Sunday a Sabbath, Chapter 10
CHAP. X. Of the derivation of the name Sabbath from two Hebrew words, the one ſignifying [ſeven], the other [reſt]; the former being the errour of Lactantius; the later, the true and moſt received Etymologie.
TO draw neere the etymology, and to conclude this Criticiſme, aHic eſt dies Sabbati, qui linguâ Hebraeorum, à numero nomen accepit; unde ſeptenarius numerus legitimus & plenus eſt. Lactant. Inſtit. l. 7. c. 14. p. 640.Lactantius ſaith, (and the like is in Sypontinus, which bHoſpin. de orig. Feſt. Jud. & Ethn. cap. 3. pag. 3.Hoſpinian noteth for his errour) that the word Sabbath, in the Hebrew tongue, is derived from a word of number; the word (though hee name it not) is Sheban, as Hoſpinian; Shebbang, as cUbi ſupra. D. Gomar. Inveſt. Sab. cap. 1. pag. 3.Gomarus reads it; for which, ſaith hee, for more eaſie utterance, the vulgar take up with Seba, ſignifying [ſeven]; but joyned with a verbe, as dCum verbo adverbiaſcit. Schindl. pentag. col. 1793. D.Schindler noreth it, it becometh an adverbe; and ſo it is changed into ſeven times: but though this come a little neerer the true notation of the word, for that both the initiall letters and the ſenſe ſute better with the name Sabbath; foreign(for both begin with the letter Schin, and the Sabbath hath its recourſe and revolution in the circle of the weeke, which is made up of ſeven dayes;) yet it is plaine to ſuch as have any inſight in the Hebrew tongue, that Lactantius was miſtaken: and that (as wee may well conjecture out of that which followeth his numerall notation) by ſome myſterious ſuperſtition in his minde touching that number, which ſeduced his opinion to that miſ-conceipt: beſides that, the congruity of the word in ſound, and confining of the weeke to that number of dayes, both in the commandement and common practice, might readily incline a man to that imagination; for even thoſe fables, both of Appion the Grammarian, and Juſtine the Hiſtorian, before mentioned (how wide ſoever they wander from the truth of the Sabbath in other points) keepe within the compaſſe of the ſeptenary number; which is as a girdle of the dayes of the weeke, of which the Sabbath is as a golden claſpe or buckle binding them together.
Wee have reſerved the beſt derivation (as our Saviour did the beſt wine, John 2.) for the laſt place; it is of the Hebrew word foreign ceſſavit, quievit, hath reſted; which (rendred with exact correſpondence to the Hebrew characters) ſhould be written ″foreignSchabbath; but for ſweeter ſound, ſomewhat is abated of compleat expreſſion; and ſo it is uſually written in the ″foreign.Greek tranſlation of the old, and the Greeke edition of the new Teſtament; and the Latines, in conformity to it, rather then to the originall, uſe the word Sabbatum, and wee our Engliſh word Sabbath, which (as a participle) in the former ſyllable, taketh part with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latine, in the later with the Hebrew onelyonly. And very fitly doth a name of reſt agree with the day of reſt, or ceſſation from ſecular labours (as the Sabbath day is) and of this deduction and doctrine it is agreed by the beſt Divines on both ſides.
In reſpect of this both reſt and ranke, the ſeventh being after all the reſt, hath the Planet Saturne a name of neere cognation to it, ſignifying eaſe and lazineſſe, as ePlaneta ſedētarius Gualper. Syllog. vocum exotic. part. prior. pag. 106.Gualperius noteth, which hee reckoneth for the laſt of the ſeven Planets, beginning his account with the Moon as the firſt; ſo ſtill (remembring what wee have before obſerved) wee may ſay, the number of ſeven, & the title of reſt, are joyned together in obſervations of the Sabbath, whether with the religious or profane: and ſo I could willingly derive it (if the radicall characters would beare it) from both words, as a childe from its Parents of both ſexes; for as the Sabbath is every ſeventh day, ſo it hath a neere affinity with the word which ſignifieth ſeven (from whence Lactantius taketh it to be derived, as hath been ſhewed). And as it is a time of vacation from worldly labour; ſo it hath as neere conſanguinity with the word which ſignifieth reſt. But this derivation of it from rest is the right, and to it wee ſhall ſtand.