Journal of
Biblical Literature 33 (1914) 201-12.
Public Domain.
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT
(Its Origin
and Development)
THEOPHILE JAMES MEEK
THE
question of the Hebrew Sabbath is still one of the vex-
in, problems of Old Testament study, despite
Langdon's
declaration that "the origin and meaning of the
Hebrew Sabbath
are philologically and historically clear" (Sumerian and Baby-
lonian Psalms, p. XXIII). The conclusions presented in this
paper may not be without their difficulties, but to
the writer, at
least, they seem best to represent the evidence as at
present
known. It may be of interest to note that they were
arrived at
quite independently of Zimmern,
Meinhold and others, with
whose conclusions it was afterwards found they are in
general
agreement.
It was Zimmern in
1904, in the "Zeitschrift der
Deutschen
Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft",
who first suggested in print
that the Sabbath was originally the day of the full
moon. Mein-
hold followed him in 1905 with a more elaborate
treatment of
the thesis, Sabbat und Woche im A. T., and again in
1909
in the "Zeitschrift fur Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft".
The
hypothesis has been accepted by Beer (Sabbath: Der Mishna-
tractat Sabbat) and by Marti (Geschichte der Israelitischen
Religion, etc.), but has not
received the consideration from
English-speaking
scholars, I believe, that is its due.
Sabbath in
The origin of the Sabbath is certainly not to be
found with
the Hebrews themselves. Ultimately it is “to be traced back
201
202 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
to those nomadic ancestors of the Hebrews and the
Canaanites,
who paid chief homage to the moon, whose benign
light guided
them in their night journeys over the plains of
northern
(Kent, Israel's
Laws and Legal Precedents, p. 257). The Sabbath
most probably harks back to the remotest Semitic
antiquity and
like taboo, sacrifice, ancestor-worship and the
like, was evidently
an institution shared by all.
The name, Sabbath, first appears in
stitution may, in fact, be traced
back to the early pre-Semitic
inhabitants of that land, the Sumerians. In a
bilingual tablet,
K.
6012 + K. 10684, containing a list of the days of the month, the
equation U-XV-KAMI = sa-bat-ti (line 13) appears, i. e. the 15th
day of the month was known in
further, it is the only one of the month that is
so named (see
Pinches, PSBA,
1904, pp. 51 ff.).
Now the Babylonian month
was a lunar month of approximately 30 days and the
15th day,
or the middle of the month, would be the day of
the full moon.
We
would infer, then, that the sabattu was identical with the
day of the full moon and with it alone.
This is further suggested by all the references
to the Sabbath
in Babylonian literature that are at present
known. In another
bilingual text, C. T. XII 6, 24, we have the
equation U (Sumerian
for "day") = sa-bat-tu, i.
e. the Sabbath was to the Babylonians
"the day par excellence, one of the great festival days of
the
month. In the Creation Story, Tablet V 18, the signs, XXXXX
are evidently, with Pinches and Zimmern,
to be read sa-bat-tu,
instead of [um]u XIV-tu as formerly. The usual determinative
after numerals in this tablet, as elsewhere, is kam not tu
(cf.
Creation Story, Tablet V 17, VII-kam; Gilgames Epic,
Tablet
X col. 111 49, umu
XV-kam;
etc.). With this restoration
line 18 would read: "On the [Sa]bbath thou (the moon) shalt
be equal (in both) halves". Likewise in the Gilgames Epic,
Tablet
X col. III 49 the 15th day or the Sabbath is evidently
the day of the full moon.
The sabattu was not a day of rest, on which work was pro-
hibited, for many contract
tablets are dated on that day (Kuchler,
Die Christliche
Welt,
1904, p. 296; Johns, Expositor, Nov.
1906;
MEEK:
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 203
XVIII
23 it is called um nuh
libbi i. e. a day for
the pacifi-
cation of the anger of the
deity, an appropriate day for penance.
The Sabbath used to be, and by many scholars
still is, iden-
tified with the Babylonian
"favorable, unfavorable days", which
for the intercalary month of Elul fell on the 7th,
14th, 19th,
21th, and 28th days, (IV R. 32f.), but there is
absolutely no
evidence that these have any connection
whatsoever with sabattu.
Indeed,
as we have noted, there is as yet no evidence anywhere
that sabattu was applied to any day other than the 15th, and
to assign this term to other days, as Jastrow1
and many scholars
do, is the purest assumption and is based upon a
preconceived
idea as to what the Sabbath was. Neither is there
any evidence
that the terms sabattu and nubattu have any connection with
each other.
With the Babylonians the Sabbath was manifestly
a full
moon festival and the etymology of the word would
seem to
confirm this. The root sabatu in V R. 28 e. f. is
equated with
gamaru, "to complete,
fulfill, bring to an end", or intransitively,
"to be complete". Sabattu, then, could mean the day
on which
the moon was complete or full.
Sabbath in Early
If the Sabbath was the day of the full moon with
the Baby-
lonians, we would expect it to
be the same with the early
Hebrews, to whom it was more or less indirectly
communicated.
Here
again the evidence would seem to confirm our expectations.
The
word tBAwa is probably contracted
from t;t;Bawa (so Ols-
hausen, Konig,
Driver, W. R. Smith, Cook, ecl.). The root
tbw (cf. Isa. 14:4, 24:8) in its transitive form means "to
sever,
put an end to"; in its intransitive form
"to desist, come to an
end, be at an end, be complete" (Arabic, XXXXX
"to cut off,
intercept"). The grammatical form of tBAwa, according to some,
suggests a transitive sense, "the
divider", i. e. apparently the
day that divides the month, the 15th or the day of
the full
moon. Meinhold (ZATW XXIX, 101) takes it in the intran-
sitive sense and argues for tBawa the meaning "the complete,
1 E. g. in A. J. Th., II, pp. 312ff.
204 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
the full" moon. So many derivations of the
word, however, have
been given (for a summary see Beer, Sabbath, p. 13, note 3),
that little help can be expected from the word
itself, until More
positive evidence is forthcoming. It is, at any
rate, not to be
identified with HaUn, "to rest,
repose". The idea of rest is a
later meaning that was read into the word.
All our evidence would seem to indicate that the
Sabbath in
early
of the week. The observance of the seventh day was
probably
early, for it is prescribed in both J (Ex. 34:21) and
E (Ex. 23:12),
but it could not possibly have been earlier than
the settlement
of the Hebrews in
agriculture. A periodic rest for a nomadic people is
an im-
possibility, but an economic necessity for a people
engaged in
agriculture and the like. It probably had no
relation to the
moon and with the Hebrews came to be arbitrarily
designated
as every seventh day because of the sacredness
attached to the
number seven and the sense of completeness which it
expressed
(see further Meinhold, Sabbat, pp.
13-14; Hehn, Siebenzahl und
Sabbat bei den Babyloniern
und im A. T.). In Ex. 20:8ff. and
Dt. 5:12ff., where the
Sabbath is identified with the seventh day,
all modern scholars are agreed that the law stood
originally,
“observe (variant ‘remember’) the Sabbath to sanctify it”. Ex.
20:9-11
is the addition of a late P redactor and Dt. 5 by the
large
majority of scholars is placed in or near the
Exile. In any case
it is a late amplification of the earlier, more
simply expressed
law. In no other passage in the pre-exilic
literature of the Old
Testament
is it even suggested that the Sabbath is to be iden-
tified with the seventh day. Jer. 17:10-27, since the time of
Kuenen, has been universally regarded as a scribal
gloss from
a period as late as the days of Nehemiah. The
only other re-
ferences to the Sabbath in
pre-exilic literature (with the excep-
tion of those mentioned in
the following paragraph), II Kings
11:16,
18, throw no light upon its origin.
On the other hand the Sabbath in early
timately connected with the new
moon and is uniformly coupled
with it, e. g. Am. 8:4ff., Hos.
2:13, Isa. 1:13ff., II Kings 4:23 (cf.
also the reminiscences of this association in the
later literature,
MEEK:
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 205
Ez. 45:17, 46:3, Ps. 81:3, Neh.
10:34, Isa. 66:23, I Chron.
23:31,
II
Chron. 2:3, 8:13, 31:3). Just so in Babylonian
literature the
first and the fifteenth days are grouped together (Radau, Early
Babyl. History, p. 315; Pinches, PSBA, XXVI, 09). The
Harranians had four sacrificial days in each month,
at least two
of which were determined by the conjunction and
opposition of
the moon (Encycl. Brit.,
11th edition, XXIII, 961). The ancient
Hindus
observed the new moon and the full moon as days of
sacrifice. The full moon as well as the new moon
had evidently
a religious significance among the ancient
Hebrews (cf. Ps. 81:3),
for, when the great agricultural feasts were fixed
to set dates,
the days selected were the full moons.
"Wenn nun in
alter Zeit in Israel Neumond
und Sabbat
neben einander
genannt werden, so kann der Sabbat
damals
nicht der
Tag der 4 Mondphasen gewesen sein. Denn
dann
ware ja auch der Neumond
ein Sabbat! Auch konnte der
Sabbat
nicht schon
der vom Mondwechsel
getrennte letzte Tag der
siebentagigen Woche
sein. Denn dann fielen ja Neumond und
Sabbat gelegentlich zusammen: es sind aber verschiedene Feste!
Dana
bleibt also fur den Sabbat nichts anderes ubrig, als
im
Unterschied zum Neumond an den Vollmondstag zu denken"
(Beer,
Sabbath, p. 12; cf. further Meinhold, Sabbat and Woche,
pp. 3 ff.). Eerdmans' objection, that the Sabbath is not expressly
called the full moon, is of little moment, for tbw is as explicitly
full moon as wdH is new moon.
To give further credence to this hypothesis,
there is evidently
in Lev. 23:11 (P) a trace of the fact that the
15th or the day
of the full moon was at one time known as the
Sabbath. "Denn
der ‘nach
dem Sabbat' (tbwh trHm) kommende
Tag, an dem
der Priester
beim Mazzenfest die Erstlingsgarbe fur Jahwe
weiht, kann
nur innerhalb der 7tagigen Festwoche vom 15.-21.
des 1. Monats fallen.
Ware der Sabbat hier der letzte
Tag der
7tagigen
Woche, und fiele ein Sabbat auf den 14., der aber
noch nicht
zu der Festwoche
zahlt, so wurde der erste Sabbat
der Festwoche
selbst erst auf den 21.,
also den letzten Tag der
Festwoche fallen, so dass
der ‘Tag nach dem Sabbat' gar nicht
mehr zu
der Festwoche gehoren wirde! Ganz anders,
wean
eben der
15. als der
Vollmondstag der Sabbat ist. Dann
ist
206 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
der 16., als ‘Tag nach dem
Sabbat’, am besten geeignet fur die das
Fest einleitende Weihe der Erstlingsgarbe"
(Beer, Sabbat,
p. 13).
The fact that Ezekiel so roundly rebuked the
previous gener-
ations for desecrating the
weekly Sabbath (Ez. 20:13, 16; 21:24,
22:8,
26; 23:38) indicates very clearly that it was not observed in
the earlier period, probably because it was
unknown. Just so
Deuteronomy
condemned the Hebrews of his day for worshipp-
ing at high places,
regardless of the fact that he was the first
to prohibit such worship.
The full moon would constitute a most appropiate occasion
for a sacrificial feast, for the moon has always
had a large place
in Hebrew thought, indeed in Semitic thought
generally (cf.
Baudissin, Mond bet den Hebraern). It was supposed to exert
both a good and a bad influence on plants, animals
and men
(cf.
Ps. 121:6). As nomads and shepherds, the Hebrews regarded
the night as benevolent, the day with its withering
heat as male-
volent. Most of their journeyings, as with the Arabs today,
were made at night, and it was natural, then, that
they should
pay homage to the moon that lighted their way. In Jer. 7:18
8:2;
44:17ff. we have references to the worship of the moon
(cf,
also Judges 8:21, 26, Isa.
3:18, II Kings 23:5, Dt. 4:19; 17:3, etc.).
The
ancient Semites universally worshipped the moon and the
stars, (cf. Hommel, Der Gestirndienst der alten Araber;
B. D.,
III, 434, etc.). The old
non-agricultural Germans observed the
new moon and the full moon as religious festivals (Tacitus Ger-
mania II). The Passover was set to the full moon in
the spring
(Ex.
12:22) and probably had some connection with the moon
originally (see Meinhold,
Sabbat und Woche, p.
30). The Hebrew
traditions connect the early movements of the race
with a number
of places intimately connected with moon worship,
e. g.
ness of Sin, which the Hebrews are said to have
entered on the
15th
(the full moon) day of the month (Ex. 16:1)! The new
moon was always observed as a religious festival (I
Sam. 20,
II
Kings 4:23, Am. 8:4f., Hos.
2:13, Isa. 1:13ff., etc.). It is not
at all unlikely, therefore, that the full moon was
similarly ob-
served (cf. Ps. 81:3), and that this full moon
festival was known
as the Sabbath.
MEEK:
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 207
Gressmann (Mose und seine Zeit, pp. 461ff.) believes that
the origin of the Sabbath is to be found in Ex. 16:23ff.,
which he
regards as an ancient saga of the Hebrews. But
this passage
is universally regarded as part of the late priestly
writings. Its
account is so completely out of harmony with all
the ancient
sources which we have noted, that it can
scarcely be believed
that we have an old tradition preserved here. It is
P's inter-
pretation of an incident in
with his views elsewhere.
The manner in which the Sabbath was observed
lends further
support to the belief that it was originally a
full moon festival
and differentiates it very sharply from the Sabbath
as we know
it in post-exilic times. The older laws only
demand such
cessation from daily toil as among all ancient
peoples naturally
accompanied a day set apart as a religious festival.
"The
Greeks
and the barbarians have this is common that they ac-
company their sacred rites by a festal remission
of labor"
(Strabo X 3:9). On both the new moon and the Sabbath there
was a remission of general business (Am. 8:5). The
animals and
servants were not needed for ordinary toil and
could be used
for other purposes (II Kings 4:22f.). But the
Sabbath was not
a day of absolute rest, for it was on this day
that the guard in
the Palace and
and Jehoiada carried
through a revolution against Athaliah on
the Sabbath and considered it no desecration of the
day
(II Kings 11). Like the new moon it
was one of the stated
religious feasts of the Hebrews and was a day of
joy and festi-
vity (Hos.
2:11, cf. I Sam. 20:4ff.); it called men to the sanctuary
to make sacrifice (Isa.
1:13); it was a good day to visit a prophet
(II
Kings 4:22f.). So many people were accustomed to visit the
crowds (II Kings 11, cf. Isa.
1:11ff.). It was in a much later
period that the idea of rest and complete cessation
from all
labor was attached to the Sabbath. Like so many of
the other
religious institutions, which the Hebrews held in
common with
their Semitic kinsmen (e. g. circumcision, sacrifice,
new moon, etc.),
it came in time to acquire with them distinguishing
features of
a marked kind and to assume a new character.
208 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
Sabbath in the Pre-Exilic Prophetic Period
The Sabbath continued essentially the same
through the pre-
exilic prophetic period, except in one particular. Both
it and
the new moon seem to have fallen into disrepute
with the pro-
phets, evidently because of
their association with the moon.
The
prophets were the mighty mouth-pieces of the Yahweh
religion and looked askance upon any institution
that savored
of heathen association. Hence all forms of astral
religion were
denounced by them (Am. 5:21, Hos.
2:13, Isa. 1:13, Jer. 8:2,
19:13,
Zeph. 1:5, cf also Isa. 47:13);--were absolutely prohibited by
Deuteronomy
(Dt. 4:19; 17:3); and Josiah, stimulated thereto by
Deuteronomy,
attempted to stamp it completely out of the land
(II
Kings 23:5). This antipathy of the prophets to astral religion
even went to the extent of causing them to give
historical ex-
planations for the feasts, e. g.
in the case of the Feast of Un-
leavened Bread and Passover (Ex. 23:15, 34:18, 12:1ff.,
Dt. 16:1ff.).
The
New Moon festival is completely ignored by Deuteronomy
or struck out altogether and yet up to that time
it was con-
sidered a most important feast
(cf. I Sam. 20:4ff., II Kings 4:23,
Am. 8:5, Hos. 2:13, Isa. 1:13). Deuteronomy proper (i.
e. Ch.12-26),
nowhere mentions the Sabbath and this is
particularly striking
in view of the fact that he gives a very complete
calendar of
feasts in Ch. 16. "Es ware ja
geradezu unerhort, dass eine
schon auf Mose
zuruckgehende, das gauze Volksleben durch-
ziehende Einrichtung,
namlich die siebentagige Woche mit einem
Sabbat genannten Ruhetag am Schluss, die in nichts mehr den
Zusammenhang mit
dem Mond verriet, so ganzlich von den
deuteronomischen Gesetzgebern
ignoriert ware'' (Meinhold,
Sab-
bat and Woche, p. 8).
The prophets were great social reformers and
little interested
in the ritual. With them the element of rest, that
was attached
to the Sabbath, was given first place, that of worship
was made
secondary, evidently because of its heathen
association. In this
probably is to be found the beginning of a
movement whereby
the Sabbath was separated altogether from the moon
and iden-
tified with the seventh day
and complete rest prescribed for its
observance (cf. Dt. 5:13ff.).
MEEK:
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 209
Sabbath in the Exilic Period
From what has been said about the attitude of
the prophets
to the Sabbath, it might be expected that the
institution would
have disappeared altogether in the period of the
Exile. But
the very reverse is the case. It was emphasized as
it never was
before. And this is a fact not hard to explain. The
exilic
period was in many respects a reaction against that
immediately
preceding it. Under the influence of the
priest-prophet Ezekiel
and his school the ritualistic feature of the
Yahweh religion was
tremendously emphasized. The Yahweh
religion stood in such
dire peril that it seemed necessary to accentuate
its peculiar
forms and institutions in order to perpetuate its
existence.
Hence
we have in this period the production of such legalistic
writings as the Holiness Code (Lev. 17-26 in
large part) and
the Book of Ezekiel (particularly
the elaborate Priestly Code of later years. These
legalistic
writers, in contradistinction from the prophets,
were careful to
preserve all the institutions of ancient
ritualistic form.
Another reason for the important place given to
the Sabbath
during the Exile grew out of the Deuteronomic
reform. That
had closely bound all the religious feasts to the
now-destroyed
temple and sacred city. Hence they necessarily, for a
time at
least, fell into abeyance in so far as their
observance was con-
cerned. The Sabbath
Deuteronomy had not mentioned and it
alone could be observed by all the exiles wherever
they were.
It
met a deep need and kept alive their faith in the Yahweh
religion. Indeed for many it became the symbol of
the ritual
as a whole. Its observance became the distinctive
mark of a
loyal member of the race and was one of the few
things that
remained to differentiate them from their heathen
neighbors.
No
wonder, then, that it bulked so largely in their thought and
literature.
It was in the Exile or in the years immediately
preceding it
that the Sabbath became dissociated from the moon
and came
at length to be identified with the seventh day (Ez. 46:1, cf.
Ex. 31:15 Hp). We have already noted
what was probably the
210 JOURNAL
OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
beginning of a movement in that direction. The
prophets had
vigorously denounced all astral religion. Hence
such feasts as
the New Moon and Sabbath became odious to them. On
the
other hand an observance like the seventh day as a
period of
rest and worship was quite acceptable. The exilic
leaders were
as much concerned as the prophets to differentiate
religion from all others but they chose to do it
in a different
way, viz. by a revival of the earlier ritualistic
conceptions. Ac-
cordingly they were careful to
preserve all of the old but dis-
sociated from anything that
savored of heathen practice. Hence
it was that the Sabbath was revived but now in a
new association.
It
became identified with the seventh day and in course of time
grew to be one of the most ritualistic of Jewish
institutions.
It is not difficult to conceive how this change
came about.
It
was exactly in line with the general tendencies of the times.
The
similarity of the words Sabbath (tbw) and seven (fbw)
might have had something to do with it, and likewise
the mean-
ing of the word Sabbath. In
any case it is no more difficult to
understand how the term could have been taken over
from the
full moon festival and applied to the seventh day
than it is to
understand why it should have been taken over from
the seventh
day in Christian times and applied to the first
day. With the
Christians
it received a significance radically different from
what
it previously had and its earlier connection was
soon completely
lost and forgotten.
The observance of the Sabbath in the Exilic period was al-
together in harmony with what we have already
said about the
period. The primitive ritualistic conception was
revived and
enlarged, and the necessity of abstaining from labor
emphasized,
not for man's sake, as the prophets would have put
it, but as
an element of worship--an end in itself. It was
regarded as a
sign between Yahweh and his people (Ez. 20:12, 20, Ex. 31:13 HP);
it was-to be observed as a holy day (Ez. 44:24, Ex. 31:14 HP) and
was not to be desecrated as it had been by former
generations
(Ez. 20:13-24; 22:8, 26; 23:38); it was to be strictly
observed (Lev.
19:3b,
30; 26:2) and to that end sacrifices were prescribed for it
(Ez. 44:24; 45:17; 46:1-5, 12). It was altogether a day of
abstinence
and no longer one of joy and festivity.
MEEK:
THE SABBATH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 211
Sabbath in the Post-Exilic Period
In the post-exilic period the ritualistic
character of the Sabbath
was accentuated to a greater degree than ever and
it was very
definitely connected with the seventh day (Ex. 35:1-2,
31:15-17,
Lev.
23:3, Ex. 16:22-26, all from the P document). The tendency
was to make the Sabbath a central and saving
institution, until
in the Mishnah it was
given first place among the feasts. The
restrictions with regard to its
observance became ever more and
more detailed and casuistical,
e. g. it was unlawful for one to
leave his house on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:29) or to
carry burdens
(Jer. 17:19-27); one could not make a fire on the Sabbath
(Ex.
35:3);
what food was needed for the Sabbath must be prepared
on the day previous (Ex. 16:23); in fact all
manner of work was
prohibited (Ex. 20:10, Lev. 23:3). It was to be a
day of com-
plete rest and cessation from
all toil and business of every kind
(Neh. 10:32; 3:15ff.). Indeed the priestly
law-givers did not cease
until they had made labor on that day a capital
offence (Ex.
35:2,
Num. 15:32-36). Not only was it a day holy to Yahweh
(Ex.
16:23; 31:15; 35:2), but its consecration was a law which
Yahweh
had promulgated at creation (Gen. 2:2f., Ex. 20:11).
In
this connection, however, it is of interest to note
that P never
represents the patriarchs as observing it or being
at all cognizant
of its existence. He probably believed that it was
not commun-
icated to the Hebrews until it
was delivered by Yahweh to
Moses
at Sinai (cf. Neh. 9:14). As a holy day the Sabbath
was
to be kept holy by the people and free from all
profanation
(Ex.
20:10-11, Lev. 23:3, Isa. 56:2, 4, 6; 58:13), and
special offerings
were prescribed for its observance (Num. 28:9f., I Chron. 23:3f.,
II
Chron. 2:4, 8:13, 31:3; Neh.
10:33).
It is just a little surprising that the Sabbath
is nowhere
mentioned in the Psalms or in the Wisdom Literature
of the
Old Testament. It may be that these
writers followed more
nearly in the footsteps of the earlier prophets and to
them, as
to the prophets, the priestly emphasis upon the
ritual was more
or less repugnant and they would have none of it.
Their sym-
pathies, at least, were
decidedly not with the movement whereby
the Sabbath lost completely its early joyousness
and festivity
212 JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE
and came finally to be the severest kind of burden,
fettered by
every manner of restriction and loaded down with
ritual. Little
wonder that Jesus found the Sabbath of his day
unbearable
and continually rode rough-shod over its absurd
restrictions and.
by one stroke swept them aside : "The Sabbath
was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath", (Mk. 2:27).
Please report any errors to Ted
Hildebrandt at: