were probably loose statements rather than measured distances ; and both arc below the ordinary estimate of 2000 cubits. Taking all circumstances into account, it seems likely that the ordinary Sabbath-day's journey was a somewhat loosely determined distance, seldom more than the whole and seldom less than three quar- ters of a geographical mile. See Selden, De Jure Nat. et Gent, ill, 9 ; Frlschmuth, Dissert, de Itin. Sabbat. (1070); Walthcr, lJisscrt.de Itin. Sabbat.; both in The- saiirus T/ieoloff. I'/iilof/. (Amsterd. 1720).
II. Cases in which the Limits of a Sabbath-day's Jovr- ney could be exceeded. — Though the laws about the Sab- bath-day's journey are very rigorous, and he who walked beyond the 2000 yards, or moved more than four yards farther than his temporary place of abode, when the Sabbath-day's journey had not been determined before- hand, received forty stripes save one ; yet in cases of public or private service, when life was in danger, peo- ple were allowed to overstep the prescribed boundary (Mlshna, Erubin, iv; liosh - hashanah, 11, 5). The Pharisees, or the orthodox Jews in the days of our Sav- iour, also contrived other means whereby the fraternity of this order could exceed the Sabbath-day's walk with- out transgressing the law. They ordained that all those who wished to join their social gatherings on the Sab- bath were to deposit on Friday afternoon some article of food iji a certain place at the end of the Sabbath- day's journey, that it might thereby be constituted a domicile, and thus another Sabbath-day's journey could be undertaken from the first terminus. See Pharisee. This mode of connecting or amalgamating the distances ('""■airisn m"!"!"), as it is called, is observed by the orthodox Jews to the present day. Such importance have the Jews, since their return from the Babylonian captivity, attached to the Sabbath-day's journey that a whole tractate in the Mlshna (Erubin') is devoted to it. Hence the phrase is mentioned in the New Test. (Acts 1, 12) as expressive of a well-known law, and the so- called Jerusalem Targum translates Exod. xvi, 29, "And let no man go walking from his place beyond 2000 yards on the seventh day," while the Chaldee parar phrase of Eutli 1, 10 makes Naomi say to Ruth, "We are commanded to keep sabbaths and festivals, and not to walk beyond 2000 yards" (comp. Mlshna, Erubin, c. v ; Rosh-hashanah, 11, 15; P)abylon 'Y&\mn(\, Erubin, 56 b, 57 a; Zuckermann, in Frankel's Monatsschriftfiir Ge- schichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums [Breslau, 1863J, xll,467 sq.).— Kitto ; Smith.
Sabbath-scliool. See Sunday-sciiooi-.
Sabtatians, a Judalzlng section of the Novatians, who owed their origin to Sabbatius, a presbyter that had been ordained by Marclan (Socrat. Hist. Eccl.v, 20; vll, 15). They assumed the name of Protopaschltes, and refused to communicate with any but those who adopted with them the Quartodeciman rule in regard to the paschal festival. The Sabbatlans were Included among heretics who were condemned in A.D. 381 by the seventh canon of the Council of Constantinople (Mansi Condi, ill, 503). — Blunt, Did. of Sects, s. v.
Sabbatic River, a stream of Palestine, described by ancient writers as flowing only on the Sabbath day (ileland, Pala-st. p. 291). Josephus locates it between Arce and Raphanaca (ll'^r, vll, 24). Thomson thinks that the intermittent fountain of Nebo el-Filar, in the valley of Mar Jirius, west of Kulat Husu, near Tripoli, may have been the origin of the fountain, as it seems to contain a siphon for carrying off the overflow of the water {Land and Book, i, 496 sq.).
Sabbatical Year, the septennial rest for the land from all tillage and cidtlvation enjoined in the Mosaic law (Exod. xxlll, 10, 11 ; Lev. xxv, 2-7; Deut. xv, 1- 11; xxxl, 10-13; comp. Josephus, ,4 jiMll, 12,3). (The following art. is based upon that of Ginsburg in Kit-to's Cyclnpredia, with additions from other sources.)
I, Karnes and their Siynijication. — In the Mosaic legis-
SABBATICAL YEAR
200
SABBATICAL YEAR
lation this festival is called by four names, each of which expresses some feature connected with the observance thereof. Thus it is called— (1) 'linad nnu, Rest of entire Best, or Sabbath of Sabbatism (Lev. xxv, 4; A.V. " Sabbath of rest"), because the land is to have a com- plete rest from all tillage and cultivation; (2) TV^ "|in2'>l3 the Year of Sabbatism or Rest (Lev. xxv, 5, " j'ear of rest"), because the rest is to extend througli the year; (3) iHIi^Ui, or more fully ii:2"CTi"n Pld, "/^e- lease,^' Remission, or "^^e Year of Release'^ (Deut. xv, 1, 2, 9), because on it all debts were remitted; and (4) rSTifil rsp, "t/ie Sevmtk Year'" (Deut. xv, 9), because it is to be celebrated every seventh year, for which reason it is called in the Hebrew canons kut t^ox>]v, 'r\''ZS''^'V, the Seventh (i. e. M5iy, Year), as is also the name of the tractate in the Mishna (^Shebiith) treating on the sabbatical year. Josephus styles it the i^^hofxa- TiKOQ or aajijiaTiKOQ iviavToQ (Ant. xiv, 10, (J; 1(5, 2; XV, 1,2); once apyov tTog ( War, i, 2, 4).
IL The Laws connected icith this Festical. — Like the j-ear of jubilee, the laws respecting the sabbatical year embrace tirree main enactments — (1) Kest fur the soil; (2) care fur the poor and for animals; and (3) remission of debts.
The Jirst enactment, which is comprised in Exod. xxiii, 10, 11; Lev. xxv, 2-5, enjoins that the soil, the vineyards, and the olive-j-ards are to have (lerfect rest ; there is to be no tillage or cultivation of any sort, at least in Palestine (comp. Tacit. J/ist. v, 4, 3). What constitutes tillage and cultivation, and how much of labor was regarded as transgressing the law, may be seen from the following definitions of the Hebrew can- ons: "Tlie planting even of trees which bear no fruit is not allowed on the sabbatical year; nor may one cut oif withered or dried-up boughs of trees, nor break off the withered leaves and branches, nor cover the tops with dust, nor smoke under them to kill the insects, nor be- smear the plants with any kind of soil to protect them from being eaten by the birds when they are tender, nor besmear the unripe fruit, etc., etc. And whoso docs one of these things in the sabbatical j-ear is to receive the stripes of a transgressor" (Mnimonidcf, Jad I/u-Chezahi flil/ioth Shemita Ve-Jobel, i, 5). Auj'thing planted wit- tingly or unwittingly had to be plucked up by its roots (iMishna, Terum. ii, 3). Thus it was a regulation re- quiring all the land periodically to lie fallow (Philo, 0pp. M, 207, 277, 631), and as a year of rest corresponded with the Sabbath or day of rest (ibid, ii, 631 ; Josephus, I. c; IVar, i, 2, 4; Tacit. /. c.) ; in fact, a Sabbath year, just as the Essenes, besides the seventh day, observed a sabbath of weeks each seventh week (Philo, 0pp. ii, 481).