282 OF THE NAME OF [EXERC. I.
sabbath.” Theophylact gives us another day, but on the same rea- son. Saith he, O/ Iovdator ricuy topriy odCCurov dvdualorr dudravors yep rs chCCuroy, TloAAdns oby darnure 4 coprh ev 7H wapaoneun, Hal excrovv Thy wapucnevny TKCCurov Oi viv Eoprgjyve eira vd xvpiag ThCCaroy dvoucZov deurepiapuror, we Sebrepoy Ov, mponynoumerns GAAnS nad ZaeC&rou-—~ The Jews call every feast a sabbath, for sabbath is as much as rest. Ofttimes, therefore, there fell out a feast on the day before the weekly Sabbath; and they called it a sabbath because it was a feast. And therefore that which was the proper Sabbath at that time was called ‘the second Sabbath after the first, being the second from that which went before.” Chrysostom allows of the same reason, Hom. xxxix. in Matt. Isidore of Pelusium fixeth on another day, but still for the same reason: Epist. cx. lib. ill., Asurepérpwrov eipnras, éaresd) Sebrepov ey hv ro wdoyu, apiroy Ot ray &€duur— It is called the deutero- proton, because it was the second day from the sacrificing of the passover, and the first day of unleavened bread;” which he shows was called a sabbath upon the general account of all the Jewish feasts being so called: for so he saith, E7 6: odé€Carov eipnrar wh Jav- pudons: ohCCuroy yap wioav éopriy xarodor By the way, this is ex- pressly contrary to the Scripture, which makes the day spoken of to be the proper weekly Sabbath, as it is called without any addi- tion, Matt. xii. 11, whereon depended the questions that ensued about its observation. But we are beholden to Scaliger for the true meaning of this expression, which so puzzled the ancients, and con- cerning which Gregory Nazianzen turned off Jerome with a scoff scarce becoming his gravity, when he inquired of him what might be the meaning of it. Scaliger, therefore, conjectures that it is called sd退auroy devrepéxpwrov, because it was the first Sabbath aa rie devrépas raiv &Zduwv, “from the second day of unleavened bread.” For on that day they offered the handful or sheaf of new fruits; and from that day they counted seven weeks unto Pentecost. And the Sabbaths of those weeks were reckoned dad ris deurépus rau éfiwov, and the first that followed was called deurepérpwrox. So he, both in his Emendat. Tempor. lib, vi, and Isagog. Canon. p. 218. And this is subscribed unto by his mortal adversary, Dionysius Peta- vius, Animad. in Epiphan. n. 31, p. 64, who will not allow him ever to have spoken rightly, but in what the wit of man can find no tolerable objection against. But this calling of their feasts “sab- baths,” with the reason of it, is given us by all their principal authors. So Lib. Tseror. Hammor. on Levit. p. 102: p'po ony rad navn y25) esp spay nawn jo oNP OF ODT Soy wre wp NPD nna naw wows weapy odisy odio ayn we NIn;—“ Because all so- lemn days are called holy convocations, they are all called so from the Sabbath, which is called holy; wherefore the Sabbath is the
SECT. 13, 14.] A DAY OF SACRED REST. 283
head of all solemn feasts, and they are all of them called by the name thereof, sabbaths of rest;” whereof he gives instances.
13. Some of the ancient Christians, dealing with the heathens, ealled that day which the Christians then observed in the room of the Jewish seventh day, juépay 4A/ov, or “ diem solis,” “Sunday;” as those who treat and deal with others must express things by the names that are current amongst them, unless they intend to be bar- barians unto them. So speaks Justin Martyr, Apol. il, Tjy 3 rod Hartou juepay, xowh wdvres civ ovvérevow rosdtueda-—* We meet” (for the worship of God) “in common on Sunday.” Had he said “on the Sabbath,” the Gentiles would have concluded it to have been the Judaical Sabbath. To have called it to them “the Lord’s day,” had been to design no determinate day; they would not have known what day he meant. And the name of “ the first day of the week,” taken up signally by Christians upon the resurrection of Christ, was not in use amongst them. Wherefore he called the day he intended to determine, as was necessary for him, by the name in use amongst them to whom he spake, “Sunday.” In like manner, Tertullian, treating with the same sort of men, calls it “ diem solis,” Apol. cap. xvi. And Eusebius, reporting the edicts of Constantine for the observation of the Lord’s day, as it is termed in them, adds that it is the day which we call jwépay 4r/ov, or “ Sunday.”
But yet among Christians themselves this name was not in com- mon use, but by some was rejected, as were also all the rest of the names of the days used among the Pagans. So speaks Austin in Ps. xcii.: “ Quarta sabbatorum, quarta feria, quae Mercurii dies dici- tur a Paganis, et a multis Christianis. Sed noluimus ut dicant, et utinam corrigantur ut non dicant.” And Jerome, Epist ad Algas,: “Una sabbati, dies dominica intelligenda est; quia hebdomada in sabbatum, ut in primam, et secundam, et tertiam, et quartam, et quintam, et sextam sabbati dividitur; quam ethnici idolorum et planetarum nominibus appellant.” He rejects the use of the ordi- nary names unto the heathens. And Philastrius makes the usage of them amongst Christians almost heretical, Num. iii.