|
|
|
|
|
|
|
calendar described in the "Book of Jubilees" is undoubtedly an attempt to restore a form of this calendar. Additional useful material is contained in the three papers by Morgenstern (vide the bibliography). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The idea of the Sabbath apparently derives from the concept of the "shappatum" period of this calendar. In Old Assyrian, the shappatum was a period of days intercalated between two pentecontads (periods of 50 days originally related to periods required to grow certain crops) in order to "complete" the year. The standardized shappatum accepted in Babylonia contained 15 days, making (750 + 15 =) 365 days in one year, and the Babylonian word shappatum developed into a designation for a period of 15 days and, by extension, a fifteenth day. The Hebrew term came to denote a period of seven days, and by extension, the seventh day. The religious injunction to "observe the sabbath" very likely began life as an injunction to observe the shappatum, which was a period of harvest time at the end of the year. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An exact date for the introduction of the week is impossible, but the Lewy and Lewy paper presents good arguments that the uninterrupted succession of weeks and sabbaths was in use by the second century B.C., but was still a matter of controversy, indicating that it had not been firmly established by long tradition at that time. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Romans used a week of eight days, called the nundina (literally, "nine days," since the Romans counted their days inclusively). This loose system was probably a market cycle, and may have been coordinated with the gestation cycles of certain animals, such as pigs and goats. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Jewish system of reckoning weeks was introduced into the Roman empire and was slowly accepted. By the time of Constantine (ca. A.D. 321), the original Jewish practice had been appropriated by the Christian cult and was on its way to wider acceptance. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The practice of naming the days of the week is not of Jewish origin. Jewish practice is to number the first six days and name only the last as Sabbath. This practice is the basis for the first day of the week in the Western calendar being Sunday, which it has been for almost two millennia. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The names of the days of the week (DOW) are generally consistent across European cultures, reflecting the names of popular deities that possess similar attributes within different cultures. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
English usage assigns the Saxonnames of the popular Teutonic deities: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Sun's day
Moon's day
Tiw's day
Woden's day
Thor's day
Freya's day
Saeter's day |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|