ON THE ORIGIN OF WEEKS AND SABBATHS. 341 



not appear either in Psalms or Proverbs. But there is more than 

 a mere omission to mention a weekly sabbath in the old historical 

 books ; there is evidence that the institution was unknown, for 

 many occurrences are described by which the weekly sabbath, had 

 it existed, mnst have been violated. Jericho was encompassed 

 for seven days in succession, which must, therefore, have included 

 one weekly sabbath (Joshua, vi, 13-16). During the events nar- 

 rated in I Samuel, xxix and xxx, David was on the march for 

 twelve days in succession, without any day of rest being observed ; 

 and, since Solomon gave a feast to the people of Israel which lasted 

 fourteen days (I Kings, viii, 05, and II Chronicles, vii, 9), and so 

 must have included two sabbaths, he could have known nothing 

 of the injunction that on the sabbath every man was to abide in 

 his own place (Exodus, xvi, 29). Elijah must likewise have broken 

 the rest of several weekly sabbaths (I Kings, xix, 7, 8). In the 

 article on Marriage and Kinship among the Ancient Israelites * we 

 gave several valid reasons for supposing that the Levitical law 

 was not compiled till about the period of the Babylonian captiv- 

 ity, and this ignorance of the institution of the weekly sabbath 

 on the part of those who must have known about it, had it existed, 

 is an additional reason. We can not suppose that the sabbath 

 rest was willfully broken, for its violation was considered so grave 

 a crime as to be punished with death. 



But, while there is a complete silence on the subject of the 

 weekly sabbath in the books we have mentioned, we find moon- 

 worship and the festival of the new moon referred to in more 

 than one place. The passages in I Samuel, xx, 5, 18, 24, and 26 

 clearly refer to a new-moon festival. Psalm Ixxxi, 3, is explicit ; 

 it runs : " Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time ap- 

 pointed, on our solemn feast day.'' Proverbs, vii, 19, 20, implies 

 that the day of the new moon was a day of rest : " For the good 

 man is not at home, he is gone a long journey : he hath taken a 

 bag of money with him, and will come home at the new moon." 

 The passage in Job, xxxi, 26, 27" If I beheld the sun when it 

 shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath 

 been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand " shows 

 that moon-worship was known, and, according to II Kings, xxi, 

 3, 5, and xxiii, 5, it was practiced by some of the kings of Judah. 

 Indeed, a new- moon festival could only originate with moon- wor- 

 ship. 



to-day ? It is neither new moon nor sabbath." This implies that it was only customary to 

 visit "men of God" on such days; but in Exodus, xvi, 29, we find the injunction, "Let no 

 man go out of his place on the seventh day." The word sabbath in this case must, there- 

 fore, either be a later addition to the text, or refer to a holy day different from the sabbath 

 ultimately adopted. 



* Popular Science Monthly, January, 1893. 



