even among the Romans, the day of Saturn was counted an unlucky one. Astrologically, too, the day of Saturn is the first, not the seventh, of the week. But, apart from all this, it was more natural for an agricultural people to keep as a festivaii the last day of the week, after men and beasts had become wearied with toil, in rest, and with ceremonies in accordance with their re- ligious character, particularly with sacrifices. Why should we seek a foreign model for all the Mosaic insti- tutions? Why refer these simple observances to such far-fetched and generally unsuitable explanations? (See especially Biihr, Symbol, i, 584 sq. In answer to Von Boh- len. Genesis, p. 137, Introd. see Tuch, Genesis, p. 14 sq.)
The Sabbath, as the basis of the Israelitish cycle of feast-days, was imitated and repeated, as it were, in several other festivals; e. g. the Sabbath Year, the Sev- enth New Moon, and the Year of Jubilee. On the sub- ject of the whole article, see Carjizov, Appur. p. 382 sq. ; Reland, Ant. Sacr. iv, 8; Bauer, op. cit. ii, 152 sq. ; Jahn, iii, 388 sq. ; Gisb. Voetii Dis. Sel. iii, 1227 sq. ; Biihr, Symbol, ii, 566 sq., 577 sq. — Winer, s. v.
A figurative use of the word " Sabbath" denotes a solemn festival on which servile work was proscribed ; but tins occurs only with respect to the great day of annual atonement (Lev. xxiii, 33). The word properly representing such an abstract idea of rest is "pna'^, shabbatun, aajiiiaTiafioQ, sabbatism (q. v.). The term " Sabbath," however, is frequently applied to a longer hebdomadal cycle than that of the week, e. g. the sab- batic year (q. v.). Tiie Rabbinic or orthodox Jews likewise claim that in Lev. xxiii, 11-16, V2'^, Sabbath, is synonymous with npS, Passoi-ei; and accordingly they reckon Pentecost from the 16th of Nisan, the sec- ond day of unleavened bread, instead of the Sabbath following it. See Calendar, Jewish. In this they are upheld bj' a majority of Christian archieologists and interpreters. The Karaites, on the contrary, contend that the word "Sabbath" in that ordinance has its reg- ular and usual signification, namely, the seventh day of the week. The arguments advanced for the tradi- tional view and reckoning, formidable as they at first appear, will be found, on a close examination, to be wholly inconclusive. (1.) It is a pure assumption that the phrase rS'i'ri n'nri'2, moi-row of the Sabbath, is equivalent to nOEil nn^, morrow of the Passorer. The passage in Josh, v, 11, often appealed to in proof, states that on the latter day the Israelites ate the ]irod- uce of Canaan (y"ixri "i^^^', A. V. erroneously "old corn of the land"\ consisting of unleav-ened cakes and parched ears. From this it has been inferred that, as the Passover had just been celebrated, the wave-sheaf, which was a necessary preliminary to harvest (Lev. xxiii, 14), had already been offered. This, as all par- ties agree, could not be done before the 16th of Nisan, and hence Keil and others unwarrantably assume that this was the day in question. But we know, from its use elsewhere (Numb, xxiii, 3), that the phrase "mor- row after [Heb. of] the Passover" was the day im- mediately succeeding the Paschal meal, i. e. the 15th of Nisan. The wave-sheaf had not therefore at that time been offered, and the Israelites could not have stood upon ceremony in eating the new grain, probably be- cause they had not yet become settled in their posses- sion to which the law in question was specially applica- ble (Lev. xxiii, 10; comp. Numb, xv, 18). (2.) The definite art. in raii'tl in the ordinance under consider- ation merely indicates it as the one Sabbath of the Pas- chal week, and cannot refer to any other of the Pass- over days in the context, which are not (either there or elsewliere) designated by this term. Nor is the word ri2'j. Sabbath, ever used in Biblical Hebrew in the sense of a literal week, as the Rabbinical tlieory assumes. The seven Sabbaths are termed _/)/W (riTa'^nin, "com- plete") because they are exclusive of the terminus a
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quo, contrary to the usual Jewish practice, which is to inchiile both extremes. (3.) Tlie reckoning of Pente- cost from tlie Sabbath proper would not disagree with the classification of the other Jewish feasts by terms of seven, nor tend to displace either that or the Passover in the calendar ; for the other feasts were not depend- ent upon the Pentecost, and the fifty days would be equally regular and harmonious from whatever point reckoned. (4.) The weight of Jewish authority is of little account, and the accession of Christian writers is of still less, since there is known to have been an early difference of opinion and practice on this point. The two instances occurring in the New-Test, history are decidedly adverse to the Kabbinical mode of computa- tion, namely, the "second Sabbath after the first," on which Jesus passed through the fields of standing corn (Luke vi, 1) [see Second-i<'iijst Sabbath], and the first Pentecost of the Christian Church, which by the traditionar}^ calendar would have fallen on the Sabbath (the seventh after that of the crucifixion), and not on Sunday, as generally admitted. See Pentecost ; Sab- bath, MOKliOW afteu.