Bible dictionaries

Week

What Bible dictionaries say about “Week”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Week - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

From the beginning, time was divided into weeks, each consisting of six days of working and one of rest (Gen. 2:2, 3; 7:10; 8:10, 12; 29:28). The references to this division of days becomes afterwards more frequent (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 12:5; Num. 28:26; Deut. 16:16; 2 Chr. 8:13; Jer. 5:24; Dan. 9:24-27; 10:2, 3). It has been found to exist among almost all nations.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

wek (shebhua`, from shebha`, "seven"; sabbaton-ta, "from sabbath to sabbath"): The seven-day division of time common to the Hebrews and Babylonians (Ge 29:27,28; Lu 18:12). See ASTRONOMY; TIME. "Week" is used in the apocalyptic writings of Daniel for an unknown, prophetic period (Da 9:24-27). For the names of the days see ASTROLOGY, 12.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

There can be no doubt about the great antiquity of measuring time by a period of seven days. (Genesis 8:10; 29:27) The origin of this division of time is a matter which has given birth to much speculation. Its antiquity is so great its observance so widespread, and it occupies so important a place in sacred things, that it must probably be thrown back as far as the creation of man. The week and the Sabbath are thus as old as man himself. A purely theological ground is thus established for the week. They who embrace this view support it by a reference to the six days creation and the divine rest on the seventh. 1st. That the week rests on a theological ground may be cheerfully acknowledged by both sides; but nothing is determined by such acknowledgment as to the original cause of adopting this division of time. Whether the week gave its sacredness to the number seven, or whether the ascendancy of that number helped to determine the dimensions of the week, it is impossible to say. 2d. The weekly division was adopted by all the Shemitic races, and, in the later period of their history at least, by the Egyptians. On the other hand, there is no reason for thinking the week known till a late period to either Greeks or Romans. So far from the week being a division of time without ground in nature, there was much to recommend its adoption. And further, the week is a most natural and nearly an exact quadri-partition of the month, so that the quarters of the moon may easily have suggested it. It is clear that if not in Pauls time, yet very soon after, the whole Roman world had adopted the hebdomadal division. Weeks, Feast of. [PENTECOST]

William Smith; revised by F. N. Peloubet and M. A. Peloubet; CrossWire SWORD module Smith 1.3

The article in Smith

Translation Words

Definition

The term “week” literally refers to a period of time lasting seven days.

In the Jewish system of counting time, a week begins at sunset on Saturday and ends at sunset the following Saturday.
In the Bible, the term “week” is sometimes used figuratively to refer to a group of seven units of time, such as seven years.
The “Festival of Weeks” is a celebration of harvest that takes place seven weeks after Passover. It is also called “Pentecost.”

(See also: Pentecost)

Bible References

Word Data

Strong’s: H7620, G45210

The original work by unfoldingWord is available from https://www.unfoldingword.org/utw. Bible Strong converted the Markdown and resource links to its dictionary schema and normalized Bible references.

The article in Translation Words