beside him, we shall both keep the sabbath and be at rest. Wherefore the Apostle says: Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. And the men of God on earth, bearing an image of that Sabbath and of that perfect and thrice-blessed rest, practiced leisure and inactivity from things that lead far away from God, and being wholly given to the contemplation of divine things, persevering day and night in the study of the sacred words, they then rested in holy Sabbaths and a rest dear to God and kept sabbath. Hence

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ΨΑΛΜΟΣ Ω∆ΗΣ, ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΗΜΕΡΑΝ ΤΟΥ ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟΥ. Αʹ. Ἀγαθὸν τὸ ἐξομολογεῖσθαι τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ ψάλλειν τῷ ὀνόματί σου, Ὕψιστε, τοῦ ἀναγγέλλειν τὸ πρωῒ τὸ ἔλεός σου καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειάν σου κατὰ νύκτα, ἐν δεκαχόρδῳ ψαλτηρίῳ μετ' ᾠδῆς ἐν κιθάρᾳ. Τὰς τῶν Σαββάτων ἡμέρας οἱ πρὸ Μωϋσέως δίκαιοι καὶ θεοφιλεῖς ἄνδρες οὔτ' ᾔδεσαν, οὔτ' ἐφύλαττον. Οὔτ' οὖν αὐτὸς Ἀβραὰμ, οὔτε Ἰσαὰκ, οὔτε Ἰακὼβ, οὔτε οἱ τούτου παῖδες, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ οἱ ἔτι τούτων τῷ χρόνῳ παλαιότεροι φαίνονται γινώσκοντες ἡμέραν Σαββάτου. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς, ὡς μέγα τι κατορθοῦντες, τὰ Σάββατα φυλάττειν ἡγοῦνται, ἃ οὐδὲ φυλάττουσι κατὰ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ νόμου, παραθετέον αὐτοῖς τὰ εἰρημένα. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ κατάπαυσιν σημαίνει τὸ Σάββατον, γέγραπται γοῦν· Καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ζʹ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ, ὧν ἐποίησε, καὶ ἡγίασεν 23.1168 αὐτήν· ἐρεῖς, ὅτι προσήκει νοῆσαι Θεοῦ κατάπαυσιν, καὶ τὸ ἀληθινὸν Σάββατον ἐκδέξασθαι ἐπαξίως τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τοὺς γὰρ ἀσεβεῖς ἀνθρώπους φησὶ μὴ εἰσελεύσεσθαι εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ λέγων ἐν ψαλμοῖς, Ἀεὶ πλανῶνται τῇ καρδίᾳ. Αὐτοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὰς ὁδούς μου, ὡς ὤμοσα ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ μου, εἰ εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσίν μου. Οὐκοῦν ἀναγκαῖον κατὰ διάνοιαν ἐκλαβεῖν Σάββατα Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν Θεῷ πρέπουσαν, ἧς ἀσεβεῖς μὲν οὐκ ἀξιοῦνται, μόνοι δὲ οἱ δίκαιοι καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ φίλοι. Οὕτω γοῦν εἴποιμεν ἂν καὶ τὸν Ἀβραὰμ, καὶ τὸν Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ τὸν Ἰακὼβ, τούς τε πρὸ αὐτῶν καὶ μετ' αὐτοὺς θεοφιλεῖς πάντας κατὰ διάνοιαν ἐγνωκέναι καὶ πεφυλακέναι τὰ Σάββατα τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ εἰσεληλυθέναι εἰς τὴν κατάπαυσιν αὐτοῦ. Τί δὴ οὖν σημαίνει τὸ Σάββατον, ἀναγκαῖον ἐπιστῆσαι. Ὁ λόγος ἀνάπαυσιν δηλοῖ Θεοῦ· εἰσάγει τε ταύτην μετὰ τὴν τῶν αἰσθητῶν κοσμοποιίαν. Θεοῦ δὲ ἀνάπαυσις τίς ἂν γένοιτο ἑτέρα τῆς πρὸς τοῖς νοητοῖς καὶ ὑπερκοσμίοις διαγωγῆς; Ὅτε μὲν γὰρ περὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ περισκοπεῖ καὶ περὶ τὰ ἔργα τῆς τοῦ κόσμου προνοίας καταγίνεται, ἐργάζεσθαι λέγεται· καὶ οὕτως ἀκουστέον λέγοντος τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, Ὁ Πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι· ὅτε δὲ πρὸς τοῖς ἀσωμάτοις καὶ ὑπερκοσμίοις ἐστὶ, καὶ, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, ἐν τῇ αὐτόσε αὐτοῦ περιωπῇ, τὸ τηνικαῦτα ἀνάπαυσιν ἄγειν, καὶ τὸ αὐτοῦ Σάββατον ἐπιτελεῖν νοεῖται. Κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ τοιγαροῦν καὶ οἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνδρες, ἐπειδὰν, τῶν κοπούντων τὴν ψυχὴν ἔργων (τοιαῦτα δὲ πάντα τὰ σωματικὰ καὶ φίλα τῆς γεώδους σαρκὸς), ἀπαλλαγέντες, ὅλοι γένωνται πρὸς τῷ Θεῷ καὶ πρὸς τῇ τῶν θείων καὶ νοητῶν σχολῇ τε καὶ θεωρίᾳ, τότε τὰ φίλα τῷ Θεῷ Σάββατα καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἄγουσι. Καὶ περὶ τῶν τοιούτων Σαββάτων διδάσκει λέγων· Ἆρα ἀπολείπεται σαββατισμὸς τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ; καὶ πάλιν· Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν. Τὸ γὰρ τέλειον Σάββατον, καὶ ἡ τελεία καὶ ἡ τρισμακαρία κατάπαυσις ἐν τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ βασιλείᾳ τυγχάνει, ὑπὲρ τὴν ἑξαήμερον δημιουργίαν καὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἁπάντων ἐκτὸς ἐν ἀσωμάτοις καὶ ὑπερκοσμίοις, ἔνθα ἀπέδρα ὀδύνη καὶ λύπη, καὶ στεναγμός· ἔνθα τῆς θνητῆς καὶ φθαρτῆς ζωῆς ἀπαλλαγέντες, καὶ ἀργίαν ἀργήσαντες τὴν θεοφιλῆ καὶ μακαρίαν, τῶν τε σωματικῶν πράξεων καὶ τῆς δουλείας τῆς σαρκὸς ἐλευθερωθέντες, σὺν αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ παρ' αὐτῷ γενόμενοι, σαββατίσομέν τε καὶ ἀναπαυσόμεθα. ∆ιό φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος· Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν. Εἰκόνα δ' ἐκείνου τοῦ Σαββάτου καὶ τῆς τελείας ἐκείνης καὶ τρισμακαρίας ἀναπαύσεως φέροντες ἐπὶ γῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνδρες, σχολὴν μὲν ἐποιοῦντο καὶ ἀργίαν τῶν μακρὰν ἀφιστάντων τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὅλοι δὲ πρὸς τῇ τῶν θείων θεωρίᾳ γιγνόμενοι, δι' ἡμέρας τε καὶ νυκτὸς τῇ τῶν ἱερῶν λόγων μελέτῃ προσκαρτεροῦντες, ἅγια Σάββατα καὶ ἀνάπαυσιν φίλην τῷ Θεῷ διανέπαυον τότε καὶ ἐσαββάτιζον. Ἔνθεν