Feast of the Epiphany: Echoes of the pagan world- Ep. 12 - a podcast by Fr. John Arnold

The Story of the Magi from the east is an echo of the ancient, pagan world. We take Christian history for granted and forget the power of the ancient, pagan world and the influence of the East on the Western World. A good example is that the ancient Babylonians named the weekdays after the five planetary bodies known to them and the other two days they dedicated to the Sun and Moon (Sunday and Monday).

The Jews, of course, explained the seven days of the week differently. The Romans followed the Babylonian example, not the Jewish, and the Emperor Constantine established the seven-day week in the Roman calendar in 321 A.D. designating Sunday and Monday as the first two days of the week. The names of our days of the week came later in European history. The other English weekday names were derived from Anglo-Saxon names for gods from Teutonic mythology. Tuesday comes from Tiu, or Tiw, the Anglo-Saxon name for Tyr, the Norse god of war. Tyr was one of the sons of Odin, or Woden, who in turn gave his name to Wednesday. Thursday originates from Thor, the god of thunder. Friday is derived from Frigga, the wife of Odin, representing love and beauty. Saturday comes from Saturn, the ancient Roman god of fun and feasting. We kept Sunday in honor of the Sun and Monday in honor of the moon. The echoes of the pagan world are all around us.

The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the mass conversion of the pagan world to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The worship of the Creator, not the created.

The music is licensed under One License and is performed by the St. Mark Choir.

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