The Lord’s Day by F. D. Starr

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 27, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 21.

The Lord’s Day

By F. D. Starr

BECAUSE the term “Lord” in Rev. 1: 10, as it occurs in the original, has a different ending from that which it has in any other text of the New Testament, some have argued that an entirely new institution is here introduced. The expression in Greek, in this instance, for “Lord’s day,” is kuriake hemera; and because of the peculiar ending of the word kuriake, “Lord’s,” it is claimed it must refer to a new Lord’s day, “the lordly day,” as some would put it.

But what proves too much, proves nothing at all. This same reasoning would lead us to conclude that in Rev. 9: 11 we have a new Greek language introduced, seeing the word “Greek” as found in this verse ends in a different manner from what it does in any other passage where it is used in the New Testament. The word is Hellenike, ending, as will be seen, in the same way as kuriake. Both are peculiar; but if the use of the one implies the introduction of a new institution, then the use of the other also implies a new institution. But no one would claim that the construction in Rev. 9: 11 calls for a new language; and the claim that the same condition in Rev. 1: 10 calls for a new Lord’s day is just as fully without foundation.

F. D. STARR.