[B-Greek] Sabbaton

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 12 00:37:58 EDT 2008


You have received some good answers, but I would like to focus on one passage which seems to me to disprove the contention that
1. σάββατον [SABBATON] should never be translated week and
2. μίαν σαββάτου [MIAN SABBATOU] refers to the first hour of Saturday
1 Cor 16.2
κατὰ μίαν σαββάτου ἕκαστος ὑμῶν παρʼ ἑαυτῷ τιθέτω θησαυρίζων ὅ τι ἐὰν εὐοδῶται 
KATA MIAN SABBATOU hEKASTO hUMWN PAR' hEAUTWi TIQETW QHSAURIZWN hO TI EAN EUODWTAI
While it is possible to instruct someone to do something during the first hour of a day, one would need to wonder why such specificity regarding the time in which it is done would be desirable.  The more logical understanding would be to understand this not as the first hour of Saturday but rather as the first day of the week.  
As regards the idea that at some point subsequent to the NT and perhaps also the time of the Apostolic Fathers there are two passages which have already been referenced which are of interest.
Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 9.1
Εἰ οὖν οἱ ἐν παλαιοῖς πράγμασιν ἀναστραφέντες εἰς καινότητα ἐλπίδος ἦλθον, μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες ἀλλὰ κατὰ κυριακὴν ζῶντες 
EI OUN hOI EN PALAIOIS PRAGMASIN ANASTRAFENTES EI KAINOTHTA ELPIDOS HLQON, MHKETI SABBATIZONTES ALLA KATA KURIAKHN ZWNTES
Here "living in accordance with the Lord's [Day] is contrasted with σαββατίζοντες [SABBATIZONTES] "keeping the sabbath" -- it is clear that both are referencing a day.  
Re 1.9 - 10
9Ἐγὼ Ἰωάννης, ὁ ἀδελφὸς ὑμῶν καὶ συγκοινωνὸς ἐν τῇ θλίψει καὶ βασιλείᾳ καὶ ὑπομονῇ ἐν Ἰησοῦ, ἐγενόμην ἐν τῇ νήσῳ τῇ καλουμένῃ Πάτμῳ διὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν μαρτυρίαν Ἰησοῦ.10ἐγενόμην ἐν πνεύματι ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ 
9 EGW IWANNHS, hO ADELFOS hUMWN KAI SUGKOINWNOS EN THi QLIYEI KAI BASILEIAi KAI hUPOMONHi EN IHSOU, EGENOMHN EN THi NHSWi KALOUMENHi PATMWi DIA TON LOGON TOU QEOU KAI THN MARTURIAN IHSOU.  10  EGENOMHN EN PNEUMATI EN THi KURIAKHi hHMERAi
It is evident that ἐντῇ κυριακῇ refers to a day since it even specifies ἡμέρᾳ [hHMERA].  It would therefore seem that the author of the Apocalypse was narrating a vision which he had on a Sunday just as Paul enjoined setting aside funds for the Jerusalem collection on a Sunday, i.e. the first day of the week.  Ignatius confirms that the church was in the habit of meeting on a Sunday when he contrasts "living according to the Lord's Day" with "keeping the Sabbath."  
Of course, if your your correspondent chooses to think that σάββατον [SABBATON] ONLY references a day and not a week, he has the option to think that he alone is correct and all others wrong.  I have seen such cases.  Generally there is no way to convince such a person.

 george
gfsomsel


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: Jonathan Bailey <baileyjn at hotmail.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org; "brian_d_fink at hotmail.com" <brian_d_fink at hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:44:15 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Sabbaton

Dear List,

Well, I finally ended up getting Bibleworks and BAGD in the mail and was trucking along without need of help but I have gotten into a conversation with this guy who believes that some sort of conspiracy has caused us to violate God's desire and change the day we worship from Saturday to Sunday. Our conversations make heavy use of the Greek and I have come to an impasse that I cannot get out of with the tools I have here.

He basically thinks that sa,bbaton should always be translated as sabbath and never week. So for him, mia/j sabba,twn should always be translated one of the sabbaths instead of first day of the week. This is just an example. I am aware that there are several variations of case and number surrounding this term. I believe he also believes that prw,th| sabba,tou should be translated 'first hour of the sabbath' or something. He basically rests his arguments on the fact that the implied hHMERA can also be an implied WRA, and that there is no justification for the inconsistencies in MIA and PRWTH and that there is no use of SABBATON as week in the LXX or in the secular literature. He claims that the word 'week' does not occur in the NT and if it did, it would be hEBDOMAS like it is everywhere else. He would not accept testimony of other ancient translations based on their lateness, though I do not know enough Latin or Syriac or any other ancient verson to use
 it to convince him of anything.

So my question for you guys is: why do we translate SABBATON as week in the NT? And also, can any of you put together a tight argument for why we translate SABBATON as week in the NT based on the language?

Thanks.

Have a good evening.

Regards,

Jon


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