The Sabbath as ברית
With the Sabbath as sign so clarified,
it is possible to address the relationship between this rite and the idea of covenant,
an issue raised by Exod 31:16:
ושׁמרו בני־ישׂראל את־השׁבת לעשׂות את־השׁבת לדרתם ברית עולם
The Israelites shall ever keep the
cessation, performing the cessation as a perpetual requirement.
This verse has prompted significant deliberation
of the Sabbath’s possible connection to a prior covenant in P or even outside
of P. Yet Exod 31:16 refers to no foregoing covenant in P or any other text. As
in several other instances in Pentateuchal Priestly literature, the term ברית in
Exod 31:16 has the limited sense of “obligation/requirement” and, as such,
refers simply to the Israelites’ future obligation to observe Sabbath
cessation (cf. Gen 17:10, 13; Lev 2:13; 26:15, 25). This means that neither
this obligation nor its corresponding sign is perpetual (אות הוא לעלם ברית
עלום) by virtue of its hearkening back to the Sabbath’s origin in
creation, as has sometimes been claimed. Israelite Sabbath observance in P is not
an imitation of the deity’s Sabbath observance following creation. In fact,
P’s historical myth precludes this possibility. In the P narrative, cultic
observance is specifically tied to the deity’s presence among the Israelites,
and even the idea of the cult (to say nothing of its institution) is only
hatched once Yahweh realizes that his initial arrangement—with people on earth
and himself in heaven—is untenable.
In P, then,
Yahweh does not observe the Sabbath and never did. The Sabbath is
established not at creation but precisely when it is commanded—when the
Israelites are at Sinai. Its observance resembles Yahwe’s cessation on
the seventh day of creation, and it is this observance that is commanded in
perpetuity to remind the deity to bless Israel. In this sense, ברית עולם in v. 16 and אות הוא
לעלם in v 17 correspond precisely: the mnemonic will be effective for as long
as the Israelites properly enact the cessation, which they are to do in
perpetuity from this point on. (Jeffrey Stackert, “How the Priestly
Sabbath Works: Innovation in the Pentateuchal Priestly Ritual,” in Ritual
Innovation in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism, ed. Nathan MacDonald [Beihefte
zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 468; Tübingen: De
Gruyter, 2018], 95-97, emphasis in bold added)
The initial indication in P of Yahweh’s
intent to maintain a sustained involvement on earth is in Gen 9:5, where the
deity promises to intervene himself when any animal or human sheds human blood.
The delay between the Flood and Yahweh’s selection of Abram seems to accommodate
the need to repopulate the earth. If Yahweh chose Noah immediately after the
Flood, all humanity would belong to Israel. However, such a scenario does not
accord with P’s contemporary situation, where Israel is distinguishable from
many other people groups who do not worship Yahweh. (Ibid., 96 n. 44)