The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Did Jesus raise on the "first day of the week"

I stumpled across this controversy on another forum, as some people here are acquainted with Greek and I suppose rather unbiased in this matter, we might find a solution.

Mark 16:2 KJV

And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

“first day of the week” is “mia ton sabatôn” in Greek, literally “one of Sabbaths”

One translation (MISB torahtimes.org/NewTranslatio … /mk16.html) has:

And very earlyº on the first of the sabbaths¹, they came² to the tomb as rises the sun.

Likewise has the Latin Vulgata:

et valde mane una sabbatorum veniunt ad monumentum orto iam sole

There seem to be no evidence that Greek “sabbaton” means “week” outside the New Testament, on the other hand “mia ton sabbaton” might actually be an Hebrew idiom, have you ever heard about the controversy?

Considering that for Christians the Sabbath subsequently shifted to (what we would call) Sunday instead of Saturday, the term probably means “first” or “number one” “of the sabbaths” in that regard.

I’m away from my office at the moment, so I can’t check how else Mark puts it. There are a couple of other oddities about the four accounts in regard to the days, too, however; Matthew tends to indicate the Resurrection happened at around sundown Saturday night (once the sabbath was over) rather than near dawn Sunday morning (which thematically seems appropriate in another way, with the Sun of Righteousness coming up out from the earth).

Also, scholars have long debated whether the Gospels are contradicting one another over when exactly Jesus died and when the Passover was (i.e. what we would call Thursday or Friday night). As far as I’ve been able to figure out the solution to that is that Jesus held the seder one night early, following a tradition where the rabbi and/or head of the family was allowed to do so if he was sure they wouldn’t be able to do so the following proper night, the most popular and revered example being that of the Maccabees before launching their revolutionary attack (thus rabbis subsequently allowed that if a battle was known to be sure the following day, hold the Passover service one night early). This would pull a bunch of story details together, as to why all of a sudden Judas thinks he has to narc Jesus to the Sanhedrin, and why the Sanhedrin are suddenly in a panicked rush to arrest, convict and get Jesus on a cross Friday morning as soon as possible. (Also why in GosJohn the disciples are confused over whether Judas is going out to pick up the sacrificed lamb for the following day as though the seder will be tomorrow, or whether he’s going out to give alms in the street as the elder son / honored guest was supposed to do at that point in the seder. It probably also helps explain why GosJohn curiously doesn’t report the seder service portion of the meal at all.)

I’ve been thinking of writing up a Cadre Journal article on it, for posting before today, but I got distracted on other things. :frowning:

I’m indecisive on the subject, but I what I found out, the Romans seem to possibly have had an 8 days week at the time of Christ:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_cale … inal_cycle

This would mean that the Jewish week and the Roman week were asynchronous, so to say Jesus was either ressurected on a Saturday or a Sunday or any other modern weekday would be an anachronism.

The Romans counted days from A to H, whereas the Jews counted every seventh day, so a Jewish Sabbath could have been any Roman day from A to H.

What do you think about this or am I mistaken?

It doesn’t really matter whether the Romans had a 7 or 8 day week (although I haven’t heard about an 8 day week before), because in the scriptures the timing is based on the Jewish sabbath, and that was sundown on what we’d call Friday to sundown on what we’d call Saturday. If Jesus rises on the first day of the week after the sabbath, that’s going to be sometime from sunset on Saturday to sunset on Sunday.

Having said that, the same Wiki article says the Romans changed their calendar to a seven-day week early in the Empire, about a generation before the birth of Christ. The “nundial” cycle of an 8 day week still persisted for a few centuries (through our 1st century), but I don’t doubt that was for local market reckonings (since the 8th day was for local markets in the old Republic), not for Imperial reckonings.

First it’s necessary to define Sabbath. A Sabbath was a day in which no work was to be done. The seventh day of the week was always a Sabbath, so Saturday is always a Sabbath. There were other days also designated as Sabbaths, though, but Passover wasn’t one of them.

Nisan 14 (the first month) was Passover. On this day (which ran from evening to evening) the Lamb was slaughtered, roasted, and eaten entire – nothing was to be left for the next day.

Nisan 15 began the feast of Unleavened Bread. This was the day the Israelites set out from Egypt, and the point was that they went in haste and didn’t have time to leaven their dough so they ate unleavened cakes. This was a high Sabbath (a Sabbath feast day in addition to the usual Saturday Sabbath). The feast of Unleavened bread lasted seven days and the last day (the 21st) would also be a high Sabbath.

The we have an unspecified feast day, of First Fruits, which was to fall “on the morrow of the Sabbath;” that is, on Sunday. It was apparently (and still is) celebrated during the feast of Unleavened Bread.

So here is the chronology:

Nisan 14: Passover (or the evening before official Passover day as Jason suggested, which makes sense. I figured they must have done that but didn’t know it was sanctioned – and if they celebrated after Sunset, it would still be officially Passover as Jewish days are from sunset to sunset.)

Nisan 15: (Still the 14th according to Hebrew reckoning – until sunset) Jesus, who has all night been being tried, tortured, etc., is crucified and dies before sunset. At sunset begins the feast of Unleavened Bread – a high Sabbath but not necessarily a Saturday.

Nisan 16 or 17 (depending on where the days of the week fall that year): Feast of First Fruits in which the first of the harvest is offered to Yahweh. Before this offering is made, no produce from the new harvest is to be eaten.

So it would make sense that the day Jesus died they were hurrying to get His body to the tomb before sunset brought in the Sabbath. This Sabbath was the first day of Unleavened Bread and lasted until sunset the next day. So that’s either one day or two days depending on whether you count the day Jesus died as a full day (which was, I’m told, general practice – to count the part as a whole).

The next day was the usual seventh day Sabbath (or it was Sunday), so in the first case, no one could buy and bring spices that day until sunset. We’re told though, that the women went and bought spices. Would that be possible on the evening following two Sabbaths in a row? Maybe. It’s possible that after two days of no business the merchants would see this as a good time to open up shop – maybe someone else here knows.

So, on the first day of the week, whether evening or morning, the women came to the tomb and were told He was risen. Third day.

Personally, I think a Thursday crucifixion followed by back to back Sabbaths best answers the information we’re given, and I’m guessing that’s what this topic is all about – how to fit in those three days and nights in Sheol. For me, it would take a lot of convincing to persuade me away from Jesus’ resurrection being accomplished on the feast of the First Fruits. It’s just too perfect and too like Father to do that.

But there’s more . . . from First Fruits the Jews were to count off fifty days and (again on “the morrow of the Sabbath”) bring in two wave loafs (with leaven – symbolic, I’m told, of the gentiles) of fine flour as an offering. This is a kind of “second first fruits” offering because it comes from the first harvest. This feast the Jews call Pentecost, which was also (coincidentally?) the day of the birth of the church.

There are two more harvests to follow: the wheat and the grape harvest. A point which, I think, has largely been missed by the church. Also, Paul’s point that, if the firstfruits are holy, the lump (the bulk of the harvest) is holy also.

And week… :sunglasses:
The Sabbath day is the 7th day of a regular 7 day Jewish week. So the first day is what we call sunday.

Leviticus 23:15 'You shall also count for yourselves from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the Wave Sheaf Offering; there shall be seven perfect Sabbaths.

The week can also be a reference to the feast of weeks. 7 sabbaths are 7 weeks. 49 days + 1 is Pentecost.
A week of sabbaths are 7 sabbaths.

So the first day of the week may be a reference to the feast of weeks.
Matt 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Maybe all that means He rose on Saturday?
Personally I haven’t found any conclusive proof but it’s my feeling we shouldn’t focus too hard on the Greek grammar; but more on Jewish customs. Jesus death and resurrection is linked to several festivals (Passover, Unleavened bread and First Fruits). The next festival of great significance is Pentecost. Festivals/feasts are one of the backbones of the Bible. So I think we should at least consider that week reference is a reference to a festival. The only thing that really supports Sunday is the Eighth day.

:question:

We today use the Roman sun calendar, which gave the days of the week names. We do not count the Sabbath according to the rules of the ancient Jews. We ignore the new moon and full moon in naming our days. The Jews, however, used the lunar calendar, not solar, so their days were not named, they were counted. The Jews did not have names for their days, they had numbers.

The Sabbath day was not regularly on a Saturday or Sunday, as these are solar terms, not lunar. The Jews countered the first day from each new moon, so the seventh day was neither Saturday or Sunday as a regular occurrence. It may have fallen on a Sunday from a Roman perspective in that particular year/month, but as each month was calculated by the moon, not by the sun, so each month the days names were irrelevant. An example of this is found on the fact that the full moon fell upon a sabbath day. Do full moons always occur on Saturday or Sunday? Of course not. They can occur any day of the week. That is because we name our days based on the sun, not the moon. For the Jews it was the opposite. This is one of the biggest confusions and myths to be circulated since earliest times, because the Jews eventually adopted Saturday as their solar name for the Sabbath in their new hybrid calendars.

Steve

I agree with Steve.
I strongly recommend the following link for a thorough study of Bible chronology. If anyone can find fault with it, I’d be very interested.

oxfordbiblechurch.co.uk/inde … mitstart=0

Thanks for the link, John, these articles look very interesting. I will read through them. I am very fond of Chronology.

Steve

I’d appreciate that Steve.
The article “What happened in 1933?” reminds me of your comment re Monetary Union/ United Nations and my thoughts on the EU.

Hi John,

I wonder, do you subscribe to the views presented in the article “What happened in 1933?” A small part of it I concur with, but very large parts of it, IMO, are fantasy. I would be happy to discuss this subject in greater depth with you on a dedicated thread.

In brief, I think the 1933 date, as suggested by Derek Walker, is forced and contrived to follow the patterns of AD33 - AD 73, the 40 years of Moses, and the Yom Kipper War of AD1973. He needed to come up with a date and look for a corresponding event in AD1933, and he found the great depression. It is very artificially forced, reminding me of how JW’s and SDA come up with their dates.

The “Cycles of 490 years for Israel” were not 490 years, they were 480 years (I Kings 6:1 - note that the LXX has 430 years). The only 490 year period seems to be Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy. Overall, I love the subject. I have spent a lot of time in the past looking for integrity in the different models being presented. I know a lot of people have been tricked on the subtle nuances of scripture. The Saturday Sabbath being an example.

Steve

The weekly Sabbath day of the Hebrews was clearly the seventh day of the week. Since a new day for the Hebrews began at sundown, the Sabbath day was held from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.

The fact that the Hebrews had a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar is irrelevant, because, unlike the day, the month, and the year which all relate to the apparent movement of the earth, the moon, and the sun, the week is unrelated to the “movement” of the heavenly bodies. The cycle of 7 days or “weeks” has remained unchanged since the 7 days of creation. It’s true that the beginning of the Sabbath is different at different points of the earth, depending on when sundown occurs, but the 7-day cycle has never changed.

According to R.C.H. Lenski, since the Jews had no names for the weekdays, they designated them with reference to the Sabbath. Thus, “mia ton sabbaton” means “the first day with reference to the Sabbath,” that is, the first day following the Sabbath or, as we would say in current English, “the first day of the week.”

I agree with this explanation.

So in Mark 16:2 the expression “μια των σαββατων” (mia tōn sabbatōn), literally means “first of the weeks” really indicates “the first day with reference to Sabbaths”. So most translators render it “the first day of the week.”

Here are a couple of other references with the same type of usage:

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7)

Again the expression is “μια των σαββατων” (mia tōn sabbatōn).

The Pharisee in the temple said the following:

I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. (Luke 18:12)

Here the expression is:

δις του σαββατου (dis tou sabbatou), literally “twice of the Sabbath”. So did he fast twice on the Sabbath Day? Or did he fast twice in the week?
I think the latter.

The practice of Christians meeting together on Sunday, the first day of the week, was practised as early as that gathering mentioned above in Acts.20:7. Justin Martyr (110-165 A.D.) also mentions this in his “apology” (explanation) to the emperor of the ways of Christians:

And on the day called “Sunday” τῃ του ἡλιου λεγομενη ἡμερα, literally “called the day of the sun”], all who live in cities or in the country, gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits… Apol. ch. 67)

I can’t recall who said this, but one of the early Christians gave the following two reasons why Christians meet on the first day of the week (Sunday) and especially remember the Lord Jesus on that day:

  1. On the first day of creation week, “God made a change in matter”.
  2. On the first day of the week, God raised Jesus from the dead.

This is not true, it is a Jewish myth that mistakenly took root in Christendom. The days “Friday” and “Saturday” did not exist prior to the Julian Calendar. Please show any references to Friday and Saturday in the OT. You cannot because the terms did not exist. They did not exist because it is only on a solar calendar that the days became fixed. The lunar calendar calculated the new week on the appearance of the new moon, and then counted… The seventh day was the sabbath - this was not a Friday-Saturday observance. It was only in the NT period, with the introduction of the solar calendar (and fixed days) that the solar day of Christ’s death and resurrection was registered. This so happened to be a Sunday only on that particular (lunar) month, as each month the days started to be counted afresh on the lunar calendar from each new moon. As the church came to rely on the solar calendar the days became fixed. Prior to then the days were not fixed.

This confusion of calendar days is seen in the first recorded dispute between Polycarp and Anicetus: the Quartodeciman controversy. This was a dispute, in AD155, over the designated day of the resurrection (Easter). Polycarp’s church wanted to follow the Jewish calendar and the Roman church wanted to follow the solar calendar (Sunday), which shows that the solar and lunar calendar produced two entirely different days.

See: gci.org/church/holidays/passover

Steve

Of course the terms did not exist, but the days Friday and Saturday existed, and that’s what I was talking about.

Again, the 7-day cycle of the week, is independent of the sun and the moon. This 7-day cycle existed from the beginning. The early Christians referred to these days as “the first day”, “the second day”, etc. and the last day of the week was “the seventh day”. Again, whether a lunar calendar is used or a solar calendar, there is still an independent 7-day cycle, and the 7th day for the Hebrews was the Sabbath, beginning at sundown. Sundown on the 7th day occurrs regardless of what calendar is followed, or even if NO calendar is followed.

Today, following the Roman system we call the first day of the week “Sunday”. As I pointed out, even Justin Martyr called it “The day of the sun”
Monday— Moon day
Tuesday—Tiw’s day
Wednesday— Wodan’s day
Thurdsay—Thor’s day
Friday—Frige’s day
Saturday—Saturn’s day.

So we see that all days except Sunday and Monday were named after gods.

The seven day cycle was completely dependent on the moon.

See **THE WEEKLY SABBATH IS NOT SATURDAY OR SUNDAY! **

lunarsabbath.info/

Hi Steve
I don’t have time at this instant to raise all the points I wish but just to mention that I am not keen on this phrase in the link:

The lunar cycle is not a fixed constant. It is approximately 29.5 days but varies (in a predictable way) from one lunar month to the next. I assume the article is saying that some weeks would have an extra day (the worship day?) in order to keep in sync with the lunar cycle for Sabbaths. Is this correct?

Hi John,

You are right, there are variables in the length of time of the lunar cycle.

That article I gave was unfortunate, I am sorry. I had mistaken the article for another article dealing with the same subject matter. The substance of the article I gave the link to I do not fully understand where they are coming from.

**Isaiah 66:23 **- “And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the LORD.

The basic premise is, which I think you already agreed with (and Paidion has not) is that the New Moon, wherein the month gets its name (the Bible uses the same Hebrew word for both “new moon” and “month.”), was the start of the month for the sacred Jewish calendar. All of the festivals were related to the New Moon. Saturday and Sunday are fixed days on a solar calendar, whereas the Sabbath was not a fixed day, it was pivotal around the New Moon:

I am surprised that anyone would try to argue against this point. It is fundamental to understanding the lunar calendar. The WIKI article on New Moon states:

The change over from the Jewish lunar calendar to the Saturday Sabbath occurred in the 4th century AD:

For more, see: yrm.org/What_is_a_New_Moon.htm
Note: I have read the above article, but I cannot vouch for their ministry. I have never heard of them.

Steve

The Hebrew observance of “new moons” and their observance of “sabbaths” are two different activities.

I thought maybe there was something I have been missing, and so I read the first link you provided, Stef, and found not a shred of evidence that the Sabbaths were based on the moon or on the lunar calendar. I saw only strong affirmations and a bunch of unrelated data and scriptures. But then you indicated that you had provided a different link from the one you intended.

The word “week” in every encyclopedia or dictionary in which I searched is given the definition of “a seven-day cycle” or something very similar. I have found no historic evidence that the Hebrews meant anything more. I think the week is of divine origin, relating to the seven-day period of creation.

Until I see some evidence that it is related to the revolution of the moon, I must continue with that understanding.

One thing I would like to know, though. Why is it so important to you, Stef, to believe that the week is related to the revolution of the moon?
Does this have a theological significance?

Hi Paidion,

The subject is of little significance to me, other than I know a lot of people who are entangled into divisional sects based on a faulty understanding of the month and new moon, the week and the Sabbath, the solar and lunar calendars, and Saturday worship. I think this is a mistake which can quickly and easily be rectified by understanding more about how the Jewish calendar actually worked. I had a long discussion with a SDA who tried to convince me that Saturday worship was a command, so I decided to invest more time into understanding the lunar calendar. If the bible references of New Moon and the counting of days to the passover, and the references of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, mean nothing to you, then perhaps you will only understand the lunar calendar with much greater care and study.

You may find more details on the significance of the New Moon to the month and Sabbath at this link also:

en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/New_Moon

Steve

I went to the link you provided, Stef, and there was not one sentence indicating that the Sabbath day depended upon the New Moon!
Yes, it mentioned “New moon and Sabbaths”. I was aware of the reference to these in the NT. They are linked together in the sense that both were special holy days.

I appreciated your reference to Encyclopedia Judaica. I had never heard of it before. I accessed it online and looked up Sabbath. There was a lot about the Sabbath but not one clear word about linking it to the Lunar calendar or to the moon. Yes, "New moons AND Sabbaths were mentioned together as they are in the scripture, but there was nothing definite in relating Sabbaths to the new moon.

I did find only the following, but it seems to be merely speculation: