Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz>]

James wrote,

> 2) Recourse to similar cultures e.g. babylonian, sumerian and their 
> calendars

Its worth noting that the Egyptians used a 10-day week so not all of
Israel's neighbours used a seven day week. In fact, there's a lot of
variation in the length of the ``week'' between cultures. Here's useful link
but like all wikipedia stuff you need to double check it with other sources.
That said, I have seen the the 13 day ``week'' of the Aztecs and Mayans
discussed elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week

In the Hebrew text it seems the seven day week is enforced during Israel's
time in between leaving Egypt and arriving in the promised land 40 years
later. I don't recall any evidence to suggest we should understand a week to
be anything other than 7 days.


Bill Rea Ph.D., ICT Services, University of Canterbury   \_
E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                         </   New
Phone +64-3-364-2331, Fax  +64-3-364-2332               /)  Zealand
Unix Systems Administrator                             (/'