The week is the only unit of ancient time that has no explainable origin other than God himself. The origin of the 7-day week can only be attributed to ‘religion’ – to God’s instruction to mankind to rest every 7th day. The 7-day week is not of natural origin, because there is no observable natural pattern to base it on. As we attempt to find some natural occurrence to base a week on, we might as well choose a 5-day week or an 11-day week. The 7-day week just doesn’t make sense from any naturally observable phenomena.
Some have theorized that the 7-day week is based on the observation of 7 “wanderer planets” (6 planets plus the moon thrown in for an even 7). This theory makes no sense. The ancients knew the difference between the moon and the planets. That’s why the ancient month is based solely on the moon’s cycle. To then turn around and include the moon as a wandering planet (and the basis for a 7-day week) would be double-counting the moon but single-counting the 6 wanderer planets. The ancients were smarter than that.
There is no rational reason for ancient cultures to impose a repeating pattern of 7 days on top of the natural day/month/year rhythms they observed. First, the 7-day week doesn’t even remotely fit those natural patterns. Those who think that lunar months are about 28 days (an even multiple of 7 days) should live in Israel or an Islamic country for 10 years and then tell me which day of the week the annual lunar-based (month-based) feasts fall on. The answer is…’it varies, because the lunar monthly cycle and the weekly 7-day cycle are completely out of sync.’ The lunar month is not 28 days, but 29.53 days, so after just two months, you’re over half a week off! Certainly nobody who has ever lived according to lunar calendars would try to propose a correlation between weeks and months. Only armchair theorists who live in the modern Gregorian calendar with its manufactured ‘months’ could try to make such a correlation.
Some might suggest that the 7-day week is based on the “28-day” menstrual cycle. But menstrual cycles are not constant. Length variations of less than 4 days are unusual. And there may be limited evidence that the menstrual cycle is more closely linked to the lunar cycle.
The biblical origin of the 7 day week suggests that this convention was in place as an oral tradition before Genesis was written. Are there other ancient texts/artifacts that independently confirm this weekly cycle?
I respectfully disagree:
1) The Chinese, Hindu, Celts (amongst many other non-jewish/christian/muslin ancient civilisations) used a 7 day week. Many of these pre-date the writing of the Hebrew bible (Old Testament). How can these origins be traced back to the bible?
2) The names of the days, in most western languages, are of clearly pagan origins (in English in particular). The names refered to deities, not planets (eg: Wedneday was the day of Wotan, Friday the day of Frige, etc… Saturday is the day of Saturn as in Saturn the roman god of agriculture, that gave its name to both the day and the planet, not the other way around). You can clearly see the christian/pagan influence in the name given to Sunday for example (ie: in English the old pagan name survived: “Sunday” for “day of the Sun” whereas in French for example the christian version is used “Dimanche” for “Dies Dominica” ie: “Day of the Lord”). In Portuguese, the names of the day have been completelly christianised: Domingo, secunda feira, terça feira…., Sabado (“Day of the Lord”, second day, third day, … day of the Sabbat).
3) The ancients mostly used a lunisolar calendar (including the Hebrew, Buddist, Indu, Chinese, Babylonian…): 12 months based on the moon plus a “leap month” (can be of variable length) to equate the year length with the passing of the seasons.
Editor’s Comments: Jeremiah, thanks for your comments. You make some good points which require a more nuanced explanation on my account. First, I agree with you that the names of the days of the week currently reflect pagan deities. But I would posit that this is because the week has been corrupted by pagan Roman and Greek influence. The Jewish observance of the week clearly predated the Greek and Roman cultures. I would also argue that almost every pagan deity has a history based in some historical figure or story. For example, many people believe that Jupiter is ultimately a reference to Noah’s son Japeth. Historians understand that ancestor worship was commonplace at the dawn of recorded history. I say this to make the point that we need to follow history all the way back to the beginning, rather than beginning it in Roman and Greek times, when months were named after Roman emperors (July, August), and weekdays were named after pagan deities (Woden, Thor) or celestial objects (Sun, Moon).
Regarding your statement about the ancient civilizations that used a 7-day week, we need to understand that the truth of God predated the writing of the Bible. It wasn’t as if the knowledge of Adam and Eve was invented by Moses or Abraham. Abraham came out of a pagan culture, but that culture did have a remnant of knowledge about where it came from. Abraham’s ancestors didn’t believe that they were the mindless product of evolution. In fact, Noah was still alive when Abraham was born. We also know that writing was well-established in Abraham’s time (due to the discovery of records of trade with the city of Ur, Abraham’s birthplace). It is entirely reasonable to assume that since all humans on the planet can trace their ancestry to Noah, and since Noah was still alive, that the knowledge of God that was passed down through Noah was alive and well in Abraham’s day. We can only assume that this account included the Genesis account of creation, from which the 7-day week is derived. The 7-day week is a creation ordinance, meaning that God instituted it at the time of creation, not the time of the giving of the law to Moses on Mt Sinai in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, I would argue that the observance of the 7-day week by all these ancient civilizations is indicative of their common origin – a body of knowledge passed on to them by their common ancestors from Noah’s time. We have to understand that because there is no natural basis for a 7-day week, then a common body of religious knowledge is a more likely explanation. Of course, as is man’s tendency to corrupt everything, various societies corrupted God’s knowledge through the years, and God decided to pick Abraham and his descendants to be the keepers and disseminators of his truth to the world, first in the form of the Pentateuch, then in the form of prophets, then in the form of God in the flesh…Jesus Christ.
Cheers, and thanks for your comment.
Do you think you could help me find out the original descriptions that God intended for each day of the week before each day was corrupted by paganism?
cheers to you,
Joe
I find the historical discourse fascinating but I wonder if the origin of the seven day week has nothing to do with any particular culture. We humans predate recorded history by 100’s of 1,000s – give or take. I think it does have to do with a natural cycle. If we work all the time we “burn out”. It is necessary for us to rest, take a break, chill, pay attention to or spouse and children; recreate! Ancient humans lived in organized groups and probably figured out optimal work rest periods in unison with each other and over time settled into work six, rest one. Actually, I think it was work five, party one, rest one.