05-28-2011, 05:24 AM
Shlama Raymond,
Thank you for your insights. Also it is important to remember that other words are also derived from this root, "a-r-b" (which means literally, "to sink" - as in the sun sinks). For instance, our word in Aramaic for "West" is "Ma-ar-wa" ("the setting"), I believe the Hebrew word is Ma'arav. So there's even a direction named from the sunset.
The concept is even older than Abraham. In ancient Semitic (Akkadian), the word was "Erebu" for the verb "to sink". They also said "Erebu Shamshi" for "the setting/sinking of the sun." This is the ancient Semitic stock from which Abraham arose, his people in ancient Babylonia which is today in Iraq.
So it may not come as a surprise that this isn't really an apostolic or biblical thing, it is much older as so many things in the Hebrew civilization. Like the names of the months, etc. They all were used before in Mesopotamia. It is our (western civilization) link to the cradle of civilization as per the story in Genesis.
So what I'm trying to say before going off on a tangent (and Robert will point this out!) is that this was how time was kept always, since the beginning even before there were any scriptures to speak of. It wasn't really an accomplishment on our church's part, they just kept time like they did before there was a concept of the next day starting at 12:00am.
+Shamasha
Thank you for your insights. Also it is important to remember that other words are also derived from this root, "a-r-b" (which means literally, "to sink" - as in the sun sinks). For instance, our word in Aramaic for "West" is "Ma-ar-wa" ("the setting"), I believe the Hebrew word is Ma'arav. So there's even a direction named from the sunset.
The concept is even older than Abraham. In ancient Semitic (Akkadian), the word was "Erebu" for the verb "to sink". They also said "Erebu Shamshi" for "the setting/sinking of the sun." This is the ancient Semitic stock from which Abraham arose, his people in ancient Babylonia which is today in Iraq.
So it may not come as a surprise that this isn't really an apostolic or biblical thing, it is much older as so many things in the Hebrew civilization. Like the names of the months, etc. They all were used before in Mesopotamia. It is our (western civilization) link to the cradle of civilization as per the story in Genesis.
So what I'm trying to say before going off on a tangent (and Robert will point this out!) is that this was how time was kept always, since the beginning even before there were any scriptures to speak of. It wasn't really an accomplishment on our church's part, they just kept time like they did before there was a concept of the next day starting at 12:00am.
+Shamasha