The Sabbath was especially consecrated to devotion and to the law (Josephus, vlH^ xvi, 2, 4), and frivolous or unclean conversation was accounted a desecration of the day (Gesen. In Jesa. ii, 230). Hence in the syna- gogues everywhere on this day took place the great services of worship (INIark i, 21 ; vi, 2 ; Luke iv, 16, 31 ; vi, 6; xiii, 10; Acts xiii, 44; xvi, 13; xvii, 2; xviii, 4), with prayer and the public reading and expounding of the holy books (Luke iv, 16 sq.; Acts xiii, 27; Josephus, Apion, i, 22). This, however, cannot be considered as a Mosaic regulation (see YTtringa, Synar/. i, 2, 2) ; but see Law. Cheerful meals were held (Luke xiv, 1 ; Philo, 0pp. ii, 477. The driston [dpiarov^ was taken on the Sabbath about the sixth hour [Josephus, Life, p. 54]. On the three meals of the Sabbath, see Mishna, Shab. xvi, 2, and INIaimon. ad loc.) ; feast-day clothing was put on (Sharbau, JJe Luxu Sabbatorio, in his Observ. Sua: iii, 541 sq.) ; and it was never a fast-day (Jud. viii, 6. Justin's remark [xxxvi, 2], which makes it a fast, is untrue. Comp. Sueton. .4 iif/. 76, where Ernesti's expla- nation does not accord with the usage of speech; Pe- tron. Fragm. xxxv, 6. See contra, Mairaon. Hilkoth Shab. Extr. Comp. P. T. Carpzov, Be Jejun. Sabb. ex Antiq. Hebr. [Rostoch. 1741]).
When the Jews were under foreign supremacy, ex- cept during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Mace, i, 45, 48; 2 Mace, vi, 6), tlieir legal Sabbath was con- firmed (comp. 1 Mace, x, 34 ; Josephus, Ant. xiv, 10. 20, 21,23,25); and even in the composition of the civil law, a conciliatory respect was shown to it (Josephus, AnU xvi, 6, 2 and 4; Philo, Opera, ii, 5G9). It is still a question how far the Jewish legal administration itself regarded the Sal)bath (see, among others, Tholuck, On John, p. 302 sq. ; Block, Beitrdge z. Erangelienkritik, p. 140 sq.). 'l"he Mishna (^Yom Tub, v, 2) says expressly
SABBATH
192
SABBATH
that no court was held on that day, nor even was a ses- sion begun the afternoon preceding, lest it might en- croach upon the Sabbath (Mishna. *S7ii((6. i, 2; comp. Gemara, Saii/ied. fol. 35, 1 ; nor can the force of these passages be removed bj' Gemara, tSanhed. fol. 88, 1, even though it referred to this subject). See Council. It is remarkable that at one time the Jews themselves made an effort in Syria to do away with the observance of the Sabbath (Josephus, War, vii, 3, 3). This effort was aided, perhaps, by the view which the Romans took of this weekly rest, often mocking the Jews as slothful (Juvenal, xiv, 105 sq. ; Seneca, in Augustine, Civ. Dei, vi, 11).
The origin of the Sabbath is usually referred to INIo- ses by the German critics (Ewald, Gesch. J si: ii, 142 sq.) on the ground that Gen. ii, 1 cannot be accepted as a testimony to its earlier instituticin, since this whole ac- count of the creation, whose date and author are un- known, is plainly designed for the very purpose of pre- senting the Sabbath to us as an immediate divine or- dinance (see Gabler, Neun- Vers, iiber die mos. Schupf- unc/sgesch. p. 38 sq. ; De Wette, Krit. p. 40 sq.), just as it is often set fortli in later writings in connection with the exode and with the legislation of Sinai (Ezek. xx, 10 sq.; Neh. ix, 13 sq.; comp. Deut. v, 14 sq., with which Exod. xvi, 23 agrees). Keggio, bj^ a pecuhar explana- tion of Gen. ii, 1 sq., arrives at a distinction between the Sabbath appointed here for all mankind and that given to the Je^vs in their law {Zeitschriftjur d. Judenfh. 1845, p. 102 sq., 121 sq.). The Sabbath is considered as a Mosaic institution also by Eusebius (//. A', i, 4, 3 ; Pnep. Ei: vii, 6) and most of the rabbins (Selden, .Tus. Naf. et Gent, iii, 10). Among the more recent writers, this view is adopted by Spencer (Ler/. Rit. i, 4, 9 sq.) ; Eich- horn (Uryesch. i, 249 sq.) ; Gabler {ibid. p. 58 sq. ; Neuer Versuch, p. 38 sq.) ; Bauer (Gotlesdienstl. Verfass. ii, 174 sq., in answer to Hebenstreit, De Sab. ante Leg. Mos. Ex- istente [Lips. 1748]) ; Iken (Dissert, Thenl, p. 2Q sq.) : liichter (in the Biblioth. Brem. N(wa,in, 310 sq.); Mi- chaelis {Afos. Recht, iv, 110 sq.). See Sabbath, Chkis-
TIAN.
The question may be raised whether the Sabbath was not borrowed by Moses from some other ajtcient people, as the Egyptians. It is not necessary to discuss the unhistoric suppositions of Philo (ii, 137) and Jose- phus {Apioii, ii, 39) that this feast was very widely spread among ancient nations. Yet it appears from Seneca (Ep. 95, p. 423, Bip.) and Ovid {Reined. Amor. p. 219) that a reverence for the seventh day had found an entrance among the Romans (comp. Ideler, fjhrnn. ii, 176). Various strange opinions as to the origin of the Sabbath have been suggesteii which answer themselves (Plutarch, Sympos. iv, 6, 2). (On the pretended Jew- ish worship of Saturn, see Buttmann, Mi/thol. ii, 44 sq.) It is certain that the Egvptians knew the reckoning bj' weeks, and even began each successive week ^^•ith the day of Chronos (Dion Cass, xxxvii, 18, 19). Baur, fol- lowing Tacitus {Hist. \, 5), has connected the Sabbath with the worship of Chronos-Saturn, to whom the Ro- mans also dedicated particularly the seventh Aax of the week (Tiibinger Zeitschr. fur Theol. 1832, iii, 145 sq. ; comp. IMovers, P/iti/iiz. p. 315) ; hence the Roman his- torians compared the Jewish Sabbath with the day of Saturn (Dion Cass, xxxvii, 17, 18; Tibul. i, 3, 17). His view rests on tlie well-known representation by the Greeks and Romans of the golden age long gone by, the age of rest and equality, under Saturn, and the cus- tom connected with it of giving the slaves a holiday at the Saturnalia (see Syrb, De Sidjbittho Gentili in Temp, llelcet. ii, 527 sq. ; and in Ugolini Thesaur. vol. xvii ; comp. also Wernsdorf, Diss, de Gentil. Siibbato [Viteb. 1722]). But this theory is so finespun that it falls to pieces at the first touch, for the passage in Dion Cassius does not do anything towards proving a naming of the days of the week after the planets (see Ideler, Chronol. I, 180). And the VVestern representations of Saturn can so much the less be transferred to the East in that,