Statement:
“In the end of the
Sabbath / Late on the Sabbath Day …”, Mt.28:1
Disputation:
My friend from
Many of us have years of study and we are
not ignorant of scripture, as you presume. End of argument from my point of
view. I shall continue to regard Sunday, the first day of the week, and the day
our blessed Lord rose from the tomb, and the day we honour our Lord with
worship and the gathering of the saints. The scripture is plain to me.
Defence:
Robertson in his
‘Harmony’ renders opse sabbatohn, ON THE SABBATH LATE or words to the effect -
I haven't now got the time to go fetch them exactly. And he in his Grammar
gives explanation in favour of "late on the Sabbath", only to propose
that if the meaning is determined not by grammar, but by exegesis, it may
either be “after the Sabbath” or “late on the Sabbath”.
And Calvin argued Jesus
was resurrected on the Sabbath, and in the very event of His resurrection –
according to Calvin – abolished the Sabbath.
James Bailey, 19th
cent.?
QB: The Bible Union
renders the term by "late in." Meyer gives, "Late upon the
Sabbath;" Lange, "But about the end;" Robinson, in Lexicon of
Greek Testament, gives, "At the end of," "at the close of,"
"late,' "late evening," "at the end of the Sabbath;"
De Wette and others, "After the Sabbath had ended;" Bloomfield,
"After the Sabbath." While seeming to differ, critics substantially
agree, as some begin where the others end.
Dr. Schaff, in a foot
note on Lange, says: "The usual translation of opse (sero) Sabbatown is,
toward the end of the Sabbath, or late in the Sabbath, meaning the closing
period, near the end, but still during the Sabbath or late in the day. The
Vulgate, vesperi sabbati; Beza, extremo sabbato; Tyndale, the sabbath day at
even; Coverdale, upon the evening of the sabbath holy day; Cranmer, Genevan and
Bishops versions, “in the latter end of the sabbath day”."
The Greek phrase
translated "As it began to dawn" occurs but twice in the New Testament.
In Luke 23: 54, it is rendered, "drew on" in the sense as given by
Robinson, "to begin." Of Matt. 28:1, he says, "Trop, of the
Jewish day beginning at sunset." Casauhon, an eminent critic and
theologian at
Check Lightfoot,
Coleridge, Young and Knoch!
Revised Version:
"Now late on the Sabbath Day".
AT Robertson, 'Grammar'
- see www.biblestudents.co.za, 'Prof. Bacchiocchi refuses to hear these
questions'.
ETCETERA!
I say we don't even need
a direct reference to Jesus' resurrection on the Sabbath Day to know it was on the
Sabbath Day – all the Scriptures from the nature of the Sabbath in them, show
it would and should have been "In the Sabbath's-time"!
Robertson's Word
Pictures ("Harmony"?) of the New Testament: Quote Part
Now late on the sabbath
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week (opse de sabbatwn, th
epipwskoush ei? mian sabbatwn). This careful chronological statement according
to Jewish days clearly means that before the sabbath was over, that is before
six P.M., this visit by the women was made "to see the sepulchre"
(qeorhsai ton tapon). Part QE
The 1599 Geneva Study
Bible (in which Calvin played a major role), Mt.28:1, "In the end of the
sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre."
Disputation:
Irrelevant.
What day of the week Jesus died is
trivial. What is important is that Jesus rose. I tend to adhere to the
traditional burial on Friday/empty tomb on Sunday observance, but it is
strictly my own pov. The one thing Scripture is clear on is that the empty tomb
was discovered on the morning of the first day of the week (which would to us
be Sunday).
Defence:
No sure, clean and
innocent and may God help me never to judge you for what you hold fast to.
But do you hold fast?
No, you are most self-contradictory. Say you, “Irrelevant!
... trivial ...”, yet, “I
shall continue to regard Sunday, the first day of the week, and the day our
blessed Lord rose from the tomb, and the day we honour our Lord with worship
and the gathering of the saints. The scripture is plain to me.”
Nevertheless, God has a
way of doing things, and one of His ways is to make important an opportunity
for the worship of Him BY HIS CHILDREN. It has always been like that, and it
has always been just the one day, "God thus concerning spoke", and
that Day was "the Sabbath Day of the LORD your God", or, in NT
terminology, "the Lord's Day". ONLY THAT, explains the importance the
matter has FOR GOD, and then, "for the PEOPLE of God" – “YOUR God”.
Hb.4:9 uses the word 'apoleipetai' - "stays important", or,
"remains valid".
The importance of God's
Sabbath Day derives from the Lord of the Sabbath, 1, and 2, the People of the
Sabbath.
I have but one concern -
where is it? In the SDA-Church? I don't think so! Then where SHOULD it be? In
the Reformed, Protestant Churches, in the General Assembly of Believers, in the
Church Universal! "He that despised Moses' Law, died without mercy ... of
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who ... hath
... counted (unholy) the blood of the covenant ..." - whereby the New
Testament Sabbath - "... was sanctified"?
Is mine a preposterous
use of Hb.10:29 with reference to the Sabbath seeing the NT Sabbath is
sanctified by only the blood of Jesus' mercy?
ONLY THAT, its NAME –
“the Lord’s Day” / “Sabbath of the LORD your God” – explains the importance the
DAY has FOR GOD, and then, "for the PEOPLE of God".
Disputation:
“Scripture
is VERY CLEAR that the tomb was found empty on the morning of the first day.
Kindly refrain from hijacking this thread into yet another one of your dead
horse beatings.”
Defence:
Have I ever denied?
Scripture is VERY CLEAR that the tomb was found empty on the morning of the
first day, can't YOU see it? Scripture is VERY CLEAR that Jesus was raised
before the morning of the first day. Clear?
Then why call it MY dead
horse? My faith is built upon the LIVING TRUTH of CHRIST RESURRECTED FROM THE
DEAD – as the Scriptures promised and as the Scriptures confirmed – "in
the Sabbath's fullness of day the First Day of the week pending ..."