The Military Strategy of Sabbath Attacks on the Jews

No period in Biblical history is more interesting than the neo-Babylonian era. And in recent times much work has been done by scholars to clarify statements in the book of Daniel. We are confident our readers will appreciate this fine article by Dr. Alger J. Johns of Andrews University which appeared in the journal Vetus Testamentum. It throws some further light on events particularly important to Adventist students--the Editors. 

It is a well-known fact that the leaders of the Seleucid armies at the beginning of the Maccabean period employed the military strategy of attacking the unresist­ing Jews on their Sabbath day.' This strat­egy proved eminently successful until Mat­tathias determined that it was necessary for his followers to resist the onslaughts of the enemy even on the Sabbath if necessary.' This latter policy of Mattathias was subse­quently continued by the Jews, and con­tributed in no small measure to the success of the Maccabean movement of liberation.

However, it is not so generally recog­nized that this incident was not the first oc­casion upon which the enemies of the Jews employed the military strategy of attacking them on the Sabbath, for Josephus re­cords a previous Sabbath attack at the time of Ptolemy Soter which enabled Ptolemy to capture Jerusalem. In addition to the strategy of attacking the Jews on their day of rest and worship, Ptolemy made doubly sure of success by employing the subterfuge that he had come to Jerusalem to offer sac­rifices.'

Another most striking illustration of this strategy of attacking the Jews on the Sab­bath has been recently brought to light (though, to the knowledge of the present writer, it has been hitherto unrecognized). The publication by wisemen of the Baby­lonian Chronicles has given Biblical schol­arship one of the most well-attested dates (if not the most well-attested date) in Old Testament history. These Babylonian rec­ords have pinpointed the capture of Jeru­salem and its king, Jehoiachin, as having taken place on the 2d of Adar of Nebu­chadrezzar's seventh regnal year.' Thus it has been determined that the day of the final assault and capture of Jerusalem took place on March 16, 597 B.c.⁵

Thanks to the painstaking care with which Parker and Dubbersteen have as­sembled the available Babylonian chrono­logical data from 626 B.C. and onward, there is an extremely high degree of prob­ability that this date is precise, and that the 2d of Adar was indeed March 16, 597 B.C.⁶ Once the Julian date has been deter­mined it is quite easy to utilize astronomi­cal tables and ascertain the Julian day number. The Julian day number for March 16, 597 B.C. is 1503444.⁷ Further­more, once the Julian day number has been determined, mere arithmetical com­putation reveals that Julian day number 1503444, March 16, 597 B.C., was a Saturday. Possibly it is significant that Nebuchadrez­zar, able military leader that he was, ap­parently chose to make his final assault on the city of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, for he must have known something of the strengths and weaknesses of the forces op­posing him.

But this is not the final word on the subject. After Nebuchadrezzar took King Jehoiachin into exile, he left Judah un­der the rule of Zedekiah. Instead of prov­ing a faithful vassal, Zedekiah rebelled and Nebuchadrezzar was once again compelled to put down the rebellion by leading his armies against Jerusalem. More than one line of Biblical tradition states that this final siege of Jerusalem began on the 10th day of the 10th month of Zedekiah's 9th year.' Regardless of whether the Jews at this time were using an autumn to autumn or a spring to spring reckoning, this partic­ular date fortunately falls in that six months' period in which conversion to Julian dates is unaffected. By synchronizing the Biblical date with the Babylonian rec­ords, it can be determined that Nebuchadrezzar began this siege of Jerusalem on January 15, 588 B.c.⁹ The Julian day num­ber for January 15, 588 B.C. is 1506671," and again the day was a Saturday. It is too far afield to assume that Nebuchadrezzar, having succeeded in capturing Jerusalem so brilliantly on a Sabbath day a decade previously, now chose to commence the final siege of the city on a Sabbath? How­ever, this siege, unlike the previous one, was not destined to be short, but lasted many months.

Although as yet no portion of the Babylonian Chronicle has been discovered that includes this period of Biblical history, the beginning of the siege in January, 588 B.C. is generally acknowledged by the scholarly world. The same cannot be said regarding the events for the final capture of Jerusa­lem, for some scholars hold to date the 586 B.C. for the fall of the city, while other equally learned scholars consider 587 B.C. to be the date.' Assuming that Josephus was correct, and that Jerusalem fell after a prolonged and arduous siege of 18 months,' it is possible to translate the data given in the Biblical records into Julian dates. The Biblical record states that the defences of the city of Jerusalem crumbled in Zede­kiah's 11th year, on the 9th day of the 4th month," which was July 29, 587 B.C. The Julian day number for this event is 150­7231, again a Saturday. Apparently Nebu­chadrezzar chose another Sabbath for the final assault on Jerusalem, successfully breaching the walls and capturing the city on that day."

Admittedly, the last two dates consid­ered here might subsequently be proved erroneous by a discovery of more fragments of the Babylonian Chronicle. However, it seems that there is more than mere coinci­dence in all these occurrences. It seems rather that there existed an overall pat­tern of military strategy employed by Nebuchadrezzar. The paucity of details left us in both Biblical and secular records pre­cludes the answering of many questions which might be raised. Did the Jews fight on the Sabbath day at this period of their history? Or was there no difference made in the defense of the city on the Sabbath day compared with the other days of the week? Were the Jews under King Jehoiachin (597 B.C.) more scrupulous in observ­ing the Sabbath by resting and refraining from fighting than they were later during the time of Zedekiah? Certainly the observ­ance of the Sabbath as part of the cult was common to the Jews of both the northern and southern kingdoms," but the manner of this observance during this period has not been described in detail.

With the knowledge of a definite date for the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar from secular records, it is of some in­terest to the Biblical historian to note that this monarch's apparent military strategy of attacking the Jews on their Sabbath day an­tedated by centuries the well-known inci­dents of a similar nature in Maccabean times. Although not decisive, this evidence tends to support Josephus (and 1 Maccabees) in pointing to the time of Mattathias as the time when the Jews dropped their previous military policy of not fighting on Saturdays.