Times of Worship.

The important times of worship for the Jews of New Testament days were the weekly

Sabbath and the annual feasts

The Sabbath. In the days of the Lord Jesus, and indeed throughout the Intertestamental

Period, the Jews had great reverence for the Sabbath as a day of worship, particularly

worship in the synagogues. Moses had delivered to the people of Israel rather stringent

commandments concerning the Sabbath day (Exod. 20:6-11; 31:14-17; 35:2-3; Lev. 23:3;

Num. 15:32-36), but the emphasis in these commandments was on resting on the Sabbath day

rather than worshipping. In actual practice, it seems that from the settlement in the land of

Canaan until the Babylonian Exile people were lax, if not negligent, in observance of the

Sabbath. But it is very probable that during the Exile groups would gather on the Sabbath day

for Scripture study, Psalm singing, and prayer. After the restoration of the people to their

homes in Palestine, the reforms under Nehemiah reemphasized the Sabbath as a day of rest

(Neh. 13:15-22); and with the institution of the Synagogue, it came to be a day of worship,

also.

Before the time of the Lord Jesus many of the scribes, in emphasizing the law of the

Sabbath, had gone to extremes in the matter of burden bearing and laboring on the Sabbath,

and had laid down many rigid rules, and then had provided ways of escape from their own

rulings by means that were just as foolish. One prominent cause of conflict between Jesus

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and the synagogue authorities was the disregard on His part for those Sabbath regulations

which had been set forth by the scribes, but which were not in the law given through Moses.