We’ve all been born & raised with the Gregorian Calendar, regardless of our religion or lack thereof. It’s just one of the many, many ways Christianity has woven its way into Western culture over the centuries.
I’d say that the dark ages may have actually reinforced the 7-day week. After all, that’s when the Church was the strongest, and if it did nothing else, it always made sure that people came to pray on Sunday.
Many people got out of going to church on Sunday by dying of the bubonic plague.
That’s true. Medieval people had a 100% mortality rate.
So do modern people. We all die eventually, right? No one gets out alive.
My point is that if a religious person of Abrahamic faith wonders “why are there seven days and when did that start?”, the Bible gives them a quick and easy answer, and they can just accept it. Someone who doesn’t believe the Genesis account wouldn’t. I’m sure there are plenty of irreligious people who’ve never given the days of the week a second thought (and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise).
It makes no difference whether or not you believe the Genesis account, really. It is of religious origin but it’s much too late to reject it for that reason. Could there be alternative to the Gregorian week? Like the metric week?
Do you mean that the bible says something about this?
I mean, if they are concerned that Samoa or some other pacific region shift their timezone, they must be more concerned whether everyone else in the world is following the right Sabbath or not.
I’m calling the Master out. He wrote: “The Sabbath (Saturday if you’re Jewish, Sunday if you’re Christian) was the only traditional day of leisure from the time of Creation (when, of course, God rested) until the mid-1930s.”
IIRC a 3rd Abrahamic religion observes a Friday as Sabbath. BTW, is the folk etymology relating seven to sabbath surely wrong?
They lost December 30th of course, as well as a Friday. There is precedent for this.
The Bible says 6 day creation week and a 7th day that’s holy. This pattern was established in the creation and definitely enforced by Jews after they received the law. It’s certainly enough to satisfy passing curiosity.
I think you’re missing my point. A religious person would (most likely) accept the religious story of where the 7 day week comes from. A nonreligious person wouldn’t believe “there’s 7 days in a week because that’s how long God took to create the world” or “there’s 7 days in a week because God told the Jews to keep the 7th day holy”. Reread what I’ve written in this thread so far, because I think you think I’m saying something I’m not.
On a separate note, I would love to adopt a different calendar. I’ve long supported a 10 day week and 3 week months with a 5 day half-week celebration period on the winter solstice to mark the beginning of the new year. 2 day weekends with a 1 day midweek break day.
It is not good to pay too much attention to the minutiae of religious law. This whole thing with the wandering Sabbath sounds ridiculous. Orthodox Jews have hundreds of mitzvots they have to deal with. Their lives must be dominated by these rules. I think the actual number is 613. Can you imagine? :eek:
The French Revolutionaries tried it - unfortunately, they lengthened the week, but not the weekend. Trading 6 work days followed by a day to attend church for 9 work days followed by a day to attend a “temple of reason” didn’t go over too well.
You’ve got it backwards, the 7 day week was already established before it was worked into the Genesis account.
It does, as you say, share a pedigree with the western week. They are both thought to derive from the same Near-Eastern origin, with various routes of communication postulated for the diffusion to China and Japan.
So was the Old Testament.
What is a temple of reason? Is that a real thing?
Makes no difference.
Yes:
Really? Because it seems to contradict what you said.
It seems to me there has been little discussion of why 7 day weeks if not from creation. If it existed before the creation story, where did it come from? Did the Chinese have it before 4000 BC? Where did they get it. How far back does rest on the seventh day go? I am sure the hunter/gatherer cultures didn’t have it. How organized does a society have to be to need weeks? Once agriculture begins, it is important to keep track of the solstice and equinox to know what to plant.
I am not arguing that it came from the Bible, just getting back to the original question.