SABBATON by L. J. Caldwell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 25, 1878

SABBATON

By L. J. Caldwell

COMMENTS AND AUTHORITIES.

As the truth on the Sabbath and law questions arouses the popular teachers, they cast about like foxes for hiding places, and, like the hard-pressed ostrich, fancy themselves in safety if only their heads are out of sight! The Greek of Matt. 28:1 is a favorite covert lately; so much so that Eld. Caskey, in the late debate with Eld. Kilgore, appealed to it, and then admitted that he knew no more than a hog about Greek! In disproof we need only array against them the commentators, a few of whose notes I add to those given in the tract on “Sabbaton.”

A. Campbell: “The Hebrews denoted the days of the week from the order of their succession from the Sabbath. Thus the day next after the Sabbath they called the first of the Sabbath, etc. The same method is still kept up by the Christian Arabs, Persians, etc. In conclusion I would say that the adjective mia, being of the feminine gender, cannot relate to sabbaton, which is neuter; Sabbath being here used to denote Sabbath of days, that is, the period of seven days, which we call a week; and mia being of necessity construed with hemera understood. Mia ton sabbaton, therefore, can never be translated, ‘The first of the Sabbaths,’ or ‘One (Sabbath) of the Sabbaths,’ but must be uniformly rendered ‘the first day of the week.’”—Millennial Harbinger, 1836, p. 555.

Benson’s Commentary: “In the end of the Sabbath, or rather ‘After the Sabbath,’ as Opse sabbaton may be properly rendered. When it began to dawn into the first day of the week, that is, Sunday, or Lord’s day; for mia ton sabbaton, always signifies ‘the first day of the week,’ and thus the word mia usually signifies in the Septuagint, when it is joined to days, weeks, or months. See Gen. 1:31; Ex. 40:2; Ezra 3:6; 10:17.”

Religious Encyclopedia, art. Week: “From the circumstance that the Sabbath was the principal day of the week, the whole period of seven days was likewise called shabat, in the New Testament, sabbaton and sabbata. The Jews accordingly, designating the days of the week, were accustomed to say, ‘The first of the Sabbath, that is, of the week; the second day of the Sabbath; that is, Sunday, Monday, etc.’ Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:19.” So too Watson’s Theological Dictionary and Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.

Whiting: Sabbaton signifies “a rest,” “a Sabbath,” especially “the seventh day of the week.” By a metonymy it is also used for the interval from Sabbath to Sabbath, that is, a week.

Bible Dictionary, American Tract Society, art. Week: The Jews called Sunday “one of the Sabbath;” that is, the first day of the week. Monday was “two of the Sabbath.” L. J. CALDWELL.