Why 7 days for Creation?

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From a historical and astronomical perspective, is there any significance to why the standard biblical creation story involves 7 days? Why 7 days in particular?

Much of the bible seems to be based on various astronomical events and on pre-existing stories from various religions, so I'm wondering if there is something special (or historic) about 7 Days.

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It's just about a week, which is very convenient

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contrex wrote:

It's just about a week, which is very convenient

Ha, of course Smile

(actually, that's what got me thinking about this. I was wondering if the creation myth had started out with 3 days, or 10 days or something else, if we would now have 3 day weeks or 10 day weeks).

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It's "poetic licence" or a "literary conceit".

It is like the square of the speed of light in e=mc squared.

Einstein knew that he needed a big number. Finding one which scanned neatly and was also unimaginable to those who resisted being chucked under the chin by thinking they could imagine it was what he sought and it turned out to be perfect.

What is "c" in cubits per year?

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Spendius, that is nonsense. E=mc squared works out exactly. It isn't a poetic conceit. It's what you get if you do the math.

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Show us then.

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http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/nuggets/einstein/speedoflight.html

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Creation according to the bible lasted 6 days didn't it? On the 7th he rested.

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good point, vikorr.

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vikorr wrote:

Creation according to the bible lasted 6 days didn't it? On the 7th he rested.

As ridiculous as it would be, for an omnipotent being to need "rest", I consider the 7th day to be part of the creation sequence, even though it was a day of "rest" (whatever the heck that means).

If it helps, I can rephrase the question: "Why was a particular number of days chosen? Is it based on some other (external) system or experience?"

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Quote:

As ridiculous as it would be, for an omnipotent being to need "rest", I consider the 7th day to be part of the creation sequence, even though it was a day of "rest" (whatever the heck that means).

What did he create on day 7?

Day 7 is certainly part of the creation story.

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vikorr wrote:

Quote:
As ridiculous as it would be, for an omnipotent being to need "rest", I consider the 7th day to be part of the creation sequence, even though it was a day of "rest" (whatever the heck that means).

What did he create on day 7?

Day 7 is certainly part of the creation story.

He created rest?

Whatever... back to the original question, why 7 or 6? Why not 10 or 30?

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Good question...doing the math, it would make much more sense to have a 5 day week. No leap years would ever be needed.

10 or 20 day weeks would also be good...well, 20 days might be too long.

What have other cultures used as short time separators? Meaning longer than a day, shorter than a lunar cycle?

7 days makes sense with the 28 day lunar cyce, expect for those pesky leap years.

I know 7 is mentioned as a special # often in the bible, as in blessing someone 7 time 77.

Doesn't 7 stand for eternity somehow?

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By the way, does anyone know where the 7 day week came from? Or does it predate written history?

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vikorr wrote:

By the way, does anyone know where the 7 day week came from? Or does it predate written history?

I assumed it came from the creation story in the bible, but I could be mistaken.

Isn't our calendar a Gregorian calendar or something like that? Wasn't he a monk who translated the bible or something? I guess I could google this, but I thought someone might know (and it might make an interesting discussion).

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I think it was chosen primarily because of the fact that it was easy to devide the creation "groups" into six; man, beast, air, etc. Another big reason was to establish a sabbath day. A week works out well for the plan.

And prior to creation (assuming that's how it happened), by what standard did god judge days? There were no cosmos, no sunrises, nothing to even suggest that time existed (nor is there nothing to suggest it actually exists now Smile

)

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I would think it came from a study of efficiency by people operating on principles you lot can't even imagine but it is fair to say that your weekend is a result of it and God's rest is to provide it with divine sanction.

Under the drive of scientific materialism your weekend is gradually vanishing and with it the renewal of social contacts and efficiency.

It is the gradual nature of such processes that hides from the uneducated eye the fact of it happening.

A materialist might think the loss of the weekend, and particularly the Sunday, will increase efficiency but the materialist denies psychological and sociological considerations.

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vikorr wrote:

By the way, does anyone know where the 7 day week came from? Or does it predate written history?

It has been suggested that druid-types, specifically the early lombards or norse people had used astrology to determine events and the 12-month calendar. From there it was just a matter of dividing up the months into weeks and days and I think the 7-day calendar emerged from that.

I know the 7-day calendar was around long before the bible was written. Ancient greeks, romans, mesopotamians, egyptians; all had a 7-day week.

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Yubo's grandson was telling the creation story and how it occurred in 7 days. One of the listeners asked him why there were only 7 days. Yubo's grandson said that was just the way his father told the story. So Yubo's grandson asked Yubo's son why there were only 7 days in the creation story. Yubo's son responded, "I don't know. That's just the way Yubo always told the story." So Yubo's son asked Yubo why there were only 7 days in the creation story.

Yubo replied. It was easier to use one finger for each day of the creation so people could visual each day as I talked about them. Then Yubo the great who was the first to tell the creation story held up his hands to show he had lost 3 fingers in a horrible fishing accident.

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Heh...there's a lot of versions of that joke parados. I know the one where every woman for several generations cut both ends off the ham before backing it.....same thing, going back to great great grandma, she said "Because my baking pan was too short for a whole ham!

anyway...I read several theories of why 7 days on google.

One I like was a day each for 5 planets plus the earth and sun.

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Why 7 days for Creation?

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