The Study Series: Opse de sabbaton

                    Study to shew thyself approved unto God, 

a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 

rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2 :15

 

"Of what avail will error be to me in the great day when men shall be judged according to the truth which has been set before them?..theologians are learning that very little can be done with the English version in behalf of Sunday. 

But the New Testament was first written in Greek, and people generally are not acquainted with that language; can we not, therefore, manipulate that so as to make it appear to teach the sacredness of the first day of the week? 

There are eight texts in the New Testament in which the first day of the week is mentioned: Matt.28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19; Acts 20:7; 1Cor.16:2. It is of course to these that appeal is made. 

 

The construction is exactly the same in all these passages. It will be noticed that in the common version in each instance the word "day" is printed in italic, indicating that that word has been supplied by the translators.

Omitting that word "day," we have "first of the week," for which we have equivalent words in the Greek. But the word rendered "week," is the Greek word sabbaton in some of its forms, which is also the word for "Sabbath," and is translated "Sabbath" in numerous instances, when only the seventh day is intended.
Learning that "week" in the passages referred to, comes from the same word as "Sabbath," some, in defiance of the fact that is is sometimes necessary to translate it "week," propose to discard that translation, and call it "Sabbath." 

Then they have this reading, "first of the Sabbath." This senseless phrase (senseless because they so translate it) does not read quite to their satisfaction, so they attempt to slur it over into "first Sabbath," and then, "first-day Sabbath," which is Sunday; and then with a great flourish of trumpets, they proclaim, "Lo! Sunday is called the Sabbath in the New Testament! 

   

The stupid wickedness of this claim can easily be made to appear.
To do this it will be necessary to look at the construction of the Greek; and it will be sufficient to take only one out of the eight passages in question, the construction, as already noticed, being the same in each one. Matt.28:1 enjoys a certain distinction, in being the first expression of the kind; hence the attention of the reader is invited to that.

 
The following are the Greek words of the passage, with a transliteration into English characters, accompanied with a literal, word-for-word translation:-

Opse de sabbaton te epiphoskouse
"Late but of the Sabbath it beginning to dawn
eis mian sabbaton.
into the first of the week."

A word or two in regard to the meaning of this passage, ...Some have
taken the ground, on the strength of this language, that the resurrection of Christ took place before the Sabbath ended. But this cannot be correct; for it is not a supposable case that Matthew an Mark would directly contradict each other in regard to such an event; and Mark says plainly, referring to the same time, "And
when the Sabbath was past" (diagenomenou ton Sabbaton).

 

In the well-known Commentary of Dr. Adam Clarke, under the 28th chapter of Matthew, we find these words:-"Verse 1. In the end of the Sabbath] Opse de sabbaton. After the end of the week: this is the translation given by several eminent critics; and in this way the

word opse is used by the most eminent Greek writers. Thucydides, lib. IV., chap. 93, tes hemeras opse en - the day was ended. Plutarch, opse ton basileos chronon - after the times of the king. Philostratus, opse ton Troikon - after the Trojan war. See Rosenmuller. In general, the Jews divided their natural day, which consisted of twenty-four hours, into day and night. Their artificial day began at the rising, and ended at the setting, of the sun; all the rest of the time, from the setting to the rising of the sun they termed night: hence the same word, in Hebrew, signifies both evening and night. Gen.1:5; Mark 6:7. Matthew has employed the word in this extensive sense here, pointing out the latter part of the Jewish night, that which immediately preceded the rising of the sun, and not the first part which we call the evening. The transaction mentioned here evidently
took place early on the morning of the third day after our Lord's crucifixion; what is called our Sunday morning, or first day of the week."

 

Robinson, the standard lexicographer of New Testament Greek, in his lexicon gives the following as the definitions of the word opse:-
"1. Absol, late, late evening. Mark 11:19. Put for the evening watch, Mark 13:35. . . . 2. With a genitive, i.q. at the end of, at the close of, after. Matt.28:1. opse de sabbaton, at the end of the Sabbath, i.e., after the Sabbath, the Sabbath being now ended, i.q. Mark 16:1. For the genitive, see Buttm., S 132. 5. b."  

Uriah Smith