p. 2 | Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 28, 1913

Question Corner

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

This Inquirers' Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly in the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

3973 — Origin of the Names of the Days of the Week

Can you give me any light as to when and how the seven days of the week, as we have them now, received their names?

The Bible gives them as first, second, third, and so on. D. W. S.

The names of our present week are purely pagan, altho they have no such meaning as that to those who generally use them now. Sunday was so called because it was dedicated to the sun; Monday, the moon; Tuesday, from the god Tuisco; Wednesday, from the god Woden, one of the deities in the Norwegian mythology; Thursday, from the god Thor—the thunderer—a god of Northern Europe; Friday, from the goddess Frigga, another name for Venus; Saturday was named from Saturn, the father of Jupiter. All these days were dedicated to some one of the gods by various idolatrous nations. When the people of these nations became converted to Christianity, they brought the names of the days along with them. The mere names as such amount to little. The greatest loss in not holding to the Bible numbering of the days, is the regard for the Sabbath, for all the Bible days were numbered in respect to the Sabbath,—one into the Sabbath, second into the Sabbath, third into the Sabbath, and so on until we come to the sixth day, called Sabbath eve, and the seventh day the Sabbath; so that the remembering of “the Sabbath day to keep it holy” would begin with the very first of the week. Almost any good, unabridged dictionary would give these facts under each day.

3974 — Spirits in Prison

Please explain 1 Peter 3:18-20. J. L. L.

The passage reads as follows: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The apostle's discourse is concerning the efficacy of the grace of God and of the death of Christ. Let us question the text:

What did Christ do?—He “suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous.”

Why?—“That He might bring us to God.”

What did He do that He might bring us to God?—“Being put to death in the flesh.”

By what was He made alive?—“But made alive, or quickened, by the Spirit.” See also Rom. 8:11,—“The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead.”

What had He done by the Spirit previous to this?—“By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.”

Through whom did He preach?—Through Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.” 2 Peter 2:5; Heb. 11:7.

By what power did all God's prophets bear His message?—“The Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.” 1 Peter 1:11.

Why did He preach to these spirits shut up in the prison-house of sin (Isa. 42:7; 61:1)?—“Which sometime were disobedient.”

When were they disobedient?—“When once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

Summing it all up, therefore, we learn that our Lord who died for us at one particular point of time in the plan of God—“in the fulness of time”—has been a Saviour all the way through the world's history; that He it was in the great testing time preceding the Deluge when the children of earth were in sin; that He preached to them through Noah, preached to them when they needed the preaching, preached when God's long-suffering was manifest, preached, and so saved eight souls in the ark. By this preaching, and by the acceptance of this message, Noah condemned the world and became the heir of God by the righteousness of faith. Heb. 11:7. If the gospel was sufficient to save Noah, then it was sufficient to save all those who had the same message that Noah did, and it is a perversion of the Scriptures to say that more than 2,000 years after, Jesus, in a disembodied spirit, went and preached to certain souls that were in hell. He preached to them through Noah, and preached to them when there was hope of their salvation, while the ark was preparing.

3975 — Definitions of Rome

Give me, please, the thoro definitions of the following terms: Apostolic Rome, Pagan Rome, Papal Rome. What is meant by them? N. E. T.

This would depend to some extent on who defined them. The usual Protestant understanding is as follows: “Apostolic Rome” would be Rome in the days of the apostles; that is, it would simply mean the Christian church at Rome as instructed by the apostle Paul and others. It could not mean any more than that, because after the apostles' days tradition came in and perverted more or less of the teachings of the apostles. We presume that Roman Catholics would call it Apostolic Rome to the present time; but the real test of this is, Is Rome's present teaching in harmony, or has Rome's teaching for many centuries been in harmony, with the teaching of the apostles? “Pagan Rome” is Rome under the pagan religion, or when the pagan religion was the state religion in Rome. This continued until about the fifth century. All of the affairs of state were conducted with reference to the worship of the gods. As to when “Papal Rome” began, there will be more or less difference of opinion. Some would date it from 533, when Justinian's decree made the bishop of Rome “head over all the holy churches, and true and only corrector of heretics.” Of course the Arian Ostrogoths at that time held Rome, and were not driven out until 538; but from that time on, in a general way, until the overthrowing of the Papacy in 1798, the Catholic states of Europe may generally be said to be under Papal Rome. So far as the city itself is concerned, it continued to be Papal Rome until the conquest of the States of the Church by Victor Emmanuel in 1870.

3976 — Sell and Give Alms

We are sometimes told to sell what we have and give alms. Does this mean all we can spare, or also the very roof over our heads? M. E.

We would like to assure our questioner that God does not ask her, or any one else, to do anything of this kind on the human say-so. If we are standing right with Him, if we are in touch with the Infinite, we will feel the promptings of His Spirit, as well as the voice of men. It certainly is right enough for those who have children and a little home, to keep the children and the little home. Sometimes God wants men to give absolutely all and follow Him, as He did the rich young man whom He met here upon the earth. See Matthew 19. He would have this young man become a herald and evangelist for Him, in giving His message to the world. Sometimes He is willing that men shall keep property, in order that they may make very much more for the support of His cause. He deals in different ways with different men, according to their disposition, needs, abilities, gifts, etc. What each one of us ought to do, is to stand responsive to His call; and what He asks us or directs us to do, to do it with simple faith in Him. If we will seek Him, certainly He will not leave us to ourselves.

3977 — Three Marys

Please explain Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1. Are there three Marys mentioned in Mark 16:1, 2? After Christ, how many children had Mary? P. T. O.

Matt. 27:56 reads, “Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.” Mark 15:40 reads, “There were also women looking on afar off; among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome.” Mark 16:1,—“Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome.” In Matt. 27:56 there are three women mentioned,—Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. Putting that with Mark 15:40, we would conclude that the mother of Zebedee's children was named Salome, and this is in perfect harmony with Mark 16:1. There were, then, including the mother of our Lord, three Marys. Regarding Mary's children, see answer elsewhere, entitled “Children of Mary.”

3978 — Three Days and Three Nights

Kindly explain Matt. 12:40. Compare with John 19:42, 20:1,—“three days and three nights.” R. S. E.

The term “day and night” was one used by the Jews and found in Scripture, simply expressing a day. In round terms, it would be in three days and three nights. The term “the heart of the earth” occurs here only. Some contend that it means the grave, but there is nothing that would indicate that this is the case. Rather, would it not mean the powers of darkness, those absolutely controlling in the earth? This was the great Roman power. So when they came to arrest Jesus, He said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53. And just before this He said, “Now is the judgment [crisis] of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31); and just before this, He prayed, “Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour.” John 12:27. With that hour began the three days of suffering and affliction and death and burial, to His resurrection. His arrest came, as generally understood. The three days included the whole of the sixth day, the whole of the seventh day, and the first part of the first day. For His disciples said, in speaking of His sufferings, “To-day is the third day since these things were done.” Luke 24:21. That shows that they understood these days in that common, broad sense. Compare with verse 7. This will explain John 19:42; 20:1. Jesus was buried on Friday, slept in the grave over the Sabbath, and was raised the first day of the week; and this first day of the week was the third day, as the disciples of that time understood it.