Sabbath(s) and Sunday (Monday with Mounce 57)

Acts 20:7 reads, “On the first day of the week (μια των σαββατων), when we were gathered together to break bread ….” (ESV).

 

There is an obvious question for the Greek newbie as to why μια is translated as “first” when we learned it as “one,“ and why σαββατων is translated as “week” when we learned it as “Sabbaths”? Why “first day of the week” and not “one of the Sabbaths”?

 

Part of the key is in the nature of the word σαββατον. It is not as straight forward as one might expect. A quick perusal of BDAG show these options.

 

1. “the seventh day of the week,” hence, the “Sabbath.”

It can be used in the singular but also the plural, and here is the interesting part; in the plural it can refer to multiple days but it can also refer to a single day. Why, you say, would they do that? I have no idea. The attestation given in BDAG is significant and the point can’t really be debated. There is evidently something idiomatic in how the word is used such that a plural can refer to a single day.

2. “Week.” Again, it can be both singular (Lk 18:12; Mk 16:9; 1 Cor 16:2) and plural.

Combined with this is the use of numbers with σαββατον.

• πρωτη σαββατου, first day of the week (Sunday), Mk 16:9
• κατα μιαν σαββατου, every Sunday, 1 Cor 16:2
• μιας σαββατου, Sunday morning, Mk 16:2 (v.l.)

In the plural we see the same thing.

• μια σαββατων (i.e. ημερα) the first day of the week Mt 28:1 (also Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1; J 20:1, 19; Ac 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2 v.l.)

Most significant is the Didache 8:1, which says that the Judeans fast δευτερα σαββατων και πεμπτη on the second and fifth days of the week (Monday and Thursday).

 

Also, if you check BDAG on the Greek word for “one” (εις), you will find that it can be a marker for something that is first; hence, it has a wider range of meaning than just “one.”

 

So what do we make of all this?

 

1. The Didache passage shows that when numbers are used with σαββατον, it is idiomatic and the numbers are referring to certain days during the week. And so in Acts 21:7 “one of the Sabbaths” means “the first day of the week.”

 

2. It explains why my definition in BBG is “Sabbath, week.” The word has a wider range of meaning than might be expected, and when you see a gloss like this for a Greek word, it should signal that there is something a little different going on.

 

3. It should cause the Greek newbie to be respectful of the language.

The glosses that you are memorizing in the vocabulary sections are only approximations, and even at that they do not cover all the uses of the term. In the first year of Greek, the day’s trouble is sufficient — I’m sure Jesus was thinking of Greek class in Matt 6:34 ;-) — and so simple glosses are adequate; but part of second year Greek is learning to broaden your understanding of words and not to rely solely on your memorized glosses.

 

4. Especially for the person who is limited to using the language tools, caution is urged. Words are rarely simple; they are usually nuanced and sometimes idiomatic. The fact that every modern translation goes with “first day of the week” shows that here is an idiom at work, and no theological doctrines should be drawn from this usage (other than the fact that the early church saw no conflict in worshiping on the first day of the week and not the last, probably as a reflection of the significance of Jesus’ resurrection on the first day).

 

William D. [Bill] Mounce posts every Monday about the Greek language, exegesis, and related topics at Koinonia. He is the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Basics of Biblical Greek (third edition coming in 2009!), and general editor for Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. He served as the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version Bible translation. Learn more and visit Bill's blog (co-authored with scholar and his father Bob Mounce) at www.billmounce.com. 

Comments

[Irving Salzman]

If Luke were using the Jewish way of counting time, the possibility exists that the believers in Acts 20:7 were meeting on a Saturday evening, since the Sabbath would have been over at sundown, and the first day of the week would have begun then as well. At any rate, it seems unlikely that the believers in Acts 20:7 were meeting on a Sunday morning, since we're told that "Paul prolonged his message until midnight." (If they had really begun to worship at 11:00 A.M. that Sunday morning, all of them would have suffered Eutychus's fate and fallen asleep and out the window!) So it would seem likely that the time referenced in the verse was either a Saturday evening or a Sunday evening. Again, no doctrinal implications intended. Any thoughts as to how plausible a Saturday evening scenario would be?

[Mike B.]

What seems to be happening is that the days of the week are being enumerated in relation to the Sabbath. The first day after the Sabbath being μια των σαββατων, or something similar.

A similar practice is followed in China in which one of the ways (one of several) of speaking of the days of the 7-day week is to refer to Sunday as "Worship day" and then Monday as "worship one," Tuesday as "Worship two," and so on. An entire week = "one worship"

[Laura Bush]

Uncannily timely for me: I just ran into this phrase and wondered about it. Thank you!

Can I ask, as an aside, where (online?) a stumbling self-teaching student of Greek can get answers to this kind of question?

[Corby]

Very good article.

I taught a lesson on this subject some months ago and attempted to get a handle on it.

LOGOS software was very helpful in that regard. My one problem was that I did not at that point have BDAG or the TDNT.

If anyone is interested, please read my lesson and give critique as needed.

A Sunday Sabbath

[Irving Salzman]

Corby, your article is well organized and well written. But there is one significant flaw with/in your argument. Nowhere in Acts 20 does it refer to this "worship service" or gathering as a "Sabbath" or "Sabbath observance." The Sabbath is still Saturday and Sunday Sunday, and never the twain shall meet. In saying this last thing, I am not saying that we are under the Old Covenant Sabbath. I am merely saying that if Christians decide to worship on Sundays because on it Jesus rose from the dead, that's one thing. But Sunday is NOT the Sabbath. Never was. Never will be. Under the Old Covenant, the Sabbath (Saturday) was the day of rest. Sometime in the first century, Christians, who are not under the Sinai Covenant and the Law, apparently made Sunday a day of worship owing to Jesus' resurrection on the first day of the week. But this last fact was not indicative of a new "Sabbath" or a newly-defined Sabbath. (Please note, all the above offered charitably)

By the way, there are not a few people who argue that the Acts 20:7ff passage can plausibly have taken place on a Saturday evening (see my comments above).

[Corby]

Irving, thanks for your insights. I agree with you. And I think that I could have chosen my words more carefully. But I think your insights are not at odds with what I was really trying to convey which was, in a figurative sense (in a "in Jesus we find rest/sabbath" sense) Sunday has for the Christian some sabbath flavor. Thanks again!

[Gary Simmons]

Regardless of whether Paul preached for 6 hours or 13 hours, it's pretty funny that a guy named "Lucky" falls out of a window and dies. And then he gets revived. So was he lucky, or not? Haha.

[Gary Simmons]

Do we have examples of sabbaton used in secular Koine literature, by chance? I still believe its use doesn't link Sunday to the Sabbath, but I'm curious if this word occurs elsewhere. I can clearly see it comes from shabbat, but the question is worth asking.

[Irving Salzman]

Corby, I agree with you. There is a Sabbath rest for believers to enter into (cf. Hebrews). But that does not refer to a day upon which one chooses to worship. All of the OT institutions foreshadowed fuller developments as per Colossians. Thanks for the dialogue.

[timothy mcmahon]

Laura Bush:

You might try b-greek@lists.ibiblio.org as a source for asking questions.