KING JAMES BIBLE DICTIONARY

From the beginning, time was divided into weeks, each consisting of six days of working and one of rest (Genesis 2:2, 3; 7:10; 8:10, 12; 29:28). The references to this division of days becomes afterwards more frequent (Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 12:5; Numbers 28:26; Deuteronomy 16:16; 2 Chronicles 8:13; Jeremiah 5:24; Daniel 9:24-27; 10:2, 3). It has been found to exist among almost all nations.

There can be no doubt about the great antiquity of measuring time by a period of seven days. (Genesis 8:10; 29:27) The origin of this division of time is a matter which has given birth to much speculation. Its antiquity is so great its observance so widespread, and it occupies so important a place in sacred things, that it must probably be thrown back as far as the creation of man. The week and the Sabbath are thus as old as man himself. A purely theological ground is thus established for the week. They who embrace this view support it by a reference to the six days' creation and the divine rest on the seventh. 1st. That the week rests on a theological ground may be cheerfully acknowledged by both sides; but nothing is determined by such acknowledgment as to the original cause of adopting this division of time. Whether the week gave its sacredness to the number seven, or whether the ascendancy of that number helped to determine the dimensions of the week, it is impossible to say. 2d. The weekly division was adopted by all the Shemitic races, and, in the later period of their history at least, by the Egyptians. On the other hand, there is no reason for thinking the week known till a late period to either Greeks or Romans. So far from the week being a division of time without ground in nature, there was much to recommend its adoption. And further, the week is a most natural and nearly an exact quadri-partition of the month, so that the quarters of the moon may easily have suggested it. It is clear that if not in Paul's time, yet very soon after, the whole Roman world had adopted the hebdomadal division. Weeks, Feast of. [PENTECOST]

WEEK, noun [G.]

1. The space of seven days.

I fast twice in the week Luke 18:12.

2. In Scripture, a prophetic week is a week of years, or seven years. Daniel 9:27.

WEEK-DAY, noun [weed and day.] Any day of the week except the Sabbath.

WEEKLY, adjective Coming, happening or done once a week; hebdomadary; as a weekly payment of bills; a weekly gazette; a weekly allowance.

WEEKLY, adverb Once a week; by hebdomadal periods; as, each performs service weekly

See PENTECOST.