The word שׁבת can indeed mean either 'to cease' or 'to rest'. The Priestly author/redactor is known for having a relatively transcendent view of God, but not completely so (eg, God only 'sees' immediately after he has created light) so I would not completely rule out the idea that the author could have imagined that God might need rest from his work.
Already the first word in Genesis 2,2 (כלה, piel, to bring to completion, to finish) indicates that God brought his work to completion on the seventh day, the Sabbath. So is the second part of the verse merely repeating what was already said in the first part of the verse (parallelism, finish, cease from work)? Or is it (also) adding a new element (rest)?
For me, a much more interesting question is: Did God work on the Sabbath?
The Samaritan Torah and the LXX try to fix this problem by changing the text from the seventh day to the sixth day so that the meaning of the first part of the verse and the last part of the verse clearly differ:
The Qumran text is missing here, while the Targumim and the Vulgate agree with the MT.
In the Midrash Rabbah we find clever or even beautiful equivocations, eg, like a blacksmith God raised the hammer during the day and it fell during the evening. Or God completed the bridal chamber on the sixth day, but the bride entered on the Sabbath.
In my own personal midrash, I dare to suspect that even God was not able to observe the Sabbath perfectly, hence the need for mercy, even for God.
I doubt this is an original idea. I have noted that Byron L. Sherwin, in his Faith Finding Meaning: A Theology of Judaism, p. 78, mentions that God had already broken his previous commandment not to make anything in the image of God.
Already the first word in Genesis 2,2 (כלה, piel, to bring to completion, to finish) indicates that God brought his work to completion on the seventh day, the Sabbath. So is the second part of the verse merely repeating what was already said in the first part of the verse (parallelism, finish, cease from work)? Or is it (also) adding a new element (rest)?
For me, a much more interesting question is: Did God work on the Sabbath?
The Samaritan Torah and the LXX try to fix this problem by changing the text from the seventh day to the sixth day so that the meaning of the first part of the verse and the last part of the verse clearly differ:
ויכל אלהים ביום הששי מלאכתו אשר עשה וישבת ביום השביעי מכל מלאכתו אשר עשה׃
καὶ συνετέλεσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἕκτῃ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ἃ ἐποίησεν καὶ κατέπαυσεν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ ὧν ἐποίησεν.
The Qumran text is missing here, while the Targumim and the Vulgate agree with the MT.
In the Midrash Rabbah we find clever or even beautiful equivocations, eg, like a blacksmith God raised the hammer during the day and it fell during the evening. Or God completed the bridal chamber on the sixth day, but the bride entered on the Sabbath.
In my own personal midrash, I dare to suspect that even God was not able to observe the Sabbath perfectly, hence the need for mercy, even for God.
I doubt this is an original idea. I have noted that Byron L. Sherwin, in his Faith Finding Meaning: A Theology of Judaism, p. 78, mentions that God had already broken his previous commandment not to make anything in the image of God.