Genesis 2.1-3.
The first creation story doesn’t end at the end of Genesis 1. It continues three verses into chapter 2, with day seven—the passage which establishes the sabbath.
Genesis 2.1-3 KWL 1 The skies and the land- and all their armies
- were completed.
2 God completed on day seven- his handiwork which he made.
- God stopped on day seven
- from all his handiwork which he made.
3 God blessed day seven- and made it sacredly unique,
- for in it, he stopped from all his handiwork,
- which is all the creation God did.
Unique holy days weren’t anything new to the ancients. But they weren’t as frequent as the Hebrew holy day of sabbath, which arrived every seventh day.
The ancient Sumerians had a five-day week. But in certain months—in Elul (roughly around August) and Bul (roughly around October)—they set apart the 7th, 14th, 19th, 21st, and 28th days of the month. On these days the kings, priests, and witch doctors had to be particularly careful to not enrage their head god, Enlil. No eating cooked food, no dressing in nice clothes, no riding in chariots, and so forth. Now like I said, they had a five-day week, but y’notice they were careful to observe every seventh day. Plus the 19th day—which was the 49th day after the previous month began, so seven sevens.
In contrast, the Hebrews didn’t only observe seventh days for two months a year: This was all year long. Their week had seven days, not five. And the special behavior the Hebrews had to practice was not because it’d anger God and he’d start a-smiting them. It’s because he wanted his people to stop working. To take a day off, same as he took a day off. It’s not a warning; it’s for our benefit. Like Jesus put it, “Sabbath is made for people, not people for sabbath.”
The seven-day week.
Nothing in nature indicates a seven-day week. It’s entirely created by the Hebrew religion and its creation story.
I’ve heard Christians try to claim the seven-day week is a naturally occurring thing. Or try to claim, “Hey, the entire world observes a seven-day week! That had to come from something, right?” Yeah—it came from half the planet being either Christian or Muslim, two religions with seven-day weeks. Came from Europe trying to conquer every other country in the world, and imposing the Gregorian calendar upon ’em while they were at it.
It doesn’t come from lunar phases—which are eight days long. It comes from religion. All the ancient weeks stemmed from religion. The Sumerians had a five-day week, the Egyptians had a 10-day week, and most other ancient cultures went with a nine-day week. Only the Hebrews had a seven-day week—and again, that came from their creation story.
And we don’t actually see them observing a seven-day week till Exodus 20. We never see Abraham observe a sabbath. Abraham was originally from Ur, in Sumer, so he likely had a five-day week like other Sumerians. When the Hebrews migrated to Egypt, likely they adopted the Egyptian week, and worked all 10 days of it. Egyptians eventually developed a two-day weekend in the late 1200s
Nope, between the creation story and
Exodus 20.8-11 Schocken Bible7 Be mindful- of the Sabbath day, to hallow it.
8 For six days, you are to serve, and are to make all your work,9 but the seventh day- is Sabbath for Y
HWH your God: - you are not to make any work,
- you, and your son, and your daughter,
- your servant, and your maid, and your beast,
- and your sojourner who is within your gates.
10 For in six days- Y
HWH made - the heavens and the earth,
- the sea and all that is in it,
- and he rested on the seventh day;
- therefore Y
HWH gave the Sabbath day his blessing, and he hallowed it.
God never nails down when this new seven-day cycle was gonna start, but obviously the first sabbath took place around that time, and that’s how weeks have gone ever since.
The Hebrew sabbath, which is now the Jewish sabbath, is still sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Muslims simply made it Friday, and most Christians shifted it to Sunday, to honor the weekday
And do as God does: Take the day off, enjoy the universe he made.
