885 lines
227 KiB
HTML
885 lines
227 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
|
|
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" >
|
|
<head>
|
|
<base href="https://jesuswordsonly.com/books/540-first-day-of-week-versus-one-of-the-sabbaths.html" />
|
|
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
|
|
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
|
|
<meta name="keywords" content="Jesus Words, Jesus Words Only, Jesus Words on Salvation, Did Calvin Murder Servetus, Flaws of Young Earth Science, Ingenious Design, Apostle Paul, False Apostle Paul, Faith Alone, Dispensationalism, Ebionites, Commands of Jesus, Original Gospel of Matthew, Hebrew Matthew" />
|
|
<meta name="title" content="First Day of Week versus One of the Sabbaths" />
|
|
<meta name="author" content="DJD" />
|
|
<meta name="description" content="Jesus' Words as Primary Focus for Christians" />
|
|
<meta name="generator" content="Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Management" />
|
|
<title>First Day of Week versus One of the Sabbaths</title>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript" src="/media/system/js/mootools.js"></script>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript" src="/media/system/js/caption.js"></script>
|
|
|
|
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/images/favicon.ico" />
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/system/css/system.css" type="text/css" />
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/templates/system/css/general.css" type="text/css" />
|
|
<link href="/templates/js_relevant/css/template_css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
|
|
<link href="/templates/js_relevant/css/nav.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
|
|
<link href="/templates/js_relevant/css/style1.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
|
|
|
|
<!--[if IE]>
|
|
<link href="/templates/js_relevant/css/ie.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
|
|
<![endif]-->
|
|
<!--[if IE]>
|
|
<link href="/templates/js_relevant/css/ie.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
|
|
<![endif]-->
|
|
<!--[if lte IE 6]>
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|
img { behavior: url(/templates/js_relevant/js/iepngfix.htc); }
|
|
</style>
|
|
<![endif]-->
|
|
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
|
|
<div id="main-wrapper">
|
|
|
|
<div id="header_graphic">
|
|
<div class="inside">
|
|
<div id="newsflash"> <div class="moduletable">
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<table class="contentpaneopen">
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td valign="top" ><p>"The essence of prophecy is to give the message confirmed by Jesus." Rev. 19:10 NLT fn 10</p></td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td valign="top" >
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
</table>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<h1><a href="https://jesuswordsonly.com/" title="Relevant">Relevant</a></h1>
|
|
<h2>A Joomla! Template for the Rest of Us</h2>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="menubar">
|
|
<div id="navmenu">
|
|
<script type="text/javascript" src="/templates/js_relevant/js/barmenu.js"></script>
|
|
<ul class="menu"><li><a href="https://jesuswordsonly.com/"><span>Home</span></a></li><li id="current" class="haschild active"><a href="/books.html" class="haschild"><span>Books</span></a><ul><li><a href="/books/jesuswordsonly.html"><span>Jesus' Words Only</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/jesuswordssalvation.html"><span>Jesus' Words on Salvation</span></a></li><li class="haschild"><a href="/books/didcalvinmurderservetus.html" class="child"><span>Did Calvin Murder Servetus?</span></a><ul><li><a href="/books/didcalvinmurderservetus/background-material-did-calvin-murder-servetus.html"><span>Background Material</span></a></li></ul></li><li><a href="/books/hownottosudythebible.html"><span>How Not to Study the Bible</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/flawsofyoungearthscience.html"><span>Flaws of Young Earth Science</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/jesusorpaul.html"><span>Jesus or Paul</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/unintended-disservice.html"><span>Unintended Disservice</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/original-gospel-of-matthew.html"><span>Original Gospel of Matthew</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/commands-of-jesus.html"><span>Commands of Jesus</span></a></li><li><a href="/books/gospel-of-john.html"><span>Gospel of John</span></a></li></ul></li><li><a href="/recommendedreading.html"><span>Further Reading</span></a></li><li><a href="/media.html"><span>Media</span></a></li><li class="haschild"><a href="/reviews.html" class="haschild"><span>Reviews</span></a><ul><li><a href="/reviews/jwo-reviews.html"><span>Jesus Words Only</span></a></li><li><a href="/reviews/jwos-reviews.html"><span>Jesus Words on Salvation</span></a></li></ul></li><li><a href="/contactus.html"><span>Contact Us</span></a></li><li><a href="http://www.jesuswordsonly.com/topicindex/753-bookstore.html"><span>Bookstore</span></a></li><li><a href="/topicindex.html"><span>Topic Index</span></a></li><li><a href="/aboutauthor.html"><span>About Author</span></a></li><li><a href="/newsletters.html"><span>Newsletters</span></a></li></ul>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div id="mainbody">
|
|
<div id="showcasetop"> </div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<table width="940" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td id="leftcol" valign="top" width="200">
|
|
<div class="inside">
|
|
<div class="moduleS1">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<h3>Search</h3>
|
|
<form action="index.php" method="post">
|
|
<div class="searchS1">
|
|
<input name="searchword" id="mod_search_searchword" maxlength="20" alt="Search" class="inputboxS1" type="text" size="20" value="search..." onblur="if(this.value=='') this.value='search...';" onfocus="if(this.value=='search...') this.value='';" /> </div>
|
|
<input type="hidden" name="task" value="search" />
|
|
<input type="hidden" name="option" value="com_search" />
|
|
<input type="hidden" name="Itemid" value="2" />
|
|
</form> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="moduleS1">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<h3>Questions?</h3>
|
|
|
|
Please enter your questions, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. As an anti-spam measure, we ask that you re-type the code you see in the box below, prior to clicking "Send Message"<br /><br />
|
|
|
|
<form name="s5_quick_contact" method="post" action="">
|
|
|
|
|
|
<input class="inputbox" id="namebox" onclick="s5_qc_clearname()" onfocus="s5_qc_clearname()" style="font-size:11px; font-family:arial; width:80%" type="text" value="Name..." name="name"></input><br />
|
|
<input class="inputbox" id="emailbox" onclick="s5_qc_clearemail()" onfocus="s5_qc_clearemail()" style="font-size:11px; font-family:arial; width:80%" type="text" value="Email..." name="email"></input><br />
|
|
<input class="inputbox" id="subjectbox" onclick="s5_qc_clearsubject()" onfocus="s5_qc_clearsubject()" style="font-size:11px; font-family:arial; width:80%" type="text" value="Subject..." name="subject"></input><br />
|
|
<textarea id="messagebox" rows="" cols="" class="inputbox textarea" onclick="s5_qc_clearbody()" onfocus="s5_qc_clearbody()" style="font-size:11px; font-family:arial; overflow:auto;width:80%; height:55px" name="message">Your Message...</textarea><br />
|
|
<input class="inputbox" id="spambox" onclick="s5_qc_clearspam()" onfocus="s5_qc_clearspam()" style="font-weight:bold; font-size:11px; font-family:arial; width:80%" type="text" value="Enter The Code 916" name="verif_box"></input><br />
|
|
|
|
|
|
<input id="email_address" type="hidden" value="" name="email_address"></input>
|
|
|
|
<input class="button" type="button" onclick="s5_qc_submit()" value="Send Message" ></input>
|
|
</form>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
|
|
// <![CDATA[
|
|
|
|
var s5_qc_spam_text = document.getElementById("spambox").value;
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_clearbody() {
|
|
if (document.getElementById("messagebox").value == "Your Message...") {
|
|
document.getElementById("messagebox").value="";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("namebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("namebox").value = "Name...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("emailbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("emailbox").value = "Email...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("subjectbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("subjectbox").value = "Subject...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("spambox").value = s5_qc_spam_text;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_clearname() {
|
|
if (document.getElementById("namebox").value == "Name...") {
|
|
document.getElementById("namebox").value="";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("messagebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("messagebox").value = "Your Message...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("emailbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("emailbox").value = "Email...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("subjectbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("subjectbox").value = "Subject...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("spambox").value = s5_qc_spam_text;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_clearemail() {
|
|
if (document.getElementById("emailbox").value == "Email...") {
|
|
document.getElementById("emailbox").value="";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("namebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("namebox").value = "Name...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("messagebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("messagebox").value = "Your Message...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("subjectbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("subjectbox").value = "Subject...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("spambox").value = s5_qc_spam_text;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_clearsubject() {
|
|
if (document.getElementById("subjectbox").value == "Subject...") {
|
|
document.getElementById("subjectbox").value="";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("namebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("namebox").value = "Name...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("emailbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("emailbox").value = "Email...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("messagebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("messagebox").value = "Your Message...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("spambox").value = s5_qc_spam_text;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_clearspam() {
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value == s5_qc_spam_text) {
|
|
document.getElementById("spambox").value="";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("namebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("namebox").value = "Name...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("emailbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("emailbox").value = "Email...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("messagebox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("messagebox").value = "Your Message...";
|
|
}
|
|
if (document.getElementById("subjectbox").value.length < 1) {
|
|
document.getElementById("subjectbox").value = "Subject...";
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_isValidEmail(str_email) {
|
|
if (str_email.indexOf(".") > 2 && str_email.indexOf("@") > 0) {
|
|
alert('Your email is now being submitted - Thank you!');
|
|
document.s5_quick_contact.submit();
|
|
}
|
|
else {
|
|
alert('Your email address is not valid, please check again - Thank you!');
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
function s5_qc_submit() {
|
|
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value == s5_qc_spam_text || document.getElementById("subjectbox").value == "Subject..." || document.getElementById("namebox").value == "Name..." || document.getElementById("emailbox").value == "Email..." || document.getElementById("messagebox").value == "Your Message...") {
|
|
alert('All fields are required, please complete the form - Thank you!');
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (document.getElementById("spambox").value != "916") {
|
|
alert('Your spam verification answer is incorrect.');
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
var s5_message_holder = document.getElementById("messagebox").value;
|
|
var s5_first_message_char = s5_message_holder.charAt(0);
|
|
var s5_second_message_char = s5_message_holder.charAt(1);
|
|
var s5_third_message_char = s5_message_holder.charAt(2);
|
|
var s5_fourth_message_char = s5_message_holder.charAt(3);
|
|
|
|
if (s5_first_message_char == "<") {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_first_message_char == "w" && s5_second_message_char == "w" && s5_third_message_char == "w") {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_first_message_char == "h" && s5_second_message_char == "t" && s5_third_message_char == "t") {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
if (s5_message_holder.indexOf("s5_qc_null") >= 0) {
|
|
return false;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
else {
|
|
document.getElementById("email_address").value = "info@jesuswordsonly.com";
|
|
var email_str = document.getElementById("emailbox").value;
|
|
s5_qc_isValidEmail(email_str);
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
// ]]>
|
|
</script>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="moduleS1">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<h3>Recommendations</h3>
|
|
<p><a href="/books/401-music-store-manager.html">Only Jesus</a> (great song by Big Daddy)</p>
|
|
<p><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/jwoogm-20?node=1&page=2">What Did Jesus Say?</a> (2012) - 7 topics </p>
|
|
<p>None above affiliated with me</p> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="module">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<a href="/books/jesuswordsonly.html"><img alt="JesusWordsOnS-cropsmall" src="/images/stories/JesusWordsOnS-cropsmall.jpg" width="116" height="117" /></a> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="module">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<a href="/books/jesuswordssalvation.html"><img alt="JesusWordsSalv-crop2" src="/images/stories/JesusWordsSalv-crop2.jpg" width="114" height="146" /></a> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="module">
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<div>
|
|
<a href="/component/content/3-didcalvinmurderservetus/26-calvinfreebookonline.html"><img src="/images/stories/DidCalvinMurderServetusM.jpg" alt="DidCalvinMurderServetusM" height="NaN" width="120" /></a> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
</td>
|
|
<td id="maincol" valign="top">
|
|
<div id="breadcrumbs">
|
|
<span class="breadcrumbs pathway">
|
|
<a href="https://jesuswordsonly.com/" class="pathway">Home</a> <img src="/templates/js_relevant/images/arrow.png" alt="" /> Books</span>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<table class="contentpaneopen">
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<tr>
|
|
<td valign="top">
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Is It "First Day of the Week" or "One of the Sabbaths"?</strong></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The word "sabbath" appears many times in Acts as reflective of Paul's practice to attend worship services - or at least to have speaking opportunities with Jews. See Acts <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013">13:14</a> ("brothers, if you have a word of encouragement, say it.") See Acts 17:2 (went in, "as was his custom, <em><strong>on three Sabbath days</strong></em>" to synagogue to reason with Jews). See also, Acts 18:4,9 ("every <strong><em>Sabbath</em></strong>" Paul went to synagogue to meet with "Jews"). </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">In ancient Greek, the word for sabbath is transliterated phonetically as <strong><em>sabbaton</em></strong>. So its identification in the book of Acts is beyond any question. And if you knew the Greek, you would see that 85 times it says Christians congregated and rested on the Sabbath -- our Saturday. This included Paul. See <a href="http://www.eliyah.com/85times.html">85 Times</a>.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, there are many other times in many translations of Acts that change the fact that Christians were meeting on "one of the Sabbaths," but this is <em><strong>bizarrely translated</strong></em> as "first day of the week" -- implying the meetings were on Sunday. But in Greek, the expression is clearly and <em><strong>indubitably</strong></em> "one of the Sabbaths." How strangely this has been translated!</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This can be illustrated by reference to Acts 20:7, which is exactly how elsewhere in Acts it is sometimes bizarrely translated. </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Peter Rambo, a Jewish author, in a 2013 article asked whether Paul was more law adherent than supposed, and then discussed Acts 20:7 to prove his point. He wrote:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;">What day of the week did Paul consistently teach and preach on?</span></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Answer. </span></p>
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">The Sabbath. There are dozens of verses in Acts that point to this fact. In fact, there is <strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">not a single verse in the entire Bible</strong> pointing to preaching on any day BUT the Sabbath. You may ask about <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2020:7&version=NASB" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">Acts 20:7</a>, so let’s take a look at that verse.</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<blockquote style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 33px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 3em; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; font-style: italic; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"><span id="en-NASB-27634" class="text Acts-20-7" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong>On the first day of the week</strong>, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul <span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">began</span> talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.</span></p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">First, the phrase ‘first day of the week’ is the following in the Greek manuscript: ...<span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> transliterated, ‘<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">mia ton sabbaton</span>.</strong>’ That might answer your question right there without going any farther. The literal translation is ‘one of the sabbaths.’ I kid you not, <strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;">there is NO equivalent of this phrase anywhere in Greek literature that means ‘first day of the week.’ </strong></span></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span id="grc-WHNU-4489" class="text Acts-20-7" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; font-size: 18pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In fact, the phrase only appears nine time in all of Greek literature. Seven appear in the Gospels, once here and in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=i%20cor%2016:2&version=NASB" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">1 Corinthians 16:2</a>. All references are in relation to the Feast of First fruits and the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lev%2023:15-20&version=NASB" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">counting of the omer</a>. Every one. All point to ‘one of the Sabbaths.’ See <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2020:6-16&version=NASB" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">Acts 20:6 and 16</a> and <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2016:1-8&version=NASB" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">1 Corinthians 16:2 & 8</a> to demonstrate that every occurrence in Scripture is related to counting the seven Sabbaths after Passover. NO reference in Scripture EVER points to Sunday. A detailed study is <a href="http://119ministries.com/FAITHNETWORK_UserFileStore/filecabinet/ministries/00f06fd7-4de2-4d8d-922d-ccd4a82bb1a9/The_First_Day_and_the_Seventh_Day_-_A_Sabbath_Study.pdf" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">available here</a>.</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">So, back to the verse I quoted, our Western Greek mind tries to make this event happen on Sunday night when in fact, it occurred Saturday evening after the weekly Sabbath worship and a shared meal when Rav Shaul gets cranked up teaching some more and talks late into the night.</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 60px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 30px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A further study into Constantine reveals that he, in 325 a.d., outlawed Sabbath worship as well as feasts and anything else Jewish among Christians on pain of death. This, then, begs the question. What were Christians, as late as 325 a.d. doing worshiping on the Sabbath and celebrating the feasts if the Law had been done away with?? <a href="http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/sunday.htm" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #996113; background: transparent;">One source</a>.</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Peter Rambo is correct. There is no doubt what the words <em><strong>mia ton sabbaton</strong></em> literally mean. For example, in the very authoritative <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Green’s <em>Interlinear Bible</em> (sold in print or through Logos software), the English is translated directly under the Greek, for Acts 20:7 as "ON AND THE ONE OF THE SABBATHS." </span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Taking into account Greek grammatical rules, this is translated: AND UPON ONE OF THE SABBATHS. </span></span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This fits the context because Paul was talking about going to Jersualem to worship which requires<strong> counting several Sabbaths</strong> from Passover to determine the Feast of Pentecost. Thus, the apparent <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">meaning of this verse is that this particular Sabbath was one of the seven Sabbaths in the count up to the Day of Pentecost.</span> </span></span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">However, most translations of this passage render it the same as the King James Version does, namely, "<em><strong>the first day of the week</strong></em>" that a Christian reunion took place. Yet, even the KJV italicizes "day" to indicate it is not present, and is added as a help word. See <a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/20-7.htm">Acts 20:7</a>, KJV, NIV, ISV, ESV, ASV,YLT. </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Other translations besides Green's render it as on "one of the Sabbaths" -- because Sabbaton is plural in Acts 20:7 --- <a href="http://biblehub.com/acts/20-7.htm">Jubilee 2000</a>, <strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">New English Bible, Good</strong> <strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">News for Modern Man</strong>.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The Greek is simple and clear: <em>mia</em> means <strong>one</strong>, not first. See <a href="http://biblehub.com/greek/mia_1520.htm">Strong's 1520</a>. </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Protos means <em>first; </em><em>mia</em> never does. Only a forced presupposition that twists this word into "first" explains the mistranslation -- designed to justify Sunday-as-Sabbath as a practice long before the 300s when it first truly began.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">And <em>Sabbaton</em> was plural in 20:7, meaning Sabbaths (a plural), and never a "week." Again, the only exception is where there is an obvious presupposition being employed to force upon the word "sabbaths" a meaning it never had -- <span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><em>week</em> -- to justify the claim that the earliest church under the apostles rested (and gathered) on Sunday (the first day of the week) for which there is no evidence outside this mistranslation-supplied evidence. </span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Prior to the King James 1611 AD translation, Reformation leading voices who knew the Greek and early church history tried to correct this distortion. John Calvin, a leading reformer of the 1500s, and trained in Greek, knew Acts 20:7 was more likely about Sabbath than Sunday, and said so. Calvin wrote:</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Either doth he mean the first day of the week, which was next after the Sabbath, </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">or else some certain Sabbath, which latter thing may seem to me <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">more probable</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">; for this cause, because that day was more fit for all assembly, according to custom… For to what end is there mentioned of the Sabbath, save only that he may note the opportunity and choice of the time? Also,</span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="color: #ffffff;"><strong style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><em>it is a likely matter that Paul waited for the Sabbath</em></strong><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">, </span><strong style="color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><em>that the day before his departure he might the more easily gather all the disciples into one place.</em></strong></span></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">John Calvin, Commentary on I Cor. 16, www.ccel.org/ccel /calvin/calcom40.ii.i.html.</span></span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt; background-color: transparent;">As Todd Derstine's </span><a href="http://www.todd-derstine.com/americaspropheticdestiny/acts-207-chronological-landmark-of-the-new-testament/" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt;">comments</a><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', times; font-size: 18pt; background-color: transparent;"> on Calvin's other similar comment on the same expression in 1 Cor. 16:2, we read:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">When Calvin comments on I Cor. 16:2, which has the same phrase, (albeit anarthrous), he is equally clear in his understanding that the phrase refers to the Jewish Sabbath. The following is Calvin’s highly interesting commentary on I Cor. 16:2, in which he makes it clear that Paul and the other apostles continued to use the accustomed Jewish Sabbath for the sacred assemblies of the Churches:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 60px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">On one of the Sabbaths. The end is this—that they may have their alms ready in time. [Paul] exhorts them not to wait till he came…but to contribute <strong><em>on the Sabbath</em></strong> what might seem good, and according as every one’s ability might enable—that is, <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: underline;">on the day on which they held their sacred assemblies</span>. The clause rendered <em>on one of the Sabbaths</em> ( Chrysostom explains to mean—the first Sabbath. In this I do not agree with him; for Paul means rather that they should contribute, one on one Sabbath and another on another; or <strong><em>even each of them every Sabbat</em></strong>h, if they chose….Nor am I inclined to admit the view taken by Chrysostom—that the term <em>Sabbath</em> is employed here to mean the Lord’s day, for the probability is, that the Apostles, at the beginning,<strong><em>retained</em></strong> <strong><em>the day that was already in use</em></strong>. [emphasis mine]</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<h1><strong><span style="font-size: x-large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">TODD DERSTINE's ARTICLE</span></strong></h1>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Here is <a href="http://www.todd-derstine.com/americaspropheticdestiny/is-the-phrase-%E2%80%9Cfirst-day-of-the-week%E2%80%9D-properly-translated-in-the-new-testament/">an article</a> by Todd Derstine that is preserved below so if it is taken down the hard work he did still exists here:</span></p>
|
|
<div class="posttop" style="margin: 0px; padding: 10px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff;"><strong>HTTP://WW</strong>
|
|
<h2 class="POSTTITLE" style="margin: 0PX; padding: 0PX; border: 0PX; vertical-align: BASELINE; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1EM; font-family: ROCKWELL, GEORGIA, 'PALATINO LINOTYPE', PALATINO, 'TIMES NEW ROMAN', TIMES, SERIF; text-shadow: #444444 0PX 0PX 4PX;"><span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-size: medium;"><strong>IS THE PHRASE “FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK” PROPERLY TRANSLATED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT? | TODD DERSTINE</strong></span></h2>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="postcontent" style="margin: 0.8em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.5em;">
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The entire doctrinal basis of Western Christianity’s observance of weekly Easter, i. e. Sunday, is built around <strong>eight</strong> places in the New Testament (NT) where the phrase “first day of the week” occurs. We are going to take a fresh look at the Greek words used by no less than five major writers of New Covenant scriptures, and question whether they have been translated properly.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The KJV translates Acts 20:7 as follows:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples gathered together to break bread, Paul preached to them, ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech until midnight.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">We are going to analyze the phrase <em>mia ton sabbaton</em>, translated “first day of the week”, and see why various authorities on the scripture prefer the <strong>literal </strong>meaning of these words. An example of a literal translation of this verse may be found in the Concordant Literal New Testament (CLNT)<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[1]</a>:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now on <strong><em>one of the sabbaths </em></strong>(<em>mia ton sabbaton</em>) at our having gathered to break bread, Paul argued (<em>dialegetai</em>=had a dialogue, or discussed) with them, being about to be off on the morrow. Besides, he prolonged the word (ie. his teaching) unto midnight (Saturday night).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">In Vol. 35 of Word Bible Commentary (p. 1188), admission is made that “the first day of the week” literally means “one of the Sabbaths” in the Greek. The truth of the matter is that there is no Greek-speaking linguistic scholar or professor who would deny this fact. I myself have consulted numerous professors of Greek at prestigious universities (such as Dickenson College in Carlisle, PA) who have confirmed the literal meaning of this phrase. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">We will prove in this chapter that “first day of the week” is a misrepresentation of the Greek.</span></strong></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Therefore, the mass hypnosis that intellectually transforms this phrase into something other than its literal meaning happens on the presumption that it is an idiomatic expression– “mia/one” being used for “first,” and “sabbaton” being using for “week,” and “day” being thrown in just so they can make sense out of their non-literal invention. However, I have yet to find one commentary or lexicon citing an example of <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> being used idiomatically outside the Bible in other Greek writings. Therefore, if it is a figure of speech, prove it. The burden of proof is on the translators. This they cannot do lexicologically. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">They must resort to arguments based on Church traditions that were not in place until Constantine</span></strong>.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">By going with non-literal suppositional words “first” and “week,” they are left with the nonsensical “first week.” Since this makes no sense in the light of contexts that demand a <em>particular day</em> of the week, they throw in the word “day” as though they are sure it ought to be there, and hocus pocus, we now have an entirely different phrase referring to an entirely different day of the week. Had those translating out of the Greek not engaged in this imaginative word-play, the myth of a Sunday morning resurrection would never have gained a foothold. [NOTE:<span style="color: #ff0000;"> J</span><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">esus was resurrected precisely at twilight between the end of Sabbath and the beginning of the first day of the week, to fulfill the 3 days and 3 night prophecy</span></strong>.] No less is at stake here than the basis in Western Christianity for replacing the seventh day Sabbath with Sunday as the day of worship, because, as scholars too numerous to mention have pointed out, Sunday is nothing other than the weekly celebration of the resurrection.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Mia Means One, Protos Means First</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">First we consider the Greek word <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">mia.</span></strong> It means <em>one</em>, as any Greek person will tell you. I have received the same answer from Greek professors at prestigious universities. <em>Protos</em> is the Greek word for <em>first</em>. It is confusion to suggest that the former is used for the latter. A study (using an Englishman’s Greek Concordance) of the many places where <em>mia</em> occurs, would show any diligent inquirer that <em>mia</em> always, in context, means <em>one</em>, a <em>certain one</em>, one singularity, the quantity <em>one</em>. It does not have the meaning <em>first</em>. In other words, if one were to substitute “first” in every other place where the word occurs (some 72 times), you end up with nonsensical phrases. How is that mia is only trans-lated “first” where it occurs with sabbaton? How could they translate “mia” as “first” when they knew that “protos” was the Greek word for “first”?</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Again the answer has to be that the translators brought their preconceived notions into the equation. But to come up with the plausible construction “first day of the week”, they had to make three other gratuitous assumptions.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">“Day” Is NOT in the Phrase <em>Mia Ton Sabbaton</em></h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The translators, bringing their a priori ideas about the phrase to the translating table, assume that the word “day” needs to be supplied in order to help the reader understand the expression. But this is true only if the three words in question actually refer to the first day of the week. If it means one of the Sabbaths, then the word day obviously is not there because it did not need to be there in the first place.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The word “day” is used hundreds of times in the N.T. to refer to various and sundry days, the Sabbath day(s), the third day, the seventh day, the eighth day, the day of Unleavened Bread (Luke 22:7), and even “first day of Unleavened Bread (Mk. 14:12).” In this latter verse, protee heemera is behind the English words “first day.” So if we take the Holy Spirit to be the power that moved the writers, we see that there is precedent for including heemera (day) with “first” to indicate the first day of something. So the absence of heemera/day in the expression <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> is a strong indication that we are not dealing with a figure of speech, nor with a phrase that requires the word “day” at all in order to be understood. Instead, it is simply “one of the Sabbaths.” It makes little sense for the Greek word <em>heemera</em> to be left out of a reference to <em>the first day of the week, but supplied in the expression “First Day of the Unleaveneds (Mk. 14:12)</em>.” This is especially true since none of the days of the week have names in the Bible, except the 7<sup>th</sup> day Sabbath.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">There are at least two more presumptions that the lying<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[2]</a> majority of translators have made that we shall address to prove that the Concordant Literal rendering of this Greek expression is correct.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Sabbaton Is an Imported Word from Hebrew</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">All scholars, without exception, recognize that <em>sabbaton</em> is not native to the Greek language. Because the Greek culture despised the Sabbath, and did not even have a seven day week prior to the Romans taking over, they had no word Sabbath, or sabbaton. In fact, I have yet to find the word used in the Septuagint (LXX) or writings of the ante-Nicene fathers to refer to <em>first day of the week</em>. Nor can it be found in any extra-Biblical literature, such as Plato, Socrates, or a plethora of other ancient Greek writings referring to Sunday. Hence, it was imported from Hebrew by Jewish writers of the New Testament.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Imported Words are Necessarily Transliterated Words</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">But imported words always retain the sound of that word in the original language. Proper names are an example of this. My name is recognizable phonetically no matter what country I travel to. And if I listen to the broadcast news in Moscow, I will recognize many names such as George Bush, Washington, D.C., dollar, America(n), etc. because of this principle of transliteration.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now if a word is imported because it has no equivalent in that language, its meaning in the new language is invariably going to be <em>consistent with the </em>meaning in the original language. This linguistic truth is axiomatic. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the translator to ask what the meaning of the imported word was in the original language, and what the writer’s attitude toward that word was. To this end, we are going to launch an investigation into sabbaton. Apparently, it has not occurred to the illustrious translators and erudite commentators to do this. Had they done so, they never would have imagined that it meant week.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">What Was Sabbaton’s Meaning in Hebrew?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Hebrew word <em>sabbaton</em> is used of weekly Sabbaths (Lev. 23:3), for annual Sabbaths–Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and first and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:24, 32, 39)—and of land Sabbaths<em> </em>in Lev. 25:4-5). It has the same pronunciation in Hebrew as the 3<sup>rd</sup> declension of the word in Greek. In other words, its plural usage in Greek sounds the same as its original in the Hebrew. It essentially means <em>to cease</em> or <em>pause</em> in Hebrew. The idea of <em>ceasing</em> in order to rest and be refreshed spiritually, mentally and emotionally is the essential purpose of all Sabbaths. Hence it was this word, <em>sabbaton</em>, used only 11 times in the O.T., that was brought over to refer to weekly and annual Sabbaths to mark the activities of our Savior, His apostles, and believers throughout the four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and in First Corinthians chap. 16.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">What Was the Attitude of the New Testament WritersToward the Sabbaths and Holy Days?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">There is no repudiation of the commands to keep the Sabbath or holy days anywhere in the N.T. Modern research into the historical Jesus admits that Christ Himself upheld every jot and tittle of the Law (Mt. 5:17-19), even claiming (somewhat erroneously) that Yeshua had few differences philosophically with the Pharisees. Paul said in Hebrews 4:9 that “there remains…<em>the keeping of a Sabbath </em>(sabbatismos)<em> </em>to the people of God.” Paul told his Colossian converts:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">“Let no one judge you in [your] eating and drinking, or in respect of a festival, or of a new moon, or Sabbaths, which <em>are</em> shadows of things to come (Co. 2:16).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If they had been done away, then he would have said they were shadows. Since they were Gentiles before Paul converted them to “Pauline theology,” then we don’t need to speculate about them having been Sabbath, New Moon, and Holy Day keepers prior to his evangelizing them. Obviously they became that as a result of His converting them to Yeshua the Savior and His strict requirement of maintaining the paradosis/traditions which Paul delivered to them (I Cor. 11:2, II Thes. 2:15, et al.).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Besides, in I Corinthians chapters 5 and 11, we have explicit language indicating that the Corinthian Church was keeping Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. The Church itself was born on Pentecost in Acts 2, and the rest of the book is a chronology based on Sabbaths and various Jewish holy days throughout. IF THE HOLY SPIRIT WERE TRYING TO LEAD THE CHURCH AWAY FROM KEEPING THE SABBATHS AND HOLY DAYS, THEN WHY USE THEM AS THE CHRONOLOGICAL BACKBONE FOR THE MISSION WORK OF PAUL AND THE OTHER APOSTLES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS. The same question might be asked of Yahweh’s delaying the birth of the Church and the pouring out of His Holy Spirit until Pentecost, a full fifty days after Christ’s Resurrection. This would be highly unusual, to say the least. Rather, the attitude of the writers inspired by the Holy Spirit is that these special days are still in force, still being regarded highly by the apostles and the Church. And there are scholars of various persuasions who recognize this fact, i.e. that the Sabbaths and holy days represent the definitive time markers of Luke’s writings and Paul’s missionary endeavors throughout Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Similar dissertations have been written about Matthew and the book John.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Where did they get this attitude? Obviously from Matt. 5:17-19 and Yeshua’s pro-Torah teaching. None of this was changed as a result of Paul’s three years in Arabia (Mt. Sinai) with Yeshua. Rom. 3:31:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">“Do we nullify the law through faith? May it never be coming to that (God forbid)! Nay rather, we establish the Law [through faith, an ellipsis of syntax].”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">“Yahweh sent Yeshua in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that He might condemn sin in the flesh, in order that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Considering that the Sabbath and Passover continued to be observed up until the 4<sup>th</sup> Century in the Western Roman Empire, throughout the British Isles until the 7<sup>th</sup> Century, and among various Churches in Asia Minor and the eastern Roman empire for centuries beyond that, and considering that this reality was based on people’s understanding (though in many places these people were in the minority) of the apostolic attitude toward the Fourth Commandment and the Law of Moses, it becomes rather impossible to suggest that the Jewish men who wrote the four gospels could take the strictest word for sabbatizing and use it to refer to Sunday, the worship day of most pagan religions. Sunday was nothing to them but a work day.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">A Fourth Translational Assumption:</h3>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Sabbaton — Is It Plural or Singular?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The question we are trying to answer is whether the phrase <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> can possibly mean <em>first day of the week</em>. As we focus<em> </em>on the word “<em>sabbaton</em>” and its meaning, we must also note that it is used in the plural in the passages under consideration. When referring only to singular Sabbath days, it never has the letter “n” on the end of it. As noted in The New Englishman’s Concordance and Lexicon, <em>sabbaton</em> is the plural form of a noun that is either in the singular (2<sup>nd</sup> declension) or plural (3<sup>rd</sup> declension). In all of the seven places where <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> occurs–Mt. 28:1 (<em>mian sabbaton</em>), Mk. 16:2 (<em>mias sabbaton</em>), Lk. 24:1, Jn. 20:1,19, Acts 20:7, I Cor. 16:2 (these five all have <em>mia ton sabbaton</em>)—the word<em> sabbaton</em> is in the third declension of the noun, meaning it is plural. This means that if the word meant <em>week </em>at all, then it would have to be in the plural, <em>weeks</em>.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">But since the translators are insistent on bringing their preconceived notions to the phrase, i.e. that the phrase must mean <em>first day of the week</em>, they know that <em>first day of the weeks</em> would not make any sense. So they simply ignore its proper declension, and pass over the fact that the word <em>sabbaton</em> is plural.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">This makes for very nice historical fiction, but very poor scholarship. It would not be so bad if we were dealing with an event on par with whether or not George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day or some other day, but instead we are dealing with whether Christ arose on a Sunday or a Saturday, thus either establishing sol invictus venerable (the day held to honor various pagan Sun gods), or Saturday, the day hearkening back to Yahweh’s renewal of the face of the earth in Genesis chapter 1, and the creation of Mankind in His image and likeness. In short, we are dealing with a subject of the utmost magnitude, one that either legitimizes the decisions made by Constantine and His bishops in the 4<sup>th</sup> Century, or legitimizes Passover and the Sabbath of Yahweh God. The diligent student of Church history will know what is at stake here; the modern television Christian who comes once a week Saturday or Sunday morning to suck on his bottle will have no clue. That is why when this thesis finally makes the rounds of academia, and when this dissertation is circulated among the halls of theological seminaries far and wide, I predict there will be a hew and cry of disbelief and emotional objection. And the antagonism will be palpable.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Greek Word for Week—Known in the 1<sup>st</sup> Century</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">How would the Jewish authors of the N.T. have gone about conveying the idea of a seven day week in Greek? If you were a Jewish religious writer composing one of the books of the N. T., what Greek word would first Century readers and writers have been familiar with that would have conveyed the idea of a <em>week</em>? The answer to that question is found in the Septuagint (circa 280 B.C.), a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that was widely available in the time of Yeshua. The Septuagint uses the word <em>hebdomadas</em> (<em>os</em>) to translate the Hebrew word for week, which is <em>shavua</em>.</p>
|
|
<ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px 0.5em 2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: disc;">Hepta <strong><em>hebdomadas</em></strong> is used in last part of Lev. 23: 15 for the seven weeks you are to number to get to the 50<sup>th </sup>day, called Pentecost. Until the morrow after the last week (eschatees <strong><em>hebdomados</em>)</strong> shall you number 50 days.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: disc;">Deut. 16:9–Hepta <strong><em>hebdomadas</em></strong> exarithmateis (seven weeks shall you number), and you shall keep the feast of <em>week</em>s (heopteen <strong><em>hebdomadon</em></strong>).</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: disc;">The seventy <em>weeks</em> prophecy of Dan. 9 also uses this word <strong><em>hebdomadas</em></strong> a number of times.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">There can be little doubt that this Greek word for week would have been chosen by John, Matthew, Mark, Paul and Luke had they sought to convey the idea of the first day of the week. How do we know this? Because the Septuagint (LXX) was used in all the synagogues of Asia Minor, Achaia, and Macedonia, and Greece. We are confident of this fact because of the large number of Hellenistic Jews, Greek proselytes, and God-fearers among the Gentiles who attended synagogue in these places, as is evident in the accounts throughout the book of Acts. We know that the word <em>sabbaton</em>was used in the LXX in the same way as in the N.T. to refer to weekly and annual Sabbaths. It is logical to assume that had they desired to mention “the first day of the week,” they would have used<em>hebdomados</em>. The fact that these same N.T. writers do not use <em>hebdomados</em> anywhere in the New Testament, indicates they had no intention to convey the idea of “week.”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">It was throughout these synagogues that Paul preached from Sabbath to Sabbath. The thousands of Greek-speaking believers that were converted to the Gospel would have been familiar with the language of the Septuagint. It must be argued that the motivation for putting the story of Yeshua’s life and ministry into Greek largely came from the needs of all these congregations. Not only did they need to be able to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John <em>in Greek</em>, but there would have naturally been widespread interest in a chronicle of the early Church, the Acts of the Apostles, and particularly their “father” in the faith, i.e. the Apostle Paul. And when Paul wrote the brethren in Corinthians, it needed to be in Greek. It would have been very confusing indeed to refer to Sunday by nomenclature foreign to the LXX, but which had hitherto only been used therein to refer to the Sabbath(s) of the Lord. Thus the six books that contain some variation of <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> –Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and I Corinthians — were intended for a Greek-speaking Church that had taken on Jewish customs and nomenclature, as we have seen. The use of sabbaton to refer to the first day of the week would have been without precedent.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The first day of the week is never called “Sabbath” in the N.T. On this point, there is no controversy among professors and students of the N.T. Why, then, do they imagine that the writers of the N.T. used the imported word <em>sabbaton</em> and applied it to the first day of the week?? This is a non-sequitur whose damage has run its course, but whose heyday will be soon be over, if I have anything to say about it.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Definitive Sunday thru Saturday WEEK of Luke 18:12</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Does this mean that the writers of the N.T. never wished to convey the idea of a week? The one place where it is fairly certain that a Sunday through Saturday week was meant (Luke 18:12), the words “<em>tou sabbatou</em>” are used. It is important to note they are singular (2<sup>nd</sup> declension). Notice the Pharisee prays with himself, saying, “I fast twice a week (<em>tou sabbatou</em>).” (Wm. Barclay’s N.T.)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Concordant Literal is equally accurate: “I fast twice of a Sabbath.” In this instance, Sabbath is being used metonymously to represent the seven day period for which it is the culmination. There is a well-known precedent for this in the Old Testament–the unique method (as compared to the other holy days) given for counting to the Feast of Firstfruits (Pentecost) in Lev. 23. When one counts toward Pentecost Sunday in Lev. 23:15-16, seven Shabbats were counted. “Seven Sabbaths shall be complete” is how it is phrased in Lev. 23:15. The Hebrew word here can only be construed as the weekly Sabbath. It was called the Feast of weeks (shavuot) in Exod. 34:22 and Deut. 16:10, but those weeks were perfect seven-day periods ending with Saturdays. The morrow after the 7<sup>th</sup> Sabbath was the 50<sup>th</sup> day, which constituted the total number of days to be counted (Lev. 23:16). Based on this, the Pharisee of Luke 18 is saying he fasts twice per weekly Sabbath period, <em>Sabbatou</em> being used by metonymy for the week it consummates.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">But the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the singular words “<em>tou sabbatou”</em> in Luke 18 when intending to convey the concept of a week, leads us to question why Luke would not also use the singular in Luke 24:1 and Acts 20:7 [<em>mia ton sabbaton</em> (plural) occurring in both verses] to convey “the first day of the week,” if that is what he had meant. The contrast between singular and plural usages of <em>tou</em>(<em>on</em>)<em>sabbatou</em>(<em>on</em>) by gospel writer Luke, proved that when the Holy Spirit wanted to convey a single week, as in Luke 18:12, the singular was used, but when he wanted to convey “one of the Sabbaths”, he used the plural (<em>ton sabbaton</em>). These facts may be confirmed by checking with the Englishman’s Greek Concordance. We will see further confirmation when it is shown that Yeshua rose from the dead at the beginning of a weekly Sabbath.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Concordant Literal N.T. has translated the word <em>sabbaton</em> correctly as “sabbaths” in the seven places where <em>mia</em> and <em>sabbaton</em> occur together. The Concordant Publishing Concern has absolutely no doctrinal axe to grind, since their other literature in no way promotes the Sabbath. They have stuck to their literal guns, as it were, and our investigation is going to show just how justified they were in translating these expressions literally.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Inconsistency of the Translators Highlighted by Their Treatment of Sabbaton</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">In none of the other 60 places where <em>sabbaton</em> (pl.) occurs in the N.T. do the translators translate it<em>week</em>, but only where it is part of the phrase <em>mia ton sabbaton</em>. That in itself is quite telling on the translators.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[3]</a> This inconsistency belies a remarkable willingness to buttress the Friday-Sunday mythology which undermines the sign of Christ’s Messiah-ship–that He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40). The confusion comes from one blind scholar following the rest of the blind scholars unwilling to submit to the righteousness of the Sabbath command. Their lack of understanding stems from their rejection of the foundation of wisdom, which is Yahweh’s Law. Notice Hos. 4:6:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you rejected the knowledge, I also reject you as My priest; Because you have spurned and forgotten the teaching/Law [Heb. is <em>torah</em> here] of your God, I, in turn, will spurn and forget your children. (translated from JPS and Green’s Int.)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If the scholars and translators sincerely do not understand, then we cannot ignore the root cause. Ps. 111:10 tells us:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that <strong>do</strong> His commandments.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Implications of the Correct Translation of <em>Mia Ton Sabbaton</em></h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">In this study, it will be demonstrated that in each of the eight places where “first day of the week” occurs, it makes more sense that each of the passages is referring to a weekly Sabbath. Later we shall demonstrate a different way to configure the three days and three nights (from Tuesday through Friday) in the actual year of the crucifixion of Christ (31 A.D.). A new chronology will be proffered–one that accommodates our newfound understanding of <em>mia ton sabbaton</em>, but also jives with the facts of the Mosaic calendar in that year. In so doing, we will have finally harmonized the passion accounts of scripture with the demands of Yahweh’s calendar, in a way that the sabbatarian Church of God’s Wednesday-Satur<em>day </em>scenario<em> failed to do.</em></p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Acts 20:7: Paul’s Meeting in Troas on Mia Ton Sabbaton</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now we are ready to go back to the start of this chapter, and Paul’s meeting with the brethren in Troas. It was here that Paul had a vision to go into Macedonia to preach the gospel (Acts 16:8). In 20:6 Paul arrived there early in the week (on Sunday, as we shall see), and abode there seven days. V. 7, quoted at the head of this paper, says:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now on <strong><em>one of the sabbaths </em></strong>(<em>mia ton sabbaton</em>) at our having gathered to break bread, Paul argued (<em>dialegetai</em>=had a dialogue) with them, being about to be off on the morrow. Besides, he prolonged the word (ie. his teaching) unto midnight (Saturday night). (CLNT)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">There is substantial lexicological and linguistic analysis up to this point to substantiate that this meeting was on a weekly Sabbath, and there is plenty of contextual evidence in the book of Acts to prove that these formal get-togethers throughout Paul’s missionary journeys were on Sabbaths.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Preponderance of Sabbath Meetings in Paul’s Ministry in the Book of Acts</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Acts 17:2 says:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Paul, according to his manner (etho = customary habit), went into them (in the synagogue), and reasoned three Sabbath days with them out of the scriptures.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Luke used the same identical words to describe Yeshua’s custom of entering into the synagogue on the Sabbaths in Luke 4:16. So Paul was no different. Many theologians and the more erudite radio preachers realize that Paul spent three years in Arabia with Christ, and got His teaching directly from Yeshua there. There is not a scintilla of evidence that meetings were switched from Saturday to Sunday in the book of Acts. On the contrary, Paul preached Christ in the synagogues immediately after his conversion (Acts 9:20)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">At the conclusion of the first Apostolic Conference in Acts 15, James said that the new Gentile converts to the Way would be able to grow in righteousness by having Moses read to them in the synagogues every Sabbath day.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">At the start of their commission from the Holy Spirit, Paul and Barnabas came to Salamis (Acts 13:5), the first port they reached on the east end of Cyprus. They preached the word of Yahweh in the<em>synagogues</em> of the Jews. In Acts 13:14 Paul and his company entered into a <em>synagogue</em> with a sizable Gentile constituent in Antioch of Pesidia. The Jews largely rejected the forgiveness of sin that was offered them through Paul’s powerful presentation of Yeshua, but the Gentiles received the Word gladly, and besought Paul that these words might be preached to them <em>the next Sabbath</em> (Acts 13:42). The following Sabbath, almost the whole [Greek] city came together, to the chagrin and envy of the Jews. In Acts 14:1 Paul and Barnabas went <em>into the synagogue</em> in Iconium and spoke so powerfully, that Yahweh made Believers out of a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Acts 16:13-15 described Sabbath worship with Lydia and those accustomed to praying by the river side near Philippi in Macedonia. In Acts 17:10 Paul and Silas went <em>into a synagogue</em> in Berea, and many honorable Greek women and men believed. In Acts 18:4 Paul reasoned in the synagogue <em>every Sabbath</em> at Corinth, reasoning with the Jews and the Greeks. The same story was repeated in Ephesus (Acts 18:19 and 26; 19:8). According to Dr. John Lightfoot, in towns where there were many Jews and where they had a synagogue, the Jews established Divinity schools. Such a school, that of Tyrannus, is mentioned in Acts 19:9.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[4]</a> He may have been a Rabbi who converted. The teaching and miracles at the hands of Paul that occurred here during two years caused virtually everyone in Asia Minor to hear the word.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Virtually every significant evangelistic opportunity delineated by the Holy Spirit in these accounts took place either on a Sabbath, and/or in a synagogue, or at a rabbinic school.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Why then, in Acts 20:7, is it logical to conclude that all of a sudden there was a Sunday meeting? On the contrary, one would be completely justified in assuming the mia-ton-sabbaton meeting mentioned here was just another “one of the [many] Sabbaths” already described at every other city where he witnessed. Here, however, Timothy, Gaius, Tychicus, Trophimus, Aristarchus, Secundus and Sopater were all waiting at Troas for Paul to arrive. Paul was finished preaching in Greece and Macedonia, and it was time to celebrate the fruits of his labor via a fellowship meal with the disciples in Asia Minor who partly owed their eternal life to Paul’s efforts.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><strong>Luke’s Use of Mia Ton Sabbaton in Luke 24:1 Proves Sabbath Resurrection</strong></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">We now commence our investigation into the resurrection narrative contained in the four gospels. We pick it up where we left off—with the writings of the same beloved physician who wrote the book of Acts—with Luke, who also wrote the Gospel account bearing his name. Having proven that the evangelistic activity in Acts centered around the synagogue and Sabbath meetings, and having proven that <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> in Acts 20:7 was just one such mikra kodesh (holy convocation) on “one of the Sabbaths” after Unleavened Bread, we now turn our attention to Luke’s use of <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> in Luke 24:1. I quote from the CLNT:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">1) Now in the early depths (wee hours of the morning) of one of the sabbaths (mia ton sabbaton), they, and certain others together with them, came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they made ready. 2) And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">They could not have prepared these spices before having bought them. To discover when the women bought the spices, we must turn to the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel. But before we do so, it is important to note one other important detail in Luke’s narrative, in the verse right before Luke 24:1. He tells us the women “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” <em>after preparing the spices and ointments</em>. Thus, they finished the laborious work of preparing the herbs and oils prior to the start of the Sabbath, which began at Friday sundown.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Gospel of Mark Gives Important Details on When Spices Were Purchased (Mark 16:1)</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Since Matthew and Luke seem to use verbatim many of the same stories about Yeshua’s life that are found in Mark, most scholars consider Mark to be the earliest gospel. And so we will continue our investigation of the resurrection narrative in Mark 16:1:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">At the elapsing of the Sabbath (we will demonstrate thoroughly that this Sabbath had to be the First Day of Unleavened Bread), Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, <em>buy</em> spices, that coming, they should be rubbing (anointing) His body. (CLNT)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">“Buy” is the correct tense of the verb in verse 1. “Had bought” of the KJV is recognized by all commentators and Greek scholars to be incorrect. Even the New KJV corrects “had bought” to “bought.”</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Flagrant Mistranslation of “Bought” by KJV Indicative of Pressure From Anglican Church Hierarchy and King James</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">We know from the forward to the 1611 King James Bible that its translation committee performed their work under a certain amount of duress, charged as they were from the outset by King James and the Anglican authorities WITH UPHOLDING THE OFFICES AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Chief among those institutions was Easter Sunday (and its resultant switch from Saturday to Sunday as the day of worship), and “Good Friday”.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The fact that the King James translators deliberately put the action of buying the spices into the past perfect tense (as an action already completed prior to that Sabbath), shows blatant disregard for what they knew was the tense of the Greek word “bought.” They knew there was a problem for the institution of Good Friday and Easter Sunday if the text showed them purchasing spices AFTER THE SABBATH. They knew that if the Passover were on Friday, then there was virtually no time to have bought the spices, nor time to prepare them (Lk. 24:1)! Matt. 27:57 shows that Joseph of Arimathea got permission to take Yeshua’s body off the cross and place Him in the tomb as evening was approaching (i.e. at the end of Passover Day). There would have been no shops open for purchasing anything in and around Jerusalem this late on the 14<sup>th</sup>, as Alfred Edersheim and Jewish writings show. Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is out of the question, as all the Jewish businesses would have been shut down for the Sabbath. Luke 23:54-56 proves that the spices were prepared by these women prior to resting on the weekly Sabbath. Thus when we combine Mark 16:1 with the account in Luke 23, we prove that the spices were bought on the work day following the annual Sabbath, but prepared prior to the weekly Sabbath. Hence, there had to be some work days in between the two Sabbaths mentioned. It was during these interim days of Unleavened Bread that the women prepared their sweet spices.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The same things could be said with their presumptuous translations of <em>mias sabbaton</em> (one Sabbath) in Mk. 16:2 and <em>protee sabbatou</em> (first Sabbath) in verse 9 into “first day of the week.” In this they sycophantically prostrated themselves before the erroneous translation work of everyone before them, especially Jerome and the Latin Vulgate. Even though they were not the first to engage in this lame linguistic carelessness, it nevertheless remains one of the most egregious cases of eisigesis in the history of translation. To say that they were afraid for their lives is not an overstatement. Had the translation been allowed to cast doubt upon the switch from Saturday to Sunday as the day of worship), and upon the Easter tradition of “Good Friday,” there would have been serious repercussions from the educational/religious establishment, not to mention King James Himself.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">It would be another couple of centuries before the hegemony of the Anglican Church waned, allowing for enough intellectual freedom to explore a better resolution of the insurmountable problems presented by the Friday-Sunday quandary of orthodoxy. Chief among these solutions was the work of E.W. Bullinger.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[5]</a> In Appendices 144 and 156 of his Companion Bible, he lays out his explanation of the three days and three nights that Christ was in the tomb. He believed they stretched from Wednesday sundown to Saturday sundown. While this was a great improvement over the Good Friday/ Easter Sunday hypothesis of mainstream Christianity, there were other factors Bullinger did not consider when choosing Wednesday as the day of the crucifixion. Several factors that must be considered are:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">1. Astronomy</p>
|
|
<ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px 0.5em 2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: disc;">Because of the nature of the Hebrew calendar, the science of astronomy limits the years in which you can have a Wednesday Passover.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">2. The facts of the true, Biblical Hebrew calendar</p>
|
|
<ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px 0.5em 2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: disc;">The true Hebrew calendar, and consideration of the lunar cycles (upon which the holy days are based), make a Wednesday Passover in 31 A.D. fall on April 25, which is almost a week too late. We explore in a later chapter the various reasons why April 25 is wrong, and why a Wednesday Passover in 30 A.D. utterly fails to incorporate the facts of the Hebrew Calendar.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">3. The truth about mia ton sabbaton (and protee sabbatou).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">· The resurrection was discovered on a Sabbath/Saturday morning. Since a Wednesday crucifixion forces the resurrection to be on late Saturday, we would be forced to ignore all the facts brought forward in this chapter, which require the women at the tomb no later than a Saturday morning.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Many of the Sabbatarian Church of God 7<sup>th</sup> Day, Armstrong, and Sacred Name groups relied heavily on Bullinger’s appendices when putting forward their explanation of the fulfillment of Matt. 12:40. And as Bullinger states, it was a lack of awareness of the High Day Sabbath at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (and the fact that this High Day was a different day than the weekly Sabbath that year) that led to much of the confusion about the chronology of the Passion Week. Until the waning years of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, it seems almost no one tried to reconcile Bullinger’s chronology for the Passion week with the realities of the Hebrew calendar. In other words, God’s calendar greatly restricts the years that will accommodate all the facts. These competing realities led to this present work.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">What Was Involved in the Preparation of Spices and Ointments?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Many in America today use high quality essential oils for deodorizing their houses and for therapeutic rubbing onto the skin. These oils are very expensive, often running anywhere from $40.00 to $150.00 per ounce. The ointment that was poured on Yeshua at Simon the leper’s house, just days prior to His arrest, was very costly. It was worth more than one year’s wages. The extravagance lies not just in the cost of the spices and ground herbs, but in the time and process used in the preparation. Preparing essential oils involves extracting the essence of the bark, leaf, or root. This requires laborious grinding of the raw material, and then soaking same in strong alcohol solution. Alternatively, it requires boiling steam up through the spices to extract the oil, condensing the steam, and separating the water from the oil.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Since the quantity of spices necessary for anointing burial wrappings of a human body is considerable, it would have required a large amount of time to prepare them in this way. Had Luke told us that the women brought spices already prepared by someone else, we could possibly account for a Saturday night purchase (still quite unlikely). But when Mark 16:1 tells us that they bought them on the 16<sup>th</sup> of Aviv, and then Luke tells us they personally prepared the spices, we are looking at time parameters that probably required two work days in between the High Day 15<sup>th</sup> and Friday sundown, when the women ceased and rested according to the Commandment (Lk. 23:56). This is but one of several objections to the Wednesday sundown–Saturday sundown scenario, which allows only one work day (Friday) between the burial and resurrection [Thursday being the High Day].</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Women Came to the Tomb Early on the Sabbaton in Mark 16</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Continuing with our investigation of the resurrection narrative, we go to Mark 16:2, where <em>mias sabbaton</em> occurs:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">And very early in the morning on one of the Sabbaths [<em>mias sabbaton</em>], they <em>are coming</em> to the tomb. At the rising of the sun they said to themselves, “Who will be rolling away the stone for us out of the door of the tomb?”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away…And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe, and they were overawed. Now he is saying to them, “Be not overawed! Ye seek Yeshua, the Nazarene, the Crucified. He is risen! He is not here! Perceive the place where they laid Him! But go, say to His disciples and to Peter, that He is preceding you into Galilee. There you shall see Him, according as He said to you.” And, coming out, they fled from the tomb, for trembling and amazement had filled them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">(v.9) Now, having risen [Greek is in the aorist tense, that is, it is here describing an action completed at a time in the indefinite past, i.e. prior to Mary arriving at the tomb], early <strong><em>first </em>Sabbath</strong> (<em>Protee sabbatou</em>) He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.(CLNT)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Translating <em>protee sabbatou</em> into “the First day of the week” is gratuitous, for three of the four reasons already discussed. I have left out “on the” because there is no prepositional phrase. “Early first Sabbath” is telling us when He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, who probably separated from the other women as they fled from the tomb.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Question: Why call it “first Sabbath”? First Sabbath after what?</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Answer: Protee sabbatou simply refers to the first weekly Sabbath after Passover.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn6" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[6]</a> See footnote.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Should the Last Twelve Verses of Mark (Mk. 16:9-20) Be There?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The last twelve verses of Mark provide important details about events after the resurrection, but most modern critics are in agreement that the last twelve verses of Mark 16 are not an integral part of his Gospel. <em>Modern translators question the authenticity of these twelve verses </em>because they are omitted by two of the three oldest uncial manuscripts in our possession today—Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Vaticanus. There are, however, 18 other uncials (a MS. using all CAPS) and some 600 cursive MSS., none of which leaves out these twelve verses.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Jerome, who had access to Greek MSS. older than any now extant, includes these twelve verses in the Latin Vulgate version, which was largely his effort in the early 5<sup>th</sup> Century. But Jerome’s Vulgate was only a revision of the VETUS ITALA, which dates to the 2<sup>nd</sup> Century, which also contains these twelve verses. There are nearly a hundred ecclesiastical writers older than the oldest of our Greek codices: and two hundred additional writers between 300 A.D. and 600 A.D. who all refer to these twelve verses. The Gothic Version (A.D. 350), the Coptic and Sahidic Versions down in Egypt (4<sup>th</sup> C.), The Armenian Version (5<sup>th</sup> C.), the Ethiopic (Cent. 4-7), the Georgian (6<sup>th</sup> C.) all bear witness to the genuineness of these verses.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn7" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[7]</a></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">In addition, we would be remiss if we did not mention the thorough-going mathematical analysis of the letters (consonants, and vowels), nouns, proper nouns, etc. done by E.W. Bullinger’s contemporary, Ivan Panin, which proved a kaleidoscope of numerical patterns in the text of Mark 16:9-20 similar to all the other scriptures. These numerical patterns are unique to God-breathed scripture, and cannot be found in the literature of mere mortals unmoved by the Holy Spirit. Ivan Panin was uniquely qualified to make such an assessment, having taught the classics, English and Russian literature at Harvard in the late 19<sup>th</sup> Century. He was also an accomplished mathematician.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">What Theological Problems Did Mark 16:9-20 Give To Theologians?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">So why did some of the monks and professional copyists make the decision to leave out vss. 9-20? That is a very good question. I offer three reasons which will bring us back to our original thesis:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">1. 4<sup>th</sup> Century orthodoxy was hell-bent on shoving its brand of religion down the throat of every sect that named the name of Christ. Part of that orthodoxy was the Trinity, and baptizing using the Trinitarian formula of Matt. 28:19, which can be shown to be a doctored verse of scripture.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[8]</a> Mark has Yeshua saying “these signs shall fully follow in those who believe: <strong><em>In My name </em></strong>they shall be casting out demons”, etc. After Nicea, to emphasize the new-found equality of the tripartite Godhead, all sacraments were pronounced in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), which Eusebius recognized to be a specious interpolation of copyists.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">2. Unfortunately, the signs which Yeshua promised would accompany His True Believers were not forthcoming for the state-church or any of the other Torah-hating, Jew-hating, woman-hating sects, orthodox or not. Yahweh afforded the orthodox nothing to confirm their glorified heresy. No doubt, due to the lack of signs and healings in the marcionized, anti-Law, anti-Jewish, anti-Sabbath, anti-Passover quarters of the Church world where Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus originated, there was concern that Christ’s words in vss. 16-18 made them look bad.<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[9]</a></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">3. But why truncate the gospel beginning with verse 9? I believe it was done for theological reasons. The establishment of Easter was at stake. It is here in Mk. 16:9 that we have perhaps the most incontrovertible evidence Christ did not rise from the dead on a Sunday morning. Here, and here alone (as we explained above), the two words <em>protee Sabbatou</em> [first Sabbath (after Passover)] are used to tell us when He first appeared to Mary Magdalene. But by then, He had already risen at some point in the indefinite (aorist) past. <em>Protee Sabbatou</em> simply cannot be what the translators so desperately want it to be (“first day of the week”).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If the true understanding of the text of Mark casts a shadow over the possibility of a Sunday resurrection, how then, thought Constantine and his bishops, would they be able to draw all the Mithra-worshipping, Sun-venerating, sun-worshippers of the empire into the new fold? How unify the disintegrating Empire? Nicea and its aftermath made for good politics, lousy theology, as many scholars have come to realize.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If this is true that He rose on a Sabbath, then there goes your Easter Sunday resurrection. There goes everything the so-called “Fathers of the Church” lived and died for. There goes Constantine’s Council of Nicaea, there goes the primacy of the Roman see, and the coerced unity of the Roman Catholic Church. And if Christ rose on a Sabbath, then the same reasons that were used to supplant the 7<sup>th</sup>Day Sabbath, i.e. the weekly celebration of the resurrection on Sunday, must now be used to glorify the weekly Sabbath, of which Christ said He was Lord.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">And consider what was at stake if Mark 16:9 could be allowed to stand casting its aspersions on the “first day of the week.” I quote Encyclopedia Britannica’s summation of the importance of the Council of Nicaea to the Catholic Church:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Council of Nicaea marks an epoch in history of the conception of the Christian Religion, in that it was the first attempt to fix the critieria for Christian orthodoxy (by means of definitely formulated pronouncements on the content of Christian belief)—the acceptance of these criteria being made a sine qua non of membership of the Church. Moreover, it admitted the principle that the State might employ the secular arm to bring the Christian subjects of the Roman Empire under the newly codified faith. [In other words, if you want to be a Christian, this is what you <em>must</em> believe.]</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Nicene Council represents an important stage in the development of the state-Church.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Yeshua and the Apostle Paul forbade anyone lording it over the believers’ faith. Only Bible illiterates (like Constantine) were/are ignorant of this truth. So we will not belabor the point. But when we ponder the benefits that Constantine bestowed upon the orthodox bishops and their Churches at Nicaea and via the state welfare system, plundering the gold and wealth of the pagan temples for the benefit of the state-church, etc., we scarcely wonder that the more erudite among them would have looked with a jaundiced eye at the threat posed to them by protee sabbatou in Mk. 16:9. <em>So it is with suspicion that we ponder the coincidence of the 4<sup>th</sup> Century origin of Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and their convenient omission of Mark 16:9ff.</em></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Frankly, it is not a stretch to suggest that Constantine was like Satan offering the Church the whole world and the dominion thereof, as long as they did his bidding, and the Church said, “That sounds like a good deal.” Before Constantine was dead in 337, the bishops already had way too much to lose. But as Burkhardt says in <em>The Era of Constantine the Great</em>, the Church lost its soul in the process.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Mark 16:9-20 represented a threat to the authenticity of the state-church in so many ways. Seen through the eyes of the literary criticism, it does not make sense that Mark would end his book with verse 8. The women are told here to go and tell Yeshua’s disciples what they have seen (the empty tomb), that Yeshua is risen. But instead they tell no one because they are afraid. In contrast, in chapter one the book begins with a leper who is expressly forbidden from saying anything to anybody about his healing; Christ tells him to report directly to the priest at the Temple, and bring for his cleansing what Moses commanded (Lev. 14:3-13). Instead, he blazes abroad the word, violates Christ’s charge, which in turn causes havoc in all the towns round about, preventing Yeshua from entering into any city. How ironic is it to have a leper, who Yeshua was very angry with [casting him out of His midst (Mark 1:41-44)], do exactly what the women failed to do due to fear, and have the book end in this way. If Mark ends the book with verse 8, then he makes the women out to be the opposite of what they are in the three other gospels. Some of these women who followed Christ had given of their possessions to sustain Christ’s ministry early on (Luke 8:3). Those familiar with the resurrection accounts know the women were the heroes of the story. They were:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">1. the first to note where He was laid.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">2. the first followers to see, speak to, and embrace the risen Christ.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">3. the first to notice the stone rolled away and observe an empty tomb.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">4. the first to believe in the resurrection. It took hours and, in some cases, days before the male disciples believed, even after they heard first-hand testimony. Yeshua berated them for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 16:14).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">5. possessed with the courage and faith that they will be able to sneak past the authorities in the wee hours of the morning with their prepared spices, and be able to get inside the tomb, despite knowing ahead of time that a very great stone had been rolled into place (see Mark 15:46-47).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">So how can you end the gospel (which means good news) with these same women disobeying an explicit command of an angel to go tell the disciples. It make no literary or common sense whatsoever, especially when verses 9-20 are the most powerful, upbeat, positive, encouraging twelve verses anywhere in the four gospels. They are the heroes of the resurrection story. But the celibate monk/copyists of the monastery at Sinai, with their warped view of women and the sanctity of marriage, took their orders from like-minded Church authorities, and made their damnable deletions and alterations of the text to deprive them of their rightful place in this story. They deleted perhaps the most important verses in the entire book. In verse 10 Mary does go and report to the mourning, lamenting disciples. “And they, hearing that He is living, and was gazed upon by her, disbelieve.”</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Authenticity of Mark 16:9-20 Confirmed By Best Scholarship</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">On page 539 of Word Bible Commentary for Mark we have this significant analysis.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The last phrase of v. 8 is ephobounto gar—“for they were afraid.”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">…Mark <em>begins</em> rather than ends, new sections or paragraphs (pericopes) on a note of fear (5:33, 36; 6:20, 50; 9:6; 10:32; 11:32). Only 10% of the time (6 out of 66 times) does Mark conclude a story, paragraph, or section with gar, ‘for,’” [Thus, the facts] “favor the view that the last part of v. 8 <em>begins</em>a new pericope rather than ends the one that precedes. Books ending with <em>gar</em>, the preposition “for,” are a rarity indeed.”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Burgon (Last Twelve Verses) 19<sup>th</sup> C. argues these verses are authentic. One could take volumes of time and space refuting all the disbelieving Higher Critics who are paid to vindicate codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus<a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftn10" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[10]</a>, but why waste the time. I have said enough. Protee Sabbatou (first Sabbath) stands. And “first day of the week” vanishes as a figment of brainy men’s imaginations.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Were the Women Who Came to the Tomb on Sabbath Morning Violating the Tradition of the Elders (the Oral Law)?</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Encyclopedia Judaica says “The Law says relatively little about burial, and where it treats the subject, the concern is to avoid defilement by the dead (Num. 19:16; Deut. 21:21-23). There is a law in the Mishah (23:5), however, which states “People may do [on the Sabbath] all that is required for a corpse: They may anoint and rinse it…”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Page 315 of Edersheim’s The Temple: Its Ministry and Services says the following:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The Jerusalem Talmud (Ber. 5, b) <strong><em>expressly declares it lawful on Sabbath and feast-days to bring a coffin, graveclothes, and even mourning flutes—in short, to attend to the offices for the dead</em></strong>—just as on ordinary days.”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><em>The Sabbath-Law of R. Meir</em>, by Robt Goldenberg gives us valuable information on Jewish burial customs in the 2<sup>nd </sup>Century, a time when the political situation in Palestine tended toward stricter Sabbath regulations by the Jewish religious authorities than in the previous Century. Meir was a leading member of the Palestinian rabbinate following the fall of Bar Kokhba rebellion in 135 AD. He was a student of the two masters Aqiva and Ishmael. His Mishnah is said to have formed the basis for the later work of Judah the Patriarch, who redacted the canonical Mishnah still extant today. Meir was one of the leading rabbinic authorities of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Century. On page 39 of Goldenberg’s book we find this mishaic reference–T. Shab. 12:8-14a concerns the preparation and use of medicines on the Sabbath:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">17J.A.1. People may anoint the sick with unguents on the Sabbath. B.1. R. Meir used to permit mixing wine and oil, and anointing the sick on the Sabbath.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Pg. 170 of the above book: “The principle of Sabbath-rest does not apply to the Temple.” In this regard, the women understood from Christ’s earlier statements (Matt. 12:5-6) that One Greater than the Temple was among them, and also how Christ lauded the two women who anointed Him with precious oil on separate occasions just prior to His death. One of those occasions was at Lazarus’ house (John 12:1), where a number of these women were present. Anointing Yeshua’s body was a priority in these women’s hearts and minds. It was not going to take a back seat to rabbinic Sabbath strictures, which in any case, did not have the force of Law. The Temple, when rightly understood by Paul (I Cor. 3:16 and the entire book of Hebrews), is nothing more than a type or foreshadowing of the Messiah Yeshua.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">P. 189–<em>Public offerings</em> override Sabbath and defilement. In Emanuel Feldman’s book Defilement and Mourning: Law as Theology (p. 6), we find the following elucidation and commentary on this principle:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If the defilement law were merely hygienic precautions, it is difficult to explain how it was that precisely at crowded festivals—at which <em>congregational offerings</em> were brought—those very corpse-defilement laws were set aside in order not to postpone an offering. When the time of that offering arrives, and it happens that the majority of the congregation bringing the offering is defiled by a corpse, the offering is not postponed; <em>it is brought while the congregation is in a state of defilement</em>. In fact, it is exclusively corpse defilement which is overridden, and not defilement of emissions, creeping things, carrion, etc. “Corpse uncleanness alone was allowed to be set aside,” according to Maimonides.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><em>A Guide to Jewish Religious Practices, </em>by Klein, P. 101 states this: “The burial of the dead is the main exception to this rule [against Sabbath work]. For those who are occupied with burial, all work connected with a burial is permitted…”</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Some might object to the women walking from their domicile in Bethany to the garden tomb on the Mount of Olives. The phrase <em>Sabbath-days’ journey</em> is only used one time in the scriptures (Acts 1:12), only to denote a distance (approx. one half mile). There is no explicit restriction on how far one may walk in the Torah, though reason would limit one’s physical activity. In reality, however, both Bethany and the place of Yeshua’s tomb were both on the Mt. of Olives, and likely within a mile of each other. But for inquiring minds, we cite the following from page 566 of Encyclopedia Judaica’s article “Sabbath”.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The rabbis placed no restrictions on freedom of movement within one’s town, but they prohibited any walking outside the town beyond a distance of 2,000 cubits (a little more than a half mile). This boundary is known as the tehum Shabbat (Sabbath limit). It is, however, permitted to place, before the Sabbath, sufficient food for two meals at the limits of the 2,000 cubits; then, by a legal fiction known as eruv, this place becomes one’s “abode” for the duration of the Sabbath, so that 2,000 cubits may be walked from there.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">It is this author’s opinion that the disciple’s of Yeshua felt no obligation to please either the Pharisees or the rabbis when it came to tradition of the elders. Yeshua re-oriented everyone’s focus back to keeping the spirit and letter of the written law. Where the Law was silent, we should be silent. That is how strict constructionists take God’s Word. However, in order to avoid offence and risk social and perhaps legal consequences at the hands of the ruling religious authorities, the women chose to embark on their labor of love very early in the morning, while it was yet dark (according to John’s gospel (Jn. 20:1).</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Matthew’s Contribution to the Resurrection Narrative</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">At the outset of our dissection of Matt. 27:66 (the last verse of chap. 27) and the beginning of chapter 28, we must note that chapter breaks and verse numberings have absolutely no authority. They were introduced many hundreds of years after the originals were penned. There are not even any spaces between the words in the uncial texts. In Matt. 27:65, Pilate ordered the Jews to secure the tomb with these words:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">You have a detail. Go, make it secure, as you are aware [aware of what Christ had said, that He would arise after three days (vs. 63)].</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">(27:66) Now they (the Pharisees and chief priests), being gone, secure the sepulcher, sealing the stone, with the detail. (28:1a) Now it is <strong>the evening of the Sabbath </strong>(end of the 15th). CLNT</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">This rendering by the Concordant Publishing Concern constitutes a major clarification. Matt. 28:1a belongs in the previous chapter because it <em>was</em> put there by Matthew and by the Holy Spirit to tell us<em>when</em> they finished securing the tomb, which is an important detail to the narrative. It was a full twenty four hours after Yahshua was in the tomb before this was done, ie. the evening of the Unleavened Bread Sabbath (the 15th).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">There are two time modifiers in the first half of Matt. 28:1. But they describe different parts of a day. <em>Opsi de sabbaton</em> at the beginning of 28:1 and the next phrase–<em>tee epiphosoutee eis sabbaton</em>–are mutually exclusive terminologies. The first means “evening of the Sabbath”, whereas the latter means “at the lighting up into one of the Sabbaths,” as the Concordant Literal has it. The KJV rendering of the latter—“as it began to dawn” is essentially correct, though we prefer the Concordant as being more descriptive and indicative of early dawn. This comports with the Greek used by Luke in 24:1 (very early), where we have a complementary description of how and when the women came to the tomb. Matt. 28:1 (CLNT) says:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">At the lighting up into one of the sabbaths [<em>mia ton sabbaton </em>(pl.)] came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to behold the sepulcher.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The phrase “at the lighting up into” is <em>tee epiphosountee eis</em>, is a time modifier telling us what part of “one of the Sabbaths” the women came to the tomb. Consistent with Mark, Luke and John, we are told that it was well prior to sunrise, at dawn’s early light. That is why the CLNT translates the Greek here as “<strong><em>at the lighting up into</em></strong> one of the Sabbaths.” The only other time this word is used in the N.T. is Luke 23:54. Its use here requires some explanation, because it is used quite differently than in Matt. 28:1. Notice in Luke 23:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">(v. 52) [Joseph of Arimathea] begged the body of Yeshua…wrapped it in linen, and laid Him in a rock-hewn tomb…(v. 54) and that day was the preparation (the 14<sup>th</sup>) and the Sabbath <em>drew on</em>(<em>epiphoskein</em>).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">According to Word Bible Commentary, e<em>piphoskein</em> in Lk. 23:54 literally means “to dawn.” Luke’s particular use of <em>epiphoskein</em> “has not been paralleled.” The usage could represent a Greek-speaking Jewish adoption, for use in relation to a Jewish reckoning of the day, of language originating from and better adapted to expressing the dawning of a new day reckoned to being at first light. However, William Barclay translates this verse<em> </em>“<strong><em>and the Sabbath lamps were just beginning to be lit</em></strong>.” <em>Epiphausko</em> is used three times in the Septuagint:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Job 25:5—He gives an order to the moon, and it <em>shines</em> not… (kai ohuk <strong><em>epiphauskei</em></strong>…).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Job 31:26—do we not see the <em>shining</em> sun (heelion ton <strong><em>epiphauskonta</em></strong>) or the moon waning.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Job 41:9—At his (leviathan’s) sneezing, a light lights up (<strong><em>epiphausketai</em></strong>) his eyes.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">These three uses of <em>epiphosko</em> in the LXX are similar to the literal use of the term in Matt. 28:1, where the lighting up of the early dawn sky is meant. Therefore, the only thing that is lit up at the end of a preparation day such as you have in Luke 23:54 would be the Sabbath lamps that are lit at that time by the Jews in Jerusalem. In fact, every evening at dusk (between the two evenings) the high priest Aaron went into the tabernacle to light up the lamps (Exod. 30:8). William Barclay, no doubt, has deciphered the correct meaning of epiphoskein in Luke 23, and we are indebted to his insight.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">John 20:1</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now, on one of the Sabbaths (mia ton sabbaton), Mary Magdalene is coming to the tomb in the morning, there being still darkness, and is observing the stone taken away from the door of the tomb. (CLNT)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">She goes and tells John and Peter that the Lord’s body has been removed, and goes back to the tomb with them, lingering there after they left it. She is the first to see Yeshua and report to the disciples that He is risen. In vs. 19 it is now evening (<em>opseos</em>) of that same day, and the Holy Spirit emphasizes that it is still <em>mia ton sabbaton</em>. The CLNT renders it this way:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">It being, then, the evening of that day, one of the Sabbaths (<em>mia ton sabbaton</em>), and the doors having been locked where the disciples were gathered together, because of fear of the Jews, Yeshua came and stood in the midst.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">It is important to note that the Saturday evening appearance of Yeshua in John 20:19 is dictated by the same language (<em>mia ton sabbaton</em>) as in Acts 20:7 at the head of this chapter. There we took considerable space proving that all the many other sabbaton meetings in Acts had been on weekly Sabbaths, so when Paul prolonged his discussion of scripture until midnight, it was well into the evening of that mia ton sabbaton (i.e. Saturday night). The same time parameters apply in John chapter 20. In this area, the Church of God Sabbath-keeping groups have been most inconsistent, allowing the John account to be a Sunday evening, while insisting that Acts 20 is a Saturday evening.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Combining details from the Luke 24 narrative, we are able to see when Yeshua ascended to Heaven to fulfill the wavesheaf offering after His resurrection. In Luke 24:16, he appeared in an unrecognizable form (see Mark 16:12 where it says He appeared in various forms) to two disciples who were heading back to Emmaus (7 miles West of Jerusalem) late on a Saturday afternoon. When they arrived at their domicile in Emmaus, they urged Yeshua to dine with them, for the day was far spent, and evening was coming on. Only after they broke bread did they recognize Him. But He vanished at this point without explanation. They hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples in the upper room, which brings us to the account in John 20:19. In the two hours it took them to return to Jerusalem, Yeshua went to the 3<sup>rd</sup> Heaven to appear before the Father, and to be accepted on our behalf as the first of the firstfruits. As a spirit being, it would have taken almost no time for Yeshua-God to go from earth to Paradise in Heaven. So I speculate that He spent three to four hours reuniting with the heavenly Father, and then returned immediately to the disciples in the upper room perhaps around 10 PM. For those who question whether the first omer of barley was cut on a Saturday evening, you will have to consult Edersheim’s book <em>The Temple: Its Ministry & Services.</em></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">I Cor. 16:1-2</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have made arrangements in the Churches of Galatia, so do <strong><em>ye</em></strong>. Upon every (Greek=<em>kata</em>) one of the Sabbaths (CLNT), let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him, that there be no collections when I come.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Paul abruptly introduces the subject of the collection for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem (see Rom. 15:26). He devoted a significant amount of time and energy to this charitable project—close to two years—in order to promote unity and love between the Gentile and Jewish quarters of the budding Church. First we want to establish how the preposition kata is used in I Cor. 16:2, so that we understand that Paul intends each believer, by himself, to set aside and store up <em>every</em> one of the Sabbaths, according as he is prospered.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">This construction sometimes signifies “in every . . .”</p>
|
|
<ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px 0.5em 2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 2:46—Continue steadfast with one mind day by day (kath’ heemeran), breaking bread <strong><em>in every house</em></strong> (klontes te <strong><em>kat’ oikon</em></strong>).</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 5:42– house by house (<strong><em>kat’ oikon</em></strong>) they ceased not teaching and preaching the gospel</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 14:23—in every church (<em>kat’ ekklesian</em>) picking leaders by the stretching forth hands (hand-picked, also used of taking a vote), they committed them to the Lord.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 15:21—For <strong><em>in every city</em></strong> (<em>kata polin</em>) from ancient generations Moses has those proclaiming him.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 20:23—city by city (same as 15:21) the Holy Spirit testifies that bonds await me [Paul],</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Titus 1:5—appointed elders in <em>every city </em>(<em>kata polin</em>)</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Acts 22:19— in <em>every synagogue</em> (<strong><em>kata tas synagogas</em></strong>) I was imprisoning and beating the saints.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Luke 8: 1—“throughout <em>every city</em>” (<em>kata polin</em>) and village.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Luke 8:4—A great crowd coming together and those in <em>each city</em> (<em>kata polin</em>) to Him, He spoke through a parable.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Rom. 12:5—each one, individually, members of one another (kath’ heis alleelon).</li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The preposition Kata, down, is sometimes found governing a noun, in the sense of “every.” Examples of this include:</p>
|
|
<ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px 0.5em 2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Luke 2:41—“every year” (kat’ hetos) His parents went to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Luke 16:19–there was a certain rich man making merry day by day (kath’ heemeran) in luxury.</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Heb. 9:25—the high priest enters the holy of holies year by year (kat’ heniauton=every year)” [on the Day of Atonement].</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">Heb. 10:3—there is a remembrance of sins year by year (same as above).</li>
|
|
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; list-style: decimal;">I Cor. 16:1-2—As I charged the churches of Galatia, so also <em>you</em> do—every one of the Sabbaths (<em>kata mian sabbaton</em>)–each of you lay aside by himself in store that in which he should be prospered.</li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Hence, we see that <em>kata mian sabbaton</em> in I Cor. 16:2 is a very common mode of expression signifying “<em>every</em>” single Sabbath. This fact may be verified on page 384 of The International Critical Commentary. Paul wanted the brethren to set aside in store that which he intended to contribute to his brethren the Jews in Palestine, so that there need be no collections when he arrived at Corinth. Listen to the comment on this verse by The New Interpreter’s Bible (Vol. X, p. 996):</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">[it is] a regular setting aside so that when Paul arrives they will already have the [presumably substantial] collection ready. A couple of features are noteworthy:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The reference in the Greek is to a regular practice of each person setting apart contributions <strong><em>every Sabbath</em></strong>. <strong><em>From such nomenclature of days</em></strong>, WE SEE HOW COMPLETELY RE-SOCIALIZED THESE GENTILES WERE TO THE WHOLE SENSE THAT THEY BELONGED TO THE FAMILY OF GOD, WHOSE ROOTS ARE TRACEABLE DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">In other words, we have scholars admitting here that the nomenclature being used here (every one of the Sabbaths) is evidence that Paul had completely changed the social customs of these Corinthian Christians. Paul–via the power of the Holy Spirit, miracles, healings, and teaching directly from Yeshua–made spiritual Jews out of Gentiles. They adopted the Sabbath, Passover (I Cor. 5:7-8; 11:24-26), Days of Unleavened Bread, and the New Moons (Col. 2:16), and contributed very generously (throughout the Greek-speaking churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Philippi, and Achaia) to the welfare of their new-found brothers the Jews suffering in Palestine.</p>
|
|
<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ffffff; font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Concluding Remarks Concerning Mia Ton Sabbaton</h3>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">If, as scholars say, the first day of the week is never called the Sabbath anywhere in scripture, then why do they imagine that the writers of the New Testament used the Hebrew word <em>sabbaton</em> to refer to the first day of the week?? Anyone zealously keeping God’s Holy Sabbath Day should wonder out loud at how ludicrous this sounds at the outset.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">When translators deprive Yahweh of His opportunity to speak literally, they arbitrarily alter His Word. This is why skeptics have the attitude “Well, you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.” But this is only true if you allegorize, and take words out of context, or assume figures of speech where there are none. Men have transformed <em>mia ton Sabbaton</em> from “one of the Sabbaths” into “first day of the week” by refusing to take it as it literally stands and by forcing it to conform to Church traditions. They assumed the authors meant “first”, but did not use protos. The translators supply the word “day” when it is not there, and this, despite the fact that <strong><em>Protos</em> </strong><em><strong>heemeras</strong> </em>was used by these same authors to refer to the <strong><em>First Day</em></strong> of Unleavened Bread. Thirdly, that they meant “week” but used the Hebrew and Septuagint word for Sabbath instead. They had the familiar word<em>hebdomados</em>, the LXX word for “<em>week</em>“, available to them, had they wanted to refer to <em>week</em>. The translators and interpreters assume the inspired writers chose not to use the accepted Greek word for “week,” and chose to use <em>sabbaton</em> in an unprecedented way to totally confuse their Greek readers. No, I think not. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. The Lord has tried to do just that. But the Truth will not be found by them who refuse to keep His Commandments, by those who are not savvy enough to discern the lying pen of the scribe (Jer. 8:8), and who prefer television and sports and pastimes to diligent inquiry into the original language of scripture. Let them go back to nursing at the breast of their spiritual Momma Babylon, for the “people that doth not understand shall fall (come to ruin-NIV).”(Hosea 4:14)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Greek was the lingua franca of the First Century Roman Empire. The gospel writers were trying to communicate the life and ministry of Christ Yeshua to Greek-speaking believers at synagogues and home churches in Asia Minor, Achaia, Macedonia, and elsewhere. When it comes to fundamental religious terminology such as <em>sabbaton</em>, it is more than likely that they would have used this word in the same way it was used in both the Hebrew Old Testament and in the Septuagint. The great bulk of the early believers came out of the Jewish synagogue, where they had heard the scriptures read in Greek. S<em>abbaton</em> is the word used throughout the LXX for the weekly and annual Sabbaths. It is never used of “week.” Taking advantage of this familiarity, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul all used <em>sabbaton</em> just as it had been used in the LXX. In singling out the particular <em>Sabbaton</em> upon which Christ was resurrected and discovered by the women disciples, the earliest of these writers, Mark, used protee sabbatou to signify that it was the first Sabbath after Passover.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The practical theology in the minds of most mainstream Christians tells them that all of the Ten Commandments are still relevant and binding. Nobody questions the need to literally abstain from adultery, or not bear false witness against one’s neighbor, and not steal his property. But when they get to the 4<sup>th</sup> Commandment, the pastors transfer the sanctity of the 7<sup>th</sup> Day to Sunday. They have only one idea that allows them to do this, the illusion that Christ rose on the first day of the week. The fact that the Sabbath and holy days are mentioned no less than eighty times in the New Testament should have been enough to cause any serious believer to remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. For the past century and a half, the truth about the Sabbath has been disseminated far and wide by the Adventists and other Sabbatarian, Church of God, or Sacred-Name groups. Until now, however, the Sabbatarian movement has failed to identify the Achilles heel of mainstream orthodoxy, which is the amazing truth that “first day of the week” does not occur anywhere in the New Testament Greek text.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">This piece in the puzzle must now be considered part of “the restoration of all things” which Christ promised:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">And He answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things. (Mark 9:12 KJV)</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The process began with Martin Luther in 1519, who exposed the corruption of the Roman Catholic system, and showed Christians, among other things, the primacy of scripture over tradition. The remnant that Yahweh is perfecting must find the basis for all their practices and beliefs in scripture: the Law of Moses, the prophets and Psalms, the sayings of Yeshua, and the letters of Paul. Yahweh’s agenda has been moved forward by Adventists (Sabbath and unclean meat laws) and Church of God 7th Day and Armstrong Church of God groups (Passover and God’s Holy Days), the Assemblies of Yahweh (restoration of God’s proper name in order to fulfill and not violate the 3rd Commandment, where the literal Hebrew says “don’t bring the name of Yahweh Elohim to oblivion/nothingness”). The charismatic movement, pro-family Christian organizations like Focus on the Family, Messianic Jewish movement, and Davidic praise and dance movement have all had vital roles to play in restoring all things in Yahweh’s vast agenda of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children (and vice versa) prior to sending His Son Yeshua back to this earth. I now submit that undoing the havoc caused by Constantine and his bishops at the Council of Nicea (Easter Sunday, etc.) is also high on Yahweh’s to-do list.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Paul and Yeshua are the two most important figures in Western Civilization, and yet neither of them ever mentioned the first day of the week, if I Cor. 16:2 is understood correctly. One would think that the cornerstone doctrine of orthodox Christianity (Easter Sunday and its weekly celebration) would have required some formal discussion of the changeover from Saturday to Sunday somewhere in Paul’s writings or the Gospels. The silence of the New Testament on this topic is deafening.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">The last leg supporting Sunday sacredness is being removed by a correct understanding of mia ton sabbaton. The truth about mia ton sabbaton is necessary to wean the Church from its moorings in pagan traditions.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Mt. 15:9).</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Acts 3:19 is very relevant to our concluding remarks on this subject:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em 30px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 <em>Whom the heaven must receive until</em> <em><strong>the</strong></em> <strong><em>times of restitution of all things</em></strong>, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em 30px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">Acts 17:30:</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em 30px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but is now commanding men everywhere to repent, forasmuch as He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world [and the Church] in righteousness by that Man Whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all, by raising Him from the dead.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em 30px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">www.americaspropheticdestiny.com</a></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">
|
|
<script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript'>
|
|
<!--
|
|
var prefix = 'mailto:';
|
|
var suffix = '';
|
|
var attribs = '';
|
|
var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '=';
|
|
var addy43293 = 'derstinetodd' + '@';
|
|
addy43293 = addy43293 + 'yahoo' + '.' + 'com';
|
|
document.write( '<a ' + path + '\'' + prefix + addy43293 + suffix + '\'' + attribs + '>' );
|
|
document.write( addy43293 );
|
|
document.write( '<\/a>' );
|
|
//-->
|
|
</script><script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript'>
|
|
<!--
|
|
document.write( '<span style=\'display: none;\'>' );
|
|
//-->
|
|
</script>This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
<script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript'>
|
|
<!--
|
|
document.write( '</' );
|
|
document.write( 'span>' );
|
|
//-->
|
|
</script></p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </p>
|
|
<hr style="border-style: solid; border-color: #a8ef9d; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;" size="1" /><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;">[1]</a> Throughout this article, “CLNT” is used when citing the Concordant Literal New Testament, published by the Concordant Publishing Concern, Canyon Country, CA. It is one of the most helpful, literal, and scholarly translations of the New Testament available.
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[2]</a> See Jer. 8:8 where it talks about “the lying pen of the scribe”, i.e. translator or transcriber of scripture.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[3]</a> The exception among the translators is Green’s Interlinear, which flirts with the proper rendering of <em>sabbaton</em> (Sabbath) and <em>mia </em>(one). Green is a perfect case in point of the ambiguity with which scholars have dealt with this expression.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref4" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[4]</a> See marginal notes in the Companion Bible.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[5]</a> Bullinger was an unorthodox Anglican scholar who taught at Oxford University up until his death in 1913. He was a man of considerable knowledge, whose Companion Bible is among the best study Bibles available today.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref6" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[6]</a> Significant in the Torah as being the Sabbath the morrow of which one counts from in order to get to Pentecost (Lev. 23:15). It could probably be argued that since <em>mia</em> means<br />”a particular one” or “a certain one,” that every one of the occurrences of <em>mia sabbaton</em> and <em>mia ton sabbaton</em> are referring to this particular Sabbath of prime (<em>protee</em>) importance in starting the count to the important pilgrimage Feast of Pentecost. Hence, Mark calls it <em>protee sabbatou</em>.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref7" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[7]</a> See Appendix 168 of Bullinger’s Companion Bible for further corroboration on this point.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref8" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[8]</a> Eusebius quotes this verse 18 times prior to the Council of Nicea, omitting our current reading “baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy spirit.” It says “baptizing them into My name.” After Nicea, on pain of exile Eusebius capitulates, acknowledging a reading that he knew had been changed by copyists. He complained about changes being made in various texts.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[9]</a>Things got so desperate that the bishop of Alexandria, the great Athanasius, was accused by his opponents in the Egyptian clergy [at the Council of Tyre (335 A.D.)] of hewing off the hand of Arsenius, a bishop from an opposing sect, for the purpose of using it for magic.</p>
|
|
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.americaspropheticdestiny.com/miaton.htm#_ftnref10" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #a8ef9d; vertical-align: baseline; color: #a8ef9d; text-shadow: #444444 0px 0px 4px;">[10]</a> I do not mean to imply that these codices are useless in the textual criticism of the N.T. Their variant readings elsewhere must be weighed due to their antiquity when considering what the original said. What we are taking issue with here is not the professional, precise nature of the copying that took place in Sinai and Alexandria, but the doctrinal bent, the heresies they were trying to combat, and pressures from Church authorities that influenced what they included or excluded.</p>
|
|
<div class="linkpages" style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; background-color: #000000;"> </div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Study Notes</span></strong></span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Other articles on "mia ton sabbaton"</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">1. 'Understanding Mia ton Sabbaton' -<a href="http://www.lookingtojesus.com/resources/Mia+Ton+Sabbbaton+1.pdf"> PDF.</a> This is opponent of the above view, claiming it is error. </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">This begins somewhat disingenously:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"1. By itself, the Greek word Sabbaton can be used in reference to the Sabbath day. </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This we do not deny! (Mt. 12:2; Ac. 18:4) </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 2. But as seen in its definition, the word <strong>Sabbaton can also refer</strong> to a <strong>week</strong> (which </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">is measured by the Sabbath day itself). Strong’s #4521 says, “the Sabbath, or day </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">of weekly repose from secular avocations (also the observance of the institution </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">itself)…the interval between the Sabbaths…week.”</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">First of all, Strong's is not a true dictionary, even though it is laid out as one. Instead it is a concordance of how every Greek word was translated in the King James Bible, whether right or wrong. See <a href="/books/783-strong-concordance-is-not-to-be-used-as-dictionary.html">Strong's is a concordance, not a dictionary.</a></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><br />Hence, it was true that the KJV translated it as week in a few instances, but this does not prove the translation was accurate. To repeat, concordances like Strong's are not dictionaries, but simply a list in how a particular Bible translated a Greek term, whether right or wrong.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Moreover, some Lexicons may indeed adopt a concordance translation as a word's true definition. This is unknown, but I would not rule out the possibility. But then even Lexicons could sometimes be contaminated by bias. </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The word "sabbaton" is a plural, simply meaning "sabbaths." It does not mean weeks. As one <a href="http://torahtimes.org/commentary/refuted.htm">commentator</a> says, conflating Strong's apparently with a true Lexicon: </span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">"<span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">They added the definition 'week' to the lexicons on the basis of their own tradition." <br /></span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">This is true because no ancient source confirms this "week" meaning to the plural Sabbaton. To say "one of the Sabbaths" is like saying "one Monday" or whatever day of the week it happens to be. It has no reference to Sunday or a "weekly time of repose" other than the Sabbath Day of repose.</span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Yet, this same writer at least concedes the word "sabbaton" ordinarily means the Sabbath, which in Hebrew means "day of rest." True, it can be more abstractly defined as "the weekly repose" but the word's specific meaning is the Sabbath Day - the day of rest set by God as day seven of the week.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then it goes on and shows you how "mia" mistranslated as "first" (which in Greek would be "protos") influences seeing this "first" of "sabbaton" to mean "Sunday" -- day one of the week. It says:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Sabbaton” In Reference To A Week? </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 1. To further understand the above definition from Strong’s, let us consider a </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> quote from Apologetics Press online: “According to R.C.H. Lenski, since ‘[t]he </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jews had no names for the weekdays,’ they ‘designated them with reference to </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">their Sabbath’ (1943, p. 1148). Thus, mia ton sabbaton means ‘the first (day) </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">with reference to the Sabbath,’ i.e., the first (day) following the Sabbath (Lenski, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">p. 1148), or, as we would say in 21st century English, ‘the first day of the week.’” (www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3157)</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then it continues, and concedes again "Sabbaton" can refer to the "Sabbath," and it then uses this mistranslated term "mia" as "first" (instead of accurately as "one") to make the case that it does not always mean Sabbath:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">2. And so while the word Sabbaton can refer to the Sabbath day, when the Greek </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">says “one of the Sabbaths” or “second of the Sabbaths,” it refers to the day of the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">week as it relates to the Sabbath, or the first day between two Sabbaths. </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">3. Consider Luke 18:12, a parable in which a Pharisee said, “I fast twice a </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">week…” The italicized phrase is derived from the Greek dis tou sabbatou. Jesus </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">was not saying that the Pharisee fasted twice on the Sabbath day, but that he fasted </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">twice a week.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">It means twice between Sabbaths. But let this writer continue.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Next the writer argues from a presupposition that Jesus was raised on Sunday to explain what Matthew 28:1 says, but the truth is Jesus was raised exactly at the end of Sabbath, before the raising of the sun, as Matthew says, because that is exactly three days and nights from his true crucifixion which was a Wednesday, not a Friday, contrary to Catholic error. See Daniel Gregg, <a href="http://torahtimes.org/SabbathResurrection/The%20Sabbath%20Resurrection.htm">A Sabbath Resurrection</a>. So this critic says:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">A. “Mia ton Sabbaton” was used to describe Jesus’ resurrection. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 1. Matthew 28:1 says, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">first day of the week.” The italicized phrase is again derived from the Greek “mia </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">ton Sabbaton,” which literally means “one of the Sabbaths.” We all know that </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, or Sunday, so clearly, this could not </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">be referring to the Sabbath. This ought to confirm the points that have already </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">been made in this study regarding the use of “Sabbaton.”</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">To prove his case he argues contrarily to how Matthew reads from Mark - the latter Mark being a very inaccurate gospel with many errors about anything involving Hebrew customs, language or geography of Israel:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">B. Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, not Saturday. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 1. let us show that He was raised on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath. Mark 16:1 </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">says, “And when the Sabbath was past,” and then in verse 9, “Now when Jesus </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">was risen early the first day of the week.” He died and was buried on Friday, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">remained in the grave on the Sabbath day, and then was raised on Sunday.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">The fact this author does not see he contradicts Jesus that Jesus would be three days and nights in the grave proves something is flawed in his thinking.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then he contrasts Mark 16:1 and 2. But this is flawed, as <a href="http://torahtimes.org/commentary/refuted.htm">Gregg </a>explains:</span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p style="line-height: 36px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Of course citing a contradiction between two translations, when one has no understanding of biblical feasts and annual Sabbaths (like the Passover) is an exercise in futility. Here is the proper translation of the two verses taken from <em>Young's Literal Translation</em>:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
|
<blockquote style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span>
|
|
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Mark 16:1-2, YLT, "<strong>And the sabbath having past, Mary the Magdalene, and Mary of James, and Salome, bought spices, that having come, they may anoint him, 2 and early in the morning of the first of the sabbaths, they come unto the sepulchre, at the rising of the sun</strong>."<img src="http://torahtimes.org/images/Mark16twoSabbaths.jpg" alt="" style="float: right;" /></span></p>
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"> </p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"></span></p>
|
|
<p style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: 32px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 30px;" align="justify"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">There is no contradiction because the Sabbath in Mark 16:1 was the annual Sabbath which fell on Thursday that year, and the 'first of the Sabbaths' in Mark 16:2 was the first weekly Sabbath after the annual Passover Sabbath. The women bought the spices between the two Sabbaths on Friday. Matthew 28:1 says, "<strong>And the later of the Sabbaths, at the dawning on the first of the Sabbaths ...</strong>." thereby confirming what was said in Mark. "One of the Sabbaths" refers to Lev. 23:15, "You shall count ... seven Sabbaths shall be complete", and this is after the annual Sabbath (Lev. 23:11). So the two Sabbaths are different. MIA TON SABBATON is later than the annual SABBATON.</span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Then the author takes snippets out of context about sightings on Sunday morning as proof the resurrection took place on Sunday, rather the end of Sabbath. The critic says:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">2. Perhaps the most effective passage in making this point is Luke 24:1-21. It says </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">in verse 1, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning,” and </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">then in verse 13, “And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Emmaus.” In verse 21, the same disciples who traversed the road to Emmaus said, </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">“Today is the third day since these things were done.” As seen in verse 7, Jesus </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">would raise the third day. All of this points to the first day of the week as the day </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">of Christ’s resurrection.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then I love this one -- because God supposedly cannot tolerate mistranslation, this means His inaction proves it is not a mistranslation!</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">c. Second, we must accept that “the word of the Lord endureth forever.” (1 Pet. 1:25) Would God allow such a crucial point to be mistranslated?</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">However, in Jeremiah's time, it happened ...the scribes were mistranslating. Many translations today vary. Can we say God approves of all these contradictory translations. Did God ever say all translations are inspired if God does not strike its author down dead? This is clearly an unfounded and illogical claim.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then the author comes back to the fact Paul abolished sabbath as proof the early church did not come together on Sabbath:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">A. Verses that deny the necessity of Sabbath observance. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 1. Colossians 2:14-16 includes the Sabbath in the “handwriting of ordinances” </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> that was nailed to the cross. We are no longer judged according to the law of </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> Moses, but rather the “body (substance) is of Christ.” </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 2. We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:7, “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious…which glory was to be done away.” Also, Paul </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">identifies the ten commandments, namely the command to not covet and says that </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">we have been delivered from the “oldness of the letter. (Rom. 7:1-7)</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Then I love this for its blatant speculation and Pauline-rewrite. The author says many references in Acts which records that the early church post-ascension observed Sabbath was either due to tactical evangelism or because of a weak conscience:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">2. After the establishment of the church, the apostles would often go into the </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> synagogues on the Sabbath day for the purpose of evangelism, not to religiously </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">observe the Sabbath (Ac. 13:14-15; 16:13-14; 17:2; 18:4). </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> 3. Romans 14:6 also indicates that many of the early Christians chose to observe </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">certain aspects of the Sabbath day and other days, but this was done on an </span><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">individual level as a matter of liberty and weak conscience.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1">Why is the author saying this in the first place? Because Acts 20:7 is showing Paul is observing this "sabbaton" if that is the true translation. And Paul elsewhere equally observed festivals which Jews were required to follow under the Law. Here are the facts he knows run against his thesis unless Paul obeyed the Law hypocritcally -- just to win converts -- which Jesus faulted the Pharisees for doing -- wanting to be seen as outwardly righteous but inwardly not following the Law:</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><strong style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">25 Years After Yahshua</strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> In Acts 20, verse 6 tells us that Paul sailed away from Philippi after the </span><em style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Days of Unleavened Bread,</em><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> arriving in Troas five days later where they stayed for seven days. Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread always come around the time of the spring barley harvest heralding the first of the seven annual Feast Days for Israel. </span><br style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;" /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> Why does Luke, in the year 57, make special mention of the Days of Unleavened Bread, which always follows the spring memorial day of Passover? This is some 25 years after the Messiah’s death and ascension to the heavens! If the Days of Unleavened Bread are now done away, as some teach, why does Luke call attention to them in Paul’s dealing with the Gentiles? Paul had evidently stayed in Philippi to observe these days with the Philippian brethren, many of whom were likely the “Pilgrims of the Dispersion,” as found in 1Peter 1:1, the lost sheep of the House of Israel. </span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Note carefully, Pentecost is what Paul had in mind as we read in Acts 20:16, "For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus , because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost." </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> </span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">In Acts 21:17 we learn Paul did indeed arrive at Jerusalem for Pentecost, and later he relates his worship in Jerusalem : "Because that you may understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city: Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the [Elohim] of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets," Acts 24:11-13. </span></p>
|
|
<p><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Paul went to Jerusalem to worship and observe Pentecost more than 25 years after the death and resurrection of the Savior! Paul claims he did not go to Jerusalem merely to evangelize the Jews who might be gathered there, as some, Paul claims, erroneously contended. Paul insists in Luke's account that he went simply to worship and keep the Feast. </span></p>
|
|
<p><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> He emphasizes that he was not a rabble-rouser, but <em><strong>worshiped</strong></em> in complete harmony with the Original Testament law and the prophets. He continued observing the Feast Days. So any notion that there Paul's behavior in Acts 20 was observance solely for tactical evangelism is contrary to Luke's depiction of Paul's actions. Thus either Luke was being duped by Paul's law abiding behavior or Paul sincerely honored the holidays. Sadly, there is much evidence in Paul's own epistles that Paul engaged in tactical law-abidence for evangelism, and thus Paul's reports to Luke are not trustworthy.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></span></p>
|
|
<p><strong><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times; color: #000000;" data-mce-mark="1">Tertullian's "Snippets" of Sabbath's Termination</span></strong></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;" data-mce-mark="1"> This writer does mention that Tertullian's writings from the 200s were passed down to us (from editions post-321 AD when the Roman government abolished Sabbath to observe the "Day of the Sun" in honor of Sol Invictus) that claimed Sabbath was abolished:</span></p>
|
|
<p style="margin-left: 30px;"><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">b. 200AD TERTULLIAN: “It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.” (An Answer to the </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 155) </span><br /><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;"> c. 200AD TERTULLIAN: “To us Sabbaths are foreign.” (14:6)</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">As I explain elsewhere, Tertullian completely upheld the Law in many quotes that survive, so we have an odd contradiction. The best explanation is that, as Jerome confessed on the issue of the trinity, he 'conformed' the earlier writings to fit later doctrine, and thought this was proper and ethical, defending doing so in a letter. See our article on <a href="/books/801-rufinus-corrected-works-later-deemed-heretical.html">Rufinus & Jerome Take Liberties with the Earlier Texts</a>.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">Also, Tertullian was from Ethiopia, and may have been influenced by neighboring Alexandria's practices. The evidence of the early church's observance of sabbath, except at Rome and Alexandria, is confirmed by scholars.</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: large; font-family: 'times new roman', times;">The author then cites examples of observance of gatherings on Sunday. That was simultaneously true. But that was not the day of Rest. It was the day of reunions / gatherings. That is a recorded practice too, but it does not negate that Sabbath was the day of rest.</span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<hr />
|
|
<p><span style="font-family: "arial black", "avant garde"; font-size: 14pt;">2. <a href="http://torahtimes.org/commentary/refuted.htm">First Day of the Week, or First of the Sabbaths?</a></span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This webpage by Daniel Gregg agrees this is talking of a reunion on Sabbath. He writes:</span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: medium;"></span><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: medium;">Sunday promoters are "under learned" in the Bible. What they have learned is a tradition, and then by their tradition they corrupted the Bible texts. Not only do these two texts (Acts 20:7; 1Cor. 16:2) say 'one of the sabbaths'; they all do, including the resurrection passages (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19). The reason that they do not know God's covenant sign is that they do not keep his commandments (1John 2:3-4; John 15:10). If one looks at J.P. Green's, <a href="http://bibletruthpublishers.com/the-interlinear-bible-interlinear-greek-english-new-testament/j-p-green/pd4634"><em>The Interlinear Bible</em></a>" (vol. iv., 2nd edition) then one will see that it says, "one of the sabbaths" in Acts 20:7. </span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: 18pt;">Your Comments</span></strong></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: 18pt;">Aimee writes 4/12/2020: </span></p>
|
|
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: 18pt;">So I just read your article on 'mia ton Sabbaton.' It was great! I have never been comfortable with the idea of 'first day of the week' being a translation of that when I can clearly see that the word Sabbath is in that phrase. I see this tradition strongly held n to even in the churches that claim to believe the Bible only. Thank you for your work!</span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: medium;" data-mce-mark="1"></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: medium;"></span></p>
|
|
<p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; text-align: justify; font-size: medium;"></span></p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
<p> </p>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
|
|
</table>
|
|
<span class="article_separator"> </span>
|
|
|
|
</td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
</table>
|
|
<div class="bottom_top"></div>
|
|
<div id="bottom">
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div id="footer"><strong>Content View Hits</strong> : 19460813<br />
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
var pv = new Array(1,0,0,0,1);
|
|
var trdlname = "/downloads";
|
|
//<![CDATA[
|
|
var regex = /\.(?:doc|eps|jpg|png|svg|xls|ppt|pdf|xls|zip|txt|vsd|vxd|js|css|rar|exe|wma|mov|avi|wmv|mp3)($|\&|\?)/;
|
|
//]]>
|
|
var trlkname = "/external/";
|
|
var trmlname = "/mailto/";
|
|
</script>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://jesuswordsonly.com/modules/mod_analytics/gatr.js"></script>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
|
|
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
|
|
</script>
|
|
<script type="text/javascript">
|
|
try {
|
|
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3747914");
|
|
pageTracker._initData();
|
|
pageTracker._trackPageview();
|
|
} catch(err) {}
|
|
</script>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<div class="copyright"></div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html> |