3064 — Which Day of the Week Was It?
By Editor
In Acts 27:11 we find that the disciples had a night meeting. We believe that it was Saturday night, the night of the first day of the week. In verse 7 it says that he departed "on the morrow." The opposers say that Paul departed not on the first day, but on the morrow after the first day. Please explain. T. W. F. Evidently a mistake is made in the reference above. It should be Acts 20, verses 7-11. The Bible manner of reckoning time was from sunset to sunset, and therefore the evening of the first day was the evening preceding the light part, beginning with what is our Saturday night. That is generally conceded by scholars. The meeting was what would be called a Saturday night meeting. There can be no question over this at all, if we decide it from the Bible manner of reckoning the days. That meeting lasted all that night; and the next day—that is, the light day—Paul departed. If any one should say that there was a day between his departure and the time of that all-night meeting, of what worth would it be? The Scripture is absolutely silent regarding it. But no one looks upon it in that way, so far as we know. See Conybeare and Howson. They without any question make Paul take his journey across the isthmus to Assos on the first day of the week. Dean Alford counts the breaking of bread the "agape, or the love-feast, which Paul had not even tasted, that is the bread which he had broken." Again, "The time indicated by the break of day must have been before, or about five A.M., which would allow about four hours since the miracle. We have here a minute but interesting touch of truth in the miracle. Paul, we learn afterwards, intended to go afoot. And accordingly, here we have it simply related that he started away from Troas before his companions, not remaining for the reintroduction of the now recovered Eutychus, in verse 12." Wesley, on verse 11, says, "So departed, without taking any rest at all;" and on verse 13, "Being himself desirous to go on foot that he might enjoy the company of his Christian brethren a little longer, altho he had passed the night without sleep," showing clearly that Wesley understood him to have journeyed on the first day of the week, as the record clearly indicates. It seems to us that to deny the apostle’s journey on the first day of the week is a mere arbitrary statement against very obvious facts.