In the End of Sabbaths

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 2, 1908

“In the End of Sabbaths”

ONCE more a defender of the Sunday sabbath comes forward with light on the meaning of Matt. 28: 1. A writer in the Baptist Standard states his case as follows:—

A correct translation of sabbatoon, both in the singular and plural, would throw a flood of light on this subject. Take Matt. 28: 1, “Now in the end [or near the end] of sabbaths, at the dawning toward the first [foremost or chiefest] day of sabbaths, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the sepulcher.”

Conceding the translation as above, what follows? What, for example, does Matt. 28: 1 signify? The answer seems to be: that the Jewish sabbaths, including their weekly Sabbath, the week of sabbaths, the fast-day sabbaths, and their annual sabbaths, all came to their legitimate end, at the beginning of the first day, or Christian, sabbath.

There are two difficulties with this exposition. The first is that it is not warranted by the Greek text, and the second is that it is not in harmony with fact. In support of the first proposition, it is only necessary to state that the Greek word, opse, which is rendered in our Authorized Version, “In the end,” is an adverb which might properly be rendered “late” or “in the latter part of,” referring wholly to time. There is not in this word the least suggestion of “end” in the sense of “termination.” To render opse sabbatoon (translated in our Authorized Version, “In the end of the Sabbath”) by, “In the end of sabbaths,” with the purpose of conveying the idea that all existing sabbaths came to an end at that time, shows either absolute ignorance of the Greek language or an unscrupulous purpose to mislead the reader. One guilty of either is wholly unworthy of confidence as a translator and expounder of the original text.

Furthermore, the Greek word mian (rendered “first” in our Authorized Version) does not mean first in rank, but simply the first one in a series. To suggest the word “foremost,” or the word “chiefest,” as the proper translation, and then to claim as a result of this rendering, that Sunday is “the principal sabbath, or ‘the queen of Sabbaths’” is a perversion of the text. The ordinary rendering of this passage, as found in the Authorized and Revised Versions, is correct; and there is in this verse absolutely not any evidence whatever of the abolition of the seventh-day Sabbath and the substitution of another sabbath in its place.

The typical sabbaths, having fulfilled their purpose, ceased at the time of the first advent, when all the ceremonies of the Levitical law passed away. But Christ came to fulfil, rather than to destroy, the moral law; and the Sabbath which was established before sin came into the world, and which was therefore not instituted as a part of the remedial system, will remain even after the work of the gospel has been completed. Testimony is borne to this through the prophet Isaiah in these words: “And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”

The writer of the article from which these quotations have been taken, further says:—

The above translation leaves the Seventh-day Adventists with nothing but an obsolete type of the true Sabbath, and without the slightest support from the New Testament Scriptures.

If those who desire to see the sabbath of tradition supplant the Sabbath of the Lord could only make a Bible to suit themselves, or could make our present Bible read as they wish, they could easily shut out from the New Testament all testimony in favor of the seventh-day Sabbath; but such attempts to manufacture evidence in behalf of the Sunday sabbath, as the one which we have reviewed in this article, only show the weakness of the case and excite the pity (not to use a stronger word) of intelligent readers of the Scriptures. If we were unable to present in behalf of the seventh-day Sabbath any better arguments than those adduced by the writer of the article in question, we should certainly give up any further effort to convert people to the observance of the true Sabbath of the Lord. It is a satisfaction to know, however, that the original Sabbath rests upon a sure foundation. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”