The Sabbath in History (Volume 1) - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888. Excerpt: ... NOTES 1 Zunz, in his "Gottesd. Vortraege," quotes Josephus, Against Apion ii. 18, and Acts xv. 21, in which passages the custom of reading the Law in public every Sabbath, is mentioned as very old. 2 If Plutarch had taken pains to acquaint himself with a larger volume of Jewish historical facts, than he really did, he might have hit upon one instance at least, entirely similar to those cases of the Greek mythology enumerated before in the chapter of his book in point, and which he declared as so commendable, because they offer an example of prompt resoluteness to fight with material weapons, combined with prayerful reliance on divine aid. About the same thing Jonathan, the Asmonean leader, exhorted his brave warriors to do, when they were surprised by Bacchides' forces in the valley of the Jordan on the Sabbath, which day he had slyly chosen to make havoc among the Jewish army. Jonathan summoned his men "to arise and battle for their lives," though it was the Sabbath, for there was no escape, the waters of the Jordan cutting off the possibility of retreat. At the same time he urged them to "call unto God, that they might be saved out of the hands of the enemies." There was surely no "cowardice" in those Jews; their unbending religious faith was blended with an equally unbending heroism. And yet they were slow in resolving to make battle on the Sabbath even in the utmost extremity to which they were reduced, fearing God more than the destruction of their lives! ( See 1. Macc. ix. 43 sq.). 3That the zealots had in the fight against Cestius not regarded the Sabbath, as Josephus states reproachfully (Wars ii. 19, 2), cannot well be held out as an instance of a diminution of that anxiety in the minds of the Jewish people. Far not only were the zealots only a f...