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TO CORRESPONDENTS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 2, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 6.

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Will you give in the Review the original Hebrew and Greek for each day of the week, as some cannot see why the first day should be called “the first Sabbath,” &c. J. N. AYERS.
Ans: It would not be correct in any case to call the first day of the week “the first Sabbath.” When the word Sabbath is used for the whole week, the first day is “the first day of the Sabbath,” not “the first Sabbath.” To understand this construction it is only necessary to bear in mind the fact that the word Sabbath was used to cover the whole time from one Sabbath to another, that is, the whole week; and the days were spoken of in numerical order as the first day of this period, week, or Sabbath, the second day of the Sabbath, the third day of the Sabbath, &c.
Robinson in his Greek Lexicon of the New Testament says: “In the Talmudists the days of the week are written, יום ראשון בשבת, יום שני בשבת, i. e., the first, second, third day in the Sabbath (week).” So the Greek would be mia sabbatone, duo sabbatone, tria sabbatone, tessara sabbatone, pente sabbatone, hexe sabbatone, and hepta sabbatone, or Sabbath. And these numeral adjectives agree with heemera, day, understood; thus, the first day of the Sabbath, or week, the second day of the Sabbath, or week, the third day of the Sabbath, or week, and so on to the seventh. For a full discussion of this construction see the little tract on Sabbaton.
RUSSELL HART: The quotation given last week from Clark Braden, published in the Christian Standard of Sept. 26, 1874, we know to be correct. We saw the paper in which it originally appeared. Mr. Braden is a Disciple, and was formerly president of the Disciple college at Abingdon, Ill. Some years since he entered upon a discussion with Eld. J. V. Himes upon the nature of man, the discussion to be published in a Disciple paper and in Himes’ paper; but he was shut down on that by his brethren, he was getting so worsted in the argument. He was the prime instigator of the discussion between Bro. Waggoner and Eld. Vogel on the Sabbath question; and we think it was in reference to the results of that discussion that he penned the frank confession in regard to the confusion of writers upon the Sunday question given in Bro. Corliss’ article last week. U. S.