Hebdomade

God was now to deliver them, from the bodily captivity of Babylon: ſo was he alſo after ſeventy hebdomades more, to deliver them from bondage of ſin and prevarication, and that by the anointed Meſſias, which is indeed the Holy of Holies. This (I ſay) may be the reaſon of naming ſeventy Hebdomades, thereby to allude to the number of the ſeventy years of that Babylonicall ſervitude. For that immediately after the Angel appointeth the whole exact number to be threeſcore and nine Hebdomades; that is, ſeven to the building of the City and Temple, and threeſcore and two, from that, to the death of Chriſt, in theſe words. […]

For that ſaying of our Saviour, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, is by the moſt judicious underſtood of the works of preſervation and providence: Thoſe of creation being concluded within the firſt Hebdomade, accordingly as is expreſt in the Hiſtory, that God on the ſeventh day reſted from all his works.

[page 115] The truth is, "we discover no trace of a Sabbath" even among those oriental nations which had the hebdomade or week: but to the Greeks, the week itself was unknown!—their smallest interval being the decade or period of ten days. […] [page 121] Making due allowance for the natural exaggeration of an apologist, the substance of this statement expresses a well-recognized fact in Roman history. "The institution of the Hebdomade" (introduced about the date of the Christian era) did travel almost throughout the empire.