Il venerdì (ˁrwbh) e il sabato (šbh) a Elefantina

Numerous papyri and ostraca were discovered during the excavations in Elephantine (Southern Egypt) at the beginning of the twentieth century. Many of them pertain to a Judaean community who lived there in the 5th century BC, mostly serving in the Achaemenid army. Seven ostraca preserve two words which in later texts designate the Sabbath (šbh) and its eve (‘rwbh). It has been suggested that these words refer here respectively to the original monthly Sabbath of the origin (and not to the weekly Sabbath), and to the evening (not to the Sabbath eve). This paper deals with the occurrences of these words in Elephantine and in later Aramaic, arguing that it is most likely that their meaning was already “Sabbath” and “Friday”, and that this Sabbath was probably the weekly Sabbath, although the members of the community were not strict Sabbath keepers.