P. Pilgrim
Have you ever wondered how our divisions of time began—and why an hour has 60 minutes rather than 100 minutes? While the modern world relies on clocks and standardized timekeeping, the struggle to quantify the measuring and understanding of time stretches back millennia.
It is believed that it was developed by the Sumerians, an ancient people who lived in Mesopotamia, roughly modern-day Iraq, from around 5300-1940BC that is over 5000 years ago. They were one of the first civilisations to ever form cities. Along with many other inventions including irrigation and the plough, they are credited with creating the first known writing system. This happened to include a number system based on the concept of 60. It’s not clear why the Sumerians settled on a base-60 system. But it is easy to see why 60 was possibly chosen as it can be divided by one, two, three, four, five, six, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60 without the need for fractions or decimals. In contrast with 10, which can be divided only by one, two, five and 10 so its advantages start to become clear.
The Babylonians, who lived from 2000BC to 540 BC, adopted both the cuneiform script and sexagesimal number system from the Sumerians. They developed a practical time system for day-to-day use which divided both day and night each into 12, as the Egyptians did. It can be hard to say exactly who built upon whom amongst all these ancient developments of time. From around 330BC onward, Egypt, with the new centre of science in Alexandria, became a melting pot where people, and with them their ideas from all regions, amalgamated, this coincides with what we call the Hellenistic world. The concepts of hours, minutes and seconds that emerged from the Hellenistic period continued through the centuries. From history it’s apparent that the ancient Greeks adopted the Babylonian astronomical time system. It is believed that they kept the same division because it allowed them to just add new observations to existing ones. It’s a system that worked well enough for the Babylonians that the people who came after them continued its use.
Thus, today we have the divisions of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. Time is the elusive element created in the opening chapter of Genesis. As we are introduced to the grand narrative of creation, God, through his spoken word, brings order out of a formless and void existence, crafting the universe from nothingness. The moment God said, “Let there be light,” the celestial clock began to tick. The biblical narrative portrays God’s establishment of time markers, through the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. Verse 2 of Genesis explains that His Spirit moved over the waters, then he commanded light into existence, Genesis verse 3. By inference, it must have been dark. Having seen that light was good, we learn that He called the light day, and the darkness night. This combination of a dark-light cycle was then declared to be ‘one day.’, Genesis 1:5. Therefore time started not one with all its divisions but a full day cycle. However, one day time will cease for man therefore he must be prepared. In the book of second Peter chapter 3 verse 8, Peter writes concerning God ‘that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ God is not confined to time he transcends it. Peter continues in verse 9 and says, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ God gives man time to repent of his evil ways because he loves him and wants to forgive them. You may think you have many days ahead but you don’t actually know, for you time could be finishing, therefore prepare to meet God. (pilgrimway101@yahoo.com)
