Sabbath and Synagogue: The Question of Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism

298 Pages·1994·23.66 MB·English

by  Heather A. McKay

SABBATH AND SYNAGOGUE
RELIGIONS IN
THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD
FORMERLY
ETUDES PRELIMINAIRES
AUX RELIGIONS ORIENTALES
DANS L'EMPIRE ROMAIN
EDITORS
R. VAN DEN BROEK H.J.W. DRIjVERS
H.S. VERSNEL
VOLUME 122
SABBATH AND SYNAGOGUE
The Qyestion if Sabbath Worship in Ancient Judaism
BY
HEATHER A. McKAY
EJ. BRILL
LEIDEN . NEW YORK' KOLN
1994
This serUs Religions in the Graeco-Roman World presents a forum for studies in the social and cultural
fUnction of religions in the Greek and the Roman world, dealing with pagan religions both in their oum
right and in their interaction with and influence on Christianity and Judaism during a lengthy period of
fUndamental change. Special attention will be gWen to the religious history of regrons and cities which
illustrate the practical workings of these processes.
Enquiries regarding the submission of works for publication in the serUs mqy be directed to Professor
HJ. W Drijvers, Faculty of utters, Unwersity of Groningen, 9712 EK Groningen, The Netherlands.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKay, Heather A.
Sabbath and synagogue : the question of sabbath worship in ancientJudaism
/ by Heather A. McKay
p. cm. - (Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, ISSN
0927-7633; v. 122)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 9004100601
1. Sabbath-Biblical teaching. 2. Sabbath in rabbinical
literature. 3. Judaism-History-Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210
A.D.-Sources. I. Tide II. Series.
BSl199.S18M35 1994
296.4' 1'090 15-dc20 94-22552
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
MacKay, Heather A.:
Sabbath and synagogue : the question of sabbath worship in ancient
judaism / by Heather A. Mckay. - Leiden ; New York; Ko1n :
Brill, 1994
(Religions in the Graeco-Roman world; Vol. 122)
ISBN 90-04-10060-1
NE:GT
ISSN 0927-7633
ISBN 90 04 10060 1
© Copyright 1994 by E.]. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication mqy be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval V'stem, or transmitted in a'lY form or by a'lY means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
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Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by EJ. Brill provided that
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Fees are suiject to change.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
In loving memory of my father
Robert Houston Ayre
and to all those who keep his memory alive for me

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements .................................................................... IX
Abbreviations ............................................................................ XIII
Introduction .................................................................................. 1
1. Sabbath and New Moon:
The Hebrew Bible ....................................................... 11
2. Sabbath as Holy Day of the Jews:
Early Jewish Literature ............................................... 43
3. Sabbath as Day of Rest and Study of the Law:
Philo and Josephus ...................................................... 61
4. Sabbath as Domestic Celebration:
Graeco-Roman Non-Christian Sources ...................... 89
5. Sabbath in the Synagogues:
New TestamentSources ............................................ 132
6. The Debate over Keeping the Sabbath:
Early Christian Sources ............................................ 176
7. Sabbath as Day of Rest and Reading the Torah:
The Mishnah ............................................................. 201
8. The Unobtrusive Sabbath:
Archaeological Data, Inscriptions and Papyri .......... 209
9. Conclusions ....................................................................... 247
Bibliography ............................................................................. 252
Index of biblical and related texts ............................................ 265
Index of ancient authors ........................................................... 270
Index of modem authors ........................................................... 273
Index of subjects ....................................................................... 276

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my thanks to friends in The Society for Old
Testament Study and in the Society of Biblical Literature for their
encouragement since I began this project in 1987, and for all their
stimulation of my research by their varied questions and by their atti
tudes ranging from intrigued curiosity to outright disbelief.
In particular I would like to thank Robert P. Carroll for his sus
tained interest in my work, and David J .A. Clines, Loveday C.A.
Alexander, Lester L. Grabbe and A. Graeme Auld for the benefit of
in-depth discussion on the possibilities and pitfalls of working within
such a wide-ranging subject area. Without their encouragement and
genuine interest, my interest would not have maintained its steady
level throughout. I wish to give special thanks to David Clines for
freely giving of his technical expertise in the preparation of the final
text.
Members of my family have provided a more uncritical support,
but that has nonetheless been of inestimable value to me, and I would
like to state my gratitude to them also.
It is relevant to state at this point that some of the ideas and ex
planations which have been fully worked through in this book have
been published by me in shorter form in articles in collections of
essays. These are:
McKay, H.A., 'New Moon or Sabbath?', in The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian
Tradition (ed. T.C. Eskenazi, DJ. Harrington and W.H. Shea; New York:
Crossroad, 1991), pp. 13-27.
McKay, H.A. 'From Evidence to Edifice: Four Fallacies about the Sabbath', in
Text as Pretext: Essays in Honour of Robert Davidson (ed. R.P. Carroll;
JSOT Supplement Series, 138; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), pp. 179-99.
I acknowledge my gratitude to The Crossroad Publishing Company,
as publisher, and to The University of Denver (Colorado Seminary),
as copyright holder, for permission to make use of material from The
Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Traditions and to Sheffield
Academic Press for permission to use material from Text as Pretext:
Essays in Honour of Robert Davidson.