FAKE TRANSLATION – “the first day of the week”

Every time you see the above clause in your English Bible, it is a FAKE translation. The Greek Text reads τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων, pronounced “tA mia tOn SabbatOn”, literally, “the first [day] of the Sabbaths.” The word σαββάτων (SabbatOn) translated ‘week’ is not even a Greek word, but a transliteration of the Hebrew word “Shabbat” (Sabbath), repeating the phonetic sound using Greek letters, and it is PLURAL (Sabbaths), not singular. There was a perfectly good Greek word for “week” (ἑβδομάδες) which was used in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint – LXX) even before the time of Christ (Dan. 9:24-27). But that is not what the Gospel writers used.

Every time the clause τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων, (“the first [day] of the Sabbaths”) appears in the New Testament it refers to the annual Feast of First-fruits described in Lev. 23:10-16. This was the Sunday following Passover on the biblical calendar. It is the day Jesus was raised as “the First-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).

The reason the annual day of “First-fruits” (the Sunday after Passover when the priest offered the first-fruit sheaf of barley) was called by the Jews “the first day of the Sabbaths” was because it was the day they were commanded to begin counting down 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost. Leviticus 23:10-16 states that they were to begin counting from “First-fruits,” (the day the priest offered the first-fruit barley sheaf) as day one, seven more Sabbaths, that is 49 days. Then the day following the 7th Sabbath (Sunday) was the 50th day, “Pentecost” (which means 50th day).

Jesus’ resurrection was literally on “the first day of the Sabbaths” (First-fruits, the 1st day of the 50-day countdown to Pentecost). This was indeed a Sunday, “the first day of the week” by our reckoning. However, the reason translating it that way is deceptive is because “the first day of the week” occurs 52 times a year. But “the first day of the Sabbaths” only occurs once a year, the Sunday after Passover, the Sunday of Jesus’ resurrection. It is an annual event not a weekly event.

This subtle FAKE translation in our English Bibles gives cover to something the (Christian) Roman Emperor Constantine instigated beginning with the Edict of Milan in AD 313 which legalized Christianity, making it an official religion of the empire. In AD 325 Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea which effectively made the emperor the head of the church of Rome, the true origin of the Roman Catholic Church. Then in AD 321 Constantine established Sunday, “the venerable day of the Sun” (dedicated to Sol Invictus), as the national holiday of rest, ordering all shops closed on that day. For Christians, the complete abolishing of the Sabbath occurred at the Council of Laodicea in AD 364. This Roman Catholic Church Council outlawed the gathering of Christians on the Sabbath as most churches outside of Rome and Alexandria had been doing throughout the Roman Empire since the time of the Apostles. Then in AD 380 the Emperor Theodosius I made Roman Christianity (Roman Catholicism) the official religion of the Empire. Thus Christian worship was divorced from coinciding with synagogue worship of Jews on the Sabbath to coinciding with the Romans honoring Sol Invictus on Sunday instead. It is important to note that after AD 313 Constantine continued to worship both Sol Invictus and the Christian God throughout his reign and even delayed his baptism until he was on his death bed.

The excuse Christians give for rejecting the 4th (Sabbath) commandment of the 10 Commandments (yet embracing the other 9) is that every Sunday allegedly commemorates “Resurrection Sunday.” No, it does not. The reference in the Gospels to “the first day of the Sabbaths” points to a day which occurs only ONCE a YEAR, not weekly. It is no excuse for changing “the Lord’s Day” (Isa. 58:13; Rev. 1:10) written in Stone with the finger of God to the day that the Romans dedicated to their sun god, Sol Invictus, (whose birthday was December 25th).

That the Christians before Constantine clearly understood the clause “the first day of the Sabbaths” to be a reference to the first day of the 7-week countdown to Pentecost, can be illustrated by the below quote from Clement of Alexandria (2nd cent.).

“Suitably, therefore, to the fourteenth day, on which He also suffered, in the morning, the chief priests and the scribes, who brought Him to Pilate, did not enter the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might freely eat the Passover in the evening. With this precise determination of the days both the whole Scriptures agree, and the Gospels harmonize. The resurrection also attests it. He certainly rose on the third day, which fell on the first day of the weeks of harvest, on which the law prescribed that the priest should offer up the sheaf.” (Clement of Alexandria, Frag. XI, From the Last Work on the Passover)

Rev. 18:2-5 (NKJV)
2 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!
3 “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
5 “For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

For a detailed analysis of this issue see the following article: first_day.pdf