Weekly Cycle

The writings of historians, the records of chronographers, the languages of earth, the calendars of time, and the existence of the Jewish race—all testify to the fact that the weekly cycle on our calendars today is the same as in earlier centuries—going back to the time of Christ, to Moses, and beyond.

In the beginning, God gave us the weekly seven-day cycle, with the Sabbath as the last day. That pattern has never changed. The seventh day of the week today is the true Bible Sabbath. Our seventh day is the Sabbath which Jesus kept; it was the Sabbath in the time of Moses when the Ten Commandments were written down. Historians and scientists all agree that this is true.

If there had been any change in the weekly cycle, between the time of Creation and the time of Moses, a correction would have been made when the Ten Commandments were given to the Hebrews. From that time, on down to the present, there have always been Jews to testify as to the true Sabbath. It is the same seventh day of the week which is on our calendars. While all the other ancient races are now intermingled, the Jews have been kept separate so they could testify to the fact that our seventh day is the Bible Sabbath!

The yearly cycle has been changed. In 1582, the length of the year was changed to include the leap year. This changeover resulted in October 1582 having only 21 days! But each week remained the same seven days in length. Thursday, October 4, was followed by Friday, October 15. God has divinely protected the weekly cycle down through the ages. If He had not done this, it would be impossible to keep the Sabbath holy, as He has commanded. But, because He has, we have no excuse not to. The seventh day is a holy day, made holy by the command of God. All calendars agree: The seventh day is the Sabbath. Sunday is the first day; the day called "Saturday" in the English langauge is the Sabbath.

However, in 108 of the 160 languages of mankind, the seventh day is called "the Sabbath"! Did you know that? Dr. William Mead Jones of London prepared a chart proving this. (A copy of this chart can be obtained free of charge from the publisher of this book: Ask for "The Chart of the Week" [BS–28-29]. English is one of the few major languages in which the seventh day is not called "the Sabbath."

Here are ten examples: Hebrew: Shabbath / Greek: Sabbaton / Latin: Sabbatum / Arabic: Assabit / Persian: Shambin / Russian: Subbota / Hindustani: Shamba / French: Samedi / Italian: Sabbato / Spanish: Sabado.

"By calculating the eclipses, it can be proven that no time has been lost and the creation days were seven, divided into 24 hours each."—Dr. Hinkley, The Watchman, July 1926 [Hinkley was a well-known astronomer].

"The human race never lost the septenary [seven day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, though the ages, without a single lapse."—Dr. Totten, professor of astronomy at Yale University.

"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 origin of this was the Sabbath of God, as Moses has given the reasons for it in his writings."—Dr. Lyman Coleman.

"There has been no change in our calendar in past centuries that has affected in any way the cycle of the week."—James Robertson, Director American Ephemeris, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., March 12, 1932.

"It can be said with assurance that not a day has been lost since Creation, and all the calendar changes notwithstanding, there has been no break in the weekly cycle."—Dr. Frank Jeffries, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Research Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England.

It is remarkable how complete is the Biblical and historical evidence corroborating the fact that the Bible Sabbath was given to us by the God of heaven. Let us keep the Sabbath that Jesus kept! He worshiped on the Bible Sabbath, and never told us to stop keeping it. No one else in the Bible said to either. The seventh day is the Sabbath, for God never changed it.

How very thankful we can be that our God is so reliable. He does not change this way or that. He has a holy law which we must obey. But He sent His only begotten Son to die in order to enable us to do it.

The seventh day of the week continues to be called
"Sabbath" or "day of rest" in over a hundred languages.

INTRODUCTION—This is incredible information! This Chart of the Week is over a hundred years old. It was prepared by Dr. William Meade Jones, a research expert in London, England. Well over a hundred languages prove that the week, everywhere, has seven days;—and that, in most languages, the native word for the seventh day is "Sabbath" (which means "rest" or "rest day") or "rest day."

Jones, a well-known British researcher, decided that since Scripture clearly shows that the Bible Sabbath was first given to mankind at the end of Creation Week, then two important facts would have had to be known throughout the ancient world: First, a fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a worldwide basis and, second, an ancient worldwide knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath.

1 - Adam and Noah were both earnest worshipers of God and would therefore have been faithful Sabbath keepers.

2 - They would have taught their descendants about the Bible Sabbath; these descendants would then be aware of its original sacredness.

3 - The truth that God is to be worshiped on the seventh day of each seven-day week—would require a seven-day weekly cycle everywhere. If the first generations kept the weekly Sabbath given at Creation, then their descendants would continue to keep a seven-day week, even though they might later have turned to idols and left the worship of the true God.

4 - Therefore, as the descendants of Adam and Noah spread out all over the world, they would have carried with them these two important facts: (1) Each week has seven days, and (2) the seventh day of the week is the holy Sabbath given by God to mankind.

Jones reasoned that, even though many of Adam and Noah’s descendants would become scoffers, all of them would still carry with them the twin truths of the seven-day Creation Week and the seventh-day Sabbath rest. So all the world would have a seven-day week;—and, embedded in most of those languages, the seventh day would generally be called the "rest day" ("Sabbath").

William Meade Jones was certain that, because Genesis 1 and 2 were really true, and God really created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh day,—that a majority of the languages of the world would prove the fact!

This, in turn, would be a powerful proof—not only that the seventh day (and not the first) was the true Sabbath given by God to mankind,—but also a dramatic proof that Genesis 1 and 2 are genuine, and that God is our Creator!

William Meade Jones’ Chart of the Week is stunning proof that the book of Genesis is really true! This amazing chart is filled with corroborating evidence.

1 - In all languages the seven-day weekly cycle is maintained; that is, no language group anywhere has a week with more or less days than seven.

2 - In spite of the fact that 6,000 years has elapsed since Creation Week when our world was created (Genesis 1-2), and regardless of many language adaptations down through the centuries, the seventh day of the week continues to be called "Sabbath" or "day of rest" in over a hundred languages.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE WITH THIS CHART—The original Chart of the Week is too large to be placed on your computer screen. In addition, because it includes samples from well over a hundred languages of mankind, it could only be reproduced as a graphic,—which would requires a long period of time to load in. Below is an abbreviated version of the chart, with a more complete listing of languages to follow.

No.	LANGUAGE (Where Spoken, Read, or Otherwise Used	1	2	3	4	5	6	Name of the SEVENTH DAY
1	Shemitic Hebrew Bible world-wide	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day the Sixth	Yom hash-shab-bath Day the Sabbath
2	Hebrew (Ancient and Modern)	One into the Sabbath	Second into the Sabbath	Third into the Sabbath	Fourth into the Sabbath	Fifth into the Sabbath	Eve of Holy Sabbath	Shab-bath Sabbath
3	Targum of Onkelos (Hebrew Literature)	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day the Sixth	Yom hash-shab-bath Day the Sabbath
4	Targum Dialect of the Jews in Kurdistan	Day One of the Seven	Day 2nd of the Seven	Day 3rd of the Seven	Day 4th of the Seven	Day 5th of the Seven	Day of Eve (of Sabbath)	yoy-met sha-bat kodesh Holy Sabbath Day
5	Ancient Syriac *Each day proceeds on, and belongs to the Sabbath	One into Sabbath	Two into Sabbath	Three into Sabbath	Four into Sabbath	Five into Sabbath	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shab-ba-tho Sabbath
6	Chaldee Syriac Kurdistan and Urdmia, Persia	One into Sabbath	Two into Sabbath	Three into Sabbath	Four into Sabbath	Five into Sabbath	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shap-ta Sabbath
7	Samaritan (Old Hebrew Letters) Nablus, Palestine	Day One	Day Second	Day Third	Day Fourth	Day Fifth	Day Sixth	Shab-bath Sabbath
8	Babylonian Euphrates & Tigris Valleys Mesopotamia (Written lang. 3800 B.C.)	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	Sa-ba-tu Sabbath
9	Assyrian Euphrates and Tigris Valleys, Mesopotamia	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	sa-ba-tu Sabbath
10	Arabic (Very old names)	Business Day	Light Moon	War Chief	Turning Day or Midweek	Familiar or Society Day	Eve (of Sabbath)	Shi-yar Chief or Rejoicing Day
11	Arabic (Ancient and Modern) Westn. Asia, E,W & N. Africa	The One	The Two	The Three	The Four	The Fith	Assembly (day, Muham)	as-sabt The Sabbath
12	Maltese, Malta	One (day)	Two (and day)	The 3 (3rd d.)	The 4 (4th d.)	Fifth (day)	Assembly	Is-sibt. The Sabbath
13	Ge-ez or Ethiopic Abyssinia (Ge-ez signifies "original")	One (day)	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
14	Tigre Abyssinia (Closely related to Ge-ez)	One (First day)	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
15	Amharic, Abyssinia (Nearly related to Ge-ez)	One	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Eve (of Sabbath)	san-bat Sabbath
16	Falasha (Language of the Jews of Abyssinia)	One	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	yini sanbat The Sabbath
17	Coptic / Egypt (A dead lang. for 200 years)	The First Day	The 2nd Day	The 3rd Day	The 4th Day	The 5th Day	The 6th Day	pi sabbaton The Sabbath
18	Orma or Galla South of Abyssinia (This language has two sets of names, the first being the oldest)	Lady, Virgin Mary Day. Great or Festival Sabbath	Second day. First Trade Day	3rd Day to the Sabbath. Second Trade Day	4th day to the Sabbath. Fourth (day)	Fifth (day)	Assembly (day)	Last day of the half-week inclusive of 4th day. Little or Humble or Solemn Sabbath (A day of no ceremonial display and no work)
19	Tamashek or Towarek. (From ancient Lybian or Numidian). Atlas Mountains, Africa.	First day	Second day	Third day	Fourth day	Fifth day	Assembly Day	a-hal es-sabt. The Sabbath Day
20	Kabyle or Berber. (Ancient Numidian) North Africa	Day the One (First)	Day the Two (2nd)	Day the Three (3rd)	Day the Four (4th)	Day the Fifth	The Assembly Day	ghas or wars assebt The Sabbath Day
21	Hausa (Central Africa)	The One (1st)	The Two (2nd)	The Three (3rd)	The Four (4th)	The Fifth	The Assembly	assebatu The Sabbath
22	Urdu or Hindustani (Muhammadan and Hindu, India) (Two names for the days)	One to Sabbath. Sunday	2nd to Sabbath. Moon-day	3rd to Sabbath. Mars	4th to Sabbath. Mercury	5th to Sabbath. (Eve of Juma)	Assembly (day)	sanichar - Saturn shamba - Sabbath
23	Pashto or Afghan Afghanistan	One to the Sabbath	Two to Sabbath	Three to Sabbath	Four to Sabbath	Five to Sabbath	Assembly (day)	khali - Unemployed-day, Shamba - Sabbath

Here is a list of languages in which the vast majority indicate a seven day weekly cycle and the seventh day means Sabbath or Rest.