sabbaton=either seventh day(sabbath) or seven days(week)

A few people mostly Sunday worshipers have been recently using this argument.

They focus on Matthew 28:1


The reason why is, this verse can be translated.



They claim this means there were two Sabbaths one on Saturday and when that day ended an new Sabbath(Sunday) began.

But obviously this ignores the fact that the word Sabbath can be translated as week.

Luke 18:12


And also remember there is no evidence of the sabbath being changed and there is evidense in Hebrew 4:9 that the sabbatismos remains. Also in the book of Acts, the apostles worshipped on Saturday.

Because the word "sabbath" can be translated as 'week.' This may be the correct reading of Colossians 2:16,17. “Let no man judge you in food or drink or respect of a holyday, or a holy new month or a holy week. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body (image) is of Christ.”

I added the word holy in the last two.

There are a number of solid reasons that this understanding cannot be correct: that is, that Matt. 28:1 refers to "the end of the sabbaths."

1) A major reason, but one usually not mentioned, is that the Didache, written in the early 2nd century AD, proves that Luke 24: 1 should be translated "first day of the week." The Didache uses sabbatwn-- plural-- for "week." (See Didache 8: 1.)

2) It cannot mean the end of the weekly Sabbath, because we know that Christians, including the Apostle Paul, continued to keep the weekly Sabbath and worshipped along with the Jews in their synagogues on that day. See Acts 13: 42, 44; 16: 13. According to 5th century church historians, Sozoman and Socrates, the vast majority of the Christian church (except for Rome and Alexandria-- due to "a custom," not to NT doctrine) continued to keep the weekly Sabbath up to their own day, which is hardly likely to have happened if they understood Matt. 28: 1 to teach that all the sabbaths were abolished.

3) 98% of the translations read, "in the end of the week," and there is good reason why virtually all experts in Koine Greek agree that it should read this way.

4) All of the standard and best Greek dictionaries and lexicons give "week" here and not "sabbaths."

5) Certainly if the Jewish sabbath had all come to an end, Acts 17: 2 would not continue to call the seventh-day Sabbath "the Sabbath." Never once does the Bible call it "the Jewish Sabbath" or indicate that it was ended. Acts 13: 42, 44; 16: 13 clearly call it "the sabbath."

6) For me personally, the greatest proof that the seventh-day Sabbath remains under the New Covenant, is that no change concerning the Sabbath was mentioned before the death of Christ. This is proved by Luke 23: 56 where it says that after Christ died, Jesus' disciples still kept the Sabbath according to the commandment. So they knew nothing whatever about a change that was to take place after His death. (Also compare Matt 24: 20 where Jesus clearly referred to "the sabbath" as being yet future.)

In order for Sunday to have taken the place of the Sabbath under the New Covenant, it would have been necessary for the change to be instituted before the New Covenant was ratified, not AFTERWARDS. Hebrews 4: 9 points in a positive way to the weekly Sabbath as a reminder of God's salvation, and it does not in any way suggest that the seventh-day Sabbath had been abolished or changed.

Good post john317.
Also Jesus says if you love me keep my commandments. He also says that he did not come to change but to fullfill the law. And also in Revelation he mentions that the remnant will be keeping the ten commandments. And besides the catholic church mentions that they changed the day not God. I think that that is one of there major beefs with the protestant churches.

pkrause

I never heard this one, I wish I hade known this one a few months ago. I have to tell my boss. A few months ago I had this coworker that would go on and on trying to disprove Adventism. He was the first one I had heard use the Matthew 28:1 verse. He kept on saying the scholars got it wrong when they translated it as week and stuff.

Here are links to the Didache-- "the Teachings of the Twelve"-- written about 150 AD.

Look for chapter 8-- "on fast days and prayer", and then see the words, "fifth day of the WEEK," i.e., Thursday. (Some translations simply read "Thursdays.") The original Greek reads, "pempte sabbatwn," meaning "fifth day of the week." This is the way all translations read.

It is also significant that in this same chapter, Friday is referred to as "the day of preparation" [i.e., preparation of the Sabbath, Saturday].

Below you will find a link to the original Greek text as well as to several different translations:

http://ivanlewis.com/Didache/didache.html

http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/texteapo/didache-greek.html

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html

Umm, I hesitate to post to this board as the parameters set forth are rather clique-claquish and I find sufficient other avenues which suit my tastes more satisfactorily. That said,

>>deutera sabbatwn," meaning "fifth...<<

...disabuse me.

What does "deutera sabbatwn" mean? How is it to be translated? [ed. corrected to read: "pempte sabbatwn"]

It is relevant to the question of how Matt. 28: 1 should read, whether "first day of the week" or, as a few prefer it, "first of the sabbaths."

The words "deutera sabbatwn" are ALWAYS translated "the fifth day of the week," never "the fifth of the sabbaths." [ed. this is incorrect. The Greek for "fifth" is pempte, not deutera.]

It is one more proof that all of the Greek lexicons are correct when they say that Matt. 28: 1 should read just as it does in practically all of the translations of that verse.

You may be experiencing what I often experience, that is,

an infinity loop.

Again, disabuse me should I err, but - doesn't deutera indicate a relationship to the numeral two - as in second, or other...? and mightn't pemte more correlate to five, fifth, or other - or even, Thursday?

I've chosen not to engage in the Saturday/Sunday issue here, as I find that too often what I post is lost in the many pages of a thread I am only peripherally involved with. I am dealing with the subject in my thread

"Loose ends", shortly; for what it's worth - that is, my two cents...

Thanks very much for your two cents, jasd. Your words proved to be more like a silver dollar if you ask me. You are right: the words translated as "Thursday" or, more literally, as "fifth day of the week" are "pempte sabbatwn." The word sabbatwn is correctly translated here as week, not sabbaths. It wouldn't make sense for it to read, "fifth of the sabbaths," as I'm sure you will agree. It is evidence that it was a common way for the people of that time to write the days of the week, and this is in accordance with virtually all the translations of those words when they occur in the New Testament.