Testimony on the Origin of the Sabbath by Dudley Marvin Canright

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 27, 1866

Testimony on the Origin of the Sabbath.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

I copy the following from Nevin's Biblical Antiquities, pp. 173, 174, thinking that it may be of interest to Sabbath-keepers. D. M. CANRIGHT.

WEEK.—The week had its origin with the commencement of time; when, after six days employed in the work of creation, God rested on the seventh, and blessed it, and set it apart to be continually observed as a day of holy rest, and a sacred memorial of that event. We find, in the account of the flood, that it had continued in use down to that age, and so was a measure of time familiar to Noah. Gen. vii, 4-10; viii, 10-12. After the flood it was handed down by the sons of Noah to their descendants. In this way it has happened that some traces of the ancient week are to be found in every quarter of the globe. Nations the most distant from each other, and of every character, have united in giving testimony to the truth of the Bible account, either by retaining in their common reckoning of time the regular division of seven days, or at least by showing such regard to that definite period as can in no way be accounted for, if it was not received by tradition from the earliest ages.

Not only has this been the case in all the countries of the East, such as Egypt, Arabia, Assyria, India, China, and others, but among the most ancient people of Europe also, the Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls, the Germans, the Britons, and the several nations of the North—and this, long before they had any knowledge of Christianity, as is evident from the names of the days found in use among them, which were all of idolatrous origin. Even among the uncultivated tribes of Africa, travelers have met with the same division of time.

It is not only, however, by retaining the number of days which compose a week, that the tradition of the world so evidently confirms the account of Moses; the testimony is rendered still more striking by the very general idea of some peculiar sacredness belonging to the seventh day, which has existed in every age. The week, it must be remembered, is not a natural period of time, like a day, or a month, or a year, which are all suggested by the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and so naturally come into use among every people; there is no reason in the nature of things why days should be counted by sevens, rather than by eights, tens, or any other number. The division, therefore, wherever found, must have had its origin in arbitrary appointment. To imagine that all the nations of the world united in forming the same arbitrary appointment, by mere chance, would be ridiculous. Nothing but the original appointment made by God himself, can be admitted as a sufficient cause for such a fact.