‘A Sabbath Rest Still Remains’: The Reception and Transformation of Hebrews 4.9 in Late Antiquity

Abstract

Abstract This article explores how the unsettled meaning of the Sabbath in ancient Christian culture shaped the transmission of the Letter of the Hebrews by Christian editors and copyists. The textual variants in question occur toward the end of a complex literary unit (Heb 3.1–4.11) in which the author elaborates on the concept of ‘rest’, culminating in an appeal to the term σαββατισμός (Heb 4.9). After examining how the term σαββατισμός functions in its immediate context, the article turns to textual variants in various Greek and Latin manuscripts (including Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Claromontanus, Codex Vaticanus and several medieval witnesses), situating them within broader late ancient debates about Sabbath meaning and observance, and more specifically within discourse that employs the text of Heb 4.9.