Seventh-Day Sabbath by I. Lamb

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 2, 1868

Seventh-Day Sabbath.

By I. Lamb

The World's Crisis, for May 6th inst., contains a very ingenious article on “Sunday Sabbath,” by T. M. Preble, in which he quotes the following from Josiah Litch, in reference to Matt. xxviii, 1. (literal rendering).

“And in the end of Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward one of Sabbaths. Does not this indicate that one series of Sabbaths there ended, so far as obligation to observe it was concerned, and a new series was introduced? At any rate the first is as positively called Sabbath as the seventh day. . . . Thus the four evangelists do agree in calling the first by the same name they do the seventh day of the week, and that word as certainly signifies rest in the one case as in the other. Let no one therefore hereafter contend that the writers of the New Testament never call the first day Sabbath or rest, for no New Testament writer has called it anything else, except John, (Rev. i, 10,) where it is called the Lord's day.”

The above reasoning is vicious, and calculated to mislead the uninformed. The first day is never called Sabbath, but uniformly “one of Sabbaths.” Where the word one is, in Greek, it is an adjective of the feminine gender, agreeing with day understood, and consequently means “first” and not “one;” but Sabbath is, in Greek, a noun of the neuter gender. Again, it is impossible for it to imply a new series of Sabbaths, because the same expression is used in a more emphatic manner with the articles in Acts xx, 7, “On the first day of the Sabbaths;” again the word translated “in the end” is the same word which is translated “evening” in Mark xi, 19; and xiii, 35, the word for “end,” in Greek, is neuter gender, but the participle epiphoskousa, translated “as it began to dawn,” is feminine gender, agreeing with day understood. To suppose that “evening” here refers to the close of a series of Sabbaths is to give it a poetical license unusual and unbecoming such a serious narrative; but if the apostles knew that the old series of Sabbaths had ended, why did they continue to call that day Sabbath as in Acts xv, 21; xviii, 4; xvii, 2; xiii, 14, 15. Acts xv, 21, is conclusive that the seventh day was expected to be continued, or else its assertion in the apostle's speech has no meaning; for it is not said, “having been read,” but “being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.” The same remark applies to Acts xiii, 27. The reference to Rev. i, 10, is as much in favor of the seventh day as the first.

The inference from Acts xx, 7, is, that the Lord's supper was partaken of on seventh-day night, after sunset, which was the first day of the week with the Jews, whose days consisted of evening and morning, as in Gen. i. Should it be contended that it was first-day after sunset, then, as it was taken after midnight, it was on the second day, even according to Roman reckoning.

From Troas, (part of one of the four divisions or horns of the Brazen Empire,) went forth Oneas and founded Rome; and from Troas (Acts xx, 7,) is revealed the antidote to the mark of the beast, the Agag of Amalekites. Why should the first-day Sabbath be preserved as an offering to the Lord? God says he is a jealous God. He must, then, be jealous to see men keeping the Pope's Sabbath and slighting his. As the fourth commandment is the only place where God says he made Heaven and earth, he has set his seal and signature to it, which the wise virgins and sealed ones will observe. Rev. vii, 3, 4.

I. Lamb.

Vineland, N. J., May 14, 1868.