[B-Greek] Re: I Cor 16:2
David Thiele
thielogian at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 19 18:24:24 EST 2004
Mitch,
The word SABBATON certainly means Sabbath but it has a
secondary meaning of "week". The meaning in any given
case must be determined by context. The wording of
Matthew 28:1 is interesting in this regard: OYE DE
SABBATWN, TH(I) EPIFWSKOUNSH(I) EIS MIAN SABBATWN
(apologies if I have not got the transcription
perfectly correct). In this sentence the first use of
SABBATON must mean "Sabbath" and the second must mean
"week".
With regard to I Cor 16:1, the fact that SABBATOU is a
genitive singular strongly suggests that "week" is the
intended meaning. It is not "on the first sabbath"
but "on the first of the Sabbath/week. I
suppose--although bigger Greeks might want to correct
me--that if it were SABBATWN instead of SABBATOU a
case could be made for "on the first of the Sabbaths
(in a series of Sabbaths). However, as it stands, "on
the first [day] of the week" is the correct
translation.
On further point: in my reading on the issue I cannot
find any support that Sunday was refered to by the
term Sabbath for hundreds of years after the New
Testament. I think the dominant view of evangelical
scholars today (see book edited by Carson on the
topic) is that Sunday was not regarded as a Sabbath in
New Testament times, but rather was seen as a
convenient time for worship.
Regards
David Thiele
Pacific Adventist University
Papua New Guinea
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