Every now and then, I see a funny symbol on a dishwasher or refrigerator: ‘sabbath-mode.’ Until recently, I never quite understood what it meant.
‘Does my dishwasher take a day of rest?’ And what about Sabbatical? Honestly, when we think about it, where does the seven-day week even come from? It seems that Sabbath is a feature not only relevant to religion itself, but seems somehow intricately intertwined with our daily lives. But why?
Sabbath
From ancient rest to modern tech: Unpacking the seven-day cycle, the Sabbath, and its surprising influence on our world today.
The first two are relatively simple to explain and are, in fact, clearly linked with Judaism.
Sabbath-mode?
Sabbath mode is created for those who follow orthodox Judaism. It’s created in order to comply with the certain regulations they have around activities such as cooking, cleaning and the tools used to complete them. When Sabbath mode is activated, appliances typically open/close without activating interior lighting or controls, may not turn off automatically after a certain period of time or may have some functions blocked during certain hours. These functions are in compliance with the 39 Melakhot, meaning the 39 activities of work that are prohibited on the Sabbath, including cooking/baking, igniting/extinguishing a flame etc.
Sabbatical?
Sabbatical is where some employments, often universities, allow staff a paid educational or travel-focused break every seven years. They can range in duration from several weeks to over a year. These breaks are based on the Biblical practice of taking a break from working the land agriculturally every seven years to allow it to replenish and rest.
But what about the seven-day week? Where does that come from?Seven-Day Week?
Well, it all started in Eden, at the beginning of the world.
God created everything in six days, starting with the heavens and the earth, separating light and darkness, night and day. On the second day, there was the sky; on the third, land, sea, and plants; on the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the stars; on the fifth day, the sea creatures and birds; on the sixth, land animals and finally, finally, mankind. Us. God then rested on the seventh day. He blessed this day – and made it a day for His newly created children. Us. Time set apart to spend with Him, and with each other. In fact, in the beginning, it would have just been Adam, Eve, and God. Imagine it: to have walked with God Himself? I can’t even describe it. If you’re new to the concept of God, just imagine walking with the most powerful, kind, fatherly, strong, and loving being ever – the one who created you. Not just created but imagined. Now that’s crazy!Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were new to the world and, like we so often are, were curious, dismissive, and naive. They chose to sin, as we so often do today, and thus lost the privilege of walking with God in paradise. Life was about to get hard and busy. But wait.
Remember the Sabbath? That day God had set aside?
It’s almost as if God had a backup plan – knowing that we would sin in the first place. The day of rest would still have been important in Eden, setting aside time from the work we would still busy ourselves with. But now? It’s even more necessary.After being exiled from the Garden of Eden, no longer able to live forever or be alongside God in physical form, we needed time for rest. For connection with God. He may no longer have walked with us directly, but He still wanted to connect with His children and spend time with us. He also knew that we would get worn out, the effects of sin allowing work and illness to damage our minds and bodies without the Tree of Life to replenish our health. The day of rest would bring respite and allow people to regain their strength of body, spirit, and mind as they took a break from work to be with loved ones and with God.This seven-day week instilled at Creation is the same one we have now – and remains the only clear explanation for having it at all. Everything else has been crafted based on the activities of the sun, the stars, and the moon, the seasons, the days of the year, and the months (more or less). Throw in a few self-involved rulers, and we have the Gregorian calendar – the most common form of time measurement today. But what about weeks? Seven-day-long weeks, in terms of the movements of the sun, the moon, or the stars, just don’t really seem to fit in. This is because they don’t. Rather than have a clear historical basis similar to why we have months and days, weeks have no clear beginning.
If you ask Google, the automatic answer will be that seven-day weeks were created in Babylon because of the seven major celestial bodies – the sun, the moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. As far as the internet tells us, the idea is that the Babylonians randomly decided to make weekdays after this just because that’s what ancient nations do (no, really, they do). It is theorized that this was before the Israelite (Jewish) nation was in captivity in Babylon, where they took the Babylonian tradition to make it their own. However, these theories are based more on assumption rather than evidence, as put by various modern calendar experts:'Various claims, or rather assumptions, have been casually made about the ancient Egyptian or ancient Mesopotamian origins of the seven-day week. These assumptions are unfounded: there is no evidence of any seven-day cycle in all the rich corpora of literary and astronomical sources of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.'
Bultrighini and Stern, Calendars in the Making… Ed. Sacha Stern, 2021, p.11¹Further, the assumption that Israel would have picked up the tradition simply because Babylon was bigger and more powerful is rather unfounded, as it is unlikely that the Jewish nation would have picked up the traditions of an opposing nation to the point of ingraining it in their own religious texts – particularly as the Torah makes it clear that God is highly against the Israelites picking up the habits of surrounding nations (Deuteronomy 18:9-15, Leviticus 18:3-4) – a warning that was likely continued even in the Torah’s preliminary oral form.
This is further alluded to by the writings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who both suggest that the Sabbath, and thus seven-day weeks, were a previously known tradition. Since they were writing at the time of Israel’s capture, it was unlikely that they would have included this if it was a newly gained concept.
Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They walked not in My statutes and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly polluted.
Ezekiel 20:12-13, KJV
Even in Genesis, we are told that Abraham kept all of God’s commandments, statutes, and laws (Genesis 26:5, ESV). As keeping the Sabbath is one of God’s laws, we can conclude that Abraham was also a follower of the Sabbath and thus a seven-day week – approximately 700 years before Babylon was even established.
If these literary sources are indeed accurate—a reasonable assumption given their recognition as authentic historical documents from the period—then it is highly probable that the Israelite nation was the first to establish the seven-day week, a practice they had upheld since the creation of the world as ordained by God.So, how does this all tie in?
Throughout history, the concept of rest has been woven into the fabric of human life, reflecting a divine rhythm established by God. From the idea of Sabbaticals, to modern innovations like Sabbath mode, and even the seven-day week itself – a globally acknowledged phenomenon that has remained throughout the ages. It’s through these small elements that we see the bigger picture: how God’s enduring love, shown through His blessed rest, lasts throughout the ages. Perhaps Sabbath mode isn’t exclusive to technology.
Perhaps it’s always been meant for us.If you’d like to learn more about the Sabbath, what it means, or how to respect it, go to our course on the Sabbath here.
About the Author
Azaria is a passionate young writer devoted to exploring and sharing the truth of God’s Word. With a heart for faith and a love for storytelling, she seeks to inspire and engage readers on their spiritual journeys.
Azaria Jones
NSW, Australia
Footnotes
¹Hubber, D., 2023, Is there any evidence that the Jews had a 7-day week prior to the Babylonian captivity?, Quora, https://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-evidence-that-the-Jews-had-a-7-day-week-prior-to-the-Babylonian-captivity
