58 



SABBATH 



But it was the Jewish Sabbath that left its mark 

 on the religious history of the world. Even on 

 the traditional view of the date and origin of the 

 several parts of the Pentateuch and the Old Testa- 

 ment, it seems obvious that, whatever may have 

 been the date of its institution, the laws and 

 customs regulating its observance grew greatly 

 in detail and in strictness. Hut if the Deuteronomic 

 and priestly legislation (see BIBLE, PENTATEUCH) 

 lie regarded as much later than the Jehovist docu- 

 ments, the gradual development in stringency of 

 the Sabbath ordinances becomes still more patent. 

 \\ ellhausen and his school hold that new moon 

 -and Sabbaths were originally lunar festivals, regu- 

 lated by the phases of the moon ; and that, although 

 there is little about the new moon in the Pentateuch, 

 it originally stood on a somewhat similar footing 

 with the Sabbaths, and was celebrated in the 

 same manner (see Amos, viii. 5; 2 Kings, iv. _'_'. 23) 

 viz. with such rest from labour as was the natural 

 accompaniment of a festival, a festival, tun. origin- 

 ally marked even by mirth (Hosea, ii. 13). The 

 new-moon feast was probably allowed to fall into 

 desuetude as being so constantly associated with 

 idolatrous and unholy rites by the heathen. The 

 Jehovist and the Deuterononiist in dealing with the 

 Sabbath have chiefly agricultural lalKmr in their 

 eye : the masters who can rest when they will are 

 not commanded to rest themselves, but to let their 

 servants and cattle rest. But in the priestly legis- 

 lation the Sabbath is less of a festival and more 

 of an ascetic observance, rest being inculcated in 

 and for itself, not as relief and refreshment from 

 toil, but as a kind of offering to God ; a pious duty 

 of self-restraint and self -repression as incumbent 

 on master as on man. To go out of the camp to 

 gather manna or wood is a transgression : it is 

 Sabbath-breaking to kindle a fire or cook food ( Ex. 

 xxxv. 2, 3; xvi. 23). Jeremiah is the earliest of 

 the prophets to insist on stricter Sabbath-keeping, 

 followed by Ezekiel and the Deutero- Isaiah. Dur- 

 ing the Captivity the Sabbath was wholly separated 

 from the sacrificial service of the festival, and in- 

 creased in significance as a holy rest-day, becoming 

 along with circumcision the mark of the Jew as 

 distinguished from the Gentile. The builders of 

 the second temple had a severe struggle to secure 

 the strict sanctification of the seventh day ; but as 

 the pharisaical party increased in power the day 

 became more and more burdensome the rest of 

 the week was but a preparation for the Sabbath, 

 so that man seemed to be made for the Sabbath. 

 When Jerusalem was stormed by Ptolemy I. the 

 inhabitants would not stir in self-defence ; those 

 who had fled to escape the persecution of Antiocluis 

 Epiphanes allowed themselves to be butchered whole- 

 sale rather than resist on the holy day. Both 

 Pompey and Titus seem to have made arrange- 

 ments 'for attacking Jerusalem, relying on tne 

 strict observance of the day by the Jews. There 

 are, however, eases during the Maccabee period of 

 Jewish armies not merely defending themselves, 

 but making fierce attacks. The Mishna enumerates 

 thirty-nine principal works which are forbidden on 

 Sabbath ; and to each of them are attached several 

 minor ones which might lead to Sabbath breaking. 

 The ' Sabliath-day's journey ' the prohibition of 

 walking more than the 2000 yards rappoaad to 

 represent the distance between the ark and the end 

 of the camp seems t Ix-long to Konian times. 

 The Essenes were specially strict in their Sabbath- 

 keeping. 



On Sabbath the faithful assembled in the syna- 

 gogue in every town and hamlet within and with- 

 out Palestine! especially after the exile. Parts of 

 the Pentateuch and of the Prophets were read, 

 translated into the vernacular, and expounded. 

 Special prayers were said and sung, and the rest 



of the day was devoted to pious meditation, study 

 of the law, and serene joyfulness. For even in the 

 later Jewish period the Sabbath was still distinctly 

 a festival, 'a day of joy and delight.' Certait 

 bodily indulgences were inculcated : fasting, mourn 

 ing, and self -mortification were expressly prohibited. 

 The day was to be honoured by wearing of liner 

 garments, by taking of three meals of the beat 

 cheer available (though not of warm viands), accom- 

 panied with wine. The Karaites alone abstained 

 from all fire and light for twenty-four hours. It 

 should be added that by the .lews the Sabl>ath 

 is reckoned from Friday evening to Saturday 

 evening. 



The analogy of the weekly Sabbath helped 

 doubtless to mould the observance of a Kabtnitical 

 Year, which was apparently kept with strictness 

 after the exile, though unknown to the early legis- 

 lation. It was indeed enjoined that Hebrew slaves 

 should be set free in the seventh year ( Ex. xxi. 

 2-6), and that the seventh-year's crop should be 

 left for the poor (Ex. xxiii. 10). But there is no 

 hint that the seventh years coincided for any two 

 persons or places : still less, that one Sabbath-year 

 was held by the whole nation at the same time 

 once in seven years. But after the Exile a periodic 

 time was fairly established, the fields were left 

 absolutely fallow, and no crops sown or harvested, 

 to the severe suffering of many in evil times. 



Christ and the apostles nowhere enjoin the 

 observance of the Sabbath, but did themselves 

 observe it, though acting on the principle that the 

 ' Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 

 Sabbath,' and that 'the Son of man was lord also 

 of the Sabbath.' Christ came into collision with 

 the Pharisaic worshippers of the letter, ami was 

 more than once in danger of His life as a Sabbath- 

 breaker. Even after the death of Christ t litre is 

 no formal abrogation of the Sahliath : the apostles 

 seem still themselves to have kept it in the Jewish 

 manner. But its observance was not merely not 

 enjoined on Christian proselytes : 1'aul most ener- 

 getically insists that Gentile Christians should 

 hold themselves alwolutely free to observe it or not 

 as seemed best. There were, however, Judaisers in 

 the Christian church, whom Paul resisted ; and 

 the Kbit miles (q.v.) insisted on the keeping of the 

 Sabbath. 



Nor is there anywhere in the New Testament 

 any express statement that the first day of the 

 week was to l>e kept in place of the seventh, or 

 that the Lord's day represented or was in any way 

 the Sabbath ; though at a very early date Christ ians 

 met for worship on the day on which Christ rose 

 from the dead. The only mention of a Christian 

 Sabbath in the New Testament is Heb. iv. 9 : 

 ' There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the 

 people of God ' (New Translation), where obviously 

 the reference is not to any one day of seven. A 

 large body of Christians maintain that with the 

 death of Christ the seventh-day Sabbath ceased for 

 Christians, and that (apart from what Jewish 

 Christians might have felt it their duty to do in the 

 way of keeping the seventh day) the first day or 

 Christian Sabbath naturally and inevitably took 

 its place. Without citing any explicit authority 

 for the substitution, they insist that the fourth 

 commandment was a perpetual obligation as 

 regards keeping holy one day in seven, and that 

 the early Christian church could have no difficulty 

 or hesitation in accepting at once the guidance of 

 Providence in transferring the religious significance 

 of the Sabbath of the law to the Sabbath of the 

 new covenant; and that the Christian Sabbath has 

 ever since continued, and to the end of the world 

 will continue, obligatory on all Christians, all that 

 was essentially moral and religious in the Jewish 

 observances being applicable to the first day. 



