Revelation 1:10

David Thiele thielogian at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 6 01:37:59 EDT 2002


Mark,

I found your post unusual.  The phrase KURIAKH hHMERA
is different to TH hHMERA TOU KURIOU within the GNT
and without.  It is unique in the GNT in Rev 1:10.  

Certainly, I agree with you that the eschatological
day of the Lord is not in view.  Obviously, I don't
accept your interpretation of the phrase in Rev 1:10
and would observe in passing that not everyone would
accept it of the earliest patristic references.  Not
all of these are Adventists (or Sabbatarians).  There
is simply a conviction among some scholars that a
reference to an annual celebration of the death and
resurrection of Christ fits the context of Revelation,
Ignation to the Magnesians, and the Didache better
than a weekly one.   (This is a viewpoint which is
utterly independent of the question as to whether or
not Christians were actually worshiping on Sunday at
this time.)  Such a position is given classic
expression in C.W. Dugmore's 1962 article in the Oscar
Cullmann Festschrift, NEOTESTAMENTICA ET PATRISTICA.

I would certainly be interested in finding out the
earliest use of KURIAKH [hHMERA] in the patristic
sources which clearly and unambiguously refers to a
weekly Christian gathering.  The SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST
BIBLE COMMENTARY suggests the Gospel of Peter 9:12,
but that appears to me to be a reference to the actual
day of the resurrection.  If you or anyone else on the
list has considered this issue, I'd love to hear from
you.

(For what it's worth, I'm not interested in a war of
words over the Sabbath.  I'll concede Christian
worship on Sunday in the early second century.  I
simply don't think they called it the Lord's day at
that time.)

Regards

David
David Thiele
Pacific Adventist University
Papua New Guinea

 
--- Mark Wilson <emory2oo2 at hotmail.com> wrote: >
David:
> 
> You wrote:
> 
> -----
> >In theory yes, but in actual fact probably not. 
> The
> >Greek is KURIAKH hHMERA.  Whenever the "day of the
> >Lord" is referred to in the NT it is in the form of
> hH
> >hHMERA (TOU) KURIOU.  All of this begs the question
> as
> >to why John uses such a striking different formular
> >here.
> -----
> 
> I really do not think this expression is strikingly
> different.
> It IS different if one looks at the GNT only, but to
> the readers
> and hearers of the first/second centuries, this
> would have been a
> familiar expression.
> 
> It is a simple reference to the first day of the
> week
> during which the early church celebrated a festival
> commemorating
> the resurrection.
> 
> See for example, Dionysius of Corinth, Eus. 4.24;
> see also
> Epiphanius, Haer. lxxv 7, pg. 910; Clement of
> Alexandria uses
> the following expression: KURIAKHN EKEINHN THN
> hHMERAN POIEI.
> And finally, Julius Africanus uses the same
> expression, without
> the definite article, KURIAKHN hHMERAN (de temp. 5)
> 
> (This last paragraph is largely taken from H.
> Alford's commentary
> on Revelation.)
> 
> Note A. T. Roberson's comments:
> 
> -------
> On the Lord's Day (en th kuriakh hmerai). Deissmann
> has proven (Bible 
> Studies, p. 217f.; Light, etc., p. 357ff.) from
> inscriptions and papyri that 
> the word kuriakoß was in common use for the sense
> "imperial" as imperial 
> finance and imperial treasury and from papyri and
> ostraca that hmera Sebasth 
> (Augustus Day) was the first day of each month,
> Emperor's Day on which money 
> payments were made (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:1). It was
> easy, therefore, for the 
> Christians to take this term, already in use, and
> apply it to the first day 
> of the week in honour of the Lord Jesus Christ's
> resurrection on that day 
> (Didache 14, Ignatius Magn. 9).
> ------
> 
> Other's thoughts  :o )
> 
> Mark Wilson
> 
> 
>
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