Why is it that every culture, time period, and continent has a 7 day week?

Question

I know that there are natural reasons that we record time the way that we do: the month = the moon as it orbits earth, the year = the earth revolving around sun, the day = one complete turn on the earth's axis - but how did the week come about. I heard, and believe that it is because of the Biblical creation story - but I'm curious as to any other ideas?

I guess a better question is why to people from every culture, time period & on each continent use a 7 day week. Sorry.

Answer 1

It just goes to show you how factual Gods word the Bible really is. That is not the only thing that every culture has as a historical fact.

You can go any where you want, to every culture on the face of the earth, every Island, north pole south pole, deep in the amazon, jungles and in the most remote mountains where people live and they all have the story of the flood of Noah's day
to one degree or another. Even the American native Indians tell stories of a flood many years ago with a large boat and people who survived the great flood.

How did all of these cultures get the same story when most of them don't even have a Bible or don't even know what a Bible is?

If you go to the Grand Canyon and listen to one of their seminars on the flood, you can see about 1500 ft of earth where there was a flood with all kinds of animals, sea creatures, foclised plants all mixed in together. The only answer the geologist have is there had to be a flood about 5000 years ago.

The Japanese word for rain is an ark with 8 people in it drawn out in the word.


Sincerely yours,
Fred M. Hunter

Answer 2

I'm sure the cycles of the Moon were one of the first thing that early mankind noticed. Once they figured out the year by the way the seasons came and went and the way the sun rose and set, it was only a matter of time before they came up with the idea that 12 cycles of the Moon occured during every year. Further refinement of all these timetables into a 7 day week.

We know today that the year is actually 365 days long plus one quarter of a day. The Roman calendar had 12 thirty day months which equals 360 days. The Romans had not figured that out why this didn't add up so they just added in some extra 5 holidays to make the year cycle come out right. They never figured out the need for the leap year to make up for that extra day every four years.

Answer 3

The short answer is: they don't - or at least, they didn't always.

Many cultures in different parts of the world had weeks of different lengths, or even no concept of the week at all. Heck, some Native American and Amazonian peoples didn't even have a concept of time as linear and discrete.

The reason so many ancient cultures around the Mediterranean basin used the same week, is because they all had cultural roots in the same, even more ancient, civilization. That being the Sumerians, in the Fertile Crescent area called Mesopotamia ("between the rivers") - the cradle of western civilization. Later cultures simply applied their own mythologies to explain something they inherited from someone earlier.

People all over the rest of the world use a seven-day week now simply because we all use a standardized calendar. Virtually all aspects of international communication require it.

Answer 4

The seven-day week is older than the bible. But the reason for the seven-day week is recorded in the bible.
Why is it that all cultures adopted the (original) seven-day week?

Because they just kept the old tradition. When they migrated away (geographically) from where they learned this from their forefathers, they just took that system with them. Also today, all the people migrating away (spiritually) from the bible, still keep that original tradition because it is good.
Do you know that when the French introduced the decimal system they also introduced a "decimal week" with 10 days? This is a historical fact. The idea had to be abandoned, not due to mismatch with other countries, but due to mismatch with human needs for a break.

The theory that it was invented also by Chinese because the lunar cycle is 28 days and four times seven makes 28, is not true.
The Chinese were good in astronomy and they knew that a lunar cycle is 29.53 days and the 4-week-month would drift quickly in respect to the lunar cycle.

It's a lot of work to invent an alternate truth to what was recorded in the bible.

Answer 5

Nowadays everyone (well at least publically) uses the 7day week for simplicity's sake, it's just much easier to have everyone be on the same schedule (i mean really, imagine it:

I'll see you Monday
Wait, is that my Monday or your Monday?

It is interesting to see that the 7day week came about in two different regions in distinct ways.

In the west, Hebrews developed it from the bible, Hindus from an ancient script, and Babylonians from their astronomical observations.

In the east the Chinese (used and adapted by all asian cultures) found 7days by grouping 28 stars into the elements.

Personally I like to think that we got 7 days because there were 28 days in a lunar cycle, and some astronomer decided to slice the cycle into quarters.

Answer 6

I don't think anyone knows for sure. The week was known in Rome (imperial calendar) before the advent of Christianity. One theory correlates the seven day week to the 7 planets known to the ancients: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Or could be the Bible, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Good question.

Answer 7

7 is the world standard now, but it wasn't always so.

I think ancient Mesopotamia had a ten day week, and I'm sure that other cultures had other weeks, or didn't have weeks at all.

After all, the only "natural" time divisions are the day, the month (the lunar cycle), and the year.

Answer 8

you answered your own question dear. the moon and the earth and it all happens in 7 days it is just how nature happens. nothing to do with the bible.

Answer 9

Well, I geusse it's just been standaradized!
(I think the Mayans had a 203 day week, and one diffirent, but their calender was much more auccurate than ours!

Answer 10

hasn't it just been standardized? I don't think that all cultures even had a week, for the reasons you stated above.