A passing notice may be taken of the emphasis which I'hilo, in his characteristic way, puts upon the Sabbath as a positive season to be ilevotecf to ' philo.soiihizing,' to contemplation of the works of God, to moral and spiritual examination and renewal (de Decalogo, 20). It is also a day speci- ally appropriate for instruction. Again, the author of the Epistle to tlie Hebrews, in a vein not unlike I'hilo's, handles the Sabbath with an extensicm of the idea to the hereafter. How popular and deep- rooted this use has become the wliole devotional language of the Church bears witness. ' There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest (a Sabbath- keeping, aalij3a.Turij.6s) to the people of God' (He 4°). But in the Talmud, too. Sabbath is a foretaste of the world to come. See also Ep. Bam. 15 for further mystical treatment.
2. The observance of Sabbath in the early Church. — As far as we can see, there was no thought on the part of the first ' disciples' of ever discontinuing an observance to which as Jews they had been accustomed all their lives. Whilst Jesus was in direct conflict with the religious authorities as regards their interpretation of the Sabbath and its laws, we hear no word of any complaint of His primitive followers on tliat score. What mainly marked them off from their fellow- Jews was their testimony and declaration that 'Jesus was the Christ' (Ac 5''- 17' 18''). This was divisive and revolutionary enough, it is true ; but they seem to have thought that the old faith could live with the new, or at least that old habits and customs which did not appear to clash with their loyalty to Jesus could still be maintained.
The inclusion of the Gentiles within t he scope of the n;ospeI brought with it inevitable complications — this among the rest : How far were the religious customs of the Jews to be considered as binding upon them ? St. Paul, who was certainly revolu- tionary and advanced in his teaching in comparison with the Church at Jerusalem, was even openly taxed with advising Jews who lived amongst Gen- tiles to aliandon Moses and ' the customs ' (see Ac 21"°^). \\ as that of Sabbath observance one of them Probably such teaching as we find in Ro 14 might give rise to this charge, though there he does not prohibit or even dissuade, but simply pleads for liberty of judgment. At the same time he certainly disapproved of all attempts to make the observance of the Sabbath and other peculiarly Jewish customs binding on Gentile converts to the faith (Col 2«).
Where Jews continued to form the main per- sonnel of Christian communities, Sabbath observ- ance still lived on. Yet, just as surely the setting apart of ' the first day of the week ' as the Lord's l>ay grew up alongside as something distinctively Christian. Traces of this are clear even in apostolic times (see art. LoiiD'.S 1)AY). The two existed side by side, alike yet difl'erent. In the Apoxtolic Constitutions, which reflect in this as in some other
424
SABBATH
SACKCLOTH
respects the usages of earlier times, we find more tliaii one reference to the Sahbath and tlie Lord's Day together as days equally to be observed (ii. 59, vii. li3, viii. 33). A stray papyrus-leaf discovered in middle Egypt in 1911, winch appears to lie a portion of a prayer-book that must have been familiar in Eastern Christian circles, probably in the 2nd cent., bears unexpected witness to this early custom. It contains wliat is called a <ra/3j3aTii<ij ei'x^, whose liturgical phraseology is easily and closelj' paralleled in NT and early Christian literature, and follows immediately upon what appear to be the closing words of a prayer for Jridaj' (see N eutestamentliche Studien fur G. Jleinrki, Leipzig, 1914, no. 6: ' Zwei altchristliche Gebete').
As time went on, however, a considerable diflfer- ence showed itself between the Eastern and Western Churches in their attitude towards the Sabbath. Both continued to keep it ; but among the former it was accounted a, festival, with the sole exception of the ' great Sabbath,' i.e. that which immedi- ately preceded Easter Day (see Apost. Const, vii. 23), whilst among the latter it was very generally observed as a fast. This is unimportant ; the main point is that the ancient Jewish institution was carried over into the Christian Church, and lived on in some form or other. Even to this day in the liturgical names for the days of the week, in both the Roman and the Greek Church, Saturday is known by its Jewish name, sabbatuin, aa^Harov. But it is now at most merely a prelude and preparation for the dies doininica ; and a faint hint at such relation is found in the fact that, \\ here liturgical uses are followed, the collect for the following day is said on Saturday evening.
How at length the Sabbath as an institution ceased to be maintained and gave place to the Lord's Day as its Christian substitute may be briefly conjectured. As Cliristian became more and more distinct from Jew, this and other things would naturally follow. The early propagation of the faith among Gentiles, as Christianity realized its world-wide mission, would necessarily tend in the same direction. In Ep. ad Magn., attributed to Ignatius, we meet with an early admonition, emphasizing the distinction: 'Let us, therefore, no longer keep Sabbath after the Jewish manner (lovSaiKCii) and rejoice in days of idleness. . . . But let every one of you keep Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law ' (ch. 9). In the nature of things, the two days could not continue to be equally observed in the Christian Church. The Sabbath must needs give place to the Lord's Day : the seventh day of the week to the fir.st. The legislation of Constantine (A.D. 321), which recognized Sunday as a feast day, must have been no small factor in the case ; though, again, that would not have been enacted if the custom of keeping the Lord's Day had not already been predominant among Christians. As a concession to paganism, it may be noticed that the studied name given to the day {dies solis) ' atlbrded the possibility of its universal encouragement, without thus appearing to enforce directly an ecclesiastical celebration ' (W. Moeller, History of the Christian Church, Eng. tr., i., London, 1892, p. 298)._