COLLEEN TINKER WITH GARY INRIG
Recently there has been increasing discussion about the idea that the word sabbaton —Sabbath—occurs in Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, and Luke 24:1 in reference to the women coming to the tomb on the first day of the week to apply spices to Jesus’ body after His being entombed over the Sabbath. Of course, we know the rest of the story: when they arrived, Jesus was no longer there.
He had risen from the dead!
The reasoning being discussed is this: since sabbaton or its plural form is used in the designation of the first day of the week in the Greek text, then one can reason that, since Jesus’ resurrection marked the beginning of the new creation by His completion of atonement and His breaking sin’s curse, we can see a reason to call that first day of the week the new creation Sabbath.
This argument also includes the idea that in the beginning, Sabbath was a creation ordinance. When God rested on the seventh day after creation, the argument goes, that day was actually Adam and Eve’s first full day of life, so they began their weekly cycle of life by celebrating God’s finished work.
Sin broke this cycle, but now, with Jesus’ resurrection marking God’s finished work of redemption and with the birth of the church also occurring on the first day of the week, the new creation in Christ again commemorates God’s finished work, but now they do it on the first, not the seventh, day of the week.
Those arguing for this understanding of a new creation Sabbath also say that the Greek text of Scripture teaches that Sabbath was transferred to the first day of the week, and that, even if we view the first day differently from the way Jews viewed the seventh day, still its proper name should be called Sabbath, and we should see it as a day designated by Scripture for Christians to honor as a day of remembrance of Jesus’ finished work.
The Problem
This reasoning, however, is wrong.
Because I do not know Greek and cannot discuss the original text, I appealed to a Greek expert whom I know: our pastor Gary Inrig. Gary studies regularly in Greek and has taught it. I asked him about the text’s use of sabbaton in Matthew 28:1 and Luke 24:1 to identify the first day of the week and thus to justify calling it Sabbath. I quote his response below:
Well, if [someone] is seeing that [argument] there, no one else I know has. The phrase simply reads “after [literally ‘after, late’] the Sabbath, while it was becoming light on the first day of the week” {Sabbatov}.
This phrase is used regularly in the New Testament. Sabbaton in the singular occurs in the phrase “the first day of the week” in Mark 16: 9; Luke 18:12; and 1 Corinthians 16:2. In its plural form it refers to a single week in Matthew 28:1b; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; and Acts 20:7. The grammar and the words can’t be pressed into such a meaning. It is a statement of chronology, not theology or ceremonialism.
Romans 14:5-9; Galatians 4:10, and Colossians 2:16 certainly don’t validate this use as the institution of a new covenant Sabbath.
Gary Inrig, D.Min.
Much more could be said about the entire argument beginning with Sabbath being a creation ordinance, but we have written about this subject in many other articles available on our website.
In short, we must remember that there is a difference between descriptive and prescriptive passages in Scripture. Where the Bible recounts events that occurred, we are reading descriptive passages that tell us what happened. Where the Bible gives commands, we have prescriptive passages. Context always determines application.
Context always determines application.
In short, while the New Testament is clear that the seventh-day Sabbath was fulfilled in Jesus and no longer applies to us in the New Covenant, neither does the New Testament teach that any other day has become Sabbath.
The Lord Jesus alone is our Sabbath rest. †
Gary Inrig is the lead pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in Loma Linda, California. He also leads a community Bible Study, Loma Linda Word Search, designed to be a place where students and residents of Loma Linda as well as the surrounding communities can come and hear the Bible taught by a Christian expositor. Formerly Gary served as the senior pastor of Trinity Church in Redlands, California, from September, 1992, until June, 2013. Prior to coming to Trinity, he had many years of fruitful ministry in Calgary and Dallas. He holds D.Min. and Th.M. degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has authored many books and has taught in various capacities in Bible colleges, conferences, and seminars. Gary has been the pastoral mentor for Former Adventist Fellowship since its inception at Trinity Church in 1999. He and his wife Elizabeth reside in Southern California.
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The first Christians were Jews, so they accounted for the days of the week by numbering them. The Sabbath was the name for the seventh day of the week and “Prosabbaton” named the sixth day of the week because it preceded the Sabbath. The day after the Sabbath was called the “first of the Sabbath” (μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων / mia tōn sabbatōn) where it could be translated simply “first [day] of the week” or first [day leading up to the next] Sabbath.” Scripture clearly treats the Sabbath and the first day of the week as different days. All uses of sabbatōn in the NT refer to the Sabbath. Even the oblique “twice a week” in Luke 18:12 (δὶς τού σαββάτου / dis tou sabbatou) has the Pharisee fasting twice before the next Sabbath. There is no way anyone today would start calling one day of the week by the name of a different day of the week. Jewish Christians would never call the first day of the week the name given to the seventh day of the week. In time, they would assign to Sunday its own honorable name, “the Lord’s Day.” In Romance languages Saturday is “Sábado” because it retains the Jewish name for Sabbath; and Sunday is “Domingo” because it attributes it to the Lord (i.e., Lord’s Day). Like Pastor Inrig said, you can’t press the Greek text into any other meaning. The Sabbath was not transferred to Sunday, and Sunday is not a new Sabbath.
Believing Jews took the creation week seriously. That old creation ended in a Sabbath and Jesus completed that old creation by resting in the grave over the Sabbath. If there was to be a new creation, it would begin with a first day, hence, the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first day of the week is duly noted by the Gospel writers and that marks the new epoch of God’s rule. At the end of this new epoch will come the long-awaited rest of God. The old Sabbath was a symbol of eternal rest and a present life of peace with God. So now, in Christ, we experience his redemptive rest during each moment of every day. The life of the Christian is marked by light, not by ritual rest.