Bible 7 Days Of Creation
Bible 7 Days Of Creation
Question about 7 day week….sabbath etc?
It is said the 7 day week in jewish culture comes from the OT (creation in 7 days), which is why it is adopted into jewish life and they based their week on 7 days (cuz its in the bible).
The fact is, it appears that the 7 days of creation was put into the bible from some already existing 7 day week setup, which made it into the bible, and then it was passed down in jewish culture, as if it came from the bible.
So my question is, does anyone know how or why the jews came up with the 7 days (I am loooking for something other than, the bible was 7 days so culture became 7 days. I am looking for whatever caused the 7 days to be used as the # of days for creation in the bible).
It appears that because the jews land was nestled between babylon and egypt they would have picked up those cultures, but does anyone know or have any facts to explain or back that up?
Appreciate it
Temporal cycles and divisions are nearly always based on some astronomical observation. A year is a solar cycle, a month is (or was) a lunar cycle. A day is one rotation of the Earth in relation to the sun. Other periods are divisions or multiples of these.
Because none of these natural cycles has anything to do with the others, they don’t relate to each other without some shoehorning. We have to have leap years, and we either divorce months from lunar cycles or we have to add extra days to the lunar year if we want it to align with the solar year.
A lunar cycle is about 29 1/2 days, which is a comprehensible number, but hard to keep track of without a calendar. Dividing that into quarters produces 7 3/8 days. The closest whole number to that is seven. This doesn’t perfectly match weeks to months, but it is a reasonably small number, consisting of two groups of three, then a psychologically satisfying “rest” day. It also allows the year to divide into 52 neat packages with only one leftover day. Chances are its closeness to a solution for bringing days, months and years into a relationship was what sold it as an idea.
Not everyone came up with seven. The ancient Egyptians had a ten day week. Mayans had 13 and 20-day combination weeks. Some African tribes have had a four day week. And during the 1930s, the Soviet Union experimented with 5-day, 6-day and variable weeks.
So who invented the seven day week? No one is sure. The Romans knew it before Christianity. The Jewish scriptures place it at the beginning of the world. Very likely it was devised by ancient Sumerian, Babylonian or Persian astronomers.
Bible 7 Days Of Creation
So were the 6 days of creation 6 litereal days or 6 metaphorical days? Why can’t Christians agree?
Some Christians say that the 7 days of creation (including the day God rested) were 7 literal days, where as other Christians think of them as metaphorical days. They take the verse “1 day is like a 1000 years in God’s eyes” as their basis. So which is it? How do you support your view?
Before answering, keep in mind that Adam only lived for 900+ years (according to the bible). Now if each day was actually a 1000 years, by the end of the 7th day Adam’s age would already have surpassed his actual age. The sun was created the day after plants were created. If each day was a 1000 years, the plants would not be able to survive (photosynthesis). Some Christians believe each day might even be longer than a 1000 years, which would make it even more absurd though. And don’t forget to compare how the word “yom” is used throughout the bible.
i would have to say no one can agree , cause they were not there and don’t know.
Seven Days of Creation
Filed under Bible Study by on Mar 29th, 2008. 