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The First Day of the Sabbaths?
Open your Bibles to Acts 20:7 and you will see that the church gathered to break bread on “the first day of the sabbaths”. Go on to 1 Corinthians 16:2, and we again read how Paul gave instructions about the collection for the poor saints on, “every first day of the sabbaths”. They church gathered on this day because Jesus was resurrected on the “first day of the sabbaths” (Luke 24:1).
“But Perry”, I can hear the objections, “my Bible doesn’t say, ‘first day of the sabbaths’. It reads, ‘first day of the week” in all the above passages”. Both you and I are correct. The literal reading of all these passages (and more) is not, “first day of the week”. Literally, it is, “first day of the sabbaths”.
The question is, “Does this mean the church is to gather and keep the Sabbath?”
The answer is:
• Either our translations are incorrect, and we should be meeting every sabbath.
• Or else our translations are correct and “first day of the sabbaths” means, “first day of the week”.
Which is it? Do we understand this phrase literally or as an idiom?
An idiom is common in language, such as, “It’s raining cats and dogs”. Not literally though, and we all understand that idiom means it is raining hard.
Let’s look to see how we should understand “first day of the sabbaths”:
• Luke 24:1 – On the first day of the week (lit., on the first day of the sabbaths), very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared.
Which day did the women come to the tomb? Was it Saturday or Sunday (to use our terminology)? What day of the week is “first day of the sabbaths”? The text tells us. Notice what these devout followers of Jesus and devout Jews did on the Sabbath:
• Luke 23:56 – Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
Since these women rested on the Sabbath according to the Law and didn’t come to the tomb on that day, our two choices are:’
• They began keeping the sabbath but then broke the sabbath and came to the tomb on the 7th day of the week.
• They rested on the 7th day of the week according to the Law, and on the next day, the 1st day of the week, came to the tomb.
So, did these devout Jews break the Sabbath? No. they came to the tomb on the next day.
Now notice this other account:
• Matthew 28:1 – After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week (lit., first day of the sabbaths) was dawning, Mary Magdaline and the other Mary went to view the tomb.
When did the women go to the tomb? Since it was “after the Sabbath”:
• They went to the tomb on the next day, “the first day of the sabbaths” which means Sunday.
• They went to the tomb on the next sabbath, “one of the sabbaths”, and Jesus stayed in the tomb for over an entire week.
Obviously, if Jesus prophesied that He would be resurrected on the third day, the day after the 7th day must be the 1st day of week.
“The first day of the week” is a correct translation because “first day of the sabbaths” is our Sunday. Why did the Jews use this idiom? We can only speculate; but the Biblical texts are clear. It is an idiom.
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