This farmer's almanac has a fairly entertaining review:Japhethite wrote:Where did humans get 7 days week from?
http://www.almanac.com/content/why-week-has-seven-days
tl;dr from the four phases of the moon
... and it wasn't the only system tried.
This farmer's almanac has a fairly entertaining review:Japhethite wrote:Where did humans get 7 days week from?
Is an important verse, the new moon and Sabbath are given together. This (and similar patterns) led some 19th-early 20th century scholars to speculate that before the exile, the Sabbath was a once a month holiday similar to the New Moon where the obvious placement would be the full moon. I've asked about this here, but no one responded. Maybe the issue is too speculative for modern scholars, and they don't bother with it.But he said, "Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath." She answered, "It's all right."
(2Ki 4:23 TNK)
The medieval alchemists really went to town on lining up the 7 planets (= wanderers) with the 7 days of the week, the 7 heraldic tinctures, 7 different metals, 7 different gemstones, and so forth. You can still see the correspondences in some of the names of the days of the week, especially in Spanish (for example).Anat wrote:Supposedly the 7 day week was based on there being 7 obviously moving visible celestial objects (5 planets visible from earth plus the sun and earth's moon).
Sun | Moon | Mars | Mercury | Jupiter | Venus | Saturn |
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
domingo | lunes | martes | miércoles | jueves | viernes | sábado |
gold | silver | iron | mercury | tin | copper | lead |
or/gold | argent/silver | gules/red | purpure/purple | azure/blue | vert/green | sable/black |
topaz | pearl | ruby | amethyst | sapphire | emerald | diamond |
The seven day week has two origins (both may possibly go back to ancient mesopotamia but they enter the mediterranean world independently)Ben C. Smith wrote:The medieval alchemists really went to town on lining up the 7 planets (= wanderers) with the 7 days of the week, the 7 heraldic tinctures, 7 different metals, 7 different gemstones, and so forth. You can still see the correspondences in some of the names of the days of the week, especially in Spanish (for example).Anat wrote:Supposedly the 7 day week was based on there being 7 obviously moving visible celestial objects (5 planets visible from earth plus the sun and earth's moon).
Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday domingo lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado gold silver iron mercury tin copper lead or/gold argent/silver gules/red purpure/purple azure/blue vert/green sable/black topaz pearl ruby amethyst sapphire emerald diamond
But I do not think any of this was formative for the seven-day week. It all appears to be numerological and alchemical wrangling after the fact.
Is this a good source? Renaissance Astrology -- has several medieval and Renaissance astrologers' writings. I've also found translations of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos online.Ben C. Smith wrote: The medieval alchemists really went to town on lining up the 7 planets (= wanderers) with the 7 days of the week, the 7 heraldic tinctures, 7 different metals, 7 different gemstones, and so forth. You can still see the correspondences in some of the names of the days of the week, especially in Spanish (for example).
Astrology fits in perfectly.Steve Farmer, John B. Henderson, and Michael Witzel, Neurobiology, layered texts, and correlative cosmologies: A cross-cultural framework for premodern history, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 72 (2000 [written and published 2002]): 48-89. The first published paper to seriously link neurobiology and the evolution of religious and philosophical traditions, in a cross-cultural study of so-called correlative systems (in China), bandhus or upanishads (in India), and systems of correspondence (in the West). Hence the collaboration of one Western specialist, one Chinese specialist, and one specialist on premodern India and in writing the paper. The first suggestion that the Indus civilization was not literate was a direct prediction of the model developed in the paper (see the later sections on tests of the model).
Western correlative-cosmology work reached its height around the Renaissance, then collapsed as the "mechanical philosophy" rose.The doctrine of signatures, dating from the time of Dioscurides and Galen, states that herbs that resemble various parts of the body can be used by herbalists to treat ailments of those parts of the body. A theological justification for this, as stated by botanists like William Coles, was that God would have wanted to show men what plants would be useful for.
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