FIRST-DAY SABBATH by Dudley Marvin Canright

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 21, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 40.

"FIRST-DAY SABBATH."

By Dudley Marvin Canright

UNDER the above heading, our contemporary of this city, the resuscitated Messiah's Advocate and Herald of His Advent, after a demise of eight months, rises, and its first utterance (September) on this wise is:—

"Eight times in the Gospels, Christ's resurrection day is called in the Greek original 'the first of the sabbaths.' There is increasing evidence that this was no slip of the Greek pen, but a solemn declaration that the first-day sabbath was the first sabbath given to man.

"If any sabbath at all was given to man in the beginning, and kept by all the faithful, from Adam the first to Adam the second, it must have been the first-day sabbath. Look down in Egypt. Is there any hint or statement in history, sacred or profane, of any trouble down there between Pharaoh and officers and the Hebrew slaves on account of a sacred rest-day? Various causes of irritation are given, but such an one as this is not intimated. If Abraham kept a seventh-day Sabbath, his devout descendants must have done the same, and there were God-fearing men and women down there among those Hebrew slaves. These must have refused to work on Saturdays, and thus violate a holy command, if indeed there was any such command at that time, as we are supposing. But it is a well-known fact that Egypt kept Sunday as their sacred day, and upon that day they worshiped the sun.

"Now how could Israel have kept one day and Egypt another, and there arise no trouble about it? . . . The eight New Testament instances in which the first day is called 'the first'—or original—'of the sabbaths' ought to settle the matter."

Let us notice this self-confident article, the essentials of which we have quoted:—

1. The "first day of the week," or the Greek original, occurs only six times in the Gospels, eight times in all the New Testament.

2. Sunday was never kept as a Sabbath or sacred day of abstinence from labor until made so by the decrees and anathemas of pago-papal Rome. Its first law for rest was Constantine's, in 321. The Catholic Church adopted the venerable day of the sun, and in 364 cursed those who opposed it. Egypt never kept it as a Sabbath. At the most, previous to this, it was only, as stated by the North British Review, "the wild, solar holiday of all pagan times."

3. We should say that there is a pretty broad hint that there was trouble between Pharaoh and his slaves. See Ex. 5:4-19. This was not because the children of Israel did or did not keep the first day, but evidently because they attempted to keep the seventh day. The Israelites were probably deprived of keeping the Sabbath in Egypt.

4. What a remarkable sentence is the first one of the second paragraph! "If any Sabbath at all was given to man in the beginning, and kept by all the faithful from Adam the first to Adam the second, it must have been the first-day sabbath." Wonderful logic and devotion to the Bible! No evidence whatever is given, while, on the contrary, the Bible expressly declares that God instituted the seventh-day Sabbath in the beginning. Gen. 2:1-3. The same Sabbath was confirmed by the law (Ex. 20:8-11), and was the day preceding the

first day in the Gospels. And this day does not need the opinions of tradition to support it. It is based on the immutable truth of God. "Must have been the first-day sabbath"! Why?—To support men's errors now. Why will men make such declarations when they must know that they are not true? Does not the Advocate know that from Moses to the cross the seventh-day Sabbath was kept by the faithful? Such arguments reveal the weakness of the cause which our contemporary advocates. It is not worth your ink, neighbor. Seek a better cause.

5. Everyone who writes on such a subject ought to know that the Greek adjective mian (translated "first") is feminine gender, singular number, and accusative case. It must agree with some noun expressed or understood, according to the rule that adjectives must agree with their nouns in number, gender, and case. The word which our contemporary says should be translated Sabbath, but which in our version is translated "of the week," is sabbaton in every instance except Mark 16:9, where it is sabbaton, singular. The genitive case in Greek shows that relation indicated in the English by the preposition "of." However we translate sabbaton it must have the word "of" before it, as "of the Sabbath" or "of the week."

Then the phrase stands, "the first of the Sabbath," or "the first of the week." We cannot say the "first Sabbath," because the law of the language forbids applying "first" to "sabbath." It does not agree with it at all. To what does it agree? It belongs to some noun expressed or understood. What is that noun? the first what of the Sabbath, or the first what of the week? The only reasonable view is that adopted by our translators, the only word which in good sense can be supplied, the first day of the week. Day comes from himeran, accusative case, singular number, from the feminine noun hēmera. In Greenfield's Greek Testament, after the adjective "first," in every one of the eight texts, he says in the margin, "Supply hēmera [day];" "the first day of the week."

It may be objected that sabbaton always means "sabbath;" but this is not so, as Luke 18:12 shows: "I fast twice in the week [sabbaton]." It would make nonsense to say, "I fast twice in the Sabbath." So one of the definitions given in all the Greek lexicons to sabbaton is "week," "a period of seven days." The weekly cycle is called sabbath, because all days of the week were reckoned with reference to the Sabbath.

6. All lexicons of note define the Greek in harmony with the translation of our authorized version. All commentators of note are in harmony with this. All translations of any worth agree with this. Now these lexicographers, commentators, translators, are, so far as we know, in every case first-day men. They have been searching for proof for first-day sacredness for years. They knew all about the Greek construction. Why did they not bring out this new light which our contemporary so boldly sets forth?—For the simple reason that they knew that it was not true, and would not bear candid criticism.

The first-day sabbath has no foundation in the word of God. It is a fraud from the beginning. But the true Sabbath is founded on the rock of God's truth.

Now we sincerely hope that our contemporary will permit itself to be instructed. We do not care particularly about the slurs and innuendoes against us as a people found in the first number of its new life. It will suffer most because of them. It is poor meat to feed upon. But for your own sake, neighbor, do not put forth any more such arguments on the Sabbath question. No intelligent person will believe them, and we doubt as to whether you do. Get on the side of truth, and such arguments will not be called for.

M. C. W.