manifested on that day, which he had separated for his own glory. The same institution seems alluded to in that week of years, which was observed in the patriarchal ages, and incorporated, as it were in memory of the ancient custom, into the Jewish ordinances. Thus Laban proposed to Jacob the same service of seven years for Rachel, which he had already performed for her sister Leah; and this he calls "fulfilling her week." The period of a week seems also to have been generally adopted in mourning and lamentation for the death of friends, as well before as after the institution of the Jewish Sabbath": thus Joseph made a mourning for his father seven days the friends of the afflicted Job lamented with him seven days; and a seven days' fast was observed by those who interred the bones of Saul and his sons. In addition to this we may remark an extraordinary sanctity and importance attached to the number seven, which pervades all the sacred writings. Of this peculiarity Cruden's Concordance will exhibit to you a concise but perfect view: without pursuing it through all its various, and in some instances perhaps fanciful analogies, I shall merely notice it in the sacrificial rites of the patriarchal times. In the * See Ecclesiasticus xxii. 12. b Gen. L. 10. d · 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. days of Job seven bullocks and seven rams were offered up, as a burnt-offering, by the Divine command"; and the very same number of each were sacrificed upon the seven altars built by Balaam. These circumstances are worthy of attention, and ought to be satisfactorily explained by him who denies the primeval institution of a seventh Holy Day". b The number Seven seems to have been held in equal reverence by the Pythagoreans and other philosophical sects. The Cumaan Sibyl gives to Æneas orders to make a sacrifice similar to that of the Chaldæan diviner. Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos En. vi. 38. Josephus accounts for the eminent personal qualities of Moses from the circumstance of his being the seventh in descent from Abraham. Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. 6. See also Philo upon this subject, who enters upon it at large in his treatise De Mundi Opificio, p. 14. I conceive that the period of the week was known to the Greeks in very early ages, from the following passages in one of the most ancient of their poems. See Odyssey, K. 80. μ. 397. §. 249. o. 475. From a consideration of these passages I am inclined to think that Homer had a knowledge of the septenary division of time; but I will not weaken my argument by adducing testimony to this point, which will not bear examination, as so many eminent writers on this subject, indeed all who have come under my notice, appear to have done. When Theophilus of Antioch declares that all mankind make peculiar mention of a seventh day, though But another reason which induces me to think that Moses did not make use of the figure pro though they know not the reason, I am inclined to believe him under certain limitations. The same credit I give to Clement of Alexandria, when he asserts, that not the Jews only, but the Greeks also, are well acquainted with a seventh day. Strom. lib. v. The authorities however which he cites in favour of his opinion are not only foreign to his purpose, but I am afraid, distorted, misquoted, and even forged, for the sake of supporting that opinion. I am sorry to be forced to make such a charge against such an author, and I can only hope that he like his followers took the passages on trust from some preceding writer, or that he saw copies of ancient MSS. different from those which have come down to our times. Having made the charge however I am bound to support it. The first author which he quotes is Hesiod. πρῶτον ἔνη τετράς τε, καὶ ἑβδόμη ἱερὸν ἦμαρ' καὶ πάλιν, ἑβδομάτη δ' αὖθις λαμπρόν φάος ήελίοιο. Now in the first of these lines the Poet is not describing the days of the week, but those of the month, and he calls the seventh day of the month sacred, because it was the birth-day of Apollo. τῇ γὰρ ̓Απόλλωνα χρυσάορα γείνατο Λητώ. The second verse I cannot discover in Hesiod, but it to refer to the same origin. He next quotes Homer still more unfortunately. appears 1. ἑβδομάτη δ ̓ ἔπειτα κατήλυθεν ἱερὸν ἡμαρ. In looking for this verse among those of Homer, I have long strained my eyes in vain, and several of my friends have done the same with no better success. 2. ἑβδόμη ἦν ἱερή. The same may be said of this. 3. ἕβδομον ἦμαρ ἔην, καὶ τῷ τετέλεστο ἅπαντα. Here lepsis, is this: when God's command for the observance of the Sabbath, was inserted in the Here I find the worst fault of all; for eßdoμov appears to be substituted for TéTpaTov, as it exists in all the copies of Homer which I have seen. Even if ßdoμov were the right reading, the line would have nothing to do with the subject in question. 4. ἑβδομάτῃ δ' τοῖ λίπομεν ῥόον ἐξ ̓Αχέροντος. This line also I am unable to find in Homer. He next quotes some verses from Callimachus, which would be much more to the purpose in substantiating his opinion, were it not probable that Callimachus, an Alexandrian poet, acquired from the Jews of Alexandria, these notions which might be deduced from the Jewish sabbath rather than the patriarchal institution. After this he appeals to the Elegies of Solon. If any of these assisted him, they must have been some which have not reached our times. Amongst those which we possess, I can find only the fourteenth, as it stands in Professor Gaisford's excellent edition of the Poet. Gr. Min. which has the remotest bearing upon the subject. This merely treats of the age of man, divided into periods of seven years, shewing how his faculties, &c. alter at each period: moreover it may be observed that Porson considered this elegy as spurious. Eusebius in his Præp. Evang. quotes all these authorities of Clement, and gives them also, together with some others from Linus, or as he might better be styled Pseudo-Linus, in an extract from one Aristobulus a Peripatetic Philosopher. Perhaps therefore this Aristobulus may deserve our censures, on the score of falsification, before Clement: yet even in this case the latter must submit to reprehension for very culpable negligence in not verifying his quotations: and in this I am sorry to say that such eminent authors as Rivetus, Grotius, Bishop Beveridge, Dr. Jennings, Mr. Faber, Dr. Hales, &c. must participate. The errors of this last-mentioned gentleman are very extraordinary. He not only boldly quotes the Decalogue or Moral Code, no such special reference was made to the case of the Israelites, as was made afterwards at the rehearsal of the Law, when that Sabbath was declared to be a sign between God and them. In the first case the Jews are reminded of the original ordinance which gave birth to the institution: the seventh day is there said to be ordained as a holy Sabbath, because on it God rested from his work of Creation; a reason which has a manifest reference to the whole race of mankind. In the second case, it is, because on that day God de the ἑβδόμη ἱερὸν ἦμαρ of Hesiod as corroborating his opinion, but draws Eschylus also into the alliance, thus translating a passage from that author. τὰς δ ̓ ἑβδόμας ὁ σέμνος ἑβδομαγέτας Αναξ Απόλλων εἴλετ'. The weeks, the venerable author of the week King Apollo appointed. ἐπ. ἐπι Θηβ. 1. 801. Whereas in fact Apollo is represented by the poet as taking the seventh gate of the city under his guard; and that, not because he was the author of the week, but because he was born (as Hesiod tells us), on the seventh day; and the right reading is not eßdoμayéтas, (a word of extraordinary derivation, and one ἅπαξ λεγόμενον), but ἑβδομαγένης, which agrees with his birth, and is a reason for his custody of the seventh gate. But although I thus reject the commonly received authorities on this point, I still think there is good reason to believe that the heathen nations did keep up the patriarchal tradition by their observance of a septenary division of time, and that traces of this may be discovered in their oldest Poet. B |