[323] _Seniores appellabant hunc diem, πρώτην τῶν σαββάτων. Lev. 23. 11._
[325] _Καὶ τότε λοιπὸν δημοσίᾳ ἔξεστι πᾶσι καὶ ἰδίᾳ θερίζειν, Joseph. Antiq. l. 3. c. 10._
[326] _Scalig. lib. 6. de emend. temp. p. 260._
[327] _Plin. l. 18. cap. 18. Illud ipsum confirmat Leo Afr. testis αὐτόπτης Descript. Afr. lib. 8. c. 4._
The _Greek_ word used to express this Festivity, properly signifieth the _making of Tabernacles_:[328] the _Hebrew_ word, a _Feast of Tabernacles_.[329] The reason of both is, because all the time of this _Feast_, which was full seven daies, (from the fifteenth of _Tisri_, untill the one and twentieth thereof) the people remained in _Tabernacles_ and _Booths_ made of Boughs, in manner of Arbors and Bowers; yet so, that the first day of those seven, and the last, were after a more special manner to be observed as _holy Convocations_.
[328] _Jansen. Concord. cap. 73. Item Tollet. in Joan. 7. σκηνοπαγία, non σκηνοφαγία._
Concerning these Booths, the _Jews_ write thus:[330] They ought to be made in the open Air, not within doors, nor under the shelter of a Tree; they ought not to be covered with cloaths, nor to be made too close with the thickness of the Boughs, but with such holes that the Sun and the Stars might be seen thorow them, and the rain likewise descend thorow them. In these they ought to dwell those seven days, as in their houses; they ought to furnish them with houshold-stuff to ly under them, and sleep under them; only in rainy weather, then they had liberty to eat and sleep in their houses, untill the rain was over-past. Feeble persons also, which could not endure the smell of the earth, were permited to stay at home. In _Nehemiah_’s time they made their Booths, some upon the roof of their houses (for their houses were made flat above) _Deut. 22. 8._ Some in their Courts, some in their streets, _Nehem. 8. 15._
_Plutarch_ making mention of this Festivity, saith,[331] that these _Booths_ were made principally of Ivy boughs: but the Scripture reckoneth up _four distinct kinds_, _Levit. 23. 40._ which are thought to be, 1. _The Cittern tree._ 2. _The Palm-tree._ 3. _The Myrtle tree._ 4. _The willow of the brook._ The _Rabbins_ teach,[332] that every man brought every morning his burden of the boughs of these four Trees, otherwise he fasted that day. And this burden they termed[333] _Hosanna_: in allusion unto this the people cutting down branches from the Trees, and strewing them in the way when our _Saviour_ did ride into _Jerusalem_, cried, saying, _Hosanna_ to the _Son of David_, _Mat. 21. 9._ _Plutarch_ scoffing the _Jews_, compares this Feast with that drunken Festival in the honour of _Bacchus_, in which the _Bacchides_ ran up and down with certain Javelings in their hands, wrapped about with Ivy, called θυρσοὶ and in this respect he termeth this feast of the _Jews_ θυρσοφορίαν _A bearing about of these Thyrsi_. That feast which the _Athenians_ term Εἰρεσιώνη, was not much unlike.