» So Schnuler, KAT' on Cn '.!» ; Ixitz, Qwcutionft dt hist. Sabl>. (1883) 67; Sayce, IlC.\t 7(1 f.. KHB 193 (where, how- ever, the facta about the Bab. '.Sabbath' are overstated ; for thouu'h, no doubt (Lou, 681. laliattum might very naturallv be the name of the 7th, 14th. etc., davs of the two months referred to aliovc. It is not. In ony text at present known, applied to them octually) ; Ounkel, Scli/ij>/. u, CT<io« (1895), 155. Nor Is there at present any evidence that a continuous succession of weeks,' each ending with a day marked by special obser^ancea, was a Bab. institution (Jensen, 1541
to say,* that the Heb. and Babylonian institu tions had a common origin : though naturally, like other Ueb. institutions which were not originally confined to Israel, it assumed among the Hebrews a new character, being stripped nf its superstitious and heathen a.ssoeiations, and being made -sub- servient to ethical and religious ends. It is not difficult to imagine how, under the influence of Israel's religion, a change of this kind might gradually be wrought, though (supposing the hypothesis to be a sound one) we have no infor- mation of the .stages by which it was actually ellected ; Jastrow's endeavour {A./T/i, vol. ii. pp. 321 ff., 332 fl., 345 ff.) to show that the Heb. .sabhath had once (like the «»« niilj lilbi) a propitiatory character, and even that the verb sliubath, as applied to J", and shabbathon, expressed originally the ideas of ceasing from anger, being pacijicd, cannot be deemed convincing.
The sabbath, as a day of restriction, is an institution parallel to what is found among many early peoples, and indeed, as a survival from an earlier stage, among civilized peoples as well. The wide diffusion of periods of restriction makes it probable that they had their origin in simple ideas and social conditions. In all the cases known to us the restrictions are of the same general character — they refer to occupations, food, dress. Thus, besides the Babylonian institution, which has been already referred to, the Egyptians had a list of days, on which certain acts were pro- hibited (AJTh, ii. p. 350 1). In Rome business was suspended during ihe ferim ; and on all dies nefasti courts of law and the comitia were closed. In the Hawaiian Islands, it was unlawful, on certain daj'S, to light fires or to bathe ; tlie king also at certain times withdrew into privacy, giving up his ordinarj' pursuits. In Borneo, work was forbidden on certain days in connexion with the harvest. The origin of such times of restric- tion is lost in anti<iiiity : they come before us commonly as established ('Ustoms, resting on pre- cedent, and not sujiiiosed to need explanation. They may have arisen from various causes : thus in some cases observation would show that par- ticular times were favourable or unfavourable to certain occupations ; but very often they would be determined uy superstitious or religious motives. The days thus fixed would gradually be tabulated and systematized ; and wlien calendars had been constructed, particular days would come to be marked upon them as lucky or unlucky, and in some cases these would agree with delinite pha.ses of the moon. ' Such a calendar the Hebrews may have inherited, or may have received from Baby- lonia or from some other source ' : if they received it from Balij-lonia, they dctaclied it from its con- nexion with the moon (fixing it for every seventh da3', irrespectively of the days of the month), they generalized the abstinence as.sociated with it, and, more than all, they transformed it into an agency, which, though, like other institutions, capable of abuse, has nevertheless, partly as observed by the Jews themselves, partly (see below) as forming the model of the Christian Sunday, operated on the whole with wonderful elficiency in maintain- ing the life of a pure and spiritual religion. J
The question, which was formerly nuich debated, whether the sabbath W'os instituted at the close of the Crnalinn, or whether it was a purely Mosaic ordinance, was already answered by Dr. llesscy (p. 135 IT.) in the latter sense; and In the light In which the" earh- chapters of Gen. are at present regarded by scholars (cf. (Josmooony, and Kyle's Karty Sarratives o/ (Jenejtis), the question itself has become irrelevant. It is plain that in (In 21-3 the sanotity of the seventh day of the week is
• Z./. D. Wort/orschung, 164.
♦ .See also Maspcro, Daren o/ CivUitation, 210-212 ; Wlede mann, Jleliq. nf Ane. Eiti/pt. 2(13 f.
! With the lost paragraph cf. O. H. Toy, 'The earliest fora of the Sabbath,' in JUL, lb99, pp. 191-103.
320
SABBATH
SABBATH
explained unhistorically, and antedated : instead of the sai>- bath, closing the week, being sacred, because on it God ' desisted ' from His six days' work of creation, the work of creation waa distributed among six days, followed by a tlay of rest, because the week, ended by the sabbath, existed already as an institution, and the writer (P) wished to adjust artificially the work of creation to it. In the Decalogue, ' Remember ' mav be interpreted quite naturally as signifying ' keep in mind ' in the future (cf. Ex 133, Dt i63).
iii. The Sabbath in the later Judaism and THE NT. — There are not many allii.'iions to the sabbath in the apocryphal books. It was natur- ally included amoni;st the distinctively Jewish institutions, which Antiochua Epiphanes sought (B.C. 108) to abolish (1 M.ac ls»-«. 45_ o Mac 6"). At the beginning of the Mace, uprising, the loyal Jews allowed themselves to be massacred in cold blood rather than profane the sab'.iath, even in self-defence (1 Mac 2^'"'*) : but in view of the con- sequences which persistence in such a course would obviously entaU, Mattathias and his friends decided (vv.®"'") to recognize defensive warfare as permissible on the sabbath (cf. 1 Mac O"''- ^, 2 Mac 82»-=a : also Jos. BJ II. xix. 2). The destruction of siege-works was not, however, considered allow- able ; and so Pom[iey was able to complete his mound against Jerus. on the sabbath (Jos. Ant. XIV. iv. 2). The unwillingness of the Jews to fight on the sabbath naturally became known to their enemies ; and several instances are on record of attacks being planned for that day, and carried out successfully (Jos. c. Ap. i. 22 end ; 2 Mac S^*- 15' ; Ant. XIII. xii. 4, XVIII. ix. 2). The Romans so far recognized the scruples entertained by the Jews with regard to bearing arms or travelling on the sabbath, as to release them from the obliga- tion of niUitary service (Jos. Ant. XIV. x. 11-19).