On Mon, Jun 28, 1999 at 06:17:07AM -0700, Alain wrote:
> A 13:35 99-06-27 -0700, G. Adam Stanislav a écrit :
>
> [John]
> >> The 7-day week is of Jewish origin,
>
> [Adam]
> >Sorry, I seriously doubt that. That it is part of the Jewish tradition is no
> >doubt. That it is of Jewish *origin* is highly debatable. Most likely the
> >Jewish tradition simply adopted a pre-existing system.
>
> [Alain] Just by curiosity, any example outside of the Jewish, Christian or
> Muslim religions (which are indeed the same religion, if one thinks about
> it with an open mind) ?
I have simply expressed my doubts. I seem to recall to have been taught in
grade school that our calendar was created by Babylonians. But that was close
to forty years ago, so my memory is vague.
More importantly, how is anyone to know? What is now written Jewish tradition
was traded orally for centuries before it was written down. And that tradition
was more concerned with monotheism than with study of astronomical phenomena.
It seems to make sense that they would be more likely to adopt a calendar
developed by neighboring cultures and assign it deep religious meaning than
to study phases of the Moon (which might be considered the worship of false
gods).
Alas, they did not have Unicode back then, so written records are sparse.
Jewish tradition was preserved because of its strong religious connection.
And because of their unquestioning faith. Their written tradition was
sacred and absolute. When old manuscripts were about to turn to dust,
they copied them. They did that over and over.
The Babylonians were much more into sciences than into faith. That makes
it more likely (to me) that they developed a solid calendar system. That
would also indicate they were less attached to their kind of wisdom and
did not keep copying their ancient writings to preserve them from
generation to generation.
All I am saying is that it is *likely* that they adopted a pre-existing
system. It is my humble opinion, not a scientific fact. I am not an
expert on ancient cultures, I am a psychologist.
Adam
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