William Robertson Smith, and Stanley Arthur Cook, and Claude Hermann Walter Johns

“ Astrology is in its nature an occult science, and there is no trace of a day of twenty-four hours among the ancient Hebrews. Moreover, it is doubtful from extant remains of Assyrian calendars whether the astrological week prevailed in civil life even among the Babylonians and Assyrians. They did not dedicate each day in turn to its astrological planet; and it is therefore precarious to assume that the Sabbath was in its origin what it is in the astrological week, the day sacred to Saturn, and that its observance is to be derived from an ancient Hebrew worship of that planet. ”

“ The week, however, is found in various parts of the world in a form that has nothing to do with astrology or the seven planets, and with such a distribution as to make it pretty certain that it had no artificial origin, but suggested itself independently, and for natural reasons, to different races. In fact, the four quarters of the moon supply an obvious division of the month; and, wherever new moon and full moon are religious occasions we get in the most natural way a sacred cycle of fourteen or fifteen days, of which the week of seven or eight days (determined by half moon) is the half. ”

“ The difference between this and the later law is that the seventh year is not called a Sabbath, and that there is no indication that all land was to lie fallow on the same year. In this form a law prescribing one year’s fallow in seven may have been anciently observed, but it scarcely originated from the analogy of a seventh day of rest. It is extended in v 11 to the vineyard and the olive oil, but here the culture necessary to keep the vines and olive trees in order is not forbidden; the precept is only that the produce is to be left to the poor. ”

“ Even if it could be shown that the Pentateuchal regulations were universally observed in Israel from Mosaic times, it would not preclude a certain indebtedness to Babylonia for at least the germ of the institution. On the other hand, complete indentity of regulations and observance in Babylonia and Israel at one period need not show more than development on the same lines. The evidence of Babylonian observance has not yet been exhaustively considered. ”

“ Thus for the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and also the 19th days of the intercalary Elul it is prescribed that “the shepherd of many nations is not to eat meat roast with fire nor any food cooked by fire, he is not to change the clothes on his body nor put on gala dress, he may not bring sacrifices nor may the king ride in his chariot, he is not to hold court nor may the priest seek an oracle for him in the sanctuary, no physician may attend the sick room, the day is not favourable for invoking curses, but at night the king may bring his ift into the presence of Marduk and Ishtar. ”

“ He appeals to the oldest history rather than to the Pentateuchal code as proving that the later conception of the law was unknown in ancient times (Matt. xii.” 3 seq.) , and to the exceptions to the Sabbath law which the Scribes themselves allowed in the interests of worship (v. 5) or humanity (v, rr) , as showing that the Sabbath must originally have been devoted to purposes of worship and humanity, and *was not always the purposeless arbitrary thing which the school men made it to be. ”

“ But of, course the complete observance of Sunday rest 'was not generally possible to the early Christians before Christendom obtained civil recognition. [6]
5. Origin.—As the Sabbath was originally a religious feast, the question of the origin of the Sabbath resolves itself' into 'an inquiry why and in what circle a festal cycle of seven days was first established. In Gen. ii. 1-3 and in Exod. xx. II the Sabbath is declared to be a memorial of the completion of the work of creation in six days. ”

“ But that it was destitute of any properly religious ob servance or meaning is inconceivable, for, though many of the religious ideas of the old Hebrews were crude, their institutions were never arbitrary and meaningless, and when they spoke of conseciating the Sabbath they must have had in view some religious exercise of an intelligible kind bywhichg they paid worship-to Yahweh. Indeed, that theold Hebrew Sabbath was quite different from the Rabbinical Sabbath is demonstrated in the trenchant criticism which Jesus directed against the latter (Matt. xii. 1-14; Mark ii. 27) . ”