/2/ For that the week should
************************************
2 George Smith, Assyrian Eponymn Canon, pp. 19, 20. "Among
the Assyrians the first twenty-eight days of every month were
divided into four weeks of seven days each, the seventh, fourteenth,
twenty-first, and twenty-eight days respectively being Sabbaths;
and there was a general prohibition of work on these days."
See further Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 239. Among the Syrians
$bbh means the week, just as among the Arabs _sanba_
and _sanbata_ (Pl. _sanabit_), dim. _suneibita_) mean a period of
time (Lagarde, Ps. Hieronymi; p. 158), and in fact, according
to the lexicographers, a comparatively long one. But in the sole
case cited by the _Tag al 'Arus_, it means rather a short interval.
"What is youth? It is the beginning of a _sanbata_," meaning
something like the Sunday of a week. According to this it would
appear as if the sabbath had been originally the week itself,
and only afterwards became the weekly festival day. The identity
of the Syriac word (ta sabbata) in the New Testament) with the
Hebrew is guaranteed by the twofold Arabic form.
Pages:
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274