Thus far the Pentateuch on the Sabbath. Turning to the later biblical books of the times before the exile, we find casual references to it as a day of rest and joy, exalted over the other days of the week, and on which agricultural labors and all things con nected with them, such as earryiug loads, selling and buying, etc., ceased. No deeper signification seems to have been attached to it yet. Although both Jeremiah and Ezekiel single it out especially, in common with monotheism and the laws of morality, yet they both rest satisfied with the inculcation of its outward observance, which seems occasionally to have fallen into entire disuse. With the return from the exile, however, a new phase was inaugurated. It is well known how energetically Nehemiah carried out his reformation, or rather the restoration of the primitive laws, as in other respects so with regard to the Sabbath; how he " testified " against those who were treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses, etc., and further, against those "men of Tyre" who brought "all manner of ware, and sold on the Sab bath unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem." It is by profaning the Sabbath, he urges, that their fathers have caused all the evil and wrath that befell the nation and the city. He had the gates shut from Friday evening to Saturday night, and drove away those merchants who still kept lodging outside, by threats of "laying hands on them." What Nehemiah had reinstituted seems to have been most rigorously upheld, and in many cases made more binding even than he ever intended it, or, at all events, than the originally promulgated form of his words would seem to imply at first sight. With respect to the Sabbath iu particular, we find it not more than 100 years afterward kept with such severity that the people would not even stir in defense of the city of Jeru salem, stormed by the soldiers of Ptolemy I. on that day. Later still, those who had fled into eaves to escape the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes allowed themselves to be butchered wholesale, nay, burned alive, without any attempt at flight or resistance; " because they made a conscience to help themselves for the honor of the most sacred day" (2 Mace. vi. 11). It was only in consequence of these horrible catastrophes. and in consideration of the probability of the enemy's always choosing the hallowed day for his attacks, and thus gradually Rioting nut the nation, that fighting, in self-defense was allowed; although it appears the enemy was not to be disturbed in his siege works. Yet this relaxation in favor of the defensive appears again to have been abrogated through the influence of the fanatical Chassidaic party. Both Pompey and Herod. it would seem, took advantage of the Sabbath for the preparation of the storm on Jerusalem, relving—and successfully—on the strict observance of that day by their antagonists. The incessant tribulations. however, that followed almost without interruption till the anal destruction of the Jewish empire, together with the influence of new schools and views, wrought an immense change. Shammai himself, the austere interpreter of the law, and the so-called antagonist of the milder Inlet, pronounced not only the defensive but the offensive legal and righteous (Sabb. six. a): as, indeed, in his days, human life was placed, under all eircumslances whatsoever, higher than any divine or human pre cept about the Sabbath. "The law," it is said with regard to the Sabbath, was given, according to the Scriptures, like other laws, " that man should lire by them," not that he should die through them" (Tos. Shab. xvi. 5). That Joshua had never stopped in his sieges on the Sabbath was not considered so weighty an argument as the dire and immi nent necessity that forced itself uPon the military and spiritual leaders of the people, of preserving at all hazards a remnant at least of the fast perishing nation.
It was probably after the exile that the first attempts at legally fixing,. or rather " fencing about," the divine ordinance in a minute and rigorous manner, were made.
As we have seen before, no special definition of the "work" prohibited—save in a few instances—is to be found in the Old Testament. Whether it was the "men of the great synagogue," or the later schools, that promulgated the special precepts and prohibitions —part of which were traced to the legislation ou Sinai itself (oral law)—is difficult to decide. The Mishna only enumerates thirty-nine principal ("father.") works, each of which, again, carries a certain number of minor ("begotten") works with it, which are strictly forbidden on the Sabbath. A certain portion of these inhibitions and prohibi tions refers to work connected with agriculture and the chase; another to domestic labors generally performed by women (such as spinning, sewing, etc.); another again to trades (of builders, mechanics, laborers, etc.) and the like. One of the Impost harassing of precepts, and one which had at last to be amended by a number of new enactments, was the prohibition of moving thing-4 from one place into another (from public to private localities, and rice versa). The minor prohibitions referred chiefly to things which might easily "lead ",to the violation of the Sabbath, such as riding on horseback, climbing trees, etc. The " Sabbath-day's journey," or prohibition, based on Ex. xvi. 29, of walk ing more than the supposed utmost space between the ark and the extreme end of the camp, seems to belong, in the Mishuaic form at least, to the Roman times; the rail to which it was limited, and which contains the requisite 2,000 yards, being a Roman ineasu re.
However it is to be reconciled with the well-known narrative of Christ's healing on the Sabbath-day, contained in the New Testament, there is absolutely no doubt about the fact that, according to the so-called Pharisaical code—i.e., the oral law, the high est and absolute authority of Judaism—the safety of life and limb utterly overrules not only the Sabbath, but even the day of Atonement itself. It is only certain smaller alle viations of momentary pain, such as could not by any chance place the patient in the slightest danger, about which we find some kind of casuistical discussions. Practically —that is, according to the final enactment (see INIaimonides Yad Chasaka)—it is not only the regard to life, but to the health and well-being of the patient, that sets all Sabbatical prohibitions at nought. The law•of "rest," according to the Talmud, applies no more to the ease of the sick or those anyhow endangered, than it did with regard to the tem ple, and all the "work" therein, which, indeed, was much heavier on Sabbath and feast days than at other times. Another difficulty is found in the words in which Christ refers to the beast that is to be taken out of a pit on a Sabbath; the Jewish law ordain ing, in reality, that it should be aided in its own efforts, if it endeavored to get out by itself; if it did not succeed, it should be left there, food being let down to it, until the end of the Sabbath (Luke xiv.; Matt.. xii. 11; Sabb. 128 b). Could it be that the corn :non people (the Hediots or Idiots—i. e., the untutored in the law) were ignorant of the real scope and purport of the " Pharisaical " code, and that the argument was directed against their notions, as directly opposed to the law as established?—But on this we must not enlarge here. It is also impossible to enter into any of the various ancient and modern ways of looking at the Sabbath in an allegorical and symbolical light, e.g., its being connected by Philo and his school with the planets, the spheres, the number seven, and the like mystical notions. Nor can we follow here those speculations which make out a close parallel between the divine work and rest and human work and rest; and show how well-rounded and entire time itself appears when shaped into it week after, the model of the six days of creation, and how man's life is, through it, conformed to that of his Creator.