The Sabbath

The Sabbath—called shabbat in Hebrew—is the seventh day of the week, designated as the day God rested in the Genesis account of creation. In the book of Exodus, the pattern of six days of creation and a seventh day of rest serves as the model for Israelite life:

Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it. Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates—because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it. (Exod 20:8–11).

Israelites were prohibited from doing work on the seventh day of the week, and this pattern was to be perpetually observed. The term shabbat is also used to describe a “sabbath feast” (Lev 23:24, 39) and the sabbatical year (“the sabbath of the land”; Lev 25:6).

Etymology of “Sabbath”

The word “Sabbath” derives from the Hebrew noun shabbat. Since God rested on that day—and the Israelites were to cease working on that day—there is likely a relationship between the noun shabbat and the verb shabat, which means “to cease or “to stop.” Furthermore, the mention of the Sabbath day in Genesis 2:2–3 is referenced in Exodus 23:12 and Exodus 34:21 in connection with the verb. However, the precise relationship between the noun and verb is still unclear.

Ancient Near Eastern Context

Whether the Israelite Sabbath has any cultural or religious relationship to the wider ancient Near Eastern world is unclear. At one time, the Hebrew noun was thought to be the cognate of the Akkadian word shab/pattu(m), which also describes a cessation or rest interval. The Akkadian term was at one time associated with certain seven-day sequences in the Akkadian calendar. However, the Akkadian shab/pattu(m) does not follow a cycle of seven days. Other relationships to similar terms that relate to monthly cycles or 50-day (“pentecontad”) cycles also do not hold up to scrutiny.

An alternative view is the Kenite Hypothesis. The Kenites—a nomadic tribe in the Sinai (known from the Old Testament and connected to Moses (Gen 15:19; Judg 1:16)—worshiped and supposedly observed a day in honor of Saturn. This may have evolved into the idea of the Sabbath under the leadership of Moses. This argument is based in part on the Babylonian name for Saturn, Kajjamānu, which means “the Steady One.” However, Saturn (kaiwan in Hebrew) is only referred in the Old Testament in the context of idolatry (Amos 5:26). Furthermore, the astral deity Kaiwan (Saturn) was most likely introduced to the Israelites by the Assyrians after the fall of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. In Amos 5:26, Kaiwan is paired with Sakkuth, another foreign deity who was imported into Israel by Assyrian settlers (2 Kgs 17:28–30).

Despite the seven-day cycles known in the wider ancient Near East in a variety of contexts, the idea of a seventh day of rest found in the Old Testament appears to be unique.

Michael S. Heiser

Further Reading

Sabbath CLBD

Jubilee, Year of CLBD

Sabbath AYBD

Sabbath, Sabbatical Year, Jubilee DOT: P

To Cease Vine’s