In a Jewish book reverence and obey ?4 called Bereshith Rabba it is asserted that the sabbath was kept by Jacob.5 The same thing is also said by one of the Rabbins, of Joseph; 6 and the probability of these assertions appears not only from the plain reason of the case, but from the indications afforded in Scripture that both these Patriarchs were acquainted with the division of time into weeks. Jacob twice served Laban for Rachel "a week of years""-a period of which the reckoning was doubtless borrowed from that of the week of days. And Joseph devoted "seven days," or in other words a whole week, to a public mourning for his father.8 Aben Ezra, another learned Jew, presumes that Job kept the sabbath, because he offered sacrifice at the end of seven days, and is there not good reason to suppose that the day "when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord" was the day consecrated to worshipthe day of the sabbath?1 The original use of the sabbath, and its authority, independently of the Jewish law, are however yet more clearly proved by a distinct and most emphatic recognition of it, some time before the delivery of the law from Mount Sinai. Very soon after the Israelites had commenced their journey through the wil 4 Vide Selden de Jure, lib. iii. c. 13. 5 Parash 79 in Selden. 6 Bechai ad Beresith, fol. 37, col. 4. in Selden. 7 Gen. xxix, 27-20. 9 Job i, 5. 8 Gen. i, 10. 1 Job i, 6. ii, 11. derness, they were provided with the manna, which they gathered every morning. "And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord...... and they laid it up till the morning as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there shall be none..... See for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day."2 There is a plain accordance between the declaration of Gen. ii, 3, that God sanctified the seventh day, and the remarkable fact that the manna- -the miraculous gift of God -was doubled on the sixth day and stayed on the seventh. This fact, and the explanation given of it by Moses, were obviously intended to revive in the remembrance of the people, an already existing institution-to remind them of a religious duty, which although (possibly) forgotten during the period of their Egyptian bondage, had been cherished by their ances2 Exod. xvi, 22-30. tors, and had always formed a part of the system of true worship.* The division of time into weeks was familiar to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and they were accustomed to distinguish the seven days, by the names of seven of their deities: viz. the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Eusebius has selected from the works of Porphyry, (one of the early enemies of Christianity) a very old Greek oracle, quoted by that writer, in which there is a distinct reference to this division and nomenclature. It is as follows: "Invoke Mercury on his day, And in like manner the Sun on a Sunday- And Saturn and Venus, each in their order.”5 A similar custom is supposed to have been of great antiquity among the nations of the North of Europe, namely, the Goths, Celts, and Sclavonians. These nations probably derived this practice (as they did many others, 4 The Talmudists parry this argument, by pretending that the first institution of the sabbath is alluded to in the preceding chapter; where after describing the sweetening of the waters at Marah, Moses says, " And there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." Exod. xv, 25. It is obvious, however, that if the sabbath had been so very lately instituted, the rulers would have required no explanation of the doubling of the manna on the sixth day, and of the cessation of it on the seventh. 5 Κληίζειν Ερμὴν ἠδ ̓ Ηέλιον κατὰ ταῦτα Ημερῇ Ηελίου, μήνην δ ̓ ὅτε τῆς δε παρείη Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. v, cap. 14. and much of their language) from the East; for there is reason to believe that the reckoning of time by weeks, and an idolatrous nomenclature of the days, were prevalent, in very ancient times, in that quarter of the globe; especially in Chaldæa and Egypt. Dion the Roman historian, says that the custom in question originated in Egypt, and from thence, at a more modern date, pervaded the whole world.6 Grotius confirms its ancient origin in Egypt, by reference to Herodotus.7 Since this peculiar division of time agrees with no astronomical sign-certainly not with the changes in the appearance of the moonand since it is improbable that the Egyptians, or any other nation of antiquity, should borrow it from so despised a people as the Israelites, we may conclude that it was founded on a tradition respecting the original seven days. On this ground, it affords a collateral evidence of the facts recorded in the Mosaic history of the creation, and, among other facts, of the hallowing of the seventh day. That this circumstance, indeed, formed one feature of the tradition in question, is confirmed by a variety of evidence bearing expressly on the point. Eusebius, in his "Evangelical Preparations," 6 Lib. 36. Selden de Jure, lib. iii. c. 19. 7 Herod. lib. ii. Grot. de Verit. lib. i. If, Sir Isaac Newton supposes, the Egyptians borrowed their learning from the Edomites, the course of this tradition may be directly traced through Esau to the Patriarchs. Chronology of Kingdoms, p. 208. 1 has extracted a long passage from a work addressed by Aristobulus, a Jewish Platonic Philosopher, to one of the Ptolemies of Egypt, about 150 years before Christ." The object of the Jew is to exalt the traditions and practices of his own nation, and to show that even the heathen held them sacred. After some allusion to the work of creation, he speaks of the authority and use of the seventh day. This he calls "the day of light and wisdom, in which the complete order of nature is contemplated"—a day bestowed on man, for the purpose of "divine philosophy." He then proceeds to cite passages from the works of Homer and Hesiod, in which the "seventh day" is described as "sacred." "Sacred in the first place is the day of the new moon; Sacred also are the fourth, and the seventh days." 66 Again came the seventh day, the illustrious light of the sun."1 "The seventh day then arrived—a sacred day." Whether these passages are really to the point, is somewhat doubtful. Hesiod, it appears, classes the fourth and seventh days together, and as he also mentions the day of the 1 9 Evang. Præp. lib. xiii, c. 12. · Πρῶτον ἕνη, τετράς τε καὶ ἑβδόμη, ἱερὸν ἦμαρ Εβδομάτη δ' αὖθις, λαμπρόν φάος ήελίοιο. Hesiod. 2 Εβδομάτη δ' ἔπειτα κατήλυθεν, ἱερὸν ἦμαρ, Homer. |