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THE
ORIGIN OF THE WEEK EXPLAINED,
BEING A PAPER
the <^rLtgin of the gwision of feu
INTO PERIODS OF SEVEN DAYS,
READ BEFORE THE
LIBERAL
SOCIAL
UNION,
At the Meeting on July 30, 1874.
BY
A. D. TYSSEN, B.C.L., M.A.
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,
14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT
GARDEN,
LONDON;
AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH.
1874.
Price One Shilling.
�I
�ANALYSIS.
1. The theory stated
2. Necessity of knowing the season of the year 3. Observations of the sun
4. The lunar year
5. Possible origin of the superstition against dining thirteen
6. Disadvantages of the lunar year
7. The calendar year
8. Full moon the best time for summoning an assembly 9. And religious feasts fixed by lunar epochs
10. Reason for reckoning days onwards in early times, and
considering the day to commence at sunset
11. Two passages from Tacitus and Herodotus bearing on
the subject 12. National duties performed in rotation 13. Explanation of division of the tribe of Joseph into two
14. And subsequent division of the tribe of Manasseh
15. The guard changed originally at the quarters of the moon
16. And afterwards every seventh day
17. This supported by —
18. (1) The meaning of the word Sabbath, which is equi
valent to relief
19. (2) The passage 2 Kings xi. 1—16
20. (3) The shewbread
21. (4) The double sacrifice upon the Sabbath
22. (5) The fact that the Roman calendar marked the
quarters of the moon, and gave rise to a system of
eight-day weeks
23. (6) The traces of a week amongst the Persians, Buddhists,
English, and Germans
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�iv
ANALYSIS.
PAGE
24. The rise of the Jewish Sabbath traced 25. The ten commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy
compared 26. Abstinence from fighting not found till after the captivity
27. Veneration of the Sabbath probably grew gradually 28. The number seven also made sacred by the planets
29. The days of the week still called by their names
30. Introduction of the names told by Dion Cassius, and
attributed to the Egyptians 31. No doubt furthered by the customs of the Jews and
Christians 32. Observance of Sunday enjoined by Constantine
33. Conclusion
Note on Egyptian Week
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�ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DIVISION
OF TIME INTO PERIODS
OF SEVEN DAYS.
1. The theory about to be propounded in this paper
as to the origin of the division of time into periods of
seven days is, that our word week comes fro m the
same origin as the words wake and watch, and that
the present system of weeks of fixed periods of seven
days each, which may fairly be called a system of
calendar weeks, arose out of an earlier irregular system
of lunar watches, extending from one quarter of the
moon to another, very much in the same way that the
existing system of twelve calendar months arose out
of an earlier irregular system of twelve or thirteen
lunar ones.
Before proceeding to criticise the historical evidence
on the subject, it will be well to call attention to some
elementary points in astronomy which will shew more
clearly the meaning of the proposition above laid
down.
2. Men in primitive times of course required to
know just as much as we do now, the approach of
certain periods of the year. They required to know
when the rainy season was about to commence, when
B
�2
On the Division of Time
the rivers might be expected to rise, when drought
was to be provided against, when they ought to sow,
and when to reap, when their flocks would breed, and
many other similar points, differing according to their
habits, and the physical and atmospheric incidents of
their country.
3. To teach themselves these matters it became
necessary for them to have some means of determining
the commencement of each year, and dividing it into
periods convenient for ordinary purposes of computa
tion. The commencement of the year, and the re
currence of corresponding periods was best told by
observing the sun.
The solstices were two epochs
which could be observed approximately. For the
summer solstice the sun after rising more and more
to the North every morning and setting in like manner,
turned and began to rise and set more to the South,
and for the winter solstice the reverse took place.
Many localities would afford natural marks for ob
serving these phenomena, while in all cases artificial
marks could be erected.
There can be little doubt that one of the uses of
Stonehenge was to enable such observations to be
made. A man standing in the centre of the circle
could tell approximately the season of the year by
noticing behind which stone, or between which two
stones the sun rose and set each day. There are
moreover two outlying stones beyond the main circle
at Stonehenge at about the points where the sun rises
on the longest and shortest days respectively. Further
evidence of the astro, omieal purposes of Stonehenge
�into Periods of Seven Days.
3
is found in the fact that the number of stones in the
outer circle appears to have been originally 29, being
the number of whole days in a lunar month.
Another mode of determining the season of the year
is by noticing what stars are just rising or just setting
at sunrise or sunset, these being the same for the
corresponding seasons, subject only to a very slight
variation.* And of all the stars, there is probably no
set more convenient to select for this purpose than the
Pleiades, that being a bright little group of which
part might be above and part below the horizon. And
this is probably the origin of the peculiar veneration
paid to the Pleiades in early times.
A third mode of fixing a point for the commence
ment of the year would be by observing the equinoxes.
These might be ascertained by fixing a thin upright
post in the ground, and noticing the direction in which
the sun rose and set every day. At the equinoxes the
two lines from the post pointing to the spots where
the sun rose and set would form one straight line.
4. These observations of the sun however are evi
dently matters requiring some nicety of observation,
and comparison of the results of one season with an
other. But in the meantime the moon afforded a
measure of time plain enough for all folk to see. Anri
it is no doubt owing to the very palpable nature of the
phases of the moon, that it occupies a more prominent
* The expression in Judges v. 20, ‘ The stars in their courses
fought against Sisera, the river Kishon swept them away,’ no
doubt implies that the stars were then rising which ushered in
the rainy season.
B 2
�4
On the Division of Time
part in early astronomy than the stars or even the
sun.
If the number of revolutions of the moon round
the earth had been an exact or nearly exact measure of
a revolution of the earth round the sun, there can be
little doubt that a lunar year would have been uni
versally adopted. But it happens that the revolutions
of the moon are so far from fitting in with the natural
year that the inaccuracy of any attempt to make them
agree must become at once apparent. The average
interval between new moon and new moon will be
found to be very nearly 29| days, while
the average length of the solar year is
29|
well known to be about 365| days.
12
From this it will be seen that 12 lunar
months, which is the number which
6
comes nearest to the solar year is about
348
11 days short of it, a difference which
354
would become apparent to every one in
the course of a very few years.
If we may trust to Roman traditions, their year
consisted at first of only ten months, which seems to
indicate that in early times they only found it neces
sary to attend to these divisions of time during that
portion of the year. Their system would then have
been to have made their year commence with a new
moon happening about the time that agricultural
operations had to commence, and to reckon on thence
ten moons, and then leave an interval till it became
time to look out for the first moon of the next year.
�into Periods of Seven Days.
5
If the Romans however ever did thus leave the
winter to take care of itself, they must soon have come
to reckon the moons during it to aid them in fixing
the proper one for the commencement of the following
year, and so been brought to face the problem which
almost all nations seemed to have faced, of making
lunar years and solar years coincide.*
The first attempt at solving this problem evidently
consists in taking 12 lunar months for the year. This
however would result, as has been already shown, in
throwing the calendar 11 days before the natural year
in the second year, 22 days in the third, 33 in the
fourth, and so on. In fact, for practical purposes, such
asystem would soon become most misleading. It would
then be found that a thirteenth month would have to
be intercalated every now and then in order to correct
the error. Such a month might perhaps be at first
thrown in whenever it had become perfectly obvious
that it was requisite in order to bring back the com
mencement of the year to its old place in the seasons.
Then as time rolled on more accurate observations
would be made, and a rule might come to be adopted
that the first new moon after one of the solstices or
equinoxes or after the rising or setting of some star,
was to be considered the commencement of the year.
The Romans and the Jews appear both to have
adopted the plan of making the first new moon after
the vernal equinox the commencement of the year.
* A vast amount of information on this point, and on other
points treated of in this essay will be found in “ Time and Faith,”
Groombridge and Sons, 1857.
�6
On the Division of Time
The first month in the old Roman year was March,
which occupied therefore in early times a rather later
place in the natural year than was assigned to it by
Julius Caesar on his reformation of the calendar. The
marks of March having originally been the commence. ment of the year are seen in the names of the four last
months whose names signify 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th
respectively, and also in the fact that the intercalation
necessary to correct the calendar still takes place at
the end of February.
Further observations might show that a system
giving twelve months each to 5 years out of 8 and
13 months each to the other three would make the
Calendar agree very nearly with the seasons. And
still further observations would show that a cycle of
19 lunar years containing 12 short years and 7 long
ones would almost exactly coincide with 19 solar
years. This system is called the Metonic cycle, and
is said to have been discovered and introduced at
Athens about the year 432 b.c. by an Astronomer
named Meton, and according to the better reading of
a passage in Livy (I. 19) a similar system was insti
tuted at Rome by Numa.
•
“ Intercalaris mensibus interponendis ita disposuit
ut vicesimo anno ad metam eandem solis unde orsi sunt,
plenis annorum omnium spatiis, dies congruerent.”
“ By inserting intercalary months he so arranged
matters that in the twentieth year the days came
round to the same point in the sun’s course from
which they had started, the intervening years being
all complete.”
�into Periods of Seven Days.
7
Reasons will however appear presently for doubting
whether the Romans could have known of this cycle
even at a much later period. The Jews became
acquainted with the Metonic cycle in the course of
time, and use it still in regulating the length of their
years. Among the advantages to be derived from the
knowledge of a cycle over a mere empirical system
of fixing the end of each year by observation at the
moment, we may mention that it enabled every one to
know before-hand the times for payment of taxes and
for magistrates entering and leaving office, and for
contracts in many cases to commence and expire, and
payments of money to be made.
5. Before, however, any cycle was discovered, and
while men were making merely empirical attempts at
adjusting the lunar year, it would be found that the
majority of years contained 12 months each, and the
minority being something more than every third year
contained 13. There would therefore often be two
years containing 12 months together, but never two
containing 13. And it is possible that a popular rule
stating that when there were 13 one year there would
only be 12 the next, may have something to do with
the popular superstition that if 13 people sit down to
dinner together at the end of the year, one of them
will die before the end of the next. The superstition
is of course generally considered to have originated
from the circumstances of the Last Supper, but that
origin hardly accounts for the idea of one person
dying within a year.
6. Now it is evident that even the best arranged
�8
On the Division of Time
lunar system that could be devised is open to the
serious objection of placing the corresponding periods
of the natural year in different positions in the arti
ficial year, and for practical purposes it must have
become necessary to note that the first day of the first
month, and of course all other days, would be so much
earlier one year than another. The place of the sun
amongst the stars, in fact, would be found to be more
important than the phase of the moon ;* the number
12 derived from the moon’s revolutions would be
taken to be the number of periods into which to divide
the year; and the belt of stars through which the
sun apparently passed would be mapped out into 12
portions—the 12 signs of the Zodiac, in fact—and
give rise to a system of 12 calendar months under
lying, and eventually superseding the system of 12 or
13 lunar months.
7. Up to about b.c. 448 the Bomans had lunar
months, but they then endeavoured to introduce a
system of fixed months, not coinciding at all with
the lunar ones, but having fixed numbers of days;
and they left it to the Pontiffs every year to fix the
number of extra days to be added to make the year
complete.
* The moon at the full being always opposite the sun, its
position among the stars might be used to determine that of the
sun, or to tell the commencement of the year or the season directly.
Possibly the commencement of the Jewish year was originally
fixed by the first full moon which occurred beyond a certain line
amongst the stars, and the feast held at it was called the Passover, to signify tliaL the full moon had passed that line.
�into Periods of Seven Days,
9
The Pontiffs, however, partly through ignorance,
and partly through wilful attempts to shorten the
years of unpopular magistrates, managed the interca
lation so incorrectly, that in Julius Caesar’s time the
months came some 90 days earlier than their traditional
proper places. Julius Caesar then assigned to them
the places they hold now, and ordained for the future
the observance of the system which, with a slight
modification, we still use.
The fact that the Romans were unsuccessful in their
earlier attempts to settle the calendar on a definite
basis, throws considerable doubt on the statement of
Livy that they were acquainted with the Metonic cycle
at the time of Numa.
8. The lunar system has, however, some practical
advantages over a solar or stellar system. The latter
being more complex would be difficult to teach to the
mass of a primitive people, though it might be well
understood by a few initiated persons at head-quarters,
and a command issued through the land calling all
men to assemble under arms on the first of the next
calendar month would not be so easy to obey in
primitive times as a summons to meet at the next full
moon.* In the latter case the heavenly body itself
would act as a monitor, showing by its form each
* It may be remembered that the Spartans failed to take part
in the battle of Marathon because they waited for a full moon
to start at. Their superstition was no doubt derived from a
custom of assembling at the full moon, the custom being
based on the fact that it was the easiest time to summon a
gathering.
�1o
On the Division of Dime
evening how many days were to elapse before the
appointed meeting.
9. Moreover, owing to the lunar division of time
being the earlier in point of date, all sacred festivals
would come to be regulated by it, and that being so
it would be preserved for their sake long after it had
been superseded by a calendar system for all other
purposes. Indeed at the present day Easter and the
other so-called moveable festivals are nothing more
than feasts derived by the early Christians from the
Jews and regulated according to a lunar system also
derived from them. But probably many good people
in this country would look upon it as the height of
impiety to propose to give these festivals fixed places
in the calendar, even though it were possible to ascer
tain the days on which the events commemorated on
them occurred, so far as they are the commemoration
of events, and it was proposed to fix them on those
days.
10. But to go back to primitive times and make
one more remark. It is evident that the general
phenomena of the phases of the moon, the place of
the sun, and the rising and setting of the stars, must
have been matters far more familiar to people in
ancient times than to us at the present day. The
heavens were their calendar, their crier of public
meetings, their notifier of sacred festivals, holidays
and market days, their compass for journeys by land
and sea. Every evening the inhabitants of each
village must have gazed on the stars for directions
both on sacred and secular affairs. And every tribe
�into Periods of Seven Days.
11
must have had some one sacred spot for constant
observations to be made to regulate the national
calendar.
A little further reflection on this matter will furnish
explanations of two curious points in ancient modes
of speaking on these subjects. Firstly, the import
ant matters for which divisions of time were required
were to know beforehand when the various gatherings
were to take place. Hence we find that they fre
quently reckoned the days not from the commence
ment of the current month as we do, but towards
the beginning of the next month, or towards the next
feast day. Thus in the Boman calendar the first day
of each month was called the Calends, but the next
day was not called the second, but so many days
before the nones, a festival which fell on the 5th or
7th, and after the nones, the days were called by their
number before the Ides a festival which fell eight
days after the nones, and after the Ides the days were
called by their number before the Calends of the next
month. Secondly, the evening being naturally the
most convenient time for making observations, the
phenomena then observed would in many cases deter
mine the character of the following day, and on that
account the evening would be considered as belonging
to it rather than to the day past, and the division of
day from day would be reckoned at sunset, and not as
we reckon it at midnight.*
* The expressions in the first chapter of Genesis “ the evening
and the morning were the first day,” &c. will no doubt occur to
every one.
�12
On the Division of Time
11. It may be well here to introduce a few passages
illustrating the foregoing remarks.
Tacitus, writing of the Germans in the first century
of our era, speaks as follows :—
(Tacitus, Germania, 11.)
“ Coeunt, nisi quid, fortuitum et subitum incidit,
certis diebus, cum aut inchoatur luna aut impletur :
nam agendis rebus hoc anspicatissimum initium
credunt. Nec dierum numerum, at nos, sed noctium
computant. Sic constituunt, sic condicunt: nox ducere
diem videtur.”
“ They meet, unless any thing accidental and sudden
happens, on certain days when it is either new or full
moon : for they think that the most auspicious com
mencement for business. Nor do they reckon the
number of days as we do, but the number of nights.
They so express themselves both officially and
colloquially—night is considered to precede day.”
And Herodotus, who visited Egypt about 450 years
before our era writes as follows:—
(Herod, ii. 4.)
“ The Egyptians said they were the first to discover
the length of the year, setting out twelve divisions to
make it up. And they said that they discovered this
from the stars. And they manage it much more
cleverly than the Greeks, as it seems to me, inasmuch
as the Greeks put in an intercalary month every
third year, for the sake of the seasons, but the
Egyptians giving the twelve months 30 days each,
add every year 5 days beyond the number and the
�into Periods of Seven Days.
13
cycle of seasons as it rolls on comes to them at the
same place.”
And in another place (Herod, ii. 47) he gives an
account of an Egyptian feast at a full moon, resembling
in several points the Jewish passover. “ To Selene and
Dionysus alone at the same time, at the same full moon,
they sacrifice swine and eat the flesh. And the sacrifice
of swine to Selene is done in this way. When they sacri
fice, putting the tip of the tail and the spleen and the
caul together they wrap them up in all the fat of the
beast about the stomach and burn it in the fire—and
the rest of the flesh they eat at the full moon at which
they make the sacrifice, and they will not touch it on
another day. And the poor amongst them through
want of means mould swine of dough, and cook them
and sacrifice them. And to Dionysus on the eve of the
feast each man slays a pig before his door and gives
it to be taken away by the swineherd who brought
it.”
12. To come now to a point nearer the subject of
this paper, there would necessarily be various public
duties to be performed in every state. The national
observations of the heavens would be kept up, various
sacred rites would be performed, and the sanctuary
would be guarded. Such duties might in some cases
be performed by special persons set apart for the pur
pose, and in other cases by all the members of the
community in rotation. In the case of the Israelites
we find it stated that originally the first born of all
the tribes filled the priestly offices. May we not
�14
On the Division of Time
infer then that the twelve tribes performed the duties
of these offices in rotation according to the twelve
months of the normal year ?
13. And when we find one of the reputed original
tribes, namely, that of Joseph, represented by the two
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, may it not be that
that tribe officiated on the last month of the year and
became divided into two portions for the purpose
of supplying the intercalary month whenever it
occurred ? The word Manasseh is said to mean
etymologically, “ divided,” and so favours this view.
The change from a priesthood shared by all the
tribes to that of a single tribe appears to be indicated
in the 32nd chapter of Exodus, the substance of which
may be shortly stated to be that at a time at which
two members of the tribe of Levi were at the head of
affairs an oracle was pronounced declaring that the
people had given offence to the Deity and calling for
volunteers to avenge it; that the tribe of Levi res
ponded to the call and flew to arms, and after some
bloodshed the anger of the Lord was considered to be
appeased, and we find the priesthood given to the
tribe of Levi in place of the first born of all the tribes,
(see Numbers, chap, iii.)
14. This change however may not have entirely put
an end to the practice of service by rotation. We
know that at Rome and Athens after the abolition of
the kingly power there were certain sacred offices
which only a person with the title of king was thought
worthy to perform, and special subordinate officers
were accordingly instituted with that title to provide
�into Periods of Seven Days.
15
for their due performance. And conversely, when the
ministry of the sanctuary was turned into an hereditary
office among the Israelites, it may well have happened
that there were some secular offices such as that of
forming a military guard about the holy place, which
came to be thought only fit to be performed by persons
not invested with the priestly dignity. For these then
the other tribes would be summoned as before, and
would naturally follow in the old order merely leaving
out the tribe of Levi. In an ordinary year the twelve
tribes would be sufficient for the service, but when the
intercalary month occurred some further subdivision
would be necessary, and what is more the strain would
be felt at the very same point in the circle at which
the strain had been felt on the original system of
12 tribes. And curiously enough it does happen that
the tribe of Manasseh, the second half of the original
tribe of Joseph, appears in history itself divided into
two halves which have separate portions of the con
quered territory alloted to them, and are in fact in
everything except in name, two independent tribes.
The idea of the tribes performing military service
by rotation appears as late as the 1st chapter of the
Book of Judges, after the conquest of Canaan, but
when the various tribes became settled in distinct
territories, and each had its own affairs to attend to,
any custom of service by tribes must have fallen into
disuse.
15. At all times however, and in all places, as long
as lunar epochs were adopted for market days, festivals
and military duties, some system of rotation of guards
�16
On the Division of Time
and watchmen must have been observed. The new
moon and full moon of course formed the two most
natural points for a change to take place, and the first
and last quarter the next most eligible days, and the
theory here advocated is that amongst the Jews and
Romans, and the Teutonic tribes, and other primitive
nations, the guards were changed at these epochs.
Now when we recollect that the number of days in a
lunar month is about 29|, it is evident that seven days
would be the most usual length of the period from one
quarter to another. Two lunar months would comprise
eight watches, of which five would consist of seven
days each, and three of eight days each.
16. In the course of time the inconvenience of the
uncertainty of the length of a watch would be felt, and
a fixed system of seven day weeks would come to
supersede the irregular system of observing the actual
quarters of the moon.
17. Let us look now at the evidence for or against
this supposition which can be found in any quarter.
18. .First of all the idea of rest connected with the
Sabbath is consistent with this origin of it. The
change of guards is called in modern military language
“ the relief,” and there can be no doubt that in ancient
times also the word denoting it would be one which
looked on it from the point of view of the men going
off guard, and not from the point of view of those
going on. When any coming event is likely to give
pleasure to one party, and pain to another, the party
to whom it will give pleasure are sure to talk most
about it. It is observable also that the Hebrew word
�into Periods of Seven Days.
sabbath was used to express a whole week, as well as
the last day, just as the modern word “ relief” is used
to indicate the whole period, during which a man
continues on guard, as well as the hour at which he is
taken off.
19. Secondly, there is one distinct passage in the
Old Testament, mentioning quite incidentally the
change of guard on the Sabbath as a matter wellknown at the time. The passage (2 Kings xi. 4-9),
which will call again for comment on another point,
contains the account of the restoration of King Jehoash to the throne of his ancestors, and is in the
following words.
4. “ And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched
the rulers over hundreds with the captains and the
guard, and brought them to him into the house of the
Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an
oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed
them the king’s son.
5. “ And he commanded them, saying, this is the
thing that ye shall do ; a third part of you that enter
in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of
the king’s house.
6. “ And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur, and
a third part at the gate behind the guard: so that ye
keep the watch of the house that it be not broken
down.
7. “ And two parts of all you that go forth on the
sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house
of the Lord about the king.
8. “ And ye shall compass the king round about,
c
�18
On the Division of Time
every man with his weapons in his hand : and he that
cometh within the ranges, let him be slain : and be
ye with the king as he cometh out, and as he goeth in.
9. “ And the captains over the hundreds did accord
ing to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded:
and they took every man his men that were to come in
on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the
sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.”
The narrative then proceeds to relate how Jehoash
was proclaimed king and Athaliah slain.
20. Thirdly. This origin of the sabbath affords an
explanation of the curious ceremony of the weekly ex
hibition of the shewbread. Such an institution has
every appearance of being what is called in Darwinian
language a rudimentary organ. It consisted in later
times of the placing a few cakes on a table in the
sanctuary every sabbath and leaving them there for
a week. May this not have originated from a pro
cess of storing up provisions for a week for the men
on guard, and may not the officer have required that
one meal should always be ready set out in order that
he might see at a glance that there were sufficient
provisions for the day ?
21. Fourthly. The double sacrifice on the sabbath
is explained if originally on that day food had to be
provided for twice the usual number of men, the old
guard as well as the new.
22. Turning again to the Roman Calendar, we
find the tendency to mark the quarters of the moon.
The month began with the new moon, the first
day being celebrated as the Calends, a name which
�into Periods of Seven Days.
*9
signifies “ call or calling,” and is no donbt derived
from a practice of publicly announcing the com
mencement of the new month. One of the ob
jects of the announcement may well have been to
summon a new set of officers to their monthly duties.
The other noticeable days of the month were the ides,
which fell at the full moon, and the nones, which fell
at the first quarter. The third quarter was not
marked, but this omission is a variety w hich we might
expect to find when we remember that the evening
was the time for observation, and at the new moon, the
first quarter, and the full moon, the moon is visible in
the evening ; while, when it has got to its third quar
ter, it does not rise till midnight. It is quite intelli
gible therefore that when it was in that quarter no
feast was held in its honour.
Furthermore, we find among the Romans that a
fixed week of eight days came to be adopted, every
eighth day being a market day, on which the country
people flocked into the city, and the law courts were
closed, in order that the market goers might not be
harassed by having legal proceedings brought against
them. Some evidence that this system of eight-day
markets arose out of an earlier system of holding
market-days at the quarters of the moon is found in
the fact that the same or a similar word (nonas or
nundinae) was used to denote both the market days
and the feast at the first quarter of the moon.
Then our finding an eight day week in one nation
and seven day weeks in several others, strongly tends
to show that they both arose out of some cause capable
c2
�20
On the Division of Time
of giving rise to either. And such we see the quarters
of the moon to be, constituting as it did originally an
irregular system of 5 periods of 7 days to 3 of 8 days.
[Such a system was of course more likely to give rise
to a fixed system of 7 day weeks ; still on the mere
doctrine of mathematical probabilities it might be ex
pected that in some cases it would give rise to an
eight day system.
23. To this we may add that the ancient Persians
appear to have observed a system of weeks containing
alternately seven and eight days ; and the Buddists
are stated at the present time to make their offerings
at the temples on the actual four quarters of the
moon. (Priaulx’s Q.uestiones Mosaicse, pp. 33, 38.)
Also when we find that the English and Germans
have native words for a week, and native names for
several of the days of the week, we are surely justified
in concluding that a week of seven days with recur
ring names was known to the ancient Teutonic nations ;
and the inference appears to be just that the English
word ‘ week ’ and the German word ‘ woch’ are de
rived from the same root as the words 1 wake’ and
‘ watch,’ and thus point to the same origin for the
Teutonic week as the Hebrew week appears to have
had.*
* The following passages may here be referred to: “Nundinas feriatum diem esse voluerunt antiqui, ut rustici convenirent mercandi vendendique causa; eumque nefastum, ne, si
liceret cum populo agi, interpellarentur nundinatores.”
“ The ancients settled that every eighth day should be a market
day for the country people to meet to buy and sell; and they
�into Periods of Seven Days.
21
24. Turning again to the Jews, if we compare the
version of the Ten Commandments which is given in
Exodus, with that which is contained in Deuteronomy,
we shall find that they differ in one important parti
cular. The clause at the end of the Fourth Command
ment, “ For in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day” is omitted in Deuteronomy,
and in its place we find substituted, “ And remember
that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and
that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence
through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm,
therefore the Lord thy God commanded thte to keep
the sabbath day.” Deut. v. 15.
25. Exodus xx. 2-17.
Deut. v. 6-21, 22.
“ I am the Lord thy God,
“ I am the Lord thy God,
which have brought thee out of which brought thee out of the
the land of Egypt, out of the land of Egypt, from the house
house of bondage.
of bondage.
closed the law courts upon it, for fear that the market gbers
might be molested, if actions could be brought against them.”
(Sextus Pompeius Eestus, a.d. 500, p. 173, ed. Mull; cf. Macrobius, s. 1, 16, a.d. 395.)
“ Annum ita diviserunt, ut nonis modo diebus urbanas res
usurparent, reliquis septem ut rura colerent.” (Varro, de re
rustica 2 Praef. 1. Varro died b.c. 26.)
“ They so divided the year that they attended to city affairs
every eighth day, and cultivated the fields on the other seven.”
Macrob. Sat. i, 9, 15, says that some people thought the word
Ides was derived from the Greek word “ eidos” signifying
“ form,” because on “ that day the moon displayed its full form.”
Dionysius Antiq. x. 59, says that the Romans had lunar
months in B.c. 448.
�22
On the Division of Time
“ Thou shalt have no other
gods before me.
“ Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth :
“Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them:
tor I the Lord thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the ini
quity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that
hate me;
“ And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.
“ Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in
vain; for the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that taketh
his name in vain.
“ Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy.
“ Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all thy work:
“ But the seventh day is the
sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor
thy maidservant, nor thy cat
tle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates:
“ For in six days the Lord
“ Thou shalt have none other
gods before me.
“ Thou shalt not make thee
any graven image, or any like
ness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the
waters beneath the earth:
“ Thou shalt not bow down
thyself unto them, nor serve
them: for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that
hate me,
“ And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love
me and keep my command
ments.
“ Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in
vain: for the Lord will not hold
him guiltless that taketh his
name in vain.
“Keep the sabbath day to
sanctify it, as the Lord thy
God hath commanded thee.
“ Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all thy work:
“ But the seventh day is the
sabbath of the Lord thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, nor thy manser
vant, nor thy maidservant, nor
thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any
of thy cattle, nor thy stranger
I
�into Periods of Seven Days.
made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day: where
fore the Lord blessed the sab
bath day, and hallowed it.
“ Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be
long upon the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee.
“ Thou shalt not kill.
“ Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
“ Thou shalt not steal.
“ Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbour.
“ Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour’s house, thou shalt
not covet thy neighbour’s wife,
nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor
his ass, nor any thing that is
thy neighbour’s.”
23
that is within thy gates: that
thy manservant and thy maid
servant may rest as well as thou.
“ And remember that thou
wast a servant in the land of
Egypt and that the Lord thy
God brought thee out thence
through a mighty hand and by a
stretched out arm : therefore
the Lord thy God commanded
thee to keep the sabbath day.
“ Honour thy father and thy
mother, as the Lord thy God
hath commanded thee; that
thy days may be prolonged, and
that it may go well with thee,
in the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee.
“ Thou shalt not kill.
“ Neither shalt thou commit
adultery.
“ Neither shalt thou steal.
“Neither shalt thou bear
false witness against thy neigh
bour.
“ Neither shalt thou desire
thy neighbour’s wife, neither
shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s
house, his field, or his manser
vant, or his maidservant, his
ox, or his ass, or any thing
that is thy neighbour’s.
“ These words the Lord spake
. '. . and he added no more.
And he wrote them in two tables
of stone,and delivered them unto
me.
�24
On ths Division of Time
This difference of theory as to the origin of the
sabbath involves it may be observed an important
practical consequence. According to the Exodus
theory the sabbath would have been binding upon the
Gentiles, while according to the Deuteronomy theory
it would be a peculiar institution of the Jews. We
know that these two opinions were held by learned
Jews in later times, and it is exceedingly probable
that the question was mooted in early times also.
The most reasonable inference then to draw from these
conflicting versions would seem to be, that there was
a time when the Ten Commandments existed without
either of these final clauses of the Eourth Command
ment, and that they were added by two subsequent
editors belonging to the two schools of Jewish thought
holding the two conflicting opinions as to the obliga
tion of the Gentiles to observe the sabbath.
Of course this necessarily implies that the obser
vance of the sabbath as a fact, and also the codifica
tion of the law of its observance in the stringent
terms of the beginning of the fourth commandment,
were earlier in date than either of the theories of its
origin propounded in the Bible.
26. It is also very easy to show that the strict
observance of the sabbath, and notably the abstinence
from fighting, did not exist before the captivity.
Thus in the time of the Maccabees, which was the
first serious war in which the Jews were engaged
after the captivity, we find the slaughter of the Jews
without resistance on the Sabbath day arising as a
new case, and for that new case a rule is made for the
�into Periods of Seven Days.
25
future to the effect that defensive fighting is permis
sible, but aggressive fighting is forbidden. (1 Macc.
ii. 41; Josephus Ant. xii. vi. 2.) The fact that the
case was new shows that the law under which it arose
was new also.
It is no doubt a curious instance of the tendency
of the human mind to attribute a greater sanctity to
artificial rules of morality than to natural ones, that
the Jews felt no scruple whatever in holding that a
war for the existence of their nation and religion
formed an exception to the rule “Thou shalt not kill,”
but they could not bring themselves to regard it as
forming an exception to the rule “ Thou shalt do no
work on the seventh day.”
Then in later history, and notably in the two sieges
of Jerusalem by Pompey and Titus, the unwillingness
of the Jews to fight on the Sabbath plays a prominent
part, and the historians attribute the capture of the
city on both occasions to that cause (Jos. Ant. xiv.
iv. 2 ; Dion Cassius, xxxvii. 16).
But in earlier times we hear nothing of this, neither
in the Bible itself, nor in any of the records of the
nations, which came in contact with the Jews, do we
find a trace of any unwillingness to fight on any dav.
We have accounts of sieges of Jerusalem by the Assy
rians and Babylonians, and accounts of wars of the
Jews with the Philistines, Syrians, Egyptians, and
with each other, but never a word about refusing to
fight on the sabbath. Indeed when we go back far
in history and read the account of the siege of Jericho,
we find a period of seven days observed indeed in
�26
On the Division of Time
war, but the seventh day is the very day for assault
ing the enemy’s town, and expecting a divine inter
position in aid of aggressive warfare.
There is also distinct evidence in the Old Testa
ment that the Jews, in later times, were aware that
the sabbath had not formerly been observed as it was
observed by them. And indeed they frequently attri
buted the captivity to the Divine wrath for their
ancestors’ neglect in this respeet. Thus in Nehemiah,
xiii. 15-18, we read :
“ In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine
presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and
lading asses, as also wine, grapes and figs, and all
manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem
on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in
the day wherein they sold victuals.
“There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which
brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold on the
sabbath unto the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.
“ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and
said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do,
and profane the sabbath day ?
“ Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God
bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet
ye bring more wrath upon Israel, by profaning the
sabbath.”
And again at the end of the book of Chronicles,
after the account of the Captivity, we find, (2 Chro
nicles xxxvi. 21.)
“ To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of
Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths;
�into Periods of Seven Days.
'ly
for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to
fulfil threescore and ten years.”
And the idea embodied in this verse appears more
clearly in Leviticus xxvi. 34, 35, which it is very diffi
cult to imagine to have been written before the
Captivity.
“ Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long
as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land ;
even then shall the land, rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
“ As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it
did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon itP
27. Now, we may, I think, fairly assume that it
would have been impossible for the Jewish legislators
suddenly to have promulgated their law of the strict
observance of the Sabbath, and to have declared it to
have been divinely delivered to Moses, and to have
called on their people to condemn whole generations
of their ancestors as sabbath breakers, if the nation
had not been gradually educated up to this state of
feeling, by the sabbath being constantly regarded with
greater feelings of sanctity, and some observance of
it being ordained by earlier laws. And both these
facts may be said to be established by the evidence we
have before us.
Thus in the sixth chapter of Leviticus, which
appears to contain an early collection of laws of date
anterior to the Ten Commandments, we read in the
3rd verse, “ Ye shall fear every man his mother
and his father, and keep my sabbaths ; I am the Lord
your God.”
And in the 30th verse,
�28
On the Division of Time
“ Ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my
sanctuary : I am the Lord.”
Here then we have a command to reverence the
Sabbath; but the Sabbath is not defined to be every
seventh day, nor is work forbidden upon it.
Again, we find in the Ordinances of the Feasts that
certain special days were to be celebrated with holy
convocations, and abstinence from servile work, and
such days are called Sabbaths, though not necessarily
coinciding with the ordinary Sabbaths. The special
days thus to be attended to include (1) the Passover
on the 14th day of the first month, being at a full
moon ; (2) the first aud 7th days of the feast of
unleavened bread, which lasted for seven days after
the Passover, up therefore to the 3rd quarter of the
moon ; (3) the first day of the 7th month, a new
moon, and (4) the first and last days of the Feast
of Tabernacles, being the 15th and 22nd days of the
7th month, a full moon, and a last quarter. (Exodus
xii. 1-16 ; Lev. xxiii.)
The fact that we have here five special days held at
quarters of the moon, observed like ordinary Sabbaths
and in places called Sabbaths, is surely strongly con
firmatory of the theory that the ordinary Sabbaths
themselves arose from a similar origin.
Turning now from the Laws to the notices of the
Sabbath in the times of the Kings, we may first recur
to the passage already quoted of the restoration of
Jehoash (2 Kings xi. 1-16), from which it is clear that
the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the times of Jehoiada
entertained no scruple against bringing about a revolu-
�into Periods of Seven Days.
29
tion on the Sabbath day, and slaving a queen who had
held the throne more than six years.
We find another notice of the Sabbath in the story
of the raising of the Shunamite’s son by Elijah
(2 Kings iv. 22, 23). After the child is dead, we read
“ And she called unto her husband and said, Send me
I pray thee one of the young men, and one of the
asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come
again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him
to-day? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath.”
Here then the Sabbath is regarded as a day on
which a journey may lawfully be taken, and also as a
day on which a visit to a man of God would properly
be paid. The Sabbath is invested with some sanctity,
but the impropriety of work upon it is not estab
lished. The association of the new moon with the
Sabbath is also noticeable. As this association also
occurs in the two next passages about to be quoted, a
few words may be said upon it. The mention of the
new moon shows that it was not included in the
Sabbath, and we may therefore infer that the lunar
sabbaths had already been superseded by the calendar
system of seven day weeks. At the same time the
continuance of the observance of the new moon
after the observance of the other quarters, with the
exception of the special feasts, had been given up, is
easily explained when we remember that the new moon
still marked the commencement of the month.
The other passages in which new moons and
sabbaths are associated are in Isaiah. In chap, i., ver.
13, we find “ Bring no more vain oblations; incense is
�30
On the Division of Time
an abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it
is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.”
Here then is evidence that in Isaiah’s time, which
was before and during the reign of Hezekiah, the
Sabbath was celebrated with solemn meetings, which
he regarded however as inconsistent with the true
principles of religion and morality.
And in the 23rd verse of the 66th chapter of
Isaiah, we find “ And it shall come to pass from one
new moon to another, and from one sabbath to
another, shall all flesh come to worship before me,
saith the Lord.”
So that at the time at which this was written the
practice of going to worship on the Sabbath was
approved by the writer.
It may be well to notice that the account of the
Flood contains several notices of the observance of a
period of seven days, but in each case the seventh day
is the day of action and not of rest. Thus seven
days before the Flood begins Noah is addressed (Gen.
xii. 4,) “ Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain
upon the earth,” and at the end Noah waits seven
days after the first return of the dove, and sends it
it forth again, when it returns with an olive leaf, and
he again waits seven days and sends it forth again
when it does not come back. However on looking
closely into the story of the Flood there is one very
noticeable fact. We are first told (vii. 11) that the
rain began on the seventeenth day of the second
month, and then we read (viii. 3, 4) “ and after the
�into Periods of Seven Days.
31
end of the 150 days the waters were abated, and the
ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth
day of the month.”
Therefore five months contained 150 days, and each
month contained 30, or in other words the story
indicates a calendar system of months and not a lunar
one. Now the whole of the other evidence shows
that the Jews always observed a lunar system. From
this it has been justly inferred that the story of the
Flood contained in the Bible is not a native Jewish
story, but is a translation from the writings of some
alien nation which observed a calendar system of
months. The Babylonians appear to have observed
such a system. (“ Records of the Past,” Vol. I.)
28. We ought, moreover, to observe that there is one
very material circumstance besides those which we
have already noticed which led to the number 7 being
regarded as sacred in early times, and no doubt helped
to bring about the adoption of a fixed system of seven
day weeks, in preference to eight day weeks, and
that circumstance is that the exceptional phenomena
of the heavens are seven in number.
The Sun and Moon are of course the two chief
exceptional phenonena in the heavens, and the other
five are the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn, being the only five known to the
ancients, and the only five readily discoverable by the
naked eye. It is not surprising that the early star
gazers were struck with the fact that these five
heavenly bodies wandered about amid the host of
heaven, while all the others maintained the same
�32
On the Division of Time
relative positions, and that they regarded them accord
ingly with mysterious awe and attached to them a
peculiar sanctity.
Thus Berosus, a priest of Belus at Babylon, who
shortly after the Greek conquest of Asia, that is about
B.c. 300, wrote a history of his country from the origin
of all things down to his own time, of which a few
fragments have been preserved, ends his account of the
creation by saying, “ Likewise Belus made the Stars,
the Sun and the Moon and the five Planets.”*
29. And the strangest fact on this part of the sub
ject is that the days of the week in modern Europe
still bear the names of the Sun and Moon and the five
Planets. Thus we in England call three of the days,
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and our neighbours
across the Channel call the other four Mardi, Mercredi,
Jeudi, and Vendredi, meaning the days of Mars,
Mercury, Jove, and Venus. These names are un
doubtedly derived from the Bomans, and the intro
duction of them amongst the Bomans is told by Dion
Cassius, who in about the year a.d. 200 wrote a history
of Borne. (Dion Cassius, xxxvii. 16.) He has just
been giving an account of the capture of Jerusalfem
by Pompey, which he tells us took place on a day of
Kronos or Saturn, and he has been mentioning the
fact that the Jews would not fight on that day, and
then he proceeds:
30. “ And as to the system of referring the days to
the seven heavenly bodies called the Planets, it was
* Josephus Ant. III. vi. 7, refers the seven branches of the
golden candlestick to the same origin.
�into Periods of Seven Days.
33
instituted by the Egyptians, and is used by all people,
its commencement being, so to speak, not very long ago.
The ancient Greeks knew nothing about it, so far as I
am aware. But since it is established among all other
people, and the Bomans themselves, and is already in a
sense a national institution of theirs, I wish to say a
few words as to how and in what manner the arrange
ment was made.”
He then says there are two theories as to the origin
of the arrangement, one being that you arranged the
bodies in order, beginning with the furthest from the
earth, and then took them as if you were playing on
a diatessaron, which consists in skipping over two
each time and taking the third, and going over them
again and again till you have struck every note ; and
the other being that you arranged them in the same
order and called the 24 hours by their names succes
sively, and then called each day by the name of its
first hour. These theories are evidently fanciful, and
on looking into them it will be found that they
require the bodies to be arranged thus.
Saturn.
Jupiter.
Mars.
Sun.
Venus.
Mercury.
Moon.
An arrangement which obviously involves the error of
transposing Mercury and Venus.
These theories therefore are valueless, but the state-
�34
On the Divsion of Time
ment of Dion Cassius that the system had recently
spread over the Roman world, may be accepted as
correct, being a statement of a recent matter of
general notoriety, and one which is moreover borne
out by other good evidence. And his statement that
it was invented by the Egyptians appears also to have
some truth in it. There is a passage in Herodotus in
which he says that the Egyptians had discovered to
what God each month and each day belonged, and it
seems that the names of their days recurred every
seven days, and that the Gods denoted by them were
identifiable with the Sun and the Moon, and the five
Planets.—(Herod, ii. 82. See also note at end.)
31. At the same time, although the names of the
days undoubtedly indicate a heathen origin, there
can be little doubt that the observance of a Seven
day period by both the Jews and Christians, who were
spreading over the Boman Empire at the time we are
considering, helped to lead their Pagan neighbours
to adopt a similar system, and caused it to supersede
the various irregular local customs which previously
existed.* The utility of a fixed system for holding
* Tacitus writing a.d. 110, the account of the fall of Jeru
salem in a.d. 70 says : “They say that rest pleased them on the
seventh day because it brought the end of labours ; then as idle
ness was pleasant, the seventh year also was devoted to sloth.
Others say that that honour is paid to Saturn, either because the
Idsei delivered the principles of their religion, whom we have
settled to have been driven out with Saturn and to have been the
founders of the race, or because that of the seven stars by which
mortals are governed, that of Saturn is carried in the loftiest orbit
�into Periods of Seven Days.
35
markets, paying domestic bills and school pence, and
carrying on matters of municipal administration is
obvious, and we cannot be surprised at its introduc
tion. It is, however, a curious coincidence that the
first day of the Jewish week, on which the Christians
held their solemn meetings, coincided with the day
named after the sun, the chief of the seven luminaries.
And it is worth noticing, though less remarkable,
that the heathen came to attach some sacredness to
that day, and gave to the Sun a prominent place in
the revived form of Paganism, which they endea
voured to cultivate.
Still no legal sanction was
attached to the observance of the day until Constan
tine came to the throne; but he, in a.d. 321, some
time before he embraced Christianity issued an edict,
enjoining its observance.
This Edict, which was
and has the mightiest influence, and many of the celestial matters
show their power and pursue their course by sevens.”
“ Septimo die otium placuisse ferunt, quia is finem laborem
tulerit, dein, blandiente inertia, septimum quoque annum igaavise
datum. Alii honorem eum Satumo haberi, seu principia religionis
tradentibus Idaeis, quos cum Saturno pulsos et conditores gentis
accepimus, seu quod de septem sideribus quis mortales reguntur
altissimo orbe et praecipua potentia stella Saturni feratur, ac
pleraque coelestium vim suam et cursum septimos per numeros
commeare.”—(Tacitus, Hist. v. 4.)
Amongst other instances of the number seven occurring in
celestial matters it may be mentioned that each of the constella
tions of the Great and Little Bear is denoted by a group of seven
stars, whence the north was called in Latin “ Septentriones,”
also the Pleiades seem to have appeared to clear-sighted observers
in early times as a group of seven stars.
�36
On the Division of Dime
justly considered as shewing the inclination of Con
stantine’s mind towards Christianity, was in words
which may be translated as follows:
32. “ Let all the Judges and the common people
of the towns and the working of all arts, rest on the
sacred day of the sun. But let dwellers in the coun
try freely and lawfully labour at the cultivation of
the fields, since it often happens that corn cannot be
better committed to the furrows, or vines to the
trenches, on any other day; so that the opportunity
granted by the providence of heaven may not be lost
by occasion of the season.”
Codex Justiniani, Lib. iii. Tit. xii. Lex 3.
Imperator Constantinus A Elpidio. Omnes judices,
urbanaeque plebes, et cunctarum artium officia vererabili die solis quiescant: ruri tamen positi agrorum
culturae libere licenterque inserviant: quum frequen
ter convenit ut non aptius alio die frumenta sulci s,
aut vinesa scrobibus mandentur: ne occasion e
momenti pereat commoditas coelesti provisione concessa. Datum monis Martiis Crispo secundo et Con
stantino secundo consulibus.
See also Cod. Theodos. Lib. ii. T. x. Lex 1.
And the law thus introduced by Constantine was
preserved iu the same terms by succeeding Christian
Emperors.
33. We have now reviewed the main points in the
observance of a seven-day week from the earliest
times down to a period in history connected with our
own day by a well-known chain of events. And it
only remains to add that I hope that no one will
�into Periods of Seven Days.
37
imagine that in arguing that the observance of Sun
day has a purely humau origin, I am any advocate
for abolishing it, and opening the Law Courts and set
ting the working men of all classes of society to
labour upon it. No one, who works at all, will deny
the desirability of having some intervals of rest, and
if intervals there must be, it is surely most pleasing
to keep up a custom handed down from the remotest
antiquity and invested with such sentiments of rever
ence and historical and archaeological interest as are
not attached to any other institution in the world.
Nor need our sentiments of reverence for the day of
rest be the least impaired by finding that it does not
owe its origin to a capricious whim on the part of tho
Creator, but that its periods have been determined by
the Motions of the Hands of the Chronometer of tho
Heavens, and its prevalence is due to its beneficent
tendency in promoting virtue and happiness amongst
mankind.
NOTE ON THE EGYPTIAN WEEK,
Kindly communicated by Dr. G. G. Zerffi,.
Judging from the Egyptian mythology wo are jus
tified in assuming, that they had some corroct notions
of the division of time. Their 8 gods of the first
order, point to an incarnation of the cosmical forces,
or the planetary system. The 12 gods of tho second
order undoubtedly presided over tho 12 months of
the year; whilst the 7 gods of the third order we.ro
to watch over the 7 days of the week. The seven
�38
Note.
gods were—1. Seh or Typhon. 2. Hesiri, Osiris.
3. Hes or Isis. 4. Nebt-hi, the sister of the former.
5. Her-Her, or Aroeris, corresponding to the Venus
of the Greeks and Homans, or Freya of the Teutons
and Sukras of the Indians. 6. Her or Horus; and 7.
Anups or Anubis. The Teutons (especially AngloSaxons and Germans) have inherited the division not
only of the week in 7 days, but also the names by
which these days are called from the Indians. Suryas,
Sunday; Chandras, Monday; Mangalas, Mars’ day,
or the day of the god of war; Tuisko’s day, Tuesday ;
Buddhas, Buddha’s day, or Woodan’s day, our Wed
nesday; Vrihaspatis, or Divaspitar, the Latin Jupiter
or the Teuton Thor’s day, our Thursday; Sukras, the
day of the goddess of love, the Teuton Freya or
Friday; and Sanis, Saturn’s day, our Saturday. (Refer
to Bohlen, “ Das alte Indien ;” “ Toth,” by Dr. Uhlemann, and Bunsen’s “Egypt’s place in History.”
Tacitus, Suidas, Pliny, and Amosis.)
THE END.
���
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The origin of the week explained, being a paper on the origin of the division of time into periods of seven days, read before the Liberal Social Union at the meeting on July 30th 1874.
Creator
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Tyssen, A. D.
Description
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Place of publication: London; Edinburgh
Collation: 38 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Williams and Norgate
Date
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1874
Identifier
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CT15
Subject
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Astronomy
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The origin of the week explained, being a paper on the origin of the division of time into periods of seven days, read before the Liberal Social Union at the meeting on July 30th 1874.), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Astronomy
Calendars
Conway Tracts