ART. VI.-MUST SYNTAX DIE THAT THE SABBATH MAY LIVE? In the contest with the tireless seventh-day Sabbatarians increasingly are certain Methodist writers insisting that the res urrection of Christ upon the first day of the week recovered and reenacted the original, creational, and true Sabbath.* With hearty sympathy does the writer view their every legitimate argument to establish the sanctity and foster the hallowing of the Lord's Day. But when a claim on its behalf is distinctly based upon, or forcibly corroborated by, a gross wresting of the Holy Scripture, suspicion as to its validity instinctively sets in, to say nothing of mortification and repugnance. Each of the works named, and two of them with the pleasing consciousness of having brought to light that which was hid from the wise and prudent from the foundation of the world, assert that the words in Matt. xxviii, 1, μíav oaßßátwv, are falsely translated "the first day of the week." One avers that it can only be rendered "the first, of the Sabbaths." Thus to him Christ's resurrection was so timed as to mark for all mankind through ages to come the very day of the week which was the original "first of the Sabbaths," to the abrogation of all other later, transitory, and inferior Sabbaths, such as that of the Jews on the seventh day. With slightly less grammatical violence another will read it, "[Number] one of the Sabbaths," declaring the Holy Ghost uniquely thus to have numbered it as the first of the new series of Christian Sabbaths. These are the general affirmations: (1) Nothing in the Hebrew Old Testament justifies the "day-of-the-week" rendering of Matt. xxviii, 1, and its similar parallels. (2) Both the LXX and the current Greek had a phrase for "the first day of the week," had any New Testament writer wished to speak thereof.† (3) The Greek of the LXX, in constant use by Christ and the apostles, never used the Greek word for "Sabbath" to *"Saturdarianism: A Brief Review," Methodist Review, November, 1897. The True Sabbath. Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts, 1892. The Sabbath. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1888. +Apart from the form to be considered later the present writer fails to recall the use of such phrase by the LXX. express "week" or "day of the week." (4) No Greek word for "day" occurs in any of the passages. (5) There is no Greek word for "week" or "day of the week" in the Greek New Testament. Forcing this last assertion even in Luke xviii, 12, where the Pharisee says, vηorεúw dìç tov σaßßátov, they flinch not, one valiantly rendering it, "I fast twice on the Sabbath," while another, with more or less tenderness of grammatical conscience, hunts up two yearly fasts and then renders it, "I fast twice (a year) on the Sabbath!" Characterized has been the action whereby one will strain out a "week" or "day" and then swallow a whole "year," with a wipe of the mouth denying all inequity. Of this more anon. But this widely heralded Klondike discovery as to μíav oaßßáтwv turns out to be only the glitter of fool's gold. It rests upon the profoundest ignoring or ignorance of a law of syntax fundamental to inflected speech, and especially of the usage and influence of the Aramaic tongue which was the vernacular of Jesus and his apostles. Must syntax die that the Sabbath may live? Let these affirmations be traversed: "4. No Greek word for 'day' occurs in any of the passages." Made for simple readers of English, that statement lacks candor. Said word is there, latent, to a much greater degree than it is in our phrase, “The 25th of the month." Upon being asked, "The 25th what?" the veriest child instantly replies, "day." But stronger yet is the case in hand. The adjectival word uíav is in the feminine gender, and an immutable law requires adjective modifiers to agree with their nouns in gender. Láßßarov is of the neuter Σάββατον gender (Mark ii, 27, το σάββατον; iii, 2, τοῖς σάββασιν), and out of the question. What feminine Greek word is latent in this phrase, and yet so patent as to reflect upon this adjective numeral its feminine hue? Plainly the feminine word huépa, day," as analogously it is found in Mark xiv, 12, πρúτŋ iμépṛ TV ȧvuwv, though latent in Matthew's parallel (xxvi, 17), πрúτη τwν ¿šíμшν, "the first day of unleavened bread." Baldly to aver that "no Greek word for 'day' occurs in any of the passages," is to blind the simple English reader to the fact that an inflected language, by its numerous genders and cases, can indicate the presence and force of latent words to an extent undreamed in English. Of every candid Greek scholar it is properly demanded what feminine Greek word it is which compels the numeral adjective to don its feminine dress. Until a more suitable word is proved we insist that it is quépa, "day." v But difficulties thicken fast. Only a tyro would render that phrase as "the first (or one) of the Sabbaths." Such a rendering could arise only from a construction known as that of "the part and the whole." Amplified it would be "the first [or one] Sabbath [the part] of the Sabbaths [the whole]." Elsewhere, however, the Holy Ghost has invariably taught that the numeral adjective governing the word for the part must agree in gender with the word for the whole. Thus, with masculine nouns of the whole, the form of the numeral governing the latent noun of the part is ever in the masculine also. The following are examples of this rule: Matt. xviii, 28, ένα [masc., σύνδουλον, masc.] τῶν συνδούλων [masc.], “ one of his fellow-servants;" Mark xii, 28, eis [m. ураμμатεús, m.] ypaμμatɛús, Twv ypaμμatéwv, [m.],"one of the scribes;" Luke xi, 46, ¿vì [m., δακτύλῳ, m.] τῶν δακτύλων [m.] ὑμῶν, “ one of your fngers." The same holds good with neuter nouns of the whole: Matt. v, 29, Ev [neut., péños, neut.] тŵv μɛλwv [neut.] σov, "one of thy members;” Matt. vi, 28, ἓν [n., κρίνον, κ.] τούτων [kpívwv, n.] “one of these [lilies "]; Rev. xv, 7, Ev [n., Sýov, n.] EK Tŵν пερáσowv (wwv [n.], “one of the four beasts." Nor is it otherwise with feminine nouns: Matt. v, 19, μíav [fem., ἐντολήν, fem.] τῶν ἐντολῶν [fem.] τούτων, “ one of these commandments;” Mark xiv, 66, μία [ f., παιδίσκη, f.] τῶν παιδισκῶν [f],"one of the maids;" Luke v, 12, μía [f. пoλεï, ƒ.] Tuv TóλεWV [ƒ.], "one of the cities," [R.V.]; Luke xiii, 10, μía [ƒ., συναγωγή, Γ.] τῶν συναγωγῶν [f], “ one of the synagogues; and notably, Luke xx, 1, μίᾳ [f., ἡμέρα, f.] τῶν ἡμερῶν [f], one of those days." According to this law, had the Holy Ghost seen fit to write either πρῶτον or ἓν τῶν σαββάτων we could and must have rendered his phrase "the first [or one] of the Sabbaths." Or, were oáßßarov feminine in gender, píav oaßßárov should be rendered as alleged. But, as neither of these conditions is real, the Holy Ghost evidently declined thus to speak, and he may be trusted exactly to have said what he meant, and meant what he said. 66 99 Consider affirmation 1, "Nothing in the Hebrew Old Testament justifies the 'day-of-the-week' rendering of Matt. xxviii, 1, and its similar parallels." This is another bluff. For centuries Hebrew had so ceased to be the vernacular of the people that the masses could not understand the reading of the Hebrew Old Testament in the synagogue. Thus the extra-Palestinian Jews had to have the same translated for them into that modification of Greek which was current in the native land of each. Thus arose the Alexandrian Greek version known as the "Septuagint," and designated the "LXX." But the Palestinian Jews received the same carefully translated sentence by sentence by the "methurgeman" (modern dragoman) into their Aramaic vernacular. The result of such translation is the "Targum." This it is which furnishes the key to unlock the present mystery, as presently will be shown. To affirm, therefore, that a certain phrase is not justified in a version of the Greek New Testament because absent from the Hebrew Old Testament is about as forcible as to aver that our present English lacks some idiom because the Latin ancestor of the Norman French knows nothing of it. Alas! Into the gulf between the Testaments how many have plunged headlong. Consider affirmation 3. "The Greek of the LXX, in constant use by Christ and the apostles, never used the Greek word for 'Sabbath' to express 'week,' or 'day of the week.'" Unfortunately this is in "head-end" collision with the facts. The Septuagint Greek is that of the Greek-speaking Alexandrian Jews, and is tinctured with Egyptian forms. It gives no hint as to the form of Greek used in Palestine, measurably perhaps by Christ and the apostles, and tinctured by their Aramaic vernacular, its words, and idioms. But even the Alexandrian LXX of 275 B. C. shows that the Jews had begun to understand the Hebrew word, "Sabbath," not only of a single day, but also of the period following each Sabbath which we call the week. In certain cases they actually so render it. For instance: In Lev. xxiii, 15, are the words in ind , or "seven full Sabbaths." This the LXX unhesitatingly render as ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδας ὁλοκλήρους, or “ seven full weeks.” In verse 16 the Hebrew says, "Until the morrow after the seventh [] Sabbath shall ye number fifty days." This the LXX give thus, "Until the morrow [¿oxárns ¿ßdoμádos] of the last week shall ye count the fifty days." In Lev. xxv, 8, the Hebrew, "the seven sabbaths of years," is given by the LXX as ἑπτὰ ἑβδομάδες ἐτῶν, “ seven weeks of years." These cases, however, are but as the little finger compared to what stands out in the titles to some of the Psalms, as given by the LXX. Thereby is most manifest that they did use the Greek word for “Sabbath," oáßßarov, for the “day of the week." It gives: Psalm xcii, as for τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ σαββάτου, Heb.,, (Jerome's Vulgate," In dei Sabbati"); Psalm xxiv, as for τns μlaç oaßßárov, (Jer. Vulg., " Prima Sabbati"); Psalm xlviii,* as for devтépa oaßßárov, (Jer. Vulg., "Secunda Sabbati."); Psalm lxxxii, "According to the Talmud it was the psalm for Tuesday," (Delitzsch), that is, for the third day of the week; Psalm xciv, as for Teтpádi oaßßárov (Jer. Vulg., "Quarta Sabbati"); Psalm lxxxi, "In the liturgy of the temple for the days of the week it was the psalm for Thursday," (Delitzsch), that is, for the fifth day of the week; Psalm xciii,t as for Tv quépaν тоν проσаßßáтov, (Jer. Vulg. "Die ante Sabbatum"). Here the combined testimony of the LXX, the Talmud, and the Vulgate shows that in the time of the second temple seven psalms were used in the daily service. There is one for each day in the week. What was the force of the word oaßßárov, as well as the Latin form of the same, we beg our discoverers to say. They are tabulated as follows: xcii for the day of the Sabbath; = ?; In the first and last cases the word "day" is expressed. As in the remaining, the numerals "one," "second," and "fourth," So Codex B. and others. ↑ So Codex B. + Says Cheyne, in the Bampton Lectures for 1889, pp. 72 and 83: "Sunday's psalm is Ps. xxiv; Monday's, Ps. xlviii; Tuesday's, Ps. lxxxii; Wednesday's, xciv; Thursday's, Ps. lxxxi; Friday's, Ps. xciii; Saturday's, xcii." |