TO- NOTES. 



most original and most general among the Semitic nations ; not only among 

 the Hebrews, but also among the Arabian Nomades long before Mahomet. 

 1 proposed to a learned investigator of Semitic antiquity, the Oriental tra* 

 veller, Prof. Tischenflorf, at Leipsic, the questions, whether there were in 

 the writings of the Old Testament, besides the Sabbath, any traces of names 

 for the several days of the week (other than the second and third day of the 

 schebua) ; and whether there could nowhere be found in the New Testament, 

 at a time when foreign residents in Palestine certainly already pursued plane- 

 tary astrology, any planetary denomination for a day of the week ? The 

 answer was : " Neither in the Old nor the New Testament are there any traces 

 of appellations for any of the days of the week taken from the planets, and, 

 moreover, none such can be found either in the Mischna or the Talmud. The 

 custom was not to say 'the second or the third of the schebua,' but to count by 

 the days of the month : the day before the Sabbath was called ' the 6th day,' 

 without any addition. The word Sabbath was also applied directly to the week 

 itself (Ideler, Handbuch der Chronologic, Bd. i. S. 480), whence we find in the 

 Talmud, for the several days of the week : first, second, third of the Sabbath. 

 The word 4j88ojuAs, for schebua, is not in the New Testament. The Talmud, 

 of which the redaction extends from the second into the fifth century, has 

 descriptive Hebrew names for particular planets, i. e. the bright Venus and 

 the ruddy Mars. The name of Sabbatai (properly, Sabbath-star), given to 

 Saturn, is particularly remarkable, as is also the circumstance that among 

 the Pharisaic names of stars enumerated by Epiphanius, the name Hochab, 

 Sabbath, is used for the planet Saturn. May this have had any influence in 

 causing the day of the Sabbath to become the day of Saturn ; Saturday, the 

 Saturni sacra dies of Tibullus (Eleg. i. 3, 18) ? A passage of Tacitus 

 (Hist. v. 4) suggests additional considerations, taking the name of Saturn 

 as applicable both to the planet and to a partly legendary, partly historical 

 personage." (Compare also Fiirst, Kultur- und Xitteratur-geschichte der 

 Juden in Asien, 1849, S. 40.) 



The phases of the Moon in her different quarters must assuredly have 

 earlier attracted the atteution of hunting and pastoral nations than astrolo- 

 gical fancies. We may, therefore, well assume with Ideler, that the week has 

 arisen from the length of the synodical month, of which the fourth part 

 contains on the average 7 days and |ths ; and that, on the other hand, 

 references to the planetary series or the intervals between the planets, as well 

 as to planetary hours and days, belong to a wholly different period, and to a 

 more advanced, theory-loving civilisation. 



