Argentina by Delwin R. Buckner

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1907

Argentina

By Delwin R. Buckner

OFTEN a word in a foreign language makes the Bible clearer than the same word in the English can do. Let us take the word “Sabbath,” for example. Some time ago I was talking with a Scotch-Argentine woman—a woman born in Argentina, of Scottish parents—to concerning the relative merits of Saturday and Sunday. She had always considered Sunday as the seventh day of the week. She thought the Saviour must have risen on Monday, which would be the first day of the week. This lady was born in the province of Buenos Ayres. She can speak the Spanish of the country as well as she can English. In Spanish, Sábado is the word used for both Saturday and Sabbath. I explained to her the meaning of the verse in Luke 23: 56, where the woman went home and rested “el Sábado,” according to the commandment. The verse can mean that the women returned and rested on Saturday, according to the commandment, or that they rested on the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.

It was impossible for her, as well as others, to call the Sabbath Sunday, when Sábado means Saturday, and Saturday and Sabbath are one and the same thing in the Spanish tongue.

The Spanish has become the predominant tongue among the inhabitants of South and Central America, the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere. Many in Argentina and Uruguay are showing an intense interest in the truth.

To a Spanish-speaking person the Bible speaks plainly in regard to the Sabbath, and says definitely that Saturday, and not Sunday, is the day to observe. Let us pray that many may see the light. DELWIN R. BUCKNER.