Talk:Sunday

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Contents 1 WikiProject Time assessment rating comment 2 Weekend 3 Constantine 4 Foolish statement about Sunday position in the week as the last 5 Sabbat not "seven" 6 Can someone explain Malachi 4:2 reference? 7 Sunday, First or LAst day of the week?

[edit] WikiProject Time assessment rating comment

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—Yamara ✉ 05:12, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Weekend

Seems a bit strange that the discussion on Sunday doesn't mention the idea of "weekend" even though I know it is a western cultural thing? --BozMo|talk 15:43, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Sunday for me is the first day of the week, and another day of opportunity for peace on the weekend. The bible talks of christians going to church on the day after sabbath. It describes sabbath as being a day of rest and sanctity. For seeing back over the previous 6 days.For family/Important.For rest and consolence/Joy and reflection.The great day for You/us, after the weeks 6 work days; work, in all its varieties. [Mal.Armstrong.Adelaide South Australia.](58.84.68.84 03:44, 2 April 2006 (UTC))

The official ISO 8601 Calendar Standard states that Monday is the first day of the week. So "in some countries" actually reflects the standard and Sunday being the first day of the week (in most Anglo-Saxon countries) is non-standard. The utterance "in some countries" should actuelly be reversed to reflect the the real situation of mainstream use and official standard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mkniskanen (talk • contribs) on 19 August 2006

I deleted a false or very misleading statement. Sunday was named after the Sun, which was named after the German deity. Sunday was NOT named after any god. The seven days of the week are refernces to astrology, not pagan theology; astrology, although rejected by many Christians as superstition, was not one of the bible's proscribed occultic practices. In fact, the foreigners who adored the baby Jesus were astrologers. Astrology observed seven planets, the Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. The days of the week are named after those seven planets, which in turn are named after deities. In English, Northern European gods replaced the names of equivalent greco-Roman gods, except for Saturn, which remains named after Saturn.

How can we tell the difference between being named after gods, and being named after planets, and is there a distinction? Because the order of the days of the week is the order of the periodicity of the planets: Because they are the same seven gods which are the seven planets. Most gods' names weren't given to planets. The astrologers' belief was that those born on a given day of the week had the traits which were ascribed to each of the planets. (Since this is all so far afield of the topic of Sunday, I simply deleted, rather than correcting, the incorrect or misleading statement.)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.143.31.101 (talk • contribs) on 7 May 2006

This differs greatly from other accounts (including that included in every other Day of The Week article). Citation needed.

Someone has cited the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Christian Calendar. ( "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03158a.htm" ). Basically, we have a bit of a problem- as it stands, this article contradicts the other 6 day-of-the-week articles, in that they all claim that they are named after gods, while this claims it is named after celesetial bodies. Either we acceptc this citation as reliable and change the other articles to match, or we change this article to match th others. They cant stay contradicting each other. 82.69.37.32 14:53, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

You misunderstand the citations. They don't claim that the days of the week are named for the planets, but that the order of the planets determined the order of the days of the week. All planets are named for gods (with the possible exception of the Sun and Moon, whose gods may have been named for the corresponding 'planets'), hence all days of the planetary week are named for gods. This should be clarified in the article. — Joe Kress 01:07, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Regardless, this article is still at odds with the other Day-of-the-Week articles. Whatever we decide is "true" still needs to be applied to all the articles, or they'll stay contradictory. 82.69.37.32 09:58, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Constantine

just a suggestion...but since sunday as a day of rest was first strictly enforced by Constantine...perhaps...just perhaps...someone should include him in this discussion. OH...and by the way...the citation for that is in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"... vol. 1. page 636.

[edit] Foolish statement about Sunday position in the week as the last

"This view was influenced by old economics when Monday was the first working day of the week; banks in general being closed on Saturday and Sunday." Monday was the first day of 6-day working cycle but not the week iself. The first day in Europe was and is the day of Sunday.--133.41.4.46 17:55, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Sunday is the day of rest according to chirstianty, so what did god do.. have a rest then build the heavens and the earth.. secondly sunday is part of the weekEND (i.e end of the week) not the start, and 3rdly Monday is the first day of the week as in MONO meaning 1.. or first. there are my 3 points to say that Sunday is NOT the first day of the week. 82.24.168.34 01:32, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Except the article clearly states the bible having no such reference to Sunday being the last day. It also states Saturday is.Xolver 22:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

To the first anonymous: Monday is, though it's not always been, considered the first day of the week in almost all Europe. There's nothing foolish in it, they are just customs. To the second anonymous: It is true that Sunday doesn't born as the first day of the week, that we inherited from Jews, since Saturday was their holy last day, the day when (according to Cristians too) God rested. And the (English!) name of Monday doesn't come from the word mono, but from the god Màni (Mona), god of Moon. Lupo Azzurro 15:57, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The last anonymus edit had a taste of "purge" (doing away with the mention of 1. day in the opening paragraph). I guess it is futile to fight about right or wrong. We have two different concepts which are differently used in different countries and I have tried in my edit to show their relationship. --Kipala 02:07, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sabbat not "seven"

I changed the explanation for "Sabbath (שבת)" originating from the Hebrew word "seven (שבע)". This is not correct even if it is a popular misunderstanding because of the similarity.--Kipala 21:19, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Understood, but what is it then? Derived from the word "sit" (ישב)? As in god sat down, rested? Xolver 16:26, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

My Gesenius (dic for Old Hebrew) gives me שבת as a verb root with meanings of "stop, rest, sit"; though same dic leaves options for connecting this verbal root with שבת="shabbat" or with some other semitic roots. My Hebrew grammar isn't good enough any more to explain better... Kipala 19:46, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it makes sense that it comes from the word sit, which in old hebrew probably meant rested too. Thus god created the world for 6 days and sat (rested) in the 7th.Xolver 04:06, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can someone explain Malachi 4:2 reference?

As of 06/22/07 the article contains this sentence: "The Christians reinterpreted the indigenous name as implying the Sun of Righteousness with reference to his "arising" (Malachi 4:2)"

Here is Malachi 4:2 as taken from the New King James Version Bible: "But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves."

In my humble opinion, I believe this passage is referring to the Messiah, i.e. the "Sun of Righteousness," who will come to heal those who have faith in God ("But to you who fear My name").

I don't understand how this passage relates to the Sabbath. There doesn't appear to be anything in the surrounding passages talking about days of the week or the Sabbath. What, according to the author of the sentence, did the Christians "reinterpret" as evidenced by this passage? Is the author claiming that Christians at one point used this passage in some way that related to their belief of the origins of the word "Sunday"? If so, more elaboration and a reference to an historical source is needed.

If this is relevant to the discussion, for historical background, Malachi was around before Christ and Christianity, a prophet from the Old Testament/Jewish Tanakh.

[edit] Sunday, First or LAst day of the week?

In my opinion it's the first day!-- Hornetman16 23:39, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I think it's not really a matter of opinions, it's more about what happens actually. I think this article lacks of a good explanation about which countries start the week on Sunday and which don't (the article Week doesn't say anything either).

In the Judaeo-Christian tradition Sunday has been considered as the first day of the week. However, in some countries calendars show Monday as day 1 of the week. There are also countries where both types of calendars can be found.

I find this paragraph rather unrealistic, since it's not only "some" countries that start the week with Monday. Most countries in Europe (and at least most countries that belonged to France or Spain, like South America and half Africa) do so. Loqu 10:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)