The Sabbath in the Armenian
By G. YERAM
THE seventh day in Armenian is called Shapath. The Armenian alphabet is composed of thirty-nine letters, and each letter stands for a number. The first stands for one, or first, and so on, till the tenth, which stands for twenty, the twentieth letter for two hundred, or two hundredth, and so on. Now, in the Armenian ecclesiastical books, for the first day of the week we find both the first letter of the alphabet and that of the Shapath (in the Armenian there is one letter for sh)—that is, the first of the Sabbath; for the second day, the second letter of the alphabet and sh, and so on, till the sixth day, which is called by another name, and the seventh is the Shapath. It is said that the apostle Bartholomew, in the first of the Christian era, went to Armenia to preach the gospel. Probably the Armenians kept the Sabbath until the Western, polluted Christianity was introduced among them, after the Laodicean Council. The Armenian church is called by some Gregorian, from St. Gregory the Illuminator, who very early introduced Christianity among Armenians, and also turned their king to Christianity. In all probability he and the believers kept the true Sabbath, and to-day, among Seventh-day Adventists in Turkey, the Armenians have the greatest number. So we see that the true Sabbath has been recognized among the most ancient nations, and from the earliest times. The Armenians never call the Sunday Sabbath. Thank the Lord for this testimony.