A group of people known as the Chaldeans advanced major steps forward in the progression of math, science, and astronomy. They discovered the Pythagorean theorem long before the Greeks. They also used the sexagesimal (base 60) place-value number system, which provided the practice of dividing a circle into 360 degrees, and an hour into 60 minutes. They were able to predict with surprising accuracy eclipses and planetary movements. But their most significant cultural achievement was that they solidified the use of the time cycle of the seven-day week, even providing the basis for the names to the days which we use today: Sunday, Monday, etc. The seven-day week is used all around the world. In almost every nation and civilization on the planet people live out their lives to the rhythm of the week. In God’s Story of Grace this emerged as a triumph of taking the creational pattern of Genesis (God creating the world in seven days) and emerging it into the larger civilizational pattern.
1Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)
In this article, we want to look at how God established through the Chaldeans the foundations of the seven-day week and examine how that was a cultural triumph to assist in the flourishing of humanity.
Who were the Chaldeans?
The Chaldeans were people who lived in southern Babylon. This is the southern part of Iraq today. It was thought to be an area of about 400 miles long and 100 miles wide among the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Chaldeans are mentioned multiple times in the Bible. For example, Genesis 11:28 speaks of Abraham’s father Terah, who lived in “Ur of the Chaldeans.” Genesis 15:7 declares:
I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.
The Origins of Sunday Through Monday
From approximately the 900’s to the 500’s B.C., the Chaldeans kept detailed records of the movement of the stars. Through patience and painstaking observation and without the benefits of instruments, they could predict such astronomical features as meteorological changes, the appearance of comets, the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. In fact, the word “Chaldean” became synonymous with “astronomer.” Much of their devotion to studying the stars and planets was fueled by their devotion to astrology. Astrology is the pagan belief that the movement of the stars and planets have an effect on people’s earthly affairs.
An example of the belief comes from Enuma Anu Enlil which is a major series of 68 or 70 tablets that have been found which deal with ancient Babylonian astrology. Here is an example of an ancient report made by observing the moon:
If the moon becomes visible on the first day of the month: reliable speech; the land will be happy.
If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of long days.
If the moon at its appearance wears a crown: the king will reach the highest rank.
The Chaldeans believed that the earth was effected by seven key celestial bodies: Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. With their belief that the position of these seven “planets” effects the activities on the earth, they named the seven days of the week after them. Each day of the seven-day cycle was devoted to acknowledging the influence of each heavenly body:
- Sunday – Day devoted to the sun
- Monday – Day for the moon
- Tuesday – Tyr or Tiw was the Norse god of war – the planet Mars
- Wednesday – from the Norse god, Odin, also known as Woden or Wotan – Mercury
- Thursday – Thor’s day, connected to the planet Jupiter
- Friday – from Norse goddess, Frigga – Venus
- Saturday – Roman, “dies saturni” – Saturn
This pattern of the weekly cycle would later be further developed and popularized through the Greeks and Romans and ultimately have its farthest reach by the spread of Christianity, which took the seven-day week, and reinforced its importance with biblical authority. Though the Chaldeans were the first society to begin to popularize a seven-day week, its origins go back to creation, as we have seen. The Bible teaches that God, himself, established the seven-day cycle by his own creative power. The world was destined to be governed by the seven-day week as humanity was given the charge to fill the earth and subdue it. (Genesis 1:28)
Rooted in Nature?
Biological Clock
What makes the eventual triumph of the seven-day week incredible is that other calendar units are determined by cycles existing in nature. A day is defined by the time it takes the earth to rotate once on its axis. A month is determined by the approximate time of the new moon cycles. A year is the time it takes the earth to complete one orbit around the sun. However, a week has no such natural basis, so it has been thought. But the emerging science of chronobiology which studies the interactions of biology with the rhythms of time has demonstrated that the seven-day cycle is embedded in our genes. This is not only in humans but animals and plants, as well. According to The Secrets Our Body Clocks Reveal by Susan Perry and Jim Dawson, the blood pressure cycle, coping hormone cycles, immune responses to infections, production of blood and urine chemicals, and even the heartbeat operate on a seven-day pattern.
Societal Health
Over the last few centuries, it has also been discovered that the seven-day week maximizes societal health. This can be seen by looking at cultures which have operated with weeks shorter or longer than seven days. There are some few cultures that have operated on a week of only three or four days. There were isolated pockets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the people operated in “weeks” of only three or four days. In African Cultural Astronomy, author Jarita C. Holbrook discusses the Igbo people of Nigeria, pointing out that they function on a four-day week. The same is true for other isolated cultures around the world. In 1929 the Soviet Union implemented the five-day week, no weekends. It was a disastrous 11 year experiment ending in 1941.
On the other side, experiments done with weeks longer than seven days, experience harmful consequences, as well. In 1793, just after the French Revolution, France adopted a 10-day week.
Jeremiah Jacques writes:
The revolutionaries made the move in an effort to simultaneously de-Christianize the country and increase its productivity. But productivity did not increase. According to R. R. Palmer’s The World of the French Revolution, France only kept the 10-day week around for 12 years because of its extremely disappointing results. During these years, French society saw a stark increase in injuries, exhaustion, illness, and work animals that collapsed and died at astounding rates. These people were attempting to operate on a rhythm unnatural to the design of their bodies, and the results were disastrous. Other societies have conducted similar week-extension experiments, but, like the French, they all reverted back to the seven-day model within a short time.
Conclusion
As Jesus declares:
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27
The week and Sabbath was made for man, and mankind functions at its best when operating on a seven-day cycle. Not only is the command to rest on the seventh day, but also to work on the first six days. More or less than this, and penalties are inevitable.