The Sabbath among Gentile Nations
Though not exactly in the line of the argument we are now considering, we cannot refrain from noticing the position of the Sabbath among the Gentile nations in this first great struggle of its rival, the Sunday. This reference will be valuable, inasmuch as it proves the existence of the Sabbath among other nations, long before it was specially committed to the Jewish people for preservation till the knowledge of the true God should be once more restored to those nations who had wandered into idolatry.ChSa 98.1
Calmet gives the following:ChSa 98.2
“Manasseh Ben Israel assures us that, according to the tradition of the ancients, Abraham and his posterity, having preserved the memory of creation, observed the Sabbath also, in consequence of natural law to that purpose. It is also believed that the religion of the seventh day is preserved among the pagans; and the observance of this day is as old as the world itself. Almost all the philosophers and poets acknowledge the seventh day holy!”ChSa 98.3
This statement that Abraham observed the Sabbath is in perfect harmony with the statement in the book of Genesis, that Abraham “kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws,” and with the fact that in that age they reckoned time by weeks. Genesis 26:5; 29:27. We know that the Sabbath was in existence before the law was given on Sinai, because the children of Israel kept it a month before the promulgation of that law; and God set it apart at the creation. Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 16. Abraham, who came from the Assyrian country, kept the Sabbath; and this writer intimates that it was known among all the ancient nations.ChSa 98.4
The Arabs are also a very ancient nation. They existed in Abraham’s time. William Jones, missionary to Palestine, says:ChSa 98.5
“The seventh day is known throughout Arabia by ‘Yorn-es-Sabt,’ or day of the Sabbath. Neither the word ‘seven’ nor any other name is given by the Arabs to the Sabbath day. It is always the Sabbath; and the reason for it, they say, is that this has been its name from the beginning.”ChSa 99.1
This is valuable testimony. The Arabs were never united with the Jews. They have always inhabited the country in which they settled in Abraham’s time, and have nearly always maintained an independent existence as a people.ChSa 99.2
Gilfillan says:ChSa 99.3
“It would also appear that the Chinese, who have now no Sabbath, at one time honored the seventh day of the week.”-The Sabbath, Page 360.ChSa 99.4
The Asiatic Journal has this item:ChSa 99.5
“The prime minister of the empire affirms that the Sabbath was anciently observed by the Chinese, in conformity to the directions of the king.”ChSa 99.6
On page 359 he says:ChSa 99.7
“The Phoenicians, according to Porphyry, ‘consecrated the seventh day as holy.’”ChSa 99.8
Josephus bears this testimony:ChSa 99.9
“There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day has not come.”-Against Apion, book 2, par. 40ChSa 99.10
Gilfillan says:ChSa 99.11
“The Greeks and Romans, according to Aretius, consecrated Saturday to rest, conceiving it unfit for civil actions and warlike affairs, but suited for contemplation.”-The Sabbath, p. 363.ChSa 99.12
John G. Butler, a Free-will Baptist author, says:ChSa 99.13
“We also learn from the testimony of Philo, Hesiod, Josephus, Porphyry, and others, that the division of time into weeks and the observance of the seventh day were common to the nations of antiquity. They would not have adopted such a custom from the Jews. Whence, then, could it have been derived, but through tradition, from its original institution in the Garden of Eden?”-Natural and Revealed Theology, Page 396.ChSa 99.14
Archbishop Usher gives the following:ChSa 100.1
“The very Gentiles, both civil and barbarous, both ancient and of later days, as it were by universal kind of tradition, retained the distinction of the seventh day of the week.”-Usher’s Works, part 1, chap. 4.ChSa 100.2
Hesiod (BC. 870) says:ChSa 100.3
“The seventh day is sacred.”ChSa 100.4
Homer (BC. 907) says:ChSa 100.5
“Then comes the seventh day, that is sacred.”ChSa 100.6
Tibulus says:ChSa 100.7
“Bad omens detained me on the sacred day of Saturn!”ChSa 100.8