Week
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 29:27)—the word “week” in the cited passage denotes the seven days of the wedding celebration. The division of time into weeks of seven days has its origin in the creation of the world (Gen. 2:2–3, 7:4–10, 8:10–12), and traces of it are found among almost all the peoples of the whole world. In all eastern countries, among the most ancient peoples, even among the wild tribes of Africa, this division of time into weeks of days has been preserved. The Hebrews had no special names for the days of the week, but called them simply by a numeral name, such as, for instance, the first, the second, the third day of the week.
The naming of the days at present in Western countries is taken from the Saxon language, in which they have a mythological meaning. Besides the week consisting of seven days and lasting from one sabbath to another, the Hebrews also had a week consisting of seven years, and of forty-nine years, occurring in the fiftieth, or jubilee, year.