 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
The pious authoress of "Mazzaroth" wrote: "The Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, and the natives of India were acquainted with the seven daysµ division of time, as were the Druids." Dion Cassius derives the Egyptian days from the seven planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Montucla thought the week began on Saturday. Bailly says: "It is to the Egyptians that is attributed the idea of dedicating each day of the week to one of the planets." Sonnerat considered Saturday the Indian Sani or Saturn. Jahn says: "The Egyptians consecrated to Saturn the seventh day of the week."
With the Egyptians, however, the seventh day was consecrated to Amen or Amoun, the Father, or Sun-god. Pauw was of opinion that "the Egyptians seem to have observed it very regularly." Bunsen, speaking of Set, adds, "He is the ass god of the Semitic tribes, who rested on the seventh day."
Hesiod, Herodotus, Philostratus, etc., mention that day. Homer, Callimachus, and other ancient writers call the seventh day the holy one. Eusebius confesses its observance by "almost all the philosophers and poets." Lucian notes that it was given to schoolboys for a holiday. Dr. Schmitz observes: "The manner in which all public feriae (holidays) were kept, bears great analogy to our Sunday. The people generally visited the temples of the gods, and offered up their prayers and supplications. All kinds of business except lawsuits were suspended."
As in other cases, we may get illustrative light from the Assyrian neighbours of the Egyptians.
The Rev. Mr. Sayce finds the day of rest an Assyrian word. Saturday in Central Asia is still Shambé, from the Persian Shabat. The Accadians, thousands of years ago, says Sayce, kept holy the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of each month as Salum, rest, "on which certain works were forbidden." Mr. George Smith wrote thus in 1876: "In the year 1869 I discovered among other things a curious religious calendar of the Assyrians in which every month is divided into four weeks, and the seventh days or Sabbaths are marked out as days in which no work shall be undertaken." Mr. H. F. Talbot quotes the Divine command from the Assyrian "Creation" tablet : "On the seventh day he appointed a holy day, And to cease from all business he commanded."
The above taken from James Bonwick's Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought.