BRO. SMITH: It would be gratifying to myself and others, if you would re-publish an article which appeared in the Review several years since. It was a criticism of J. Litch (I think) on Matt. xxviii, 1, with a note by the editor. [The following we suppose to be the article referred to which appeared in REVIEW No. 21, Vol. viii.—Ed.] As appeal is often made to the Greek of Matt. xxviii, 1, in behalf of Sunday-keeping, a brief notice of that text may be appropriate at this time. We are not surprised at the various reasons urged against the observance of the true Sabbath, and in favor of a false one: we expect the great enemy of all truth will improve well his ground, and leave no stone unturned. However, we thank our opponents for all their inventions, since the explosion of every new objection, is a fresh accession to our own strength. But it is not of late only, that the attempt has been made to throw Greek dust into the eyes of the honest. Eld. J. Litch endeavored to play at the same game in a letter to the Advent Herald, dated July 16th, 1851; and as the view which the original Greek of Matt. xxviii, 1, &c., is by some supposed to teach, is perhaps as well embodied in his language as any, we present his remarks as follows: "Bro. HIMES: I was forcibly struck while reading several tracts with which I met while on my passage from New York to Hartford, with the apparent disingenuousness of the writer. One argument on which he seemed to lay great stress in support of the seventh-day Sabbath, was this—that Sabbath means rest—that the seventh day is called a Sabbath in the New Testament—the first day is not so called, but is always designated the first day of the week. "The truth is—and the Sabbatarians either do or ought to know it—the evangelists never in the language in which the gospels are found (the Greek), called the first day of the week anything else but Sabbath. For the information of those who are shaken in their minds on this subject, I will transcribe the Greek text in Italics containing the words rendered by our translators first day of the week, and also the word rendered by them Sabbath, meaning the seventh day. "Matt. xxviii, 1.—English translation: 'In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week.' Greek—ὀψὲ δὲ σαββάτων, τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ εἰς μίαν σαββάτων. There the identical word in the same case, genitive plural, rendered Sabbath when referring to the seventh day, is rendered first day of the week in the very next clause of the verse. A literal rendering would be, if we adopt the principle of our translators of Anglicizing instead of translating the word, 'And in the end of Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward one of Sabbath.' "Does not this indicate that one series of Sabbaths there ended, so far as obligation to observe it was concerned, and a new series was introduced? At any rate, the first is as positively called Sabbath as the seventh day. And all four of the evangelists designate it by the same word. Mark xvi, 2. Καὶ λίαν πρωῒ τῆς μιᾶς σαββάτων—'And very early the one of Sabbaths,' &c. Luke xxiv, 1. Τῇ δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων—'And the one of the Sabbaths,' &c. John xx, 1. Τῇ δὲ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων—'And in the one of the Sabbaths,' &c. Thus the four evangelists do agree in calling the first by the same name they do the seventh day of the week, and that word as certainly signifies rest in the one case as in the other. Let no one, therefore, hereafter contend that the writers of the New Testament never call the first day, Sabbath, or rest, for no New Testament writer has called it anything else, except John, [Rev. i, 10], where it is called the 'Lord's day.' Philadelphia, July 16th, 1851. This breast-work which Eld. Litch had thus endeavored to throw up to shield easy consciences from the force of the truth, was however entirely demolished by the editor of the Herald, by some remarks which he appended to this letter, as follows: "Remarks.—Lest any should gather from the above that the word Sabbath is represented by the phrase, 'first day of the week,' we add that Sabbath is simply translated week in those texts—other words indicating the day of the week. The word Sabbath is originally a Hebrew word, and signifies rest; but occurring at133regular intervals, by a metonomy it became significant of the periods separated by these rests. So that we have the seventh day of the rest, and the first day of the rest, week, or Sabbath."—ED. Advent Herald. Robinson in his Greek Lexicon of the New Testament gives the following as a second definition of σαββάτον: "2. Metonomy, a Sabbath, put for the interval from Sabbath to Sabbath; hence a se's-night, a week." One of the definitions which Greenfield also gives to this word is, "a period of seven days, a week," whether in the singular or plural. An instance of its use in this sense is found in Luke xviii, 12, where the proud Pharisee, in his self-righteousness exclaimed, "I fast twice in the week."—Νηστεύω δὶς τοῦ σαββάτου—nesteuo dis tou sabbatou. Will our new translators say that σαββάτου here includes one day only, and that the old Pharisee fasted twice on the Sabbath? The word in this sense, according to Robinson, occurs elsewhere "only after numerals marking the days of the week;" and in proof of this, he cites us to those very texts which some have of late been using in trying to make people believe that the term, Sabbath, is applied by Scripture to the first day of the week; namely, Matt. xxviii, 1; Mark xvi, 2, 9; Luke xxiv, 1; John xx, 1, 19; Acts xx, 7; 1 Cor. xvi, 2. In view of these facts let us look more particularly at Matt. xxviii, 1. Ὀψὲ δὲ σαββάτων—Opse de sabbatou, but in the end of the Sabbath (or week, the seventh day or Sabbath, being the last day of the week), τῇ ἐπιφωσκούσῃ—tee epiphooskousee, as it began to dawn, εἰς—eis, toward, μίαν—mian, the first, (the numeral, marking the day of the week, according to Robinson), σαββάτου—sabbatou, of the week. Concerning the numeral μίαν, we would remark that it cannot agree with σαββάτον understood, as would necessarily be the case if it meant one (Sabbath) of a new series of Sabbaths then introduced, as the writer above quoted contends: for μίαν is of the feminine gender, and σαββάτον is neuter. There is no word with which, in this case, it can agree, except ἡμέραν—heemeran, day, understood, as is given in the margin of the Greek Testament. With μίαν, therefore, agreeing with day understood, and σαββάτον denoting the week, the case clearly stands thus: "As it began to dawn towards the first (day) of the week." Hence any one can see that it is not possible, without doing violence to the sacred text, to give to such passages as Matt. xxviii, 1, a rendering essentially different from that of the common version. In what light then shall we look upon those who boldly assert that the first day of the week is called the Sabbath, and base the assertion upon their translations of the above named texts, while at the same time they are either ignorant of, or intentionally conceal, the fact, that the word σαββάτον is sometimes used in a secondary sense, meaning the whole week, and especially so when preceded by a numeral adjective denoting the day of the week? Shall we look upon these efforts to defend Sunday-keeping as the result of ignorance only? or as a betrayal of the enmity that rankles in their hearts against the holy and good law of a righteous God? We are sorry to regard any one in such an unenviable light; but they thus place themselves before us, as often as they engage in such attempts to sustain a groundless position. We would advise them no more to hazard their reputation, either for honesty or scholarship, by such a course. And we would further recommend those Sunday-keepers who have suddenly become enamored of the Greek, thinking to find therein something to support their cherished theory, to meditate carefully upon the word ἀνομία—anomia, as it occurs in the following instances, beginning with the words of Christ: "Depart from me ye that work τὴν ἀνομίαν—teen anomian, lawlessness;" or, ye law-breakers: Matt. vii, 23: xiii, 41; xxiii, 28; xxiv, 12; Rom. iv, 7; vi, 19; 2 Cor. vi, 14; 2 Thess. ii, 7; Titus ii, 14; Heb. i, 9; viii, 12; x, 17; 1 John iii, 4. The truth is, those who endeavor to ride away from the requirements of the moral law upon the Greek language, "do, or ought to know," that they have mounted the wrong hobby.