THE FIRST WEEK OF TIME by James White

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 12, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 7

THE FIRST WEEK OF TIME.

By James White

The record of the several events of the first week of time, as they transpired in their order, is given in the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis. The work of creation was performed in the first six days of that week. The Creator rested from his work, or ceased to create, on the last day of the first week of time.

The year has its origin from the revolution of the earth around the sun; the day, from its revolution on its axis; the sacred month, from the phases of the moon; but the reckoning of time by weeks is not derived from anything in nature.

From the facts of creation alone the weekly cycle derives its origin. And the period of the week has been recognized in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments all the way down the ages, reaching into the present dispensation. Laban said to Jacob, “Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week.” Gen. 29:27, 28. Here a day represents a year, as in the case of the seventy weeks of the ninth chapter of Daniel. The seventy weeks represent four hundred and ninety years, and the seventieth week, in the midst of which the Jewish sacrifices and oblations ceased with the death of the Son of God, represent seven years.

“The week, another primeval measure, is not a natural measure of time, as some astronomers and chronologists have supposed, indicated by the phases or quarters of the moon. It was originated by divine appointment at the creation—six days of labor and one of rest being wisely appointed for man’s physical and spiritual well-being.”—Bliss’ Sacred Chronology, p. 6; Hale’s Chronology.

“Seven has been the ancient and honored number among the nations of the earth. They have measured their time by weeks from the beginning. The original of this was the Sabbath of God, as Moses has given the reasons of it in his writings.”—Brief Dissertation on the first three Chapters of Genesis, by Dr. Coleman, p. 26.

“SEVEN. The way in which this number comes before us on many occasions in Scripture is very remarkable, and suggests that it must have had some hidden or typical significance. The present constitution of nature is recorded to have been made in six days, followed by a seventh day, in which God rested, and which he blessed and sanctified forever. Gen. 2:2, 3.

“The division of time into weeks of seven days each, originated in this great event; and the hallowing of the Sabbath in the fourth commandment finds its reason herein: ‘For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ Ex. 20:11. In the patriarchal history, as well as in the Mosaic legislation, the recurrence of the number seven and its combinations is very frequent. Even in the later Old-Testament history this number is met with too often for it to be always accidental. The repetition of the same number and of its multiples in the New Testament has also been observed. Seven has been called the symbol of perfection and the symbol of rest. But whether this is certainly correct or not, we may safely say with Mr. Wemyss: ‘Jacob’s seven years’ service to Laban; Pharaoh’s seven fat oxen and seven lean oxen; the seven branches of the golden candlestick; the seven trumpets, and the seven priests who sounded them; the seven days’ siege of Jericho; the seven churches, seven spirits, seven stars, seven seals, seven vials, and many others, sufficiently prove the importance of this sacred number.’—Key to Symbolical Language of Scripture. Jews, Pagans, and Christians have vied with each other in attempts to prove the mysterious character of the number. The estimation in which it was held, on account of its singularly sacred character, may explain its adoption as a sort of representative number. Of this last use of the term seven, instances occur in the following texts: Lev. 25:4; 1 Sam. 2:5; Ps. 12:6; 79:12; Prov. 26:16; Isa. 4:1; Matt. 18:21, 22; Luke 17:4.”—Cassell’s Bible Dictionary, vol. i.

“There can be no doubt about the great antiquity of measuring time by a period of seven days. (Gen. 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. In Exodus, the week comes into very distinct manifestation. Two of the great feasts—the Passover, and the feast of Tabernacles—are prolonged for seven days after that of their initiation. (Ex. 12:15–20, etc.) The division by seven was expanded so as to make the seventh month and the seventh year sabbatical. In the N. T., we of course find such clear recognition of and familiarity with the week as needs scarcely be dwelt on.”—Smith’s Bible Dictionary.

“Week, a period of seven days, a division of time adopted by the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, and in general use among Christians and Mohammedans. Its origin is referred back in the Mosaic account to the creation of the world, and there is no other record relating to it.”—American Cyclopædia.

The week has ever been regarded by the writers of both Testaments as a period of seven literal days, excepting in those places where it is used prophetically, a day for a year. With this view, all the statements of the sacred writers in reference to the week and the Sabbath can be harmonized. Infidelity, under the cover of what is called the science of geology, has turned its batteries upon the Mosaic record in denial of the long-established opinions of the learned, the wise, and the pious of past ages, that the first week of time constituted a cycle of seven literal days.

We are gravely told by these scientific gentlemen that the seven days of the first week of time represent seven immense indefinite periods. They seem to forget that a succession of indefinite periods is an impossibility, as they would constitute but one indefinite period.

The law regulating the duties of the week as enjoined upon man, refers back to the first week of time in these words: “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work.” Then follows the reason for this arrangement on the part of the Law-giver: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:9–11. Notice these points:—

1. The first week of time is a pattern for all succeeding weeks; the first six days for toil, the seventh for rest. The Creator gives an example to the creature, man. God created during the first six days of that first week, and rested on the last day of it; and while he has given the first six days of the week to man, in which to labor for a livelihood, he has reserved the seventh to himself to be kept holy.

2. The second act of the Creator in making the Sabbath for man, was to put his blessing upon the day of his rest. This is the period he claims as his day, on account of resting upon it, and which he has commanded to be kept holy. Was the Lord’s rest-day, or Sabbath, a literal day, or was it an indefinite period covering millions of years? If the period of creation was six literal days, the period of man’s toils and cares before a day of rest, is six literal days. And if the day on which Jehovah rested was a period marked by one revolution of the earth upon its axis, the Lord’s Sabbath to be kept holy is a literal day of twenty-four hours.

But, if the suppositions of these gentlemen who speculate in matters of geology at the expense of the Mosaic record be received—if the period of creation was one immense indefinite period, and not six; for that would be an impossibility—then the period of man’s toils and cares before a day of rest, is also immense, covering millions of years. And if the last day of the first week, the day on which Jehovah rested from his work, was another immense indefinite period, the weekly Sabbath of the Old and New Testaments, which was made for man and commanded in the moral law to be kept holy, is also an immense indefinite period of time.

3. The third act on the part of the creating and law-instituting party was to sanctify the day of rest, and make it holy. To sanctify, means to set apart to a holy and sacred use. This was the finishing stroke in making the Sabbath, not for the angels, nor for intelligent beings on other spheres, but for men on this globe. With the view that the first week was a cycle of seven literal days, a pattern of all succeeding weeks, the subject is a plain one, and within the grasp of reason.

“The Sabbath was made for man,” for Adam and his posterity. After the completion of the first week, Adam entered upon his week, and could keep the second rest-day that dawned upon the world, and each succeeding Sabbath during his long lifetime of nine hundred and thirty years. But, if the six days of creation, as we are told, were six indefinite periods, each covering millions of years, Adam, created in the early part of the sixth immense period, and dying at the age of nine hundred and thirty, leaving millions of years to reach to the close of that sixth period, died without keeping a single Sabbath.

And with this view, it is no marvel that a thousand antinomian pulpit gentlemen of to-day will give utterance to the sentiment that no man has been able to keep the law of God. For how could they observe the fourth precept of the moral code on the grounds of these geological speculations? For example: Six immense periods shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh immense period is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work. For in six immense periods, each covering millions of years, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh immense period; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Our object in this article is to show, not only the absurdity, but the danger of departing from the obvious, and long-established interpretation of the days of creation week, and the days of each succeeding week, as mentioned in the Scriptures of both Testaments. Infidel geologists, in arraying themselves against the Mosaic record of creation, strike a blow also against the immutable law of God, against the Old Testament which rests upon that law, and against the New Testament which has its foundation in the Old.

The Spirit of God, that inspired both Testaments, knew whether the seven days of creation week, and all other succeeding weeks, were periods of twenty-four hours each, or immense boundless periods. And the Son of God at his first advent, and the Holy Ghost that brought the doings and the sayings of the Son of God to the minds of the four writers of the gospels, understood perfectly the meaning and application of the word Sabbath, whether it applied to a literal day or to an immense period having no boundaries.

When Moses said to Israel, with reference to the manna, “To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning,” he never dreamed that he was standing in a sixth immense period, directing his brethren what they should do with reference to a seventh boundless period. And when he said: “Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none,” he little thought that he was giving directions in reference to six immense periods, all to be crowded into the brief history of the falling manna. And when he said: “It came to pass that there went out some of the people to gather

on the seventh day, and they found none,” he could have had no other idea than that the Sabbath was the brief period of the revolution of the earth on its axis.

And when the prophet Nehemiah mentions the cases of some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and doing other servile work on that day, and commands that the gates of Jerusalem should be shut when they began to be dark before the Sabbath, does he speak of a boundless period? or is he speaking of a literal day of twenty-four hours, whose commencement is marked by the shades of literal night? Judge ye. He says: “In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gate, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day.” Neh. 13:15–19.

And when Luke records the facts that the holy women returned from the sepulcher where Christ was laid in death and “prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” and “upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher bringing the spices which they had prepared” to embalm their Lord, does he mean by the words Sabbath and first day, two literal days of twenty-four hours each? or does he mean that the burial of Christ took place on the sixth immense period of time, the holy women rested during the seventh immense period, and the resurrection took place at a very early point of a boundless period that lay beyond?

And when our Lord gave instructions to his disciples in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem A. D. 70: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day,” did he mean by the word Sabbath, the definite seventh day, twenty-four hours in length? or did he mean that they should offer petitions that their flight might not be on a seventh part of time, or one day in seven and no day in particular? or did he mean to say, Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on an immense boundless period of time? With these questions we leave the reader to his reflections whether to accept the plain and obvious meaning of the word of God relative to the week, held by the learned and godly of past ages, or to be tossed to and fro by the speculations of “science, falsely so called.” J. W.