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The Week

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 13, 1864

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 25, No. 3.

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The Week.

WE present below two interesting extracts relative to the week. The first is from the Encyclopedia Americana, and gives us the origin of the names of the days of the week, now in use. The second is from the Religious Encyclopedia, and shows how the term Sabbath came to be applied to the whole week, as in Matt. xxviii, 1. According to the testimony given, the week is a "division of time that has no obvious foundation in nature," and yet it "prevailed very extensively over the world from the earliest times." From what then could it have been derived but the events of creation—the six days of labor and the seventh of rest? The American Encyclopedia says:
"The week approaches pretty nearly to a quarter of a lunation; but this division of time has no obvious foundation in nature. It appears, notwithstanding, to have prevailed very extensively over the world from the earliest times, and, what is remarkable, the days of the week are generally named after the sun and planets, only six planets having been known to the ancients. This manner of distinguishing a series of seven days is found to be the same among the ancient Egyptians, Indians, and Chinese. Still the order is not that of the distances, magnitude, or brightness of the planets. The following ingenious conjecture has been adopted to account for the origin of the names and arrangement of the days of the week:—The planetary arrangement of Ptolemy was thus: 1. Saturn; 2. Jupiter; 3. Mars; 4. the Sun; 5. Venus; 6. Mercury; 7. the Moon. Each of these planets was supposed to preside successively over each hour of the twenty-four of each day, in the order above given. In this way, Saturn would preside over the first hour of the first day, Jupiter over the second hour, Mars over the third, the sun over the fourth, and so on. Thus the sun, presiding over the fourth, eleventh and eighteenth hours of the first day, would preside over the first hour of the second day; and, carrying on the series, the moon would preside over the first hour of the third day, Mars over the first hour of the fourth day, Mercury over the first hour of the fifth day, Jupiter over the first hour of the sixth day, and Venus over the first hour of the seventh day. Hence the names of the days yet used in the learned professions: 1. dies Saturni (Saturday); 2. dies Solis (Sunday); 3. dies Lunæ (Monday); 4. dies Martis (Tuesday); 5. dies Mercurii (Wednesday); 6. dies Jovis (Thursday); 7. dies Veneris (Friday). The English names of the days of the week are derived from the Saxons, and are partly adopted from the more civilized nations of antiquity."
The Religious Encyclopedia says:
"WEEK; a period of seven days. Under the usual name of a week, shabait, is mentioned as far back as the time of the deluge, Gen. vii, 4, 10; viii, 10, 12; xxix, 27, 28. It must, therefore, be considered a very ancient division of time, especially as the various nations among whom it has been noticed, for instance, the Nigri in Africa, appear to have received it from the sons of Noah. The enumeration of the days of the week commenced at Sunday. Saturday was the last or seventh, and was the Hebrew Sabbath, or day of rest. The Egyptians gave to the days of the week the same names as they assigned to the planets. From the circumstance that the Sabbath was the principal day of the week, the whole period of seven days was likewise called shabat, in Syriac shabta, in the New Testament sabbaton and sabbata. The Jews, accordingly, in designating the successive days of the week, were accustomed to say, the first day of the sabbath, that is, of the week; the second day of the sabbath, that is, Sunday, Monday, &c., Mark xvi, 2, 9; Luke xxiv, 1; John xx, 1, 19."