To Correspondents by O. H. Spencer

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 9, 1866

To Correspondents.

By O. H. Spencer

O. H. SPENCER. There is no contradiction between Matthew and the other Evangelists respecting the time when the women visited the sepulcher of Christ on the day of his resurrection. For the expression in Matt. xxviii, 1, “In the end of the Sabbath,” is from the original ὀψὲ δὲ σαββάτων, which means “after the Sabbath.” Robinson in his Greek lexicon defines the word ὀψὲ, “with a genitive” [as in this instance] “at the end of, at the close of, after.” He then quotes this sentence from Matt. xxviii, 1, and renders it thus: “At the end of the Sabbath, i. e., after the Sabbath, the Sabbath being now ended, the same as Mark xvi, 1.” Bloomfield in his Greek Testament, commenting on the same words, says: “This must with Krebs, Wahl, Tittm., Kuin., and Fritz., be explained ‘after the Sabbath,’ i. e., as Mark more clearly expresses it, ‘And when the Sabbath was past,’ which must determine the sense here. Of this signification the commentators adduce examples from Philostratus, Plutarch, Ælian, and Xenophon.”

By these authorities Matthew’s testimony is shown to be in perfect harmony with that of the other Evangelists.