The Sabbath and Festivals in Pre-Exilic and Exilic Times

In order to trace the origin of the Sabbath and the festivals and follow up the stages of their development, we must not consult the codes of law and the meaning attached to the words of the same in later times, but examine certain historical facts in the other narratives and in occasional allusions and draw our conclusions therefrom. By this method of historical-critical research we arrive at an altogether different calendar system in ancient Israel than that with which we are familiar. The Sabbath and the festivals have gone through a process of evolution which we must try to unravel and which few of our historians have made clear. Nor have our Assyriologists succeeded in elucidating this process, especially in regard to the Sabbath, as the recent work of Morris Jastrow, Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, and an article of his on 'The Day after the Sabbath' (AJSL 30. 94 if.) seem to show

Theology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Philosophy