SABBATH
289
SABBATINE
were, however, found too burdensome, and a treatise
of the Mishna (Erubin) tempers their rigour by subtle
devices.
The Sabbath in the New Testament. — Christ, while observing the Sabbath, set himself in word and act against this absurd rigorism which made man a slave of the day. He reproved the scribes and Pharisees for putting an intolerable burden on men's shoulders (Matt., xxiii, 4), and proclaimed the prin- ciple that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark, ii, 27). He cured on the Sabbath, and defended His disciples for plucking ears of corn on that day. In His arguments with the Pharisees on this account He showed that the Sab- bath is not broken in cases of necessity or by acts of charity (Matt., xii, 3 sqq. ; Mark, ii, 25 sqq. ; Luke, vi, 3 sqq.; xiv, 5). St. Paul enumerates the Sabbath among the Jewish observances which are not obligatory on Christians (Col., ii, 16; Gal., iv, 9-10; Rom., xiv, 5). The gentile converts held their religious meetings on Sunday (Acts, xx, 7; I Cor., xvi, 2), and with the disappearance of the Jewish Christian churches this day was exclusively observed as the Lord's Day. (See Sunday.)
Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus II (New York, 1897), 52-62, 777 sqq.; Schurek, Hist, of the Jewish People (New York, 1891), see index; Pinches, Sapattu, the Babylonian Sabbath in Proceed, of Soc. of Bibl. Archttol. (1904), 51-56; Lagrange, Relig. semit. (Paris, 1905), 291-5; Dhorme in Rev. bibl. (1908), 462-6; Hehn, Siebenzahl und Sabbath bei den Babyloniern un im A, T. (Leipzig, 1907); Idem, Der Israelilische Sabbath (MQnster, 1909); Keil, Babel und Bibelfrage (Trier, 1903), 38-44; Lotz, QucBstiones de histor. sahbati (1883); LEsfeTRE in Vigouboux, Diet, de la bible, s. v. Sabbat.
F. Bechtel. Sabbath Observance. See Sunday. Sabbatical Year Cl'r^*^' .T- (shendth shdbbdthon),
"year of rest"; Sejlt. inavrbi dvaTrai/o-ews; Vulg. annus requuiionis) , the seventh year, devoted to cessation of agriculture, and holding in the period of seven years a place analogous to that of the Sab- bath in the week; also called "year of remission". Three prescriptions were to be observed during the year (Ex., xxiii, 10-11; Lev., xxv, 1-7; Deut., XV, 1-11; xxxi, 10-13). (1) The land was to lie fallow and all agricultural labor was to be suspended. There was to be neither plowing nor sowing, nor were the vines and olives to be attended to. The spon- taneous yield was not to be garnered, but was to be left in the fields for common u.se, and what was not used was to be abandoned to the cattle and wild animals (Ex., xxiii, 10-11; Lev., xxv, 1-7). Of the fruit trees the olive is alone mentioned, becau.se its oil was one of the three great agricultural yiroducts; but the law probably a])plied also to other trees. The law prescribed rest for the land, not for man. Hence work other than agricultural was not forbidden, nor even work in the fic'lds which had no direct con- nexion with raising crojis, such as building walls of enclosure, digging wells, etc.
(2) No crops being reaped during the sabbatical year, the payment of debts would have been a great hardship, if not an imi)ossibility, for many. Hence the creditor was commanded "to withhold his hand" and not to exact a debt from an Israelite, though he might demand it of strangers, who were not bound to abstain from agricultural pursuits (Deut., xv, 1-3, Heb. text). The Talmudists and many after them understand the law to mean the remission of the debt; but modern commentators generally hold that it merely suspended the obligation to pay and debarred the creditor from exacting the debt during the year. The Douay translation "He to whom anything is owing from his friend or neighbour or brother, cannot demand it again" is incorrect. (3) During the sabbatical year the Law was to be read on the Feast of Tabernacles to all Israel, men, women, and children, as well as to the strangers within XIIL— 19
the gates, that they might know, and fear the Lord,
and fulfill all the words of the Law (Deut., xxxi, 10-
13). The law concerning the release of Hebrew
slaves in the seventh year (Ex., xxi, 2 sqq.; Deut.,
XV, 12 sqq.) is wrongly connected by some writers
with the sabbatical year. That there was no special
connexion between the two is sufficiently shown by
the requirement of six years of servitude, the be-
ginning of which was not affixed to any particular
year, and by the law prescribing the liberation of
Hebrew slaves in the year of jubilee, which imme-
diately followed the seventh sabbatical year (Lev.,
xxv, 39 sqq.).
Since the sabbatical year was preceded by six sowings and six harvests (Ex., xxiii, 10), it began with autumn, the time of sowing, and probably coincided with the civil year, which began with the month of Tishri (Sept.-Oct.); some commentators, however, think that like the year of jubilee it began on the tenth of the month. The year was not well observed before the Captivity (cf. II Par., xxxvi, 21 and Lev., xxvi, 34, 35, 43). After the return, the people covenanted to let the land lie fallow and to exact no debt in the seventh year (II Esd., x, 31), and there- after it was regularly kept. The occurrence of a sabbatical year is mentioned in I Mach., vi, 49, 53, and its observance is several times referred to by Josephus (Bell. Jud., I, ii, 4; Ant., XI, viii, 5, 6; XIII, viii, 1; XIV, xvi, 2). The absence of any allusion to the celebration of the sabbatical year in pre-exilic times has led modern critics to assert that it was instituted at the time of the Restoration, or that at least the custom of allowing all fields to lie fallow simultaneou-sly was then introduced. But it is hardly credible that the struggling community would have adopted a custom calculated to have a seriously <Iisturbing effect on economic conditions, and without example among other nations, unless it had the sanc- tion of venerable antiquity. The main object for which the sabbatical year was instituted was to bring home to the people that the land was the Lord's, and that they were merely His tenants at will (Lev., xxv, 23). In that year He exercised His right of sovereign dominion. Secondarily it was to excite their faith and reliance on God (ibid., 20-22), and to stimulate their faithfulness to His Law (Deut., xxxi, 10-13).
Hdmmelauer, Comm. in Ex. et Lev.; Comm. in Deut.; and other commentaries on the texts cited; Sch0rer, Hist, of Jewish People (New York, 1891), I, i, 41-43; Keil, Man. of Bibl. Archceol. (Edinburgh, 1887-88), H, 10-13; Zuckermann. Ueber Sabbathjahrcyklus u. Jobelperiode (Breslau, 1857) ; Ca8- PARi, Die geschichtlichen Sabbatjahre inStudien u. Kritiken (1876), 181-190; LesIitre in VioouRonx, Did. d. I. Bib., V, 1302sqq.; Jewish Encyc, X, 605 sqq.
F. Bechtel.
Sabbatine Privilege.— The name Sabbatine Privi- lege is derived from the apocryphal Bull "Sacratissimo uti culmine" of John XXII, 3 March, 1322. In this Bull the pope is made to declare that the Mother of God appeared to him, and most urgently recommended to him the Carmelite Order and its confratres and con- sorores. The Blessed Virgin asked that John, as Christ's representative on earth, should ratify the indulgences which He had already granted in heaven (a plenary indulgence for the members of the Carmelite Order and a partial indulgence, remitting the third part of the temporal punishment due to their sins, for the members of the confraternity); she herself would graciously descend on the Saturday {Sabbath) after their death and liberate and conduct to heaven all who were in purgatory. Then follow the conditions which the confratres and consorores must fulfill. At the end of the Bull the pope declares: "Istam ergo sanctam Indulgentiam accepto, roboro et in terris confirmo, sicut, propter merita Virginis Matris, gratiose Jesus Christus concessit in ccelis" (This holy indulgence I therefore accept; I confirm and ratify
