LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.05 (04) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 05 September 2010 - Volume 04
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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>

Subject: LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.05 (01) [EN]



At 12:34 PM 05/09/2010, Sandy Fleming wrote:

I read somewhere, once, ages ago, that the earliest Christians were in
the habit of meeting secretly once the Jewish celebrations had finished
(presumably they either still saw themselves as Jews or had to pretend
to do the Sabbath). These meetings could extend well into the night and
eventually became part of Sunday. Presumably this is all just guessing.


Sorry, I couldn't stay on the sidelines any longer.  The seven day week
comes out of prehistoric antiquity in the Middle East, in particular in
Babylon.  The "Jews" normalized this by writing Genesis 1 around this, and
this certainly was well established by the end of the Babylonian Exile in
the 6th century BCE.  No one has ever disputed that this succession of seven
day weeks has ever been broken since then.

The early Christian church spread primarily in port cities around the
Mediterranean where there were Jewish settlements, as the Christian
"message" resonated much more among the diaspora Jews than among non-Jews.
 No one disputes that a very large portion of early Christians were Jewish
converts, and keeping Shabbat would certainly been a normal thing to do.
 Keeping Shabbat precluded travel and cooking.

You may recall that Jesus' (reputed, if you like) resurrection occurred on
the 1st day of the week, indicating at least symbolically a New Creation.
 This has always been held as a feast day, and one of travel, and so did not
in any way conflict with any Jewish customs or laws per se.  Christians were
supposed to dedicate the day to this feast by attending a meal (typically in
the evening, hence the Germanic word for the Mass, "Abendmahl" "Nachtmiel"
etc. and performing other tasks appropriate to the day such as study and
prayer.  Of course, there is nothing "Biblical" about this, and is all
"tradition".

Apparently many people chose to ignore the day even though golf hadn't been
invented yet, and the church tried to crack down.  It was the Emperor
Constantine who turned the "Lord's Day" into church law at the Council of
Nicea in 325 CE.  Of course, many people continue to confuse this day with
Shabbat, but they are really two different things.  There are still some
Christians who, in their own way, keep Shabbos.

We should really thank the Babylonians for creating the week, the Jews for
giving us one day off, and the Christians for inventing le "weekend"  (or,
as they say in Quebec, "la fin de semaine").

The Babylonians were also involved in the early beginnings of our solar
calendar.  You mathematicians may know that the idea of 360 degrees in a
circle came out of Babylon, possibly because of the many wonderful ways of
division, and being 12 moons of 30 days each, with five extra days left
over.

The Romans had this crazy system which was only partly solar, and mostly
lunar.  At the new moon, you had the first nine days (the Nones) and then
the first fifteen days (the Ides), and then whatever was left over until the
end of that moon.  Disputes about dates for payments, etc., were determined
by the Pontiff (no, not the RC Pontiff), who was subject to be influenced by
bribery.  Julius Caesar (pronounce it any way you please) went to Egypt and
brought back their purely solar calendar, with alternating months of 30 and
31 days, with one having 29, and then 30 in the leap year.  His nephew
thought his month should have at least as many days, which is why August
breaks the pattern, and February has but 28.

You can pick any day of the week as your first, but for the various peoples
of the Book, the First Day will always be Sunday.  The Quakers even did away
with the pagan names that became attached to them, and Quaker children in
many places still attend First Day School, and Christmas is on the 25th of
Twelfth Month.

Ed Alexander
Canada



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