Bible Dictionaries
Sabbath

　　1. The Jewish Sabbath in apostolic days.-For the whole subject in its most general aspect readers are referred to the various Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries wherein the Sabbath is discussed. It is enough if here we briefly set forth what were its chief features as a Jewish festival in the days of the early Church.

　　In common with other ancient institutions of a similar kind, the Sabbath had undergone great modifications with the passing centuries, although preserving the essential character of one day in seven, observed mainly by a cessation of daily business and work. Shabbâth (whatever may be said of an Assyrian ðabbatum in support of a theory which gives a Babylonian origin to the institution) is undoubtedly connected with the verb shabhath, ‘to cease,’ ‘to desist from’; and cessation from labour was its most conspicuous and primitive characteristic (Exodus 20:9 f. = Deuteronomy 5:12 ff., Exodus 23:12; Exodus 34:21).

　　The Sabbath with which the NT makes us familiar is specially the product of post-Exilic times. There is a paucity of reference to the Sabbath in pre-Exilic days which is most striking. Yet the two or three references that occur (2 Kings 4:23, Amos 8:5) mention it as a well-established and familiar institution, and Amos in particular makes it clear that cessation from business was a special feature of the day. But after the Exile greater prominence is given to it (Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 56:4; Isaiah 56:6; Isaiah 58:13 f.). Nehemiah 13:15-22 gives us a picture of vigorous Sabbath-reform. Its observance is not by any means introduced as a new thing. Rather it is the reestablishment, with new rigour, of an institution which had been allowed to lapse into a variety of abuses or even actual neglect (see Lamentations 2:6). We must also include in these post-Exilic references such passages as Jeremiah 17:19-27 and Ezekiel 20, with their glowing promises attached to Sabbath observance and solemn warnings against its profanation. These utterances indicate that rehabilitation of the Sabbath which increasingly characterized Judaism as it emerged purified and refined from the fires of the Exile.

　　It is clear that in the time of our Lord the observance of the Sabbath was one direct occasion of an open breach between Him and the religious authorities of His day. The well-known and remarkable logion found in cod. D (Luke 6:10), if it is to be relied upon, particularly illustrates the difference in standpoint so far as work was concerned. As for special religious services associated with the Sabbath, the synagogue was the particular scene of these devotions. The importance of the synagogue as a centre of Jewish life became greater and greater as the central sanctuary of the Temple declined and ultimately perished. In the Diaspora it was inevitable that this should be the course of development. So in the Acts of the Apostles the synagogue is the main scene of the first appeal of Christian preachers to the Jews, and the Sabbath was the special day on which they carried on their propaganda. How rich the day was, e.g., in opportunity for St. Paul from the first we see from Acts 13:14; Acts 13:44; Acts 14:1; Acts 16:13; Acts 17:2; Acts 18:4, etc.

　　Moreover, the observance of the Sabbath by cessation from labour was one outstanding peculiarity of the Jews which most forcibly struck the heathen observer. It is one special mark of the Jew as we meet him in the generally unfriendly pages of Roman authors. Seneca, e.g., is represented by St. Augustine as ignorantly condemning the Sabbath-keeping of the Jews: ‘quod per illos singulos septem interpositos dies septimam fere partem aetatis suae perdant vacando et multa in tempore urgentia non agendo laedantur’ (de Civ. Dei, vi. 11). For other references see Tac. Hist. v. 4; Hor. Sat. I. ix. 69; Juv. Sat. xiv. 96-106.

　　This shows indubitably how well Sabbath was kept by the Jews. Not only so; they suffered considerable hardship in adhering to a custom that was wholly disregarded by the world in general. At an earlier period, indeed, we read of certain Jews who perished rather than violate the Sabbath by fighting on that day (1 Maccabees 2:34-38). This led in those troublous times to a relaxation of the law, so that fighting on the defensive was permissible. Ultimately the Romans were obliged to release the Jews from military service, and that, among other things, on account of the great inconveniences attendant on Sabbath observance (Jos. Ant. xiv. 10).

　　Beside this we have the enormous importance attached to the Sabbath by tradition and instruction amongst the Jews themselves. The reference to the ‘Sabbath day’s journey’ ( Lord’s Day). The two existed side by side, alike yet different. In the Apostolic Constitutions, which reflect in this as in some other respects the usages of earlier times, we find more than one reference to the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day together as days equally to be observed (ii. 59, vii. 23, viii. 33). A stray papyrus-leaf discovered in middle Egypt in 1911, which appears to be a portion of a prayer-book that must have been familiar in Eastern Christian circles, probably in the 2nd cent., bears unexpected witness to this early custom. It contains what is called a Ἰουδαϊκῶς) and rejoice in days of idleness.… But let every one of you keep Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law’ (ch. 9). In the nature of things, the two days could not continue to be equally observed in the Christian Church. The Sabbath must needs give place to the Lord’s Day: the seventh day of the week to the first. The legislation of Constantine (a.d. 321), which recognized Sunday as a feast day, must have been no small factor in the case; though, again, that would not have been enacted if the custom of keeping the Lord’s Day had not already been predominant among Christians. As a concession to paganism, it may be noticed that the studied name given to the day (dies solis) ‘afforded the possibility of its universal encouragement, without thus appearing to enforce directly an ecclesiastical celebration’ (W. Mceller, History of the Christian Church, Eng. translation[Note: JP History of the Jewish People (Eng. tr. of GJV).][Note: BL Journal of Biblical Literature.] (J. H. Greenstone); articles ‘Festivals and Fasts (Hebrew)’ (F. H. Woods), and ‘Festivals and Fasts (Christian)’ (J. G. Carleton), in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics