As a lunar festival doubtless the Sabbath also went back to a very
remote antiquity. But with the Israelites the day acquired an
altogether peculiar significance whereby it was distinguished
from all other feast days; it became the day of rest _par
excellence_. Originally the rest is only a consequence of the
feast, e.g. that of the harvest festival after the period of
severe labour; the new moons also were marked in this way (Amos
viii. 5; 2Kings iv. 23). In the case of the Sabbath also, rest is,
properly speaking, only the consequence of the fact that the day
is the festal and sacrificial day of the week (Isaiah i. 13;
Ezekiel xlvi. 1 seq.), on which the shewbread was laid out;
but here, doubtless on account of the regularity with which it
every eighth day interrupted the round of everyday work, this
gradually became the essential attribute. In the end even its name
came to be interpreted as if derived from the verb "to rest."
But as a day of rest it cannot be so very primitive in its origin;
in this attribute it presupposes agriculture and a tolerably
hard-pressed working-day life. With this it agrees that an
intensification of the rest of the Sabbath among the Israelites
admits of being traced in the course of the history.
Pages:
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277