Editing Sabbath in Christianity (section)

==Related terms==
By [[synecdoche]] the term "Sabbath" in the [[New Testament]] may also mean simply a "se'nnight"<ref>[[Strong's Concordance]].</ref> or seven-day [[week]], namely, the interval between two Sabbaths. [[Jesus]]'s parable of the [[Pharisee and the Publican]] describes the [[Pharisees|Pharisee]] as fasting "twice a week" (Greek ''dis tou sabbatou'', literally, "twice of the Sabbath").

Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name ''[[miqra]]'' ("called assembly") in Hebrew and "[[High Sabbaths|High Sabbath]]" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]] and [[Book of Deuteronomy|Deuteronomy]] and do not necessarily occur on the Sabbath. They are observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Three of them occur in spring: the first and seventh days of [[Christian observance of Passover|Passover]], and [[Pentecost]]. Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are also called ''Shabbaton'': the [[Christian observances of Jewish holidays#Christian Feast of Trumpets|Christian Feast of Trumpets]]; [[Christian observances of Yom Kippur|Yom Kippur]], "Sabbath of Sabbaths"; and the first and eighth days of [[Christian observances of Jewish holidays#Christian Feast of Tabernacles|Tabernacles]].

The year of ''[[Shmita]]'' (Hebrew שמיטה, literally, "release"), also called Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the [[Torah]] for the [[Land of Israel]]. During ''Shmita'', the land is to be left to lie fallow. A second aspect of ''Shmita'' concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven.

Jewish ''[[Shabbat]]'' is a weekly day of rest cognate to Christian Sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night; it is also observed by a minority of Christians. Customarily, ''Shabbat'' is ushered in by lighting [[candle]]s shortly before sunset, at [[halakha|halakhically]] calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place.

The [[new moon]], occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some [[Hebrew Roots]] and [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal churches]], such as the native New Israelites of Peru and the [[Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church]], do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from evening to evening. New-moon services can last all day.

In [[South Africa]], Christian [[Boer]]s have celebrated December 16, the [[Day of the Vow]] (now called the [[Day of Reconciliation]], as annual Sabbath (holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, commemorating a famous Boer victory over the [[Zulu Kingdom]].

Many early Christian writers from the 2nd century, such as [[Epistle of Barnabas|pseudo-Barnabas]], [[Irenaeus]], [[Justin Martyr]] and [[Hippolytus of Rome]] followed [[rabbinic Judaism]] (the ''Mishna'') in interpreting Sabbath not as a literal day of rest but as a [[Millennialism|thousand-year reign]] of Jesus Christ, which would follow six millennia of world history.<ref name=Bauckham/>

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to Sunday, is often stated in [[North America]] to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of [[Christendom]]. In ''[[McGowan v. Maryland]]'' (1961), the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] held that contemporary [[Maryland]] [[blue law]]s (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.