Week

The week, a unit of seven days, is embedded in the creation narrative of Genesis 1–2, where God works for six days and rests on the seventh — establishing the pattern that underlies the sabbath commandment (Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15). The seven-day week is not derived from astronomical cycles (unlike the day, month, and year) but from this divine pattern, making it unique among ancient time divisions. In Hebrew, the days were numbered rather than named (first day, second day, etc.), with the seventh called the Sabbath (shabbat, "rest"). Weeks also structured the religious calendar: seven weeks of seven days (a week of weeks) separated Passover from Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15–16); seven sabbatical years led to the Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8); and Daniel's prophecy of "seventy weeks" (Daniel 9:24–27) uses the week unit for calculating messianic timing. In the New Testament, the first day of the week became the Lord's Day, the primary day of Christian assembly, in commemoration of the resurrection (John 20:19; Acts 20:7; Revelation 1:10).