Day

Unknown to many Christians, there have been some translational errors in the English Bible. These errors are either due to the difficulties of translating the languages in which the original texts were written or deliberate mistranslation due to the theological bias of the translators.

A typical example is found in Acts 12:4 in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, where the word πάσχα (pascha, Passover) was translated as Easter by the translators. The word πάσχα (pascha) was used 29 times in the Greek texts. The KJV translators rightly translated the word as Passover in 28 out of the 29 places. But when they came to Acts 12:4, they inserted the word Easter, a glaring false translation of πάσχα (pascha). There is no tenable reason for the use of Easter in that verse. The word Passover is the only correct interpretation of  πάσχα (pascha) in Acts 12:4.

In this article, I want to show my readers another mistranslation, which is found, not only in the KJV but in virtually all the English versions of the Bible. It is the phrase “the first day of the week,” which means Sunday.

 The phrase “the first day of the week” is found in eight places in many English versions of the Bible: Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2.

A careful examination of the original Greek texts has shown that the phrase was deliberately forced into the Bible to make it conform with the theological preferences of the translators. Here are the facts for my readers’ judgment.

In four places the writers used the words μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn), which means one of the Sabbath days (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; Acts 20:7). In three places, the writers used the words μίαν σαββάτων (mian sabbatōn), which means one Sabbath day (Matt. 28:1; John 20:19; 1 Cor. 16:2). Then, in Mark 16:9, Mark wrote πρώτῃ σαββάτου (prōtē sabbatou), which literally means the first Sabbath day. Here, he was specific by writing that the Sabbath day in question was the first Sabbath day. The term “first Sabbath day” used by Mark means nothing else than the first of the seven Sabbath days which must be counted from the day of the Passover in order to arrive at the day of the Pentecost on the fiftieth day (Lev. 23:15-21; Deut. 16:9-10). This, in Jewish culture, is known as the Counting of the Omer (Hebrew: סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר, Sefirat HaOmer). Evidently, the New Testament writers had the Sabbath day in mind in all the eight places where the English translators falsely twisted their writings into saying something quite different from what they wrote. 

It is observed that in Mark 16:2, Mark wrote μιᾶς σαββάτων (mias sabbatōn, one Sabbath day), according to the Textus Receptus.  Some other manuscripts, like NA27 and UBS4 render it as μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn, one of the Sabbath days). It should be noted that Mark was mindful of what he wrote in Mark 16:2 and in verse 9.  All he wrote in verse 9 was that the Sabbath day mentioned by him in verse 2 as “one Sabbath day” was the first Sabbath day, that is, the first of the seven sabbath days between the Passover and the Pentecost. The two verses can therefore be rendered somewhat like this:

“Very early in the morning, on one Sabbath day, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.” (verse 2). Note: A Sabbath day starts by  sunset on Friday and ends by sunset on Saturday. The fact that Mark was here talking about the journey to the tomb being undertaken after sunrise on a Sabbath day means that they went to the tomb in the morning on Saturday.

“Now when He rose early on the first Sabbath  day, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.” (verse 9).

Note: Mark is here telling us that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead took place on the first Sabbath day after the last Passover he ate with his disciples. If we accept Mark’s account of the resurrection, it would mean that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead some time before sunrise on Saturday. His account clearly faults the claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Sunday).

In all the eight places where the English translators used “the first day of the week,” it is evident that the phrase is a complete mistranslation of the Greek words used by the writers. This is made more glaring by the fact that there are a number of places where the words  “mia tōn” (“one of”) were also used but correctly translated by the English translators. Some examples are:

Mark 14:66

μία τῶν παιδισκῶν (mia tōn paidiskōn, one of the female servants).

Luke 5:12

μιᾷ τῶν πόλεων (mia tōn poleōn, one of the cities).

Luke 5:17

μιᾷ τῶν ἡμερῶν (mia tōn hēmerōn, one of the days).

Luke 8:22

μιᾷ τῶν ἡμερῶν (mia tōn hēmerōn, one of the days)

Luke 13:10

μιᾷ τῶν συναγωγῶν (mia tōn synagōgōn, one of the synagogues)

Luke 20:1

μιᾷ τῶν ἡμερῶν (mia tōn hēmerōn, one of the days)

John 20:19

μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ (mia hēmera, one day). This is also used by Apostle John in Rev. 18:8 and twice by Apostle Peter in 2 Pet. 3:8.

In all these places, the words mia tōn were correctly translatedas “one of” some things. But in the eight places noted earlier the words were translated as “first day.” This is an indefensible mistranslation.

According to Strong’s Greek Lexicon #4413, the Greek word for “first” is used 100 times in the New Testament. It is used in its three genders as πρῶτος (prōtos, masculine singular), πρῶτοι (prōtoi, masculine plural), πρώτη (prōtē, feminine singular), πρώτης (prōtēs, feminine singular), πρώτων (prōtōn, feminine plural), πρώτῳ (prōtō, neuter singular), πρώτων (prōtōn, neuter plural). The New Testament writers never used the word μιᾷ (mia) to mean “first.” It was used solely to mean “one.”

Equally wrong is the translation of sabbatōn (sabbath days) as “week” in the eight places. If the Greek writers had a “week” in mind, they would have written εβδομάδα (evdomáda, the Greek word for  week). There is no gainsaying the fact that in all the eight places where the English translators interpreted mia tōn sabbatōn and prōtē sabbatou as “first day of the week,” they misrepresented the Bible writers. The Greek writers had the seventh day sabbath (Saturday) in mind.

The usage of  μιᾷ (mia) in the Bible

The word “one” is an adjective, which is used about 345 times in the original Greek texts. It has three genders – masculine (εἷς, heis), feminine (μιᾷ, mia), and neuter (ἓν hen). In all the 345 places where the three genders of the word were used, they were translated as “one” except in the eight places where μία (mia, one) was translated as “first day” by the English translators. The fact that they translated μία (mia) as “one” in all the other places where it was used in the Greek texts, except in the eight places where it was translated as “first day,” expose their adulteration of the original scriptures. It was done in order to make Sunday replace the Sabbath day.

Some other rebuttals against the “the first day of the week” translation

The translation of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “the first day of the week” cannot be a true one. The translation is flawed by the following reasons:

First, in all the eight places where the phrase “the first day of the week” is used, the word “day” (Greek: ἡμέρᾳ, hēmera) was not used in any of  the Greek texts. What the translators of various English versions did was to translate the word μιᾷ (mia) as “first” and then added the word “day.”

We need to bear in mind that the New Testament writers were not ignorant of the Greek words for “first” or “day” or “first day.” They used the words when they meant to use them.

As noted earlier on, the word “first,” in its three Greek genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural) is used a total of 100 times in the New Testament (Strong’s Greek #4413 refers). Matthew used it 16 times, Mark used it 10 times, Luke used it 22 times in his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. John used it 10 times in his gospel, once in 1 John (4:19), and 19 times in Revelation. Paul used it 21 times in his letters and Peter used it once (2 Pet. 2:20). This reveals that the New Testament writers were not ignorant of the Greek words for “one,” “first,” “first day,” or “week.” Therefore, the translation of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) and πρώτῃ σαββάτου (prōtē sabbatou) as “the first day of the week” by the English translators is completely  flawed.

The word “day” (Greek: ἡμέρᾳ, hēmera) was used by the New Testament writers a total of 390 times (Strong’s Greek #2250 refers).

Moreover, in Mark 14:12, Mark used the words “τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ” (“tē prōtē hēmera,” literally, the first day).  In Acts 20:18, Luke used the words, “ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας” (“apo prōtēs hēmeras,” literally, from the first day). Paul wrote, “ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας” (“apo prōtēs hēmeras,” literally, “from the first day” in Phil. 1:5. On his own part, Matthew wrote, “πρώτῃ τῶν ἀζύμων” (“prōtē tōn azymōn,” literally, first of the unleavened”) in Matt. 26:17. By implication, his use of the word  πρώτῃ (“prōtē, first) in this place means the first day of the unleavened bread.

The use of “first,” “day,” and “first day” by the New Testament  writers have shown that they couldn’t have written “μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων” (“mia tōn sabbatōn,” literally meaning first of the Sabbaths) if they had “the first day of the week” in mind.

Luke alone used the word “day” (Greek: ἡμέρᾳ, hēmera, feminine singular) and ἡμέραις, hēmerais, days, (feminine plural) a total of 83 times in the gospel of Luke and 94 times in the Acts of the Apostles. These usage include the following:

ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ (hēmera tē ogdoē = day the eighth, or the eighth day). (Luke 1:59).

τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ (tē tritē hēmera = on the third day). (Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7; 24:21; 24:46; Acts 10:40).

πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras = the first day) (Acts 20:18).

τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων (tē hēmera tōn sabbatōn = on the day of the Sabbath, or on the Sabbath day). (Acts 13:14).

Conclusively,  the translation of “μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων” (“mia tōn sabbatōn”) as “first day of the week” by the English translators amounted to a deliberate twisting of the original writings in order to force the Bible to conform with  manmade doctrines.  Unarguably, the interpretation should be “one of the Sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days.”

While I have no reason not to believe that the translators could be experts in Greek grammar, there is every reason to see them as being biased in favour of Sunday worship by falsely translating μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “the first day of the week” (Sunday).

In additional to the points stated above, it is noted that the words πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, first day) are not found in any of the eight places where the English translators rendered the words “the first day of the week.” Therefore, the “first day of the week” used by many English versions, in my view, have been influenced by some other motive than the desire to achieve translational fidelity.

Conclusion

The word μιᾷ (mia) was used by the Koine Greek writers of the New Testamentto mean  “one.” This is the only true interpretation that can be given to the word. The writers never meant “first,” let alone “first day” when they wrote μιᾷ (mia). Moreover, when they wrote μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn), what they meant was “one of the Sabbaths,” which is the same as “one of the Sabbath days.” As evinced in Acts 20:6,7,16, this means one of the seven Sabbath days that lie between the Passover and the Pentecost. The interpretation of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as the first day of the week was a blatant mistranslation of the Greek writings.

It should be noted that the Coverdale Bible of 1535 and the Bishop’s Bible of 1568 correctly translated μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as one of the Sabbaths or one of the Sabbath days.

The use of μίαν σαββάτων (mian sabbatōn) in Matt. 28:1, John 20:19 and 1 Cor. 16;2 simply and correctly means “one Sabbath day.” The use of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) in Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1 and Acts 20:7  should have been correctly translated as “one of the Sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days.” In Mark 16:9, Mark wrote πρωὶ πρώτῃ σαββάτου (prōi prōtē sabbatou). This literally means “at dawn on the first Sabbath day.” Here, Mark specifically mentioned that Jesus Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene at the dawn of the first Sabbath day. This means that before sunrise on the Sabbath day (Saturday) Jesus had risen from the dead. Here again, Mark’s use of the term πρώτῃ σαββάτου (prōtē sabbatou, first Sabbath) refers to  the first of the seven Sabbath days that must be counted after the Passover to arrive at the day of Pentecost on the 50th day.

Conclusively, in all the eight places where the English translators wrote “the first day of the week,” they twisted the Scriptures to make them say something quite different from what the authors wrote (see 2 Pet. 3:15-16).

There is no doubt that the phrase “the first day of the week” was forced into the Bible by some translators of the original Koine Greek texts.