8. The week
THE RECKONING OF TIME
8. THE WEEK
Hebdomada [the week] is a Greek word which takes its name from the number seven. Human custom restricts [the de¢nition] to [a period of] seven days, but according to the authority of sacred Scripture there are many notable kinds [of weeks], all of which, if I am not mistaken, point to a single end: that is, they urge us to hope for endless peace in the grace of the Holy Spirit when all good works are accomplished. Thus the ¢rst /300/ week of all, unique of its kind, from which the others derive their form, is honoured by divine action, because the Lord, completing the adornment of the universe in six days, rested from His labours on the seventh.63 We should note here that the number six is perfect, not because the Lord perfected the works of the universe in [six days], but because (as St Augustine says) the Lord, who was capable of creating everything in an instant, deigned to do His work within this number, because it is a perfect number, in order that He might demonstrate the perfection of His achievement through this number, which is the ¢rst [number] to be formed of its factors, that is, of a sixth, a third and a half ^ namely one, two and three, and which together make six.64
The second week was ordained to be observed by men according to the pattern of this divine week. The Lord said, Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou hast to do; but on the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt do no work. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is therein, and he rested on the seventh day.65 In olden times, the people of God enumerated the week in this way: the ¢rst [day] of the sabbath, or [day] one of the sabbath or sabbaths; the second of the sabbath; the third of the sabbath; the fourth of the sabbath; the ¢fth of the sabbath; the sixth of the sabbath; the seventh of the sabbath, or, the sabbath.66 Not that all days could be sabbaths or days of rest, but that the ¢rst [day], the second, third and so on should be counted in their sequence from the day of rest, which took precedence because of its name and observance. Of course the Gentiles,
63 Cf. Genesis 2.1^2.
64 Cf. Augustine, DCD 11.30 (350.1^12).
65 Exodus 20.9^11.
66 Bede's source is the Irish computus tract beginning De numero igitur . . . found in MS Bodleian Library, Bodley 309 fol. 62 (the ''Sirmond manuscript'') and transcribed from Bern 417 fols. 52v^53v by Jones, BOT Appendix, 395. See Introduction, section 5,
''The technical literature of computus''.
TRANSLATION
when they learned to observe the week from the people of Israel,67 subsequently twisted it around to the praise of their own gods, dedicating the ¢rst day to the Sun, /301/ the second to the Moon, the third to Mars, the fourth to Mercury, the ¢fth to Jupiter, the sixth to Venus, and the seventh to Saturn, consecrating their days to the same monstrosities to whom they had consecrated the planets, although in a di¡erent order.68
For they thought that they received spirit from the Sun, body from the Moon, ardour from Mars, wisdom and language from Mercury, moderation from Jupiter, pleasure from Venus, and slowness from Saturn.69 I believe that this came to pass because the Sun, positioned in the midst of the planets, seems to give heat to the whole universe and, as it were, to vivify it, as spirit does. Ecclesiastes bears witness to this, saying of it,
The spirit goes gyring in a gyre, and returns in its circle.70 The Moon, by supplying moisture, nourishes growth in all bodies. The star Mars, because it is very close to the Sun, is ¢ery in colour and likewise in nature. By its perpetual circling close to the Sun, Mercury was deemed to radiate the inexhaustible light of wisdom, so to speak. Jupiter is tempered on the one hand by the cold of Saturn, and on the other by the heat of Mars. In the loveliness of her light, which she receives from her proximity to the Sun, Venus attracts by her mien those who behold her.
67 Cf. ch. 2 above.
68 Jones thinks that Bede is referring here to di¡erent ancient notions of the order of the planets, e.g. the ''Egyptian'' and ''Chaldean'' arrangements discussed by Macrobius,
Comm. in Somnium Scipionis 1.19 (73^78), or to the Hipparchan model of the perihelial orbit of Mercury and Venus, recorded in Chalcidius' commentary on the Timaeus of Plato
110 (ed. J.H. Waszink (London: Warburg Institute, 1972):157.6^21), in Martianus Capella,
De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii 8.880^882 (ed. J. Willis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1983):333^
335), and extracted in medieval astronomical compilations: see Jones, BOT 341. Cf. Bruce
Eastwood, '''The Chaster Path of Venus' (orbis Veneris castior) in the Astronomy of Martianus Capella'', Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences 32 (1982):145^158, and ''Notes on the Planetary Con¢guration in Aberystwyth N.L.W. MS 735C, f.4v'', The National Library of Wales Journal 22 (1981):129^140. It seems to me, however, that Bede's reference to the ''di¡erent order'' refers to the di¡erence between the physical arrangement of the planets in the heavens, and the order of their corresponding weekdays in the pagan calendar. Note that Bede goes on to attempt to rationalize this non-astronomical order by a kind of astrological anthropology derived from Isidore.
69 Isidore, DNR 3.4 (185.22^28).
70 Ecclesiastes 1.6. Bede's version of this passage (Gyrans gyrando uadit spiritus
. . .) is not that of the Vulgate, but rather that found in Jerome, In Ezechielem 1.1, ed. F.
Glorie, CCSL 75 (1964):20.481, and Isidore, DNR 27.2 (277.10), which is probably Bede's source; cf. Jones, BOT 341.
THE RECKONING OF TIME
In that he is the highest [i.e. ''farthest out'' from Earth], Saturn travels more slowly than the other planets, for he ¢nishes his course through the zodiac in 30 years. After him comes Jupiter in 12 years, third comes
Mars in 2 years, fourth comes the Sun in 365ˆ~˘ days; under the Sun comes Venus, /302/ called both Lucifer and Vesper, in 348 days, never departing from the Sun by more than 46 degrees. The star of Mercury is close to her, its orbit shorter by 9 days. It shines sometimes before sunrise and sometimes after sunset, and is never more than 22 degrees away
[from the Sun].71 Finally, the Moon completes the zodiac in 27 days and 8 hours.72
This, then, was the foolishness of the Gentiles, buttressed by faulty reasoning, for they sought to dedicate the ¢rst day of the week to the Sun by right, so to speak, because he is the greatest of the luminaries, and the second day to the Moon because it is the second luminary. Thereafter, following due sequence, they assigned the ¢rst star from the Sun to the third day, the ¢rst from the Moon to the fourth day, the second from the Sun to the ¢fth day, the second from the Moon to the sixth, and the third from the Sun to the seventh.73 Pope Silvester was the ¢rst to instruct the clergy to have feriae [weekdays].74 [Clergy] are never permitted to involve themselves with worldly service or business, /303/ for they are devoted to God alone; as the Psalmist says, Be still and know that I am
God;75 and likewise the Apostle, No one who ¢ghts for God entangles himself in worldly business.76 Now [Silvester] called the ¢rst day, on 71 ''The Moon, by supplying . . . from the Sun'': cf. Pliny, HN 2.6.32^40 (1.188^
192), the last phrases being a direct quotation; cf. Isidore, Etym. 3.66.
72 Pliny, HN 2.6.44 (194).
73 The conventional ancient explanation of the order of the planetary weekdays was an astrological one, but Bede, if he knew about this at all, was silent on the subject: cf.
Jones, BOT 342; Eviatar Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle:The History and Meaning of the Week (New York: Free Press, 1985):12^20.
74 De divisionibus temporum 10 (658A). Bede and this Irish computus tract are the earliest texts to ascribe this peculiar Christian style of naming weekdays to Silvester, but there is much evidence for its promotion by the Fathers, e.g. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 93.3 (ed. E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, CCSL 39 (1961):1302.5^1303.33), Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 193.4 (ed. G. Morin, CCSL 104 (1963):785^786), Martin of Braga, De correctione rusticorum (ed. Claude W. Barlow, Opera omnia (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1950):189). The word feria changed its meaning almost completely from classical to medieval usage. In the former, it meant ''holiday'', and in the latter, ''ordinary day'': see
Jones, BOT 342.
75 Psalm 46.10 (45.11).
76 II Timothy 2.4.
TRANSLATION
which light was created and also Christ's Resurrection celebrated, the Lord's Day. That this name was given to it in the earliest days of the Church is testi¢ed by John, who says in the Apocalypse, I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day.77 To this, [Silvester] added the ''second feria'',
''third feria'', ''fourth'', ''¢fth'' and ''sixth'' on his own authority, and retained the sabbath from the ancient Scriptures. He did not dread the rods of those grammarians who decree that, like kalends, nones and ides, so also the weekdays should be designated strictly by a plural number.78
A third kind of week occurs in the celebration of Pentecost; it is completed in 7 times 7 weeks, plus one, which is 50 days.79 On this day
Moses, climbing the ¢ery mountain, received the Law from heaven, and Christ sent the grace of the Holy Spirit from heaven in tongues of ¢re.
The fourth week was that of the seventh month, which was almost entirely taken up by special ceremonies. Amongst these the Day of Atonement was of particular importance. Only on this day of the year did the High Priest, leaving the people outside, enter the Holy of Holies after the year's fruits of grain, wine and oil had ¢rst been collected in order.80 This signi¢es that Jesus the great High Priest, having ful¢lled the dispensation of the £esh through His own blood, prepares to enter the gates of the heavenly kingdom, in order that He might now appear before the face of God on our behalf who, still standing outside, remain at the ready and attentive for His coming.81 /304/ It should be noted here that just as certain unclean persons are commanded by the Law to be puri¢ed on the ¢rst, third and seventh day, so the ¢rst, third and seventh month are dedicated to particular ceremonies.
The ¢fth week is that of the seventh year, in which the entire people, by order of the Law, rested from agricultural labour. The Lord said, Six years shall you sow your ¢eld, and on the seventh you shall cease.82 The 77 Apocalypse 1.10; cf. De divisionibus temporum 10 (658B).
78 I.e. just as Roman dates are designated by a number, followed by the possessive plural of the marker-day and month (e.g. VIII kalendarum aprilium), so (according to captious grammarians) the Christian weekdays ought to be designated as secunda sabbatorum, rather than secunda sabbati.
79 Exodus 19.18.On Bede's patristic sources for this exegesis, see Jones, BOT 342^
343.
80 Leviticus 16.29^34.
81 Cf. Hebrews 9, passim.
82 Leviticus 25.3.