Shabbat Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Babylon=== {{Main|Babylonian calendar}} A [[cognate]] [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]] ''Sapattu<sup>m</sup>'' or ''Sabattu<sup>m</sup>'' is reconstructed from the lost fifth [[Enūma Eliš]] creation account, which is read as: "''[Sa]bbatu'' shalt thou then encounter, mid[month]ly". It is regarded as a form of [[Sumer]]ian ''sa-bat'' ("mid-rest"), rendered in [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] as ''um nuh libbi'' ("day of mid-repose").<ref name="ere">{{cite book|author=Pinches, T.G.|editor=Hastings, James|others=Selbie, John A., contrib|title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics|volume=20|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|date=2003|pages=889–891|chapter=Sabbath (Babylonian)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVNqXDz4CE8C|isbn=978-0-7661-3698-4|access-date=2009-03-17}} It has been argued that the association of the number seven with creation itself derives from the circumstance that the Enuma Elish was recorded on seven tablets. "emphasized by Professor [[George Aaron Barton|Barton]], who says: 'Each account is arranged in a series of sevens, the Babylonian in seven tablets, the Hebrew in seven days. Each of them places the creation of man in the sixth division of its series." Albert T. Clay, ''The Origin of Biblical Traditions: Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel'', 1923, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JKBLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 p. 74].</ref> Connection to Sabbath observance has been suggested in the designation of the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first and twenty-eight days of a lunar month in an Assyrian religious calendar as a 'holy day', also called 'evil days' (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities). The prohibitions on these days, spaced seven days apart (except the nineteenth), include abstaining from chariot riding, and the avoidance of eating meat by the King. On these days officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day".<ref>"Histoire du peuple hébreu". [[André Lemaire]]. Presses Universitaires de France 2009 (8e édition), p. 66</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week|first=Eviatar |last=Zerubavel|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=1985|isbn=0-226-98165-7}}</ref> The ''[[Universal Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' advanced a theory of [[Assyriologist]]s like [[Friedrich Delitzsch]]<ref name=landau/> (and of [[Marcello Craveri]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Craveri, Marcello|title=The Life of Jesus|publisher=Grove Press|date=1967|page=134}}</ref> that Shabbat originally arose from the [[lunar cycle]] in the [[Babylonian calendar]]<ref>{{cite book|date=1943|title=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: An authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times|volume=5|page=410|editor=Landman, Isaac|chapter=Holidays|author=Joseph, Max|others=Cohen, Simon, compiler|publisher=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc|editor-link=Isaac Landman}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|date=1943|title=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: An authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times|volume=9|page=295|editor=Landman, Isaac|chapter=Sabbath|author=Joseph, Max|others=Cohen, Simon, compiler|publisher=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Incv|editor-link= Isaac Landman}}</ref> containing four weeks ending in a Sabbath, plus one or two additional unreckoned days per month.<ref>{{cite book|date=1943|title=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: An authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times|volume=10|page=482|editor=Landman, Isaac|chapter=Week|author=Cohen, Simon|others=Cohen, Simon, compiler|publisher=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc |editor-link= Isaac Landman}}</ref> The difficulties of this theory include reconciling the differences between an unbroken week and a lunar week, and explaining the absence of texts naming the lunar week as Sabbath in any language.<ref name="orr" /> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page