The Calendar of the Week in Bible Times by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 17, 1908

The Calendar of the Week in Bible Times

By W. A. S.

In his comments on the phrase, “Toward the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1), Dr. Lightfoot, the old English scholar, said:—

The Jews reckon the days of the week thus: One day (or the first day) of the sabbath. Two of the sabbath [he puts it in Hebrew characters]. Two witnesses come and say, The first of the sabbath this man stole, etc., and on the second day of the sabbath judgment passed on him (i. Bab. Maccoth, fol. 5. 1). . . . Ezra ordained that they should read the law publicly on the second and fifth day of the sabbath, etc. He appointed that judges should sit in the cities on the second and fifth day (Hieros. Meg. fol. 75. 1). Ezra appointed also that they should wash their clothes on the first day of the sabbath. (Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 8. 2).—Lightfoot’s Works, Vol. II, page 271, London, 1684.

It is plainly to be seen how, in common usage, the Sabbath gave its name to the weekly cycle. The Sabbath marked the full week, and was the chief day. So many weeks were so many sabbaths. A week came to be called a sabbath, and the days of the week were one, two, three, etc., into or of the sabbath.

This was the common weekly calendar style in ancient Syria. Horne, in his “Introduction” (Vol. III, page 165), refers to the use of the word sabbata for a week “among the Syrians, Arabians, Christian Persians, and Ethiopians, as in the following ancient Syriac calendar expressed in Hebrew characters (taken from Bishop Marsh’s Translation of Michaelis’s ‘Introduction to the New Testament,’ Vol. I, page 136):—

One of the sabbath, or week—Sunday Two of the sabbath, “ “ Monday Three of the sabbath, “ “ Tuesday Four of the sabbath, or week—Wednesday Five of the sabbath, “ “ Thursday Eve of the Sabbath, “ “ Friday The Sabbath — — — Saturday

With such a calendar in current use, the only way in which one could understandingly speak of the days of the week in New Testament times was to call the seventh day “the Sabbath;” the first day of the week, or Sunday, would be “one of the sabbath;” Monday, “two of the sabbath,” etc. Horne says:—

It is remarkable that all the evangelists follow the Syriac calendar, both in the word sabbata, used for “a week,” and also in retaining the cardinal number, mia sabbaton, “one of the week,” to express the day of the resurrection. Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.

The Jewish usage of centuries, as quoted by Lightfoot, and the style of the ancient Syriac calendar of the week, are sufficient to demonstrate to any eye that can see, that the translators of the Bible have correctly translated Matt. 28:1 and kindred texts, by the phrase “first day of the week.” W. A. S.