Definition of "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. […]

1650, Robert Persons, “That the Service which God Requireth of Man in This Present Life, is Religion. […]”, in A Christian Directory, Guiding Men to Eternall Salvation, Commonly Called the Resolution. […], [London?]: [s.n.], page 153

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.

1662, [Joseph Glanvill], “Daily Creation of Souls is Inconsistent with the Divine Attributes”, in Lux Orientalis, or An Enquiry into the Opinion of the Eastern Sages, Concerning the Præexistence of Souls. […], London: Printed, and are to be sold at Cambridge, and Oxford; republished in Two Choice and Useful Treatises: The One Lux Orientalis; […]. The Other, A Discourse of Truth, […], London: Printed for James Collins and Sam[uel] Lowndes […], 1682, pages 14–15

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. […] 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.

1853, J[ohn] Newton Brown, W[illia]m B[enjamin] Taylor, “The Abrogation of the Sabbath. Reply to “J[ohn] N[ewton] B[rown]””, in The Obligation of the Sabbath: A Discussion between Rev. J. Newton Brown, and Wm. B. Taylor, Philadelphia, Pa.: A[braham] Hart, late Carey and Hart, pages 115 and 121