“Seven days,” wrote Witold Rybczynski in the August 1991 issue of The Atlantic, “is not natural because no natural phenomenon occurs every seven days.” The year marks one revolution of the Earth around the sun. Months, supposedly, mark the time between full moons. The seven-day week, however, is completely man-made.
If it’s man-made, can’t man unmake it? For all the talk of how freeing it’d be to shave a day or two off the five-day workweek, little attention has been paid to where the weekly calendar came from. Understanding the sometimes arbitrary origins of the modern workweek might inform the movement to shorten it.
The roots of the seven-day week can be traced back about 4,000 years, to Babylon. The Babylonians believed there were seven planets in the solar system, and the number seven held such power to them that they planned their days around it. Their seven-day, planetary week spread to Egypt, Greece, and eventually to Rome, where it turns out the Jewish people had their own version of a seven-day week. (The reason for this is unclear, but some have speculated that the Jews adopted this after their exile in Babylon in the sixth century B.C.) At the very latest, the seven-day week was firmly entrenched in the Western calendar about 250 years before Christ was born.
Anyone else know where the seven day week came from?
Anything to avoid acknowledging the Creator of all things, including the seven-day week.
Just who do these clowns think they’re fooling? Even changing Anno Domini/AD and Before Christ/BC to Common Era/CE and Bdfore COmmon Era/BCE begs the question of what event marks the dividing year between the two eras.
#1– It’s certainly a puzzlement.
This is a good example of how the media can go on and on as the enlightened ones, and have absolutely no clue what they are talking about.
It also shows where we are in this age of profound government-enforced Biblical ignorance.
Never minding scripture, there’s “the magical number seven, plus or minus two” and the length of one moon phase.
“…eventually to Rome, where it turns out the Jewish people had their own version of a seven-day week.” What on earth does this statement mean?
Katherine, and it gets better: “(The reason for this is unclear, but some have speculated that the Jews adopted this after their exile in Babylon in the sixth century B.C.)”
Someone should let this enlightened author know there is a clue to be found in Exodus 20:8.
The seven-day week is based on the seven heavenly “planets” (sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, and saturn) of the ancient world and how fast those planets move when seen from the ground.
In order of fastest to slowest, the planets are:
moon, mercury, venus, sun, mars, jupiter, and saturn.
The corresponding order of the days is:
monday (ruled by moon), wednesday (ruled by mercury), friday (ruled by venus), sunday (ruled by sun), tuesday (ruled by mars), thursday (ruled by jupiter), and saturday (ruled by saturn).
The order of week we are most familiar with (sunday to saturday) is based on the order of the days based on planetary speed (monday to saturday).
We can visualize this by taking the order of days based on the planetary speed, and splitting it into two lists, but keeping the planetary speed order:
monday wednesday friday sunday tuesday thursday saturday
is split into:
(1) monday wednesday friday
(2) sunday tuesday thursday saturday
The normal order of the days of the week can be determined by alternating from one of the parallel speed lists to the other. If we start with sunday (because the sun is the brightest “planet”) in list #2, then the second day is monday (because the moon is the second-most brightest “planet”) in list #1. The third day is the day after sunday in list #2: tuesday. The fourth day is the day after monday in list #1: wednesday. The fifth day is the day after tuesday in list #2: thursday. The sixth day is the day after wednesday in list #1: friday. The seventh day is the day after thursday in list #2: saturday.
The planetary speed is likely related to the Jewish shabbat. Shabbat occurs on the seventh day. The seventh day (in the Babylonian system) is ruled by saturn, the slowest planet. Interestingly, it’s on Shabbat that Jews are supposed to move “the slowest”, doing as little work as possible.
Another interesting observation is that Genesis 1’s description of what Elohim does each day of the week, seems to correspond to the planet that rules that day of the week. For instance, Elohim says “Let there be light” on the first day — and the first day is ruled by the sun, the brightest “planet”. On the second day, Elohim separates the waters — and the second day is ruled by moon, which is the “planet” most associated with water.
[blockquote]…no natural phenomenon occurs every seven days….[/blockquote]
…unless, of course, you include the lunar phases. It’s about seven days from New Moon to First Quarter; First Quarter to Full Moon; and so forth.