Wherever the Common Era Calendar (a.k.a. the Gregorian Calendar) is used — and it is now used by the governments of all countries — a week of seven days is also used in conjunction with it. But there is no 7‑day cycle in Nature from which this could have been derived, so why a week of seven days?
People use a 7‑day week because they have been born into a world where this is customary. In other words, the 7‑day week has been received from earlier generations. It has a long history. When the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion early in the 4th Century CE the 7‑day week was officially associated with the Julian Calendar, and the association remained after the Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th Century CE.
The Christians received the 7‑day week from the Jews (in fact, the original Christians were Jews). The Jewish explanation for its use is that this was commanded by their god, named by them YHWH (using the Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vav-He). The Jewish Pentateuch (incorporated into the Old Testament of the Christian Bible) contains several injunctions attributed to YHWH which mention "a seventh day", upon which no "work" is to be done.
Whether or not a 7‑day week was in use by the Jews at the time of Moses in the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE is highly debatable, since YHWH's commands to Moses are not preserved in any contemporary records but only in documents which were composed around the middle of the first millennium BCE.
It is a mistake to believe that our 7-day week has its origins in the command of the biblical YHWH, since the 7‑day week is older than the Hebrews, having been used by the Sumerians and Babylonians. Kerry Farmer remarks that "Some Historians believe that around 2350 BC Sargon I, King of Akkad, having conquered Ur and the other cities of Sumeria, instituted a seven-day week, the first to be recorded."
The ancient man found that in a complete cycle of seasons there are twelve cycles of the moon, thus the cycle of seasons, now refered as YEAR was mad of 12 months.
After getting men more knowledgeable it was found that one complete cycle of seasons OR the year takes 365 days.
Advancement in observations and clculations suggested that one complete cycle is of 365.242 days, thus in order to kepp the seasons fall the same way on the fixed times it was deviced that one day may be add after four years in February.
Wherever the Common Era Calendar (a.k.a. the Gregorian Calendar) is used — and it is now used by the governments of all countries — a week of seven days is also used in conjunction with it. But there is no 7‑day cycle in Nature from which this could have been derived, so why a week of seven days?
People use a 7‑day week because they have been born into a world where this is customary. In other words, the 7‑day week has been received from earlier generations. It has a long history. When the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion early in the 4th Century CE the 7‑day week was officially associated with the Julian Calendar, and the association remained after the Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar in the 16th Century CE.
The Christians received the 7‑day week from the Jews (in fact, the original Christians were Jews). The Jewish explanation for its use is that this was commanded by their god, named by them YHWH (using the Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vav-He). The Jewish Pentateuch (incorporated into the Old Testament of the Christian Bible) contains several injunctions attributed to YHWH which mention "a seventh day", upon which no "work" is to be done.
Whether or not a 7‑day week was in use by the Jews at the time of Moses in the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE is highly debatable, since YHWH's commands to Moses are not preserved in any contemporary records but only in documents which were composed around the middle of the first millennium BCE.
It is a mistake to believe that our 7-day week has its origins in the command of the biblical YHWH, since the 7‑day week is older than the Hebrews, having been used by the Sumerians and Babylonians. Kerry Farmer remarks that "Some Historians believe that around 2350 BC Sargon I, King of Akkad, having conquered Ur and the other cities of Sumeria, instituted a seven-day week, the first to be recorded."
http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/hlwc/why_seven.htm
The ancient man found that in a complete cycle of seasons there are twelve cycles of the moon, thus the cycle of seasons, now refered as YEAR was mad of 12 months.
After getting men more knowledgeable it was found that one complete cycle of seasons OR the year takes 365 days.
Advancement in observations and clculations suggested that one complete cycle is of 365.242 days, thus in order to kepp the seasons fall the same way on the fixed times it was deviced that one day may be add after four years in February.