There are four passages which seem to point to the conclusion that in the earlier times a close connection existed between the Sabbath and the new-moon festival. In 2 Kings iv. 23 the Shu nammite's husband asks, when she proposes to visit the prophet, "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new moon nor sabbath." Among the religious observances which Isaiah names as offensive to Yahweh he links together (i. 13) "new moon and sabbath." In Hosea ii. 11 Yahweh says of Israel "I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, her sab baths, and all her solemn assemblies." Amos (viii. 5) denounces the traders who say "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" The reference in Hosea would make it probable that the Sabbath was a season of festal joy, and that in Amos makes it clear that there was at any rate some cessation of ordinary business activ ities on that day. By inference this latter conclusion may be deduced from the passage in Kings. The question of the Shunam mite's husband suggests that the ass for which she had asked in order to make her journey would have been available, even in harvest time, had the day been a new moon or a Sabbath: the inference surely is that on those days the work of harvesting stood still, so that the beasts woukl not be required for labour on the farm. This combination of new moon and Sabbath sug gested to Meinhold (Sabbat, and W oche im Alten Testament, 1905) that originally the Sabbath must have been the day of the full moon. This theory is very plausible, though Meinhold's en deavour to explain how the full moon feast came to be trans formed into the regular seventh day Sabbath of abstinence is not convincing. Kittel has attacked the fundamental hypothesis on which the theory rests. He contends that the existence of a full moon feast in ancient Israel is nowhere demonstrable, and points out that while the new moon festival has maintained itself in later Judaism there is no survival of a full moon festival. This last argument, however, might easily be countered, for if it be a fact that the full moon festival was converted into the weekly Sabbath the disappearance of the former would be amply ac counted for.
Meinhold regards the Decalogue as dating, at the earliest, from the exile, and rejects decidedly the idea that before the exile the Hebrews had a seven day week running throughout the year. Many critics, however, tend distinctly towards the belief that the Decalogue in some simple form may very well go back to the time of Moses. The story of the manna in Exodus xvi. in its original form may represent Moses as the discoverer of the Sab bath; and if so, this would be evidence that in certain streams of tradition Moses was regarded as the sponsor in Israel of the Sabbath. If the kernel of the commandments be accepted as Mosaic the institution of the Sabbath goes back to the very be ginnings of the history of Israel. In the decalogue of Exodus xx. 3-17 the command "remember the sabbath day" follows im mediately upon the commandments which are concerned with Yahweh and Yahweh's name. This shows how great must have been the importance of the Sabbath, and suggests that it was re garded as in an especial sense Yahweh's day, a fact for which the Old Testament offers abundant confirmation. The emphasis on the Sabbath in this form of the Decalogue is the more noteworthy in view of the fact that it ignores all the other feasts and rites. It is highly probable, considering the close association between Yahweh and the Sabbath, that the celebration of the latter as a festival goes back to the time when Yahweh first became the national deity. This does not, of course, conflict with the theory that it was connected also with the changes of the moon, which, indeed, seems to be the most probable hypothesis. Whether origi nally it was the day of the full moon only, or whether the half moon days were also Sabbaths, it is difficult to say.
It has been objected that a regular rest day like the Sabbath could be celebrated only by a settled agricultural people. Apart from the fact that the ancestors of the Israelite nation were not all nomads it may be urged that even the life of the desert was much more artificial than we have been accustomed to suppose. The wandering herdsmen have many trades. Some of them breed cattle. Slaves and artisans have always been known in the desert.
At the oases corn and fruit are cultivated. And peoples in a comparatively primitive state of culture observe rest-days, though these are not as a rule periodic, and are not necessarily conse crated to a particular deity or employed for religious purposes. Hutton Webster (Rest Days, 1911), regards the restrictions which characterize them as being in the nature of tabus. Such days are observed at critical seasons, among which are the changes of the moon. He instances in particular the custom of Hawaii, according to which on a strict tabu day there must be no fire or light, and general gloom and silence prevail. No canoes may be launched, no one may bathe, or even be seen out of doors unless his presence is required at the temple. The old Hawaiian system included a remarkable approximation to the institution of a weekly Sabbath. In each lunar month four periods were tabu, the 3rd to the 6th nights, the time of the full moon, including the 14th and 5th nights, the 24th and 25th nights, and the 27th and 28th nights. On the other hand among some peoples such seasons of abstinence developed into joyous festivals and holidays. "Among many peoples in the lower culture," says Hutton Webster, "the time of the new moon and full moon, much less commonly each half moon, is a season of restriction and abstinence." Such days may be dedicated to a god, or may simply be regarded as unlucky days.
A theory that the Jewish Sabbath, name and institution alike, is derived from Babylonian sources was propounded by Friedrich Delitzsch (Babel and Bible) and has been widely accepted. To quote Delitzsch, "Since the Babylonians also had a Sabbath (shabattu) on which, for the purpose of conciliating the gods, there was a festival—that is to say, no work was to be done—and since the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of the month are marked on a calendar of sacrifices and festivals dug up in Babylonia as days on which 'the shepherd of the great nations' (i.e., the king) shall eat no roast flesh, shall not change his dress, shall not offer sacrifice, as days on which the king shall not mount the chariot, or pronounce judgment, the magus shall not prophesy, even the physician shall not lay his hand upon the sick, in short, as days which are not suitable for any affair, it is scarcely possible for us to doubt that we owe the blessings decreed in the Sabbath or Sunday day of rest in the last resort to that ancient and civilized race on the Euphrates and Tigris." The evidence adduced by Delitzsch, plausible as it seems, is not however, conclusive. The inscription he quotes—which, though it comes from the "library" of Asurbanipal, is evidently of Baby lonian origin—refers only to a particular month, the intercalary Elul, and it is not shown that these special days occurred in the other months. Further, the prohibitions apply only to particular persons such as the king and the physician. It should be noted, too, that the calendar specifies in addition to the 7th, i4th, 21st and 28th days also the 19th as an "evil day" on which the re strictions apply. It is explained that the 19th is the 49th clay from the beginning of the preceding month, that is, the end of the seventh week from that starting-point. But even if this explanation is correct the fact would remain that the day of restriction occurs oftener than at the end of each week. In order to discover whether there is evidence of a general restriction of business in Babylonia on particular days C. H. W. Johns (Ency. Brit. ed. vol. xxiii. 961 seq.) analyzed a great many business contracts, classifying them according to the day of the week on which they were dated. The result showed that on all these "evil days" business was carried on, though, if the documents may be taken as fairly representative, there was a marked diminution of business on the 19th day of the month. During the First Dynasty of Babylon, and in the seventh century B.C., all these days show a falling off in the number of trading transactions. But, on the other hand, during the Kassite period trade went on much as usual on all days, including even the 19th day of the month. In any case these "evil days" seem different from the early Hebrew Sabbath; the latter was just the day when the Shunammite woman might actually have been expected to go on a journey, whereas the former were just the days when the king might not ride in his chariot.