SABAZIUS, MYSTERIES OF. — A Thraco-Phrygian god, hypostasis of Dionysus (Diodorus Siculus, IV, 4, 1), whose cult, which began in Greece in the 5th century, spread widely, especially toward the end of paganism, in Asia Minor and the Roman world.
The first testimony relating to his mysteries is found in Demosthenes (De corona, 259 ff.). In them, the serpent, symbol of the god, which the initiates were allowed to pass through their bosom, held great importance: δὰς χάλην δέος (Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus, II, 13, 5), even to the sexual parts: inferioribus partibus atque imis (Arnobius, Adversus Nationes V, 21); an ancient rite of adoption or new birth for the initiates. Perhaps these mysteries are alluded to by St. Ambrose (De virginibus, I, ch. 4, n. 16): «Quid de sacris Phrygii loquar, in quibus impudicitia disciplina est... Quid de orgiis Liberi ubi religionis mysterium est incentivum libidinis?».
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SABBETHAJ ZEBĦĦ — SABINA
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the Messiah, and later Abraham Nathan Benjamin Ashkenazi (known as Nathan of Gaza or Nathan the Prophet) firmly rooted this conviction in him (if S. was the Messiah, Nathan was Elijah). The people were seized by fanatical enthusiasm for him, while the rabbis viewed him with suspicion, considering him mentally ill. Indeed, his extravagances went beyond all limits, and the Turkish authorities arrested him. Unable to endure prison life, he denied being the Messiah and converted to Islam.
Sabbathianism, the movement of S.’s followers, threatened to plunge Judaism into religious anarchy; it was the first instance in which Kabbalistic ideas were used to undermine its foundations. For, in order to justify S.’s apostasy at all costs, the Sabbatarians drew a clear distinction between inner and historical reality, between the inner and outer worlds, to the detriment of the latter. Whereas previous Kabbalah tended to present the outer world as a symbol of the inner world, now an antithesis was established between them. The historical fact of S.’s apostasy lost all value when it was presented as the only act capable of saving the entire people from the fate of becoming a marrano (a name given in Spain to those who outwardly abandoned Judaism while remaining attached to it in their hearts). The Messiah had to accept this sacrifice, being the only soul capable of enduring such a trial without suffering harm. The danger to Judaism was great, for the outer world, devalued by Sabbatianism, was represented by rabbinism; it was even said that the Torah had to dissolve like a seed in the earth, only to reappear in all its Messianic glory.
The success of S. is to be sought in the upsurge of Messianic interest that followed the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Within Sabbatianism, two currents emerged: one according to which the Messiah’s conduct was to serve as an example for all and which upheld the holiness of sin, which could only be overcome by plunging into it; the other held that S.’s conduct was justifiable only in his case. There were two cases of mass apostasy: one by the Sabbath-observing Jews of the Turkish apostates, who converted to Islam in Salonica in 1683; and the other by the Frankists (v. FRANK, JACOB) in Galicia in 1759, who converted to Catholicism. The Sabbatian movement is linked to the Frankist movement, which, because of its anti-rabbinic spirit, is considered the remote origin of the reform movement that arose in Germany in the 18th century.