THE SABBATH OF ANTIQUITY.
By Editor
WE take the following from the Sabbath Memorial of October, 1888, published by Rev. W. M. Jones, London, England, and commend it to those who insist that the Sabbath was a Jewish institution solely. This, however, is only a small part of the proof which might be presented. The New York Observer of October 27, 1887, prints an article by the Rev. George S. Mott, D.D., on the "Antiquity of the Sabbath," which ought to be of interest to those who assert that the Sabbath was given first at Sinai. In treating of the law of the Sabbath as having a prior origin to that of its proclamation at Sinai, Dr. Mott says:— "And so the Sabbath law holds a similar position. It is one of the primal laws. It even antedates marriage. And now a question arises: Was a day of rest recognized in the youth of the human race, while as yet the traditions of Adam were only a few centuries old? The silence in the book of Genesis regarding the observance of the Sabbath has led to the inference that the day was never held as sacred. But the light thrown upon those early ages by modern discoveries in Assyrian and old Chaldean lore has disclosed the fact that the Sabbath had its place for many centuries after the fall of man. These clay tablets, some of which may be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, covered with that strange cuneiform character, have been translated. And they tell us of a people called the 'Accadians,' or 'Mountaineers,' who came down toward the mouth of the Euphrates. Already they were an organized nation, possessing a peculiar form of writing, and a systemized legislation and religion. These were conquered by Nimrod. They were probably the first people that consolidated themselves into a nation. Their writings are not preserved, but on these clay tablets are found extracts from their records and traditions. And we find that the seventh day, by a tradition handed down from Eden, was holy at that early age, and was honored by a cessa- tion of all work on it. A series of tablets on the creation have been translated, and one of them thus describes the divisions of time:— "The moon he appointed to rule the night,
And to wander through the night, until the dawn of day;
Every month, without fail, he made holy assembly days;
In the beginning of the month, at the rising of night,
It shot forth its horns to illuminate the heavens.
On the seventh day he appointed a holy day,
And to cease from all business he commanded." "Such was the tradition respecting the Sabbath. But was any respect given to this tradition? Was the Sabbath observed? Here the Assyrian tablets give us most welcome information. Some 2,200 years before Christ, a race inhabited that region who were given to reading and writing. There were large libraries located at different points, and voluminous records were made of all occurrences. These records described, with minute particularity, the manners and customs, the civil and religious regulations, and the laws of those early ages; and we learn that the seventh day was known and observed as a day of rest. In 1869 the eminent Assyriologist, George Smith, discovered a religious calendar of the Assyrians, in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days, or Sabbaths, are marked as days on which no work should be undertaken. "Other tablets referring to the Sabbath have been discovered and translated. On them the day itself has almost the same name as we have received from the Hebrews—it is called Sabbatu. It is spoken of as a 'day of repose of the heart,' a 'day of joy.' Its observance was enforced by law. Regulations as to this observance are laid down. And they are such as these: It was a day 'when the shepherd of men must not eat meat; must not change the garments of his body; when white robes are not worn; when sacrifice is not offered; when the king must not go out in a chariot, and must not exercise justice wearing the insignia of his power; when the general must not give any commands for the stationing of his troops.'—Lenormant's Beginnings of History, pp. 248 and 249, American Edition. What precisely all these specifications denote, we may never learn; but certainly they signify that on this Sabbatu certain things were omitted which could be done on other days. "Now this was the Sabbath law under which Abraham grew up, because Ur of the Chaldees was in the same region. A sad degeneracy from the pure monotheism of the fathers already had shown itself, yet he would hear the seventh day spoken of as a 'day of rest for the heart.' He was accustomed to weekly assemblies for public worship, to hymns of adoration, and to prayer, although much of this was rendered to idols. Also the Sabbath was an institution in the home of the emigrants at Haran; and when Abraham journeyed on to Canaan, the seventh day was still observed as holy. Under the Sabbath influence Isaac grew up, and so he trained his two boys to observe the day. Jacob continued the same in his large family, and when that family went to Egypt they did not leave the Sabbath in Canaan. It was handed on through following generations. For we find this fact in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, that before the children of Israel came to52Sinai, when as yet they were in the wilderness between Elim and Sinai, the manna was given to them, and respecting it, they were told that they must gather on the sixth day so much as would be needed to last through the morrow, because none would be bestowed on the seventh day. And the reason was, 'To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.' This expression is repeated several times, and finally in these words: '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. This was no new thing, and when the fourth commandment was formulated, the time-honored regulations for the observance of that day were incorporated into it. The people were as familiar with its requirements as they were with those of the other precepts of the decalogue. "And so we conclude that the Sabbath has existed from the beginning. But as the true knowledge of God was displaced by the false, to that degree did the observance of the Sabbath wane, until it finally disappeared in the degrading depths of idolatry. Yet I believe no Sabbath has come and gone since man was created but that somewhere precious souls have kept it holy unto the Lord."