“The article by Max Müller in the _Index_ of this week contains, I
think, one error, caused doubtless by his taking a false translation
of a passage from Josephus instead of the original. ‘In fact,’ says
Professor Müller, ‘Josephus (_Contra Apion._ ii. 39) was able to say
that there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom of
observing the seventh day had not spread.’ Mr. Wm. B. Taylor, in a
discussion of the Sabbath question with the Rev. Dr. Brown, of
Philadelphia, in 1853 (_Obligation of the Sabbath_, p. 120), gives
this rendering of the passage: ‘Nor is there anywhere any city of
the Greeks, nor a single barbarian nation, whither the institution
of the Hebdomade (_which we mark by resting_) has not travelled;’
then in a note Mr. Taylor gives the original Greek of part of the
passage, and adds: ‘Josephus does not say that the Greek and
barbarian rested, but that _we_ [the Jews] observe it by rest.’
“The corrected translation only adds strength to Max Müller’s
position in regard to the very limited extent of Sabbath observance
in ancient times; and Mr. Taylor brings very strong historical proof
to maintain the assertion (p. 24) that ‘throughout all history we
discover no trace of a Sabbath among the nations of antiquity.’ ”
It seems to me that if we read the whole of Josephus’s work, _On the
Antiquity of the Jews_, we cannot fail to perceive that what
Josephus wished to show towards the end of the second book was that
other nations had copied or were trying to copy the Jewish customs.
He says: Ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν τε διηνέχθησαν οἱ νόμοι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν
ἀνθρώποις, ἀεὶ καὶ μᾶλλον αὐτῶν ζῆλον ἐμπεποιήκασι. He then says
that the early Greek philosophers, though apparently original in
their theoretic speculations, followed the Jewish laws with regard
to practical and moral precepts. Then follows this sentence: Οὐ μὴν
ἀλλὰ καὶ πλήθεσιν ἤδη πολὺς ζῆλος γέγονεν ἐκ μακροῦ τῆς ἡμετέρας
εὐσεβείας, οὐ δ᾽ ἔστιν οὐ πόλις Ἑλλήνων οὐδετισουν οὐδὲ βάρβαρος,
οὐδὲ ἕν ἔθνος, ἔνθα μὴ τὸ τῆς ἑβδομάδος, ἥν ἀργοῦμεν ἡμεῖς, ἔθος οὐ
διαπεφοιτηκε, καὶ αἱ νηστεῖαι καὶ λύχνων ἀνακαύσεις καὶ πολλὰ τῶν
εἰς βρῶσιν ἡμῖν οὐ νενομισμένων παρατετήρηται. Μιμεῖσθαι δὲ
πειρῶνται καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἡμῶν ὁμόνοιαν, κ.τ.λ. Standing where
it stands, the sentence about the ἑβδομάς can only mean that “there
is no town of Greeks nor of barbarians, nor one single people, where
the custom of the seventh day, on which we rest, has not spread, and
where fastings, and lighting of lamps, and much of what is forbidden
to us with regard to food are not observed. They try to imitate our
mutual concord also, etc.” Hebdomas, which originally meant the
week, is here clearly used in the sense of the seventh day, and
though Josephus may exaggerate, what he says is certainty “that
there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom of observing
the seventh day had not spread.”