~ 99 ~
and seven also the astrologers say are the planets by sympathy with which all mortal things are brought about. And when in the Apocalypse we find in almost the same context seven stars who are angels of the Churches, seven spirits who may or may not be, but were at any rate thought by early fathers to be, the seven archangels, seven candlesticks which are the Churches, and in Josephus and Philo[1] assertions that the seven arms of the great candlestick signified or represented the seven planets, we are in touch with an association of ideas, which, however vague and undigested, must in minds, where the ferment of Jewish mysticism and that of planetary observance were working side by side, have led inevitably to a confusion or syncretism of the two. Thus, while I feel by no means certain that in either epistle the phrase 'elements of the world' indicates the planets rather than 'rudimentary teaching,' I do think that we may feel fairly confident that Paul found himself in contact with large bodies of converts with whom angelology was coloured by astrological ideas, and in particular the planetary conception of the week was not felt to be incompatible with the Jewish or Christian conception.
So, as I have said, it was inevitable that belief in the Sun's day should contribute to stereotype the sanctity of the Lord's day. And if we look
- ↑ Josephus, Antiquities, III, 6, 7; Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Her. 45 (221).
