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TO CORRESPONDENTS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 27, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 17.

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

When and from what source did the days of the week receive their names? What is meant by “high day,” in John 19:31? Z. B. Chipman.
Ans. 1. Philip Smith in his “History of the World,” vol. i. p. 211, says:—
“There is reason to believe that they [the Chaldeans] mapped out the zodiac, and invented the nomenclature which we still use for the seven days of the week.” And the period of which he was treating was 2234 to 1960, before Christ. According to this, over two thousand years before Christ, the days of the week received their present names from the old Chaldean idolaters, and Sunday then took its place as “the day of the sun.”
2. The use of the term “high day” in John 19:31, is usually explained on the supposition that the weekly and passover Sabbaths fell upon the same day, that day being called in consequence “an high day.”
W. T. Millman: See explanation of Dan. 12:11, 12, in Thoughts on Daniel.
How can you harmonize the doctrine of the resurrection of infants with John 5:29? Having done neither good nor bad, if they have not immortal souls, will they be raised? J. Mellernee.
All die in Adam, infants and adults, good and bad, alike. In extending to the race a new probation after Adam’s sin, the Lord engaged that all should be released from the death they die in Adam, and should then stand in reference to his future dealings with them, upon their own merits. The standard by which we are then judged is the law of God. The adult righteous are free from the condemnation of the law, because they have secured through Christ the forgiveness of their sins. Infants, never having personally transgressed the law, stand also free from its condemnation. It has no claims upon them. But the wicked being found with sins still upon them, the law asserts its claims over them, and the penalty, which still is death, is inflicted upon them. Having now died for their own personal transgressions, they forever remain dead, because there is no provision for a release from that death, as there is for our release from the present death we die in Adam.
How do you harmonize Rev. 19:7, 8, with your position that the New Jerusalem is the Bride, the Lamb’s wife? C. H. S.
See explanation in Thoughts on Revelation, pp. 304, 305.
A. R., Brooklyn, Iowa: It does not look to us quite consistent for those who do not believe that swine’s flesh should be used for food, to raise it to sell. But every one must be his own judge of propriety in this matter.
B. F. Lewis: We understand the expressions in reference to Melchisedec, in Heb. 7, to mean simply that no record has been preserved of his genealogy. The Jews were accustomed to speak of persons in that condition as without father or mother, beginning of life or end of days; that is, none of these points being recorded.
How could the children of Israel compass the city of Jericho seven days and not break the Sabbath? T. W. F.
Ans. Doing work which the Lord commands is not breaking the Sabbath. It is simply our own work which the commandment forbids. Num. 28:9, 10, was no part of the Sabbath law, but only of the ceremonial. Matt. 22:36–38; Jas. 2:8, 9; Lev. 19:18; Deut. 6:5, all refer to the moral law, by giving a summary of its precepts.
A. Hall: We understand 1 Cor. 14:34, 35, to have been designed to correct some irregularity in the Corinthian church, explained in Paul’s first letter to Timothy, 2:12, as usurping authority over the man.
ANSWERED BY LETTER: Geo. A. King, H. Edson, H. A. St. John, H. Nicolo, B. L. Whitney, J. O. Corliss, J. Cartwright, G. W. Eggleston, L. M. Ramsey, R. F. Cottrell, J. L. Dickson.