SATURDAY (Heb. šabbāth). — In the Bible this name is given to every seventh day, which possessed a special social-religious character, because “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord,” and the third precept of the Decalogue (q.v.) commanded abstention from all work on that day, obliging foreigners as well as Israelites and indirectly even animals; this was because God had created the world in six days and rested on the seventh (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:8-11). Specifically, plowing and reaping were forbidden on the sabbath (Ex. 34:21); even lighting a fire in homes was prohibited; “whoever works on it shall be put to death” (ibid. 35:2-3). Moses indeed condemned to death a man found gathering wood on the sabbath (Num. 15:32-36); during the desert journey, manna did not fall on the sabbath, since its collection would have violated the rest; the preparation of food was permitted (Ex. 16:22-30), but not the kindling of fire.
From prophetic texts (Jer. 17:21-27; Amos 8:5) and Neh. 13:15-22, it is known that even market activity was forbidden on that day.
After the exile, the law of the sabbath gained ever greater importance. Emphasis was placed on its observance, and the cases of forbidden actions multiplied. For example, at the time of the Maccabees, some considered every act of defense illicit (1 Macc. 2:32-41; cf. 2 Macc. 8:26); but this case of conscience was resolved by Mattathias, who declared defense licit but not offensive action. From the Gospels, abstention from work appears to have been considerably extended by the Pharisees, against whom Jesus often inveighed (cf. Matt. 12:1ff.; Luke 13:10ff.; 14:1-6; John 5:8ff.; 9:14ff., etc.), and He declared that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath (Mark 2:27). The height of meticulousness was reached in the Mishnah, which contains an entire tractate on the subject (Šabbāth) and specifies 39 forbidden actions, while at the same time offering ingenious advice for meeting indispensable needs without transgressing the letter of the precept.
In Num. 28:9, it is prescribed to sacrifice on the sabbath two year-old unblemished lambs, in addition to those prescribed for the daily sacrifice. In the legislation proposed by Ezekiel (Ezek. 46:4), the offering consists of six lambs and a ram. In the subsequent period, especially in the Diaspora, the Jews gathered on that day in synagogues for prayer, to read the Bible and recite the psalms (cf. Acts 13:14; 15:15, 21; 16:13). However, such liturgical service appears to have been linked to the sabbath day only at a later stage, while the primitive and essential concept remained, and always was, that of rest. This precept had a social and human motive, inasmuch as it sanctioned the necessity of interrupting work. But fundamentally, the religious concept always predominated—that of a kind of offering which the people made to God (cf. Ex. 16:23; 20:10; Lev. 23:3; Deut. 5:14).
Attempts have been made to explain the Israelite sabbath by comparison with other peoples. But among no other Semitic people is a similar custom found. Babylonian texts speak of a seventh day, but it is intimately connected with lunar phases, whereas the Israelite sabbath is independent of these. Moreover, in Babylon this day was conceived as “inauspicious” (imū limnū); during it, expiatory sacrifices were performed to placate the gods. Only from one text can it be inferred that in the second millennium B.C. the seventh day was sacred to the planet Saturn (Sakhāth) and that certain works, such as that of the smith, were forbidden on II. But it is very difficult to deduce from this the extent of the custom, and only with many hypotheses is it possible to affirm, basing oneself on Amos 5:25, that the Hebrews took the custom of the sabbath from the Babylonians. Nor have observations regarding the character of the people who first practiced the sabbath led to more certain conclusions. Without doubt, its observance is more suited to an agricultural people than to one devoted to pastoralism.
The sabbath thus remains an unmistakable characteristic of the Jewish people. From the Jews, Christians took the grouping of days into a week. But the character of a religious day was transferred to Sunday (q.v.), not without opposition from the early Jewish-Christians (cf. Col. 2:16).