More Good Testimony by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1905

More Good Testimony

By Editor

In our issue of April 27, under the heading “A False Argument Answered,” we quoted from the January number of The Bible Record a letter from Dr. Walter Quincy Scott to the editor of the Record, in which Dr. Scott gave a clear and emphatic testimony concerning the proper translation of Matt. 28: 1.

In the May number of the Record there appeared another letter upon this subject, from which we take the following:—

Editor of the Bible Record.

DEAR SIR: The query in the issue of January, 1905, as to “Sabbath or Sabbaths” seems to call for a further warning. The querist asks if in Matt. 28: 1, Opse de sabbaton, te epiphōskouse eis mian sabbaton, may not be rendered: At the end of the [Jewish seventh-day] Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the [Christian first-day] Sabbaths. The superb negative answer given should be heralded far and wide. People of excellent intention and deep piety, but with little knowledge, are making such an interpretation in fortifying themselves against “Saturday keepers.” I own two books, and have read two others, in which each writer claims to have made the great discovery of said translation, and has based his book thereon.

These good men had only a rusted smattering of classical Greek, and in their zeal without knowledge they stumbled upon this rendering, with a carelessness that few students of a month would make. “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” And more than that, acquaintance with classical Greek is not enough for the reading of the New Testament Greek. One must have large acquaintance with the grammar and the lexicon of the Greek Old Testament, and behind that, as the key to many of its peculiarities and mysteries, of the Hebrew Old Testament also.

This letter is written by a professor in

a theological seminary, but his name is not given. Put with the letter from Dr. Scott it will serve to emphasize the fact that in the proper rendering of Matt. 28: 1 there can be found no shadow of an argument that there was a change of the Sabbath at the time mentioned, and that the resurrection marked the dividing line between the two sabbaths. It requires no display of ignorance, under the pretense of advanced scholarship, to bolster up the clear and convincing testimony of the Scriptures concerning the true Sabbath of the Lord. “Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”