280 OF THE NAME OF [EXERC. 1
termine, seeing I know nothing of these things. And on the same account, of their rest falling on the day under that planetary deno- mination, many of the heathen thought they dedicated the day and the religion of it unto Saturn. So Tacitus, Hist., lib. v.: “Ali honorem eum Saturno haberi. Seu principia religionis tradentibus idzis quos cum Saturno pulsos et conditores gentis accepimus; seu quod e septem sideribus queis mortales reguntur, altissimo orbe et preecipua potentia stella Saturni feratur; ac pleraque ccelestium vim suam et cursum septimos per numeros conficiant.” Such fables did the most diligent of the heathen suffer themselves to be deluded withal, whereby a prejudice was kept up in their minds against the only true God and his worship. The word is also sometimes doubled, by a pure Hebraism: 1 Chron. ix. 32, N2Y¥ nv, “ Shabbath, Shabbath,”—that is, “every Sabbath;” and is somewhat variously used in the conjunction of another form: M3’ jina¥, Exod. xvi. 23, xxxv. 2; and fina’¥ naw Exod. xxxi. 15; Lev. xxv. 4 We render fina’, by “rest,” “the rest of the Sabbath,’ and “a Sabbath of rest.” Where “sabbaton” is preposed at least, it seems to be as much as “sabbatulum,” and to denote the entrance into the Sab- bath or the preparation for it, such as was more solemn, when naw byuin, “a great Sabbath,” a high day ensued. Such was the Sab- bath before the passover, for the miracle, as the Jews say, which befell their forefathers that day in Egypt. The time between the two evenings was the “ sabbatulum.”
This, then, was the name of the day of rest under the old testa- ment; yet was not the word appropriated to the denotation of that day only, but is used sometimes naturally to express any rest or cessa- tion, sometimes as it were artificially in numeration for a week, or any other season whose composition was by, and resolution into seven, though this was merely occasional, from the first limitation of a periodical revolution of time by a Sabbath of rest; of which before.
11. And this various use of the word was taken up among the Grecians and Latins also. As they borrowed the word from the Jews, so they did its use. The Greek od€Cauroy is merely the He- brew fiN3’, or perhaps formed by the addition of their usual ter-
mination from "3%; whence also our apostle frames his sa€€ariqués. The Latin “sabbatum” is the same. And they use this word, though rarely, to express the last day of the week. So Suetonius in Tiber., “ Diogenes grammaticus sabbatis disputare Rhodi solitus.” And the LXX. always so express the seventh-day Sabbath; and frequently they use it for a week also. And so in the New Testa- ment, Nyorelw dig rod ouCCdrov, Luke xviii. 12;—“I fast twice in the sabbath;” that is, two days in the week. And 4 juépa réiv LabCdrwy, Acts xill. 14, “the day of the Sabbath,” is that day of
SECT. 11, 12.] A DAY OF SACRED REST. 281
the week which was set apart for a sabbatical rest. Hence jiu caSGdrov, “one day of the sabbaths,” which frequently occurs, is the same with zpurn iCdouddos, “the first day of the week,” <g or pian being often put for spéiros, xpdirn, the ordinal for the cardinal.
12. About the time of the writing of the books of the New Tes- tament, both the Jews themselves and all the heathen that took notice of them called all their feasts and solemn assemblies their sabbaths, because they did no servile work inthem. They had the general nature of the weekly Sabbath, in a cessation from labour. So the first day of the feast of trumpets, which was to be on the first day of the second month, what day soever of the week it hap- pened to be on, was called a sabbath, Lev. xxiii. 24. This Scaliger well observes and well proves, Emendat. Tempor. lib. iii, Canon. Isagog. lib. iii. p. 213: “ Omnem festivitatem Judaicam, non solum Judei, sed et Gentiles sabbatum vocant; Judzei quidem cum dicunt Tizri nunquam incipere a feria prima, quarta, sexta, ne duo sabbata continuentur; Gentiles autem non alio nomine omnes eorum solen- nitates vocabant.” And thisis evident from the frequent mention of the sabbatical fasts of the Jews, when they did not, nor was it lawful for them to fast on the weekly Sabbath. So speaks Augustus to Tiberius in Suetonius, Octav. August. cap. Ixxvi.: “Ne Judzeus quidem, mi Tiberi, tam diligenter sabbatis jejunium servat, quam ego hodie servavi.” And Juvenal, Sat. vi. 158,—
“ Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges.”” And Martial,—
“Et non jejuna sabbata lege premet;”
speaking im contradiction, as he thought, unto them. And so Horace mentions their “ tricesima sabbata;” which were no other but their new moons. And to this usual manner of speaking in those days doth our apostle accommodate his expressions, Col. ii. 16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in part of an holy day” (any part of it, or respect unto it), “or of the new moon, or of the sabbath;” that is, any of the Judaical feasts what- ever, then commonly called sabbaths. So Maimonides, Tract. de Sabb. cap. xxix., speaking of their nnn» on’, “good days” or “feasts,” says éxpressly, "3 mina ndv2v,—“They are all sabbaths to the Lord.” And from this usage some think to expound that vexed expression, SdeCarov devrepérpwrov, Luke vi. 1; which we render, “The second Sabbath after the first.’ So Suidas, SaCCaurov deurepérpwrov éreidy Bebrepoy ptv Hy rod wdoya, wpirov dt trav aZiuwv ei odv ohCCaroy eipnras, ph Savndons chCaurovy yap rtiouy topriy 2xddrovv— It was the second day of the passover, and the first of unleavened bread. And wonder not that it is called a sabbath, for they called every feast day a