263 The Sabbath-day, in the Old Testament, is invariably תבש (_shabbath_): a word which the Greeks could not exhibit more nearly than by the word σάββατον. The Chaldee form of this word is אתבש (_shabbatha:_) the final א (_a_) being added for emphasis, as in Abb_a_, Aceldam_a_, Bethesd_a_, Ceph_a_, Pasch_a_, _&c_.: and this form,—(I owe the information to my friend Professor Gandell,)—because it was so familiar to the people of Palestine, (who spoke Aramaic,) _gave rise to another form of the Greek name for the Sabbath_,—viz. σάββατα: which, naturally enough, attracted the article (τό) into agreement with its own (apparently) plural form. By the Greek-speaking population of Judæa, the Sabbath day was therefore indifferently called το σαββατον and τα σαββατα: sometimes again, η ημερα του σαββατου, and sometimes η ημερα των σαββατων. Σάββατα, although plural in sound, was strictly singular in sense. (Accordingly, it is _invariably_ rendered “_Sabbatum_” in the Vulgate.) Thus, in Exod. xvi. 23,—σάββατα ἀνάπαυσις ἁγία τῷ Κυρίῳ: and 25,—ἔστι γὰρ σάββατα ἀνάπαυσις τῷ Κυρίῳ. Again,—τῇ δὲ ἡμέρα τῇ ἑβδόμη σάββατα. (Exod. xvi. 26: xxxi. 14. Levit. xxiii. 3.) And in the Gospel, what took place on _one definite Sabbath-day_, is said to have occurred ἐν τοῖς σάββασι (S. Luke xiii. 10. S. Mark xii. 1.) It will, I believe, be invariably found that the form ἐν τοῖς σάββασι is strictly equivalent to ἐν τῷ σαββάτῳ; and was adopted for convenience in contradistinction to ἐν τοῖς σαββάτοις (1 Chron. xxiii. 31 and 2 Chron. ii. 4) where Sabbath _days_ are spoken of. It is not correct to say that in Levit. xxiii. 15 תותבש is put for “weeks;” though the Septuagint translators have (reasonably enough) there rendered the word ἑβδομάδας. In Levit. xxv. 8, (where the same word occurs twice,) it is once rendered ἀναπαύσεις; once, ἑβδομάδες. Quite distinct is עובש (_shavooa_) i.e. ἑβδομάς; nor is there any substitution of the one word for the other. But inasmuch as the recurrence of the _Sabbath-day_ was what constituted _a week_; in other words, since the essential feature of a week, as a Jewish division of time, was the recurrence of the Jewish day of rest;—τὸ σάββατον or τὰ σάββατα, the Hebrew name for _the day of rest_, became transferred to _the week_. The former designation, (as explained in the text,) is used once by S. Mark, once by S. Luke; while the phrase μία τῶν σαββάτων occurs in the N.T., in all, six times.