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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="center">=====================================================<br>
<b>L O W L A N D S - L - 05 September 2010 - Volume 04<br>
</b><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="" lang="FR">lowlands.list@gmail.com</span></a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/" target="_blank"><span style="" lang="FR">http://lowlands-l.net/</span></a><br>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From:
<span class="gd"><span style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">Ed Alexander</span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span class="go"><<a href="mailto:edsells@cogeco.ca">edsells@cogeco.ca</a>></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
<span class="gi">LL-L "Tradition" 2010.09.05 (01) [EN]</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At 12:34 PM 05/09/2010,
Sandy Fleming wrote:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: navy;">I read somewhere, once, ages ago, that the earliest Christians were
in<br>
the habit of meeting secretly once the Jewish celebrations had finished<br>
(presumably they either still saw themselves as Jews or had to pretend<br>
to do the Sabbath). These meetings could extend well into the night and<br>
eventually became part of Sunday. Presumably this is all just guessing.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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".<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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").<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br>
Ed Alexander<br>
Canada</span></p>
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