Let us now
consider this very important matter regarding Yahshua resurrecting on a
sabbath. Given its importance,
this will require considerable attention, and will expand into other related
matters. As you will see, these
passages that speak to Yahshua’s resurrection clearly state a sabbath
resurrection. And, as to be
expected, Christians have these passages translated entirely wrong. They insist that Yahshua rose from the
dead on a Sunday, and call that day their own sabbath. But to establish this, they had to
violate the Scriptures by translating the following passages to mean something
completely inconsistent with other like passages.
In Matthew
28:1, the New American Standard (NAS) reads:
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
first day of the
week, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
In Mark
16:1-2, the NAS reads:
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James,
and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. Very early on the first day of the
week, they came
to the tomb when the sun had risen.
In Luke 24:1,
the NAS reads:
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing
the spices which they had prepared.
In John 20:1,
the NAS reads:
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing
the spices which they had prepared.
In John
20:19, the NAS reads:
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples
were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and *said to
them, "Peace be with
you."
In like
manner, the same bias took place when addressing the two passages regarding the
gathering of believers.
In Acts 20:7,
the NAS reads:
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread,
Paul began talking to
them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
In 1
Corinthians 16:2, the NAS reads:
On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he
may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.
The problem
with all of these passages is that in the Greek they do not say “the
first day of the week.” To
begin with, the Greek word translated here as “first” is the word
“heis,” and it means “one.” This word always refers to a count or something individual
and never to placement in order – “On one [heis] of the days while
He was teaching the people ….” In fact, over 280 times “heis” is translated as
“one,” and in the gospels alone, 162 times. Only nine times is “heis”
translated as “first.”
In five of those cases, they are this erroneous effort to make
Yahshua’s resurrection on a Sunday.
And in two more instances, the attempt is made to show believers
gathering on Sundays. Is it not
striking and very revealing that seven of the nine instances where this word is
incorrectly and aberrantly translated as “first,” are in these
passages where the translators wanted to falsely establish either a Sunday
resurrection or a Sunday gathering?
You will find in the remaining two passages a like problem with
“heis” being incorrectly translated as “first.”
In Titus 3:10,
the NAS reads:
Reject a factious man after a first and second
warning ….
In Revelation
9:12, the NAS reads:
The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still
coming after these things.
But in fact,
these last two passages literally read:
Reject a factious man after one and a second
warning ….
The one woe is past; behold, two woes are still
coming after these things.
These
aberrant nine translations of the word “heis” to mean
“first” are entirely erroneous. This error is further confirmed in a crystal clear manner in
Mark 16. We have already read
verse two where it states, “Very early on the first day of the week ….” Then in verse nine of the same chapter we read:
Now after He had risen early on the first day
of the week, He first
appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
Comparing
what is written here with what is written only seven verses before it is quite
revealing and confirming. Both of
these companion portions have been translated to say exactly the same thing
– “the first day of the week.” But, the Greek text for these two are distinctly
different. We have already noted
that the word for “first” in verse two is “heis.” But, in verse nine the Greek word for
“first” is “protos.” Yet even so, they translated both of these words the
same! What we find is that
“protos” is actually translated more correctly; for unlike
“heis” it means “first or chief.”
So, one might
want to argue that this confirms that verse two above would mean first as
well. But hold on. We are next going to address the Greek
word that was translated “week” in this statement, “the first
day of the week.” For now,
let us note that these two verses in Mark 16 are actually saying two different
things. In verse two the Greek
word translated “week” is plural, whereas in verse nine it is
singular. As you will see, there
is a clear intentional distinction here.
The point
being evidenced, and cannot be overlooked, is that if verse two was supposed
to have said “first,” then they would have used
“protos,” as they did twice in verse nine. But
they did not! Obviously, there was
an intended difference, as clearly evidenced in these two verses. So unquestionably, the intent in verse
two, and in all the like passages, was that “one” of something was
being noted.
Let us
therefore make the first correction in this very important repeated
statement. We see that these seven
passages must at least correctly read:
… on one day of the week.
Now let us
take this examination further and see an even more egregious and obvious error.
In like
manner, the Greek word here translated “week,” is a translation
that is an obvious departure from every other case where it is used. With exception to 1 Corinthians 16:2, the
Greek word in each of these cases is “sabbatwn.” Fifty-eight times in the NAS the word
“sabbaton” and its variations are translated “Sabbath.” Only one time, in Acts 17:2, is it
translated in the plural form, “sabbaths.” But “sabbatwn” is equally a
plural form with its meaning of “sabbaths”; yet, this true meaning
is totally ignored in these seven passages we have been considering, and even
blatantly distorted. The Hebrew
word “shabbath,” from which comes the Greek “sabbaton,”
means “rest.” So how can
one take a word meaning “rest,” and derive from it a word meaning
seven days, a week, even six days of labor? The Hebrew word for week is not shabbath, but
“shabua,” meaning “seven.” In the Greek the word for week is
“hebdomos.” This
insertion of week for sabbath is far more than just stretching a meaning, it is
intentional gross error!
To prove this
further, we find that same word – sabbatwn – that was used in six
of these nine passages, is used in five other places. Revealing the complete hypocrisy and inconsistency of these
subject six/seven passages, in these other passages they translated that same
word as “sabbath”!
In Matthew
28:1, the NAS reads:
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
came to look at the grave.
In Luke 4:16,
the NAS reads:
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought
up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.
In Acts 13:14
, the NAS reads:
But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian
Antioch, and on the Sabbath
day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
In Acts
16:13, the NAS reads:
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside,
where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down
and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
In Colossians
2:16, the NAS reads:
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard
to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day ….
Now, what if
we followed their error and replaced the above word “Sabbath” with
their aberrant word “week”?
You would have:
Would these sound
right or in any way be accurate?
Of course not! They are
blatant error. The week has no
comparison with a sabbath, a day of rest, and the two words are not
interchangeable, notwithstanding Luke 18:12. Here it too reads, “I fast twice in the sabbath
…” But because of the
translator’s bias, in these seven passages, they replaced the word
“one” with “first,” and the word “sabbaths”
with “week,” to contrive the increasingly obvious aberrant
statement – “the first day of the week.”
So why did
the translators falsely translate “sabbatwn” when it had to do with
Yahshua’s resurrection and with assemblies, and then translate it to say
what it is truly intended to say in its five other usages? Obviously, they have an agenda –
to justify a fallacious Sunday resurrection and Sunday gatherings.
Their glaring
bias and error is never more evident and exposed than in Matthew 28:1.
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look
at the grave.
Would you be
surprised to know that the two words “Sabbath” and
“week” in this passage are both this Greek word,
“sabbatwn”? How much
greater evidence do we need that someone has an agenda here? And what’s more, the word
“sabbatwn” is plural.
Therefore, why don’t they say “the first day of the
weeks”? Again, they have an
overriding agenda that loses its supportability on many counts, as we have seen
already.
Some would
point to historical writings and say that they state that Yahshua resurrected
on a Sunday. But we ask, what
earlier and more trustworthy historical record do we have than the Scriptures
themselves? The Scriptures are the
earliest records available. There
is no more reliable historical evidence.
Without a doubt, the church was leavened very early, and they had an
agenda to support a false Sunday resurrection. Just as Yahweh blinded the Jews so as to carry out His will
concerning Yahshua’s sacrifice on Passover, so He has blinded Christians
to call Sunday Yahshua’s resurrection and their sabbath.
Therefore,
without a doubt, not only must we say that the subject passage must at least
read:
… on one day of the week.
But there
must be further corrections as well.
Not only must
we change the fallacious word “week” to “sabbaths,” we
find that there is no Greek word whatsoever in this text for the added word
“day.” It does not
exist, but was simply inserted so the translators could make this passage say
what they wanted it to say. Could
there be a more substantial and blatant string of errors?
Thus, we now
see that the complete and undeniable truth regarding this passage demands that
it read:
… on one of the sabbaths.
Therefore, as
an example of this, Matthew 28:1, and the other eight like passages, would
truly read:
Now after the sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward one of the
sabbaths, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Knowing this,
let us now return to Mark 16 where we had noted that verses two and nine,
though translated the same, actually say two different things. In verse two, the Greek word translated
“week” is the plural word “sabbatwn,” and therefore
reads: “one of the sabbaths.”
In verse nine, the word translated “week” is singular, and
is the word “sabbatou,” or “sabbath.” We noted that the intentional
difference in these two tenses evidenced why the word “heis” in
verse two was used to indicate one of something, while the word
“protos” in verse nine was used to indicate the first, or chief. As you will see in the next section, the
word “protos” in verse nine is to be translated
“chief.” Let us now
quote these two verses with their accurate translations.
Mark 16:2
reads:
Very early on one of the sabbaths, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
Then Mark
16:9 goes on to tell which sabbath it was, delineating it as the chief sabbath:
Now after He had risen early on the chief
sabbath, He first
appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
So we see that on one of the seventh-day sabbaths Yahshua rose from the grave, and that that sabbath was “the chief sabbath.” What could this mean? Finding the answer to this is certainly not to do what the translators did and make it say what we might want it to say, where one size fits all. Instead, as we have committed to throughout this writing, we must take it literally for what is written and stay with its meaning. Once again, the answer to this question is most revealing and clearly supported.
Continue to
page 6 of The New Millennial Calendar for THE CHIEF SABBATH