9. The Kenite theory is traced back to Abraham Kuenen,
The Religion of Israel, 1874, p. 274. It has been revived by Bernardus D. Eerdmans,
“Der Sabbath,” in
Vom Alten Testament: Festschrift Karl Marti, No. 41 (1925), pp. 79-83; Karl Budde,
“The Sabbath and the Week: Their Origin and their Nature,” The Journal of Theological Studies 30 (1928): 1-15; H. H. Rowley,
“Moses and the Decalogue,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 34 (1951-1952): 81-118; L. Koehler,
“Der Dekalog,” Theologische Rundschau, 1 (1929): 181.
10. The identification of Sakkuth and Kaiwan as names of Saturn has been challenged recently by Stanley Gervirtz,
“A New Look at an Old Crux: Amos 5:26,” Journal of Biblical Literature 87 (1968): 267-276; cf. William W. Hallo,
“New Moons and Sabbaths: A Case-study in the Contrastive Approach,” Hebrew Union College Annual, 48 (1977): 15. The rendering proposed by Gervirtz and Hallo is essentially similar to that of the New English Bible which reads,
“No but now you shall take up the shrine of your idol king and the pedestals of your images (Heb. adds: the star of your gods), which you have made for yourselves” (Amos 5:26).
11. On the question of the origin of the planetarian week, see Samuele Bacchiocchi,
From Sabbath to Sunday, 1977, pp. 241-247. Note that while Saturn day was initially the first day of the planetary wek, the OT Sabbath was always the seventh day of the week.
12. Joseph Z. Lauterbach points out that
“when in later Jewish works an astrological connection between Saturn and the Jews is mentioned, it is emphasized that the Jews observe the Sabbath rather to demonstrate their independence of Saturn, that they need no help whatever from him, but rely on God alone” (
Rabbinic Essays, 1951, p. 438). It is noteworthy also that Jewish rabbis called Saturn Shabbti which means
“the star of the Sabbath.” This name represents, as noted by Hutton Webster,
“not a naming of the day after the planet, but a naming of the planet after the day” (
Rest Days, 1916, p. 244).
13. Cf. E. G. Kraeling,
“The Present Status of the Sabbath Question,” The American Journal of Semitic Languages 49 (1932-1933): 218-219; G. Fohrer,
Geschichte der israelischen Religion, 1969, p. 108; J. J. Stamm, M. E. Andrew,
The Ten Commandments in Recent Research, 1967, pp. 91-92; Roland de Vaux,
Ancient Israel, Vol. II, 1965, p. 480.
14. George Smith,
Assyrian Discoveries, 1883, p. 12.
15. Hutton Webster suggests that the original calendar possibly belonged to the age of Hammurabi (
Rest Days, 1916, p. 223). William W. Hallo (n. 10) also argues that the Neo-Babylonian lunar festivals represents a survival of an older Sumerian tradition (p. 8).
16. The 19th day has been taken to represent the 49th day from the first of the preceding month, or seven evil days—ama
lemnati. However, since a lunar month lasts just over 29 days, the
“weekly” cycle between the last evil day (28th day) and the first evil day (7th day) of the next month would be eight or nine days, depending on whether the last month was of 29 or 30 days.
17. R. W. Rogers,
Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, 1912, p. 189; C. H. W. Johns,
Assyrian Deeds and Documents, II, 1901, pp. 40-41; George A. Barton,
Archeology and the Bible, 1944, p. 308; Stephen Langdon,
Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendars, 1935, pp. 73 ff.
18. Each quarter of the moon represents 7 3/4 days, thus making it impossible to maintain an exact cycle of seven days.
19 . Cf. Paul 0. Bostrup,
Den israelitiske Sabbats Oprindelse og Karakter i Foreksilsk, 1923, pp. 50-55.
20. Cf. Amos 8:5; Hosea 2:11; Isaiah 1:11-13; 2 Kings 4:23.
21. The period between two successive new moons (lunation) averages 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds.
22. See note 23.
23. It is generally recognized that the Babylonian evil days. had a religious but not a civil function. Hutton Webster (n. 15) points out that
“Nothing in the cuneiform records indicates that the Babylonians ever employed them for civil purposes. These periods seem to have had solely a religious significance” (p. 230). Similarly Siegfried H. Horn remarks,
“The cuneiform records do not say that anyone should rest on those five particular days of the month, or refrain from work, or worship the gods. They simply admonish certain persons—kings, physicians, et cetera—to avoid doing certain specified things on those five ‘evil days’” (
“Was the Sabbath Known in Ancient Babylonia? Archeology and the Sabbath,” The Sabbath Sentinel [December 1979]: 21-22). In a Neo-Babylonian calendar and in its Kassite original published by Rena Labat, the majority of the days are unfavorable and multiples of seven can be either good or bad (
“Un calendrier cassite de jours fastes et n~fastes,” Sumer 8 [1952]: 27);
“Un almanach babylonien,” Review d’ Assyrologie 38 [1941]:1340.
24. Karl Budde (n. 9), p. 6.
25. E. A. Speiser,
“The Creation Epic,” in James B. Pritchard,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 1950, p. 68. Cf. W. F. Lambert and A. R. Millard,
Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood, 1969, pp. 56f; Theophilus G. Pinches,
“Shapattu, the Babylonian Sabbath,” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology 26 (1904): 51-56.
26. Certain cuneiform tablets refer to sacrifices made to the divine kings of Ur on the new-moon and on the fifteenth day of the month. Cf. H. Radau,
Early Babylonian History, 1900, p. 314.
27. For example texts, see
Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, XVIII, 17c, d.
28. M. Jastrow argues that.~abattu was primarily a day of pacification of a deity’s anger and the idea of rest applies to gods rather than to men (
Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, 1914, pp. 134-149).
29. This theory was initially developed by Johannes Meinhold,
Sabbath und Woche im Alten Testament, 1905, pp. 3ff. In an early study (Sabbat und Sountag, 1909, pp. 9, 34), Meinhold attributed the change from monthly full-moon day to the weekly Sabbath to Ezekiel. In a later essay, however (
“Zur Sabbatfrage,” Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 48 [1930]: 128-32), he places the process in postexilic times, in conjunction with Nehemiah’s reforms. This theory has been adopted with some modifications by several scholars. Cf. Samuel H. Hooke,
The Origin of the Early Semitic Ritual, 1938, pp. 58-59; Adolphe Lods,
Israel: From its Beginning to the Middle of the Eighth Century. 1932, p. 438; Sigmund Mowinckel,
Le D&alogue, 1927, p. 90; Robert H. Pfeiffer,
Religion in the Old Testament: The History of a Spiritual Triumph, 1961, pp. 92-93
30. Karl Budde (n. 9), p. 9. Cf. E. G. Kraeling (n. 13), p. 222; J. H. Meesters,
Op zoek naar de oorsprong van de Sabbat, 1966, pp. 28-34.
31. 2 Kings 4:23 alludes to the celebration of the Sabbath in the company of the prophet Elisha (about 852-798 B.C.) and 2 Kings 11:4-12 describes the changing of guards on the Sabbath at the time when Athaliah, queen of Judah, was overthrown, about 835 B.C.
32. N. H. Tur-Sinai,
“Sabbath und Woche,” Bibliotheca Orientalis 8 (1951): 14. Tur-Sinai points out that since the Jewish month-names do not follow the Babylonian ones, the latter could hardly have influenced the month-names of the former.
33. George A. Barton,
The Royal Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad, 1929, pp. 187, 229, 253.
34. James B. Pitchard,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 1955, pp. 44, 94.
35. These are a Neo-Babylonian syllabary which lists only the first seven days of the month, apparently viewing them as a unit, and a letter admonishing to
“complete the day of the new moon, the seventh day and the day of full moon.” A. L. Oppenheim,
“Assyriological Gleanings II,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 93 (1944): 16-17; Alfred Jeremias,
Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients, 1930, p. 75. For an examination of the texts, see Horn (n. 23), pp. 20-22.
36. Friedrich Delitzsch,
Babel und Bible, 1903, p. 38. Cf. J. Hehn,
Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei den Babyloniern und im Alten Testament, 1907, pp. 444, 77-90; A. S. Kapelrud,
“The Number Seven in Ugaritic Texts,” Vetus Testamentum 18 (1968): 494-499; H. J. Kraus,
Worship in Israel, 1966, pp. 85-87; Nicola Negretti,
Il Settimo Giorno, 1973, pp. 31-109; 5. E. Loewenstein,
“The Seven Day-Unit in Ugaritic Epic Literature,” Israel Exploration Journal 15 (1965): 121-133.
37. Siegfried H. Horn (n. 23), p. 21.
38 Ibid., p. 21.
39. See below p.36.
40. For a report on 41 Flood stories from different parts of the world, see B. C. Nelson,
The Deluge Story in Stone, 1949.
41. A five-day period, known as
hamushtum, appears to have been familiar to the ancient Assyro-Babylonians. A. H. Sayce was the first to argue that the term
hamushtum, occurring in cuneiform tablets of the age of Hammurabi, represented five-day periods or a sixth of a month (
“Assyriological Notes—No. 3,” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, 19 (1897): 288. However, Julius and Hildegard Lewy interpret
hamushtum as a fifty-day period (
“The Origin of the Week and the Oldest West Asiatic Calendar,” Hebrew Union College Annual 17 (1942-43): 1-152. Another differing identification of the word, namely a six-day period or a fifth of a month has been proposed by N. H. Tur-Sinai (n. 32), pp. 14-24. Recently the five-day period identification has been defended again by Kemal Balkan,
“The Old Assyrian Week,” Studies in Honor of Benno Landberger on His Seventy-fifth Birthday April 12, 1965, (Chicago, 1965), pp. 159-174. Cuneiform texts also contain traces of five-day periods associated with lunar phases. For references, see A. Jeremias,
The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, 1911, p. 65
42. For example, J. Morgenstern confidently asserts,
“All available evidence indicates unmistakably that the sabbath can have originated only in an agricultural environment. Actually the Hebrews became acquainted with the sabbath only after they had established themselves in Palestine and had settled down there alongside their Canaanite predecessors in the land, whom in some measure they displaced, and had borrowed from them the techniques of tilling the soil, and with this various institutions of agricultural civilization, of which the sabbath was one” (
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, s.v.
“Sabbath”).
43. Willy Rordorf articulates this view emphatically but not convincingly. He maintains that
“in the oldest stratum of the Pentateuch the sabbath is, therefore, to be understood as a social institution. After every six days of work a day of rest is inserted for the sake of the cattle and of the slaves and employees∙∙∙.The observance of the sabbaLh does, therefore, point us to the period after the occupation of Canaan” (
Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church, 1968, p. 12).
44. The reason Rordorf gives for this transformation is
“the fact that from the time when the Jews were no longer in their own country they no longer had any slaves, and so they scarcely knew what to make of the motivation of sabbath observance on the ground of social ethics” (n. 43, p. 18).
45. Rordorf (n. 43), p. 11,
“We are certainly justified in regarding Ex. 23:12 and 34:21 as our earliest versions of the sabbath commandment” (italics his).
46. On the basis of this criterion the Sabbath commandment found in Exodus 20:8-11, as well as other references to the Sabbath (such as Gen. 2:2-3; Ex. 16:4-5, 22-30; 31:12-17; Lev. 23:3; Num. 15:32-36; 28:9-10) are attributed to the so-called Priestly Document. The latter, according to the modern critical view, represents the last of the four major sources of the Pentateuch and was allegedly produced around the time of Ezra 500 to 450 B.C. All the Sabbath texts of the Priestly documents are examined by Niels-Erik A. Andreasen,
The Old Testament Sabbath, A Tradition-Historical Investigation, 1972, pp. 62-89. It is noteworthy that, as admitted by Gerhard von Rad, an eminent OT scholar,
“a particularly important factor for the dating of the Priestly Document is the prominence which it gives to the Sabbath and to circumcision” (
Old Testament Theology I, 1962, p. 79). The assumption is, as von Rad readily admit, that the Sabbath had no cultic significance before the exile and that
“it was in the Exile that the Sabbath and circumcision won a status con fessionis,” that is, confessional importance (p.79). The weakness of this whole argument for the lateness of the Sabbath as a religious institution, and thus for the Priestly Document, is that it rests on the gratuitous assumption that socio-economic concerns preceded theological motivations for the Sabbath. But, is such a dichotomy really justifiable? In our view this hardly seems to be the case. See the discussion that follows. It is unfortunate that a misunderstanding of the
“wholly unparalleled institution of the Sabbath has also contributed toward the rejection of the Mosaic authorship of the Decalogue” (Solomon Goldman,
The Ten Commandments, 1956, p. 64).
47. Saul J. Berman points out that one of the functions of the legislation of the sabbatical year was to severely
“limit the institution of slavery. The critical reversal of values evident in the Torah, as opposed to what we find in general ancient Near Eastern society, is perhaps nowhere more evident than in this area. While the contemporaries of the ancient Israelites saw no evil in slavery and used their legal system to preserve the institution, the Torah manifests a clear preference for freedom and uses the legal structure to limit the evil, as well as the incidence, of slavery. Thus, Hammurabi’s Code (# 282) provides that an escaped slave who denies his status, when recaptured, is to have his ear cut off as a penalty for his crime. The Torah uses a similar though less painful penalty, the piercing of the ear, but for exactly the opposite crime, the refusal to go free after six years and insisting on remaining a slave (Ex. 21:6). The shift in values, from affirmation of slavery to its negation, could not be more obvious to people familiar with the penal system of the ancient Near East” (
“The Extended Notion of the Sabbath,” Judaism 22 [1973]: 350).
48. The liberating function of the Sabbath years is discussed in chapter V, part I.
49. In this regard Ernst Jenni has observed that the social function of the Sabbath is not separated from Israel’s redemptive experience (
Die theologische Begründung des Sabbatgebotes im Alten Testament, 1956, pp. 15-19). Note also that in Deuteronomy no less than five times appeal is made to
“remember” divine deliverance in order to be compassionate toward the defenseless in society (Deut. 5:15; 15:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22).
50. Abram Herbert Lewis,
Spiritual Sabbatism, 1910, p. 67.
51. Eduard Lohse disagrees with such an assumption. He writes,
“Absolute rest from work is enjoined by the Sabbath commandment. This order does not necessarily presuppose agricultural conditions such as obtained in Israel only after the conquest. It could well have been observed by nomads. Hence the keeping of the Sabbath goes back to the very beginning of Yahweh religion” (
“Sabbaton,” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, VII, 1971, p. 3). Cf. H. H. Rowley (n. 9), p. 117.
52. Cf. William Foxwell Albright,
Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths, 1968, pp. 64-73; John Bright,
A History of Israel, 1959, pp. 72-73; H. H. Rowley,
From Joseph to Joshua: Biblical Traditions in the Light of Archeology, 1950, pp. 157ff.
53. Similarly Solomon Goldman points out,
“Did not Roger Williams see more than most New Englanders of his day? Did he not found Rhode Island in the hope that it might serve in time to come as ‘a shelter to persons distressed for conscience’? Did not Jefferson anticipate in so many ways the America of our day? And did not Lincoln urge his generation so to formulate the law of the land as to make provision for the teeming millions that were some day to inhabit it? Why, then, is such foresight denied to Moses?” (n. 46, p. 64).
54. Cf. Friedrich Delitzsch,
Babel und Bibel, 5th ed., 1905, p. 65. Other supporters of this view are mentioned by Karl Budde (n. 9), p. 5.
55. Karl Budde notes that
“Nehemiah (Neh. 13:17-21) has to take proceedings against the Canaanite tradesmen who bring their goods into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. And even though we have little information available as to the ancient Canaanites, yet we have abundance from the contemporary Phoenicians, their kinsmen, over the whole of the Mediter-ranean as far as Carthage, Gaul, and Spain: nowhere is there the slightest trace of the Sabbath; on the contrary Israel feels conscious that no parallel for it is to be found in the whole of her environment” (n. 9, p. 5). Similarly Eduard Lohse remarks,
“The idea that they might have taken over the Sabbath from the Canaanites is ruled out by the fact that no trace of the Sabbath has been found among the latter” (n. 51, p. 3).
56. Cf. E. G. Kraeling (n. 13), pp. 226-228; Martin P. Nilsson,
Primitive Time-Reckoning, 1920, pp. 324-346; H. Webster,
Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Morality, 1911, pp. 101-123; Ernst Jenni (n. 49), p. 13.
57. See above n. 36. Cf. also James B. Pritchard (n. 34), pp. 143, 144, 150, 94. Also E. G. Kraeling (n. 13), p. 228.
58 Cf. Hans-Joachim Kraus (n. 36), pp. 81-87; C. W. Kiker,
“The Sabbath in the Old Testament Cult,” Th.D. dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1968, pp. 76-111.
59. The hypothesis is weakened also by the fact that the earliest regulations regarding the annual festivals (Ex. 23:14-17; 34:18-23) do not enjoin cessation of work nor are these festivals mentioned in any way in the various references to the observance of the seventh day.
60. See above nn. 29, 30.
61. Hans-Joachim Kraus (n. 36), p. 87; J. Morgenstern (n. 42), p. 139; M. Jastrow,
“The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,” American Journal of Theology 2 (1898): 324; Georg Beer, Exodus, 1939, p. 103; Hans Schmidt,
“Mose und der Dekalog,” Eucharisterion: H. Gunkel zum 60. Geburtstage, FRLANT 19 (1923): 105; Martin P. Nilsson (n. 56), p. 331.
62 See above n. 44. Cf. Eduard Lohse (n. 51), p. 5:
“In the postexilic community the Sabbath commandment is indeed the most important part of the divine law.” Harold H. P. Dressler similarly maintains that
“pre-exilic Israel did not keep the Sabbath as a religious institution until the Babylonian Exile” (
“The Sabbath in the Old Testament,” in
From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical and Theological Investigation, D. A. Carson, ed., 1982, p. 32.
63. See above n. 30.
64. That Ezekiel is not transforming the Sabbath from a social to a religious institution is indicated also by the fact that he associates the profanation of the Sabbath with the disregard for social obligations toward parents, strangers and the underprivileged (Ezek. 22:7-8). The social and religious aspects of the Sabbath are viewed by the prophet as mutually dependent.
65. Niels-Erik Andreasen,
Rest and Redemption, 1978, p. 29, underscores this point, writing,
“To be sure, the prophet Ezekiel who lived in captivity during this period mentions the sabbath repeatedly, but he nearly always speaks of it in connection with the Jerusalem temple and its holy things(Ezek. 22:8, 26; 23 :38), or in connection with the future temple for which he fervently hoped (Ezek. 44:24; 45:17; 46:1-4, 12).” 66. See below, pp. 35, 44.
67. See, for example, the tractate
Shabbath, 7, 2, in H. Danby,
The Mishnah, 1933, pp. 100-136; George Foot Moore,
Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era, 1946, pp. 19-39; 5. T. Kimborough,
“The Concept of Sabbath at Qumran,” Revue de Qum ran 5 (1962): 483-502; 1 Macc. 2:29-41; 1:15, 60; 2 Macc. 6:10; Jub. 50:8.
68. See below, pp. 163-165.
(25.5)