(xxv.) “Verses without a copulative,” (verses 10 and 14.)—Ibid.
(xxvi. and xxvii.) Absence of εὐθέως and πάλιν.—See p. [168].
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 Abba, Aceldama, Bethesda, Cepha, Pascha, &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.
The reader will be perhaps interested with the following passage in the pages of Professor Broadus already (p. 139 note g) alluded to:—“It occurred to me to examine the twelve just preceding verses, (xv. 44 to xvi. 8,) and by a curious coincidence, the words and expressions not elsewhere employed by Mark, footed up precisely the same number, seventeen. Those noticed are the following (text of Tregelles):—ver. 44, τέθηκεν (elsewhere ἀποθνήσκο):—ver. 45, γνοὺς ἀπό, a construction found nowhere else in the New Testament: also ἐδωρήσατο and πτῶμα: ver. 46, ἐνείλησεν, λελατομημένον, πέτρας, προσεκύλισεν:—chap. xvi. ver. 1, διαγενομένου, and ἀρώματα: ver. 2, μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων:—ver. 3, ἀποκυλίσει:—ver. 4, ἀνεκεκύλισται. Also, σφόδρα, (Mark's word is λίαν.) Ver. 5, ἀν τοῖς δεξιοῖς is a construction not found in Mark, or the other Gospels, though the word δεξιός occurs frequently:—ver. 8, εἶχεν, in this particular sense, not elsewhere in the New Testament: τρόμος.
“This list is perhaps not complete, for it was prepared in a few hours—about as much time, it may be said, without disrespect, as Fritsche and Meyer appear to have given to their collections of examples from the other passage. It is not proposed to discuss the list, though some of the instances are curious. It is not claimed that they are all important, but that they are all real. And as regards the single question of the number of peculiarities, they certainly form quite an offset to the number upon which Dean Alford has laid stress.”—p. 361.
The Creed itself, (“ex variis Cyrillianarum Catacheseon locis collectum,”) may be seen at p. 84 of De Touttée's ed. of Cyril. Let the following be compared:—
ἀνελήφθη εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ (ch. xvi. 19.)