Rest Days; A Sociological Study 125 



But a sporadic adoration of this planet at a degenerate period 

 in Hebrew life when the Chosen People were giving themselves 

 over to astrology, divination, and the worship of the heavenly 

 bodies, is scarcely sufficient to account for an institution which 

 reaches back to the beginnings of Israelitish history. At a much 

 later date the Jews became familiar with the astrological notions 

 concerning the influence of the planets on human destinies and 

 with the assignment of the seven week days to the seven planets. 

 These imported superstitions appear to have led the rabbis to 

 call Saturn Shobbti, " the star of the Sabbath." Here, however, 

 we have not a naming of the day after the star, but a naming 

 of the star after the day. It is only in the first century A.D. 

 that we find any certain evidence that the Jewish Sabbath always 

 corresponded to Saturn's day or Saturday.^ 



Putting aside such outworn theories a brief reference may 

 be made to those which account for the Sabbath as partly a 

 borrowed institution. To hold, as many pan-Babylonians have 



"C/. W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen Archdologie, Strassburg, 

 1894, ii. 141 sq.; Schiirer, in Zeitschrift fiir die neutestamentliche Wissen- 

 scliaft, 1905, vi. 6 sq., 19. Saturn came to assume the role of sidus tris- 

 tissiniuin or Stella iniquissima and hence to the Romans Saturday ap- 

 peared to be a day of bad omen. The oldest reference to Saturday is 

 that given by Tibulhis who died in 19 B. C. (Saturni aut sacrmn me 

 fenitisse diem, Elegiae, i. 3, 18). This line may possibly refer to the 

 Jewish Sabbath ; at any rate it seems probable that the evil associations 

 of the day were due to the diffusion of the Jewish Sabbath which was 

 known to the Romans (though imperfectly) as early as the last century 

 of the Republic. Dio Cassius (xxxvii. 17) speaks of the Jews having 

 dedicated to their God the day called the day of Saturn " on which, among 

 other peculiar actions, they undertake no serious occupation." There is 

 an old Talmudic story which tells how Moses, having arranged with 

 Pharaoh for a day of rest to be observed by the Hebrews, was asked what 

 day he thought most suitable for the purpose. Moses answered : " The 

 seventh, which is dedicated to the planet Saturn ; works done on this day 

 do not. as a rule, prosper in any case" (Delitzsch, Babel and Bible, 102). 

 In modern Bengal, Sani or Saturn is much dreaded and is carefully pro- 

 pitiated, either on Saturdays, or on particular occasions when astrological 

 calculations indicate that a visitation from him is to be specially feared 

 (Gait, in Census Report, 1901, i. 189). 



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