{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">But as to their scrupulosity concerning meats, and their\r\nsuperstition as respects the Sabbaths, and their boasting about\r\ncircumcision, and their fancies about fasting and the new\r\nmoons, which are utterly ridiculous and unworthy of notice,—I\r\ndo not<a id=\"r1474\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1474\"><sup>[1474]</sup></a> think that you require to learn anything from\r\nme. For, to accept some of those things which have been\r\nformed by God for the use of men as properly formed, and\r\nto reject others as useless and redundant,—how can this be\r\nlawful? And to speak falsely of God, as if He forbade us\r\nto do what is good on the Sabbath-days,—how is not this impious?\r\nAnd to glory in the circumcision<a id=\"r1475\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1475\"><sup>[1475]</sup></a> of the flesh as a proof\r\nof election, and as if, on account of it, they were specially\r\nbeloved by God,—how is it not a subject of ridicule? And\r\nas to their observing months and days,<a id=\"r1476\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1476\"><sup>[1476]</sup></a> as if waiting upon<a id=\"r1477\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1477\"><sup>[1477]</sup></a>\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_307\">307</span>the stars and the moon, and their distributing,<a id=\"r1478\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1478\"><sup>[1478]</sup></a> according to\r\ntheir own tendencies, the appointments of God, and the vicissitudes\r\nof the seasons, some for festivities,<a id=\"r1479\"></a><a class=\"c009 pginternal\" href=\"#f1479\"><sup>[1479]</sup></a> and others for\r\nmourning,—who would deem this a part of divine worship,\r\nand not much rather a manifestation of folly? I suppose,\r\nthen, you are sufficiently convinced that the Christians\r\nproperly abstain from the vanity and error common [to both\r\nJews and Gentiles], and from the busy-body spirit and vain\r\nboasting of the Jews; but you must not hope to learn the\r\nmystery of their peculiar mode of worshipping God from any\r\nmortal.</p>","headings":["The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers","THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS.","THE EPISTLE TO DIOGNETUS.","Chap. iv.—The other observances of the Jews."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg77576-paragraph-637"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c12f53dd7b631b19cadd3e57c645be361c705ec06965adefa64a1b77ebabe2dd","edition_title":"The writings of the Apostolic Fathers","edition_translators":["Alexander Roberts","James Donaldson","Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1870,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg77576-f1477","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Historical 1870 English edition; electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f1477","source_ebook":77576,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f1477\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r1477\">1477</a>. </span>This seems to refer to the practice of the Jews in fixing the beginning\r\nof the day, and consequently of the Sabbath, from the rising of the\r\nstars. They used to say, that when three stars of moderate magnitude\r\nappeared, it was night; when two, it was twilight; and when only one,\r\nthat day had not yet departed. It thus came to pass (according to their\r\n<i>night-day</i> (νυχθήμερον) reckoning), that whosoever engaged in work on\r\nthe evening of Friday, the beginning of the Sabbath, after three stars of\r\nmoderate size were visible, was held to have sinned, and had to present\r\na trespass-offering; and so on, according to the fanciful rule described.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"5cef11d737d7f5d65aa99f44ca2d8e967d725f3bed872960330e88c0905597a9","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77576/pg77576-images.html#f1477","text_sha256":"24ad416ad6fc1d3386b25312847bbdf6ab26a14629975cc0ee0553e4e800e621","verified":false,"work_id":null}