Sabbath
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Sabbath. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) the Hebrew day of rest. The division of the month or moon into four weeks of seven days each may be traced to the plains of Mesopotamia, from which the Hebrews journeyed westward, but the date and place of the institution of the seventh day of the week as a day sacred to Jehovah is unknown. The "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" of the Ten Commandments seems to imply that it was already a sacred day among the descendants of Abraham. The proper observance of the Sabbath was a point of much controversy among the Jews, and varied at different periods of the national history. Instances are related of an enemy taking advantage of the reluctance of the Hebrews to perform military service on the Sabbath. Even massacres are said to have been perpetrated and to have forced the Hebrews to concede the necessity of defensive warfare on all days of the week. In captivity the Hebrews found it difficult to observe the day among so many peoples of adverse notions. In the reign of Nehemiah the gates of Jerusalem were closed at sunset on what we are accustomed to call Friday evening to prevent the entrance of the merchants of Tyre with their camel loads of merchandise, "who brought all manner of ware and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah." Customarily the Judean Sabbath began at sunset; hence earlier in the valleys than on the hill tops, and lasted through the following day and evening until three stars were visible. The Hebrew Sabbath fell on our Saturday. The Jewish church still observes the seventh day as a day of rest and worship, as do likewise the Seventh-day Adventists and some other denominations. The exact time and circumstances under which the first day of the week was adopted as a day of worship are not known, but it is thought that the early Christians, first of all, and very naturally, ignored the Jewish Sabbath, and that meetings were held so frequently on the first day of the week, being the traditional day of the Lord's resurrection, that custom grew into law. Later, with the revival of Bible reading, the Jewish regulations relative to the observance of the seventh day, as well as the name of Sabbath, were transferred by the Christians to the first day, or Sunday. In Puritan England and in New England the Sabbath began at sunset Saturday. In mid afternoon there was hurrying around to provide fuel and do chores to make ready ere the sunset. All day Sunday a solemn stillness settled over the land--the very traveler on the road must show reason why he should not be reproved for violating the Sabbath. Sunday afternoon children stood with their faces flattened against the window panes watching the slowly descending sun. The moment it sank behind the hill they issued out with shouts of joy for evening sport. The name Sunday, by which the first day is known, is a Saxon word meaning the day of the sun. Being a heathen name, the Quakers and Puritans prefer First Day. For a similar reason, no doubt, the Scotch Presbyterians cling to the name Sabbath day. The proper observance of the Sabbath is still a large question. As to the need of resting from work there is no doubt. Both man and beast can accomplish more work by resting. One day in seven seems in accord with experience. Travel presents the most complex question. It has never been customary for seagoing ships to furl their sails on Sunday. Ocean steamers continue their voyages as a matter of course. In addition to the question of the extent to which pleasure boats, trolley lines, and excursion trains should run on Sunday, there is the question of through traffic. Railroads very generally meet the question by continuing suburban service on Sunday. What are known as local trains, both passenger and freight, are laid off on Sunday. Through passenger trains run seven days in the week. The same rule holds with reference to through freights carrying perishable goods. See Sunday
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a sacred day of rest (the word being derived from shabath, Hebrew, to rest), the institution of which is first mentioned in Gen. ii. 2-3 : "And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made."-"Revised Version." The prevailing interpretation of these verses is that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation for mankind in general, and that septenary institutions may therefore be expected in all nations. Prior to the giving of the law from Mount Sinai, the Sabbath is mentioned in connection with the descent of manna (Exod. xvi. 5, 22-30). The keeping holy of the Sabbath is enjoined in the fourth commandment in Exod rested after the creation (Exod. xx. 8- Exodus , because of God's having 11); in Deuteronomy because of the de- Egypt (Deut. v. 12-15). Two lambs inliverance of the Hebrew bondsmen from (Num. xxviii. 3-4, 9). Isaiah (lvi. 2, stead of one were offered when it came lviii. 13) strongly advocated its observance. in the other books, Sabbath means the Always in the Gospels , and, as a rule, seventh day of the week. By this time its observance had become very rigid and punctilious, and Jesus Himself was constantly denounced by the Pharisees and others as a Sabbath -breaker (Matt. xii. 1-2; Mark iii. 2-3). In self-defense he laid down this principle : "The Sabbath Sabbath; therefore the Son of Man is was made for man , and not man for the Lord also of the Sabbath" (Matt . xii. 8, with Mark ii. 28). history, the Christian fathers in general For the first three centuries of Church drew a distinction between the Sabbath the former as Jewish and obsolete, and and the Sunday or Lord's day, regarding the latter as a divinely instituted day, Christ's resurrection. But from the days joyous in its character as commemorating of the first and ambiguous edict of Constantine on the subject: "Let all judges, inhabitants of the cities, and artificers, rest on the venerable Sunday [dies solis]. freely and at their pleasure apply to the But husbandmen may business of agriculture," there was an increasing tendency to transfer to the Sunday, and , in a less degree, to saints' days and minor festivals the restrictions of the Jewish Sabbath. The third Council of Orleans (A. D. 538) strove century we find legends of miraculous to check this tendency, but in the same Sunday. The idea of the "Christian Sabjudgments on those who worked on the bath" seems to be enunciated for the first time in Alcuin. The Reformers generally were opposed to Sabbatarian views, which, however, more or less modified, found a place in Protestant churches generally, period. and reached their height in the Puritan