Sermonette: Wavesheaf Day in the New Testament
Understanding 'the first day of the week'
#868s
David C. Grabbe
Given 16-Feb-08; 14 minutes
summary: The phrase "first day of the week" in the various gospel accounts of Jesus Christ's appearance should be translated "first of the weeks" (mia sabbaton). This is the wavesheaf day — the day after the Sabbath within the Days of Unleavened Bread which begins the count (of weeks) to Pentecost. In Acts 20:6-7, the mia sabbaton (first day of the weeks), the wave sheaf day, occurred after the Days of Unleavened Bread in a year when the Passover fell on the weekly Sabbath, proving that the instructions for counting to Pentecost mean that it is the Sabbath that must occur during the Days of Unleavened Bread rather than the "morrow after."
transcript:
Last Sabbath, during the announcements here in Ft. Mill, John mentioned that this year—2008—is another year during which the Passover falls on the weekly Sabbath. This of course affects when the count to Pentecost begins because it affects when wavesheaf day is. As you know, the last year this happened was 2005. A short time after Pentecost that year, one of our subscribers sent in a study paper that pointed something out regarding wavesheaf day that I think you will find both fascinating and encouraging. Up to this point, the conversations within the church of God regarding the count to Pentecost have all been about the wavesheaf command in the Old Testament, and especially about the events of Joshua 5, where many allege that the firstfruits of the Gentiles' land were waived for acceptance before God. But the fact is, there are two distinct examples of the day of the wavesheaf in the New Testament, and one of these examples in particular brings such clarity that it could be considered the capstone of the whole issue. Please turn with me to Matthew 28:1: Matthew 28:1 In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
This verse, and the parallel verses in the other 3 gospel accounts, are typically read around Easter-time, and are frequently used to try to support a Sunday resurrection and thus a holy first day of the week—even though those issues are entirely unrelated. We know that these verses not say that Jesus Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week. We know that the resurrection would have taken place at the end of the Sabbath, the previous afternoon. But these verses do not even literally say that He first appeared on the first day of the week. These verses say something just a little bit different. You see, the word "day" is nowhere to be found in the Greek in these accounts. The Greek phrase that is translated "first day of the week" in these parallel accounts is mia sabbaton. Mia is Strong's #3391, and it simply means "first," or "one," implying "one with more to follow." Sabbaton is Strong's #4521, and it can mean either "Sabbath," or it can mean "the space between two Sabbaths," which is the way they described a week. So mia sabbaton is literally, "the first of the week." From this, the translators inferred that it meant the first day of the week, and so that is the way they translated it. However, there is a problem. The word sabbaton here is plural. It does not say "the first of the week" in the Greek. It says "the first of the weeks." Yes, this did take place first day of the week. But even more importantly, this is talking about the first day of the weeks. This day when Jesus Christ appeared was the first day of seven weeks that constitute the count to Pentecost. This phrase, mia sabbaton, when sabbaton is plural, is what we know as "Wavesheaf Day." The fact that it is on the Sunday is logical, because wavesheaf day was always on the day after a weekly Sabbath. But the translators really obscured the significance of this day by neglecting the fact that sabbaton, the Greek word for week, is plural. You will find this same phrase, mia sabbaton (in the plural) in all the other accounts of Jesus Christ's appearance. We will not turn to them now, but I will give them to you for reference. They are Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; and there are two in the book of John: John 20:1 and 20:19. Each one reads, in the English, "the first day of the week," and each one should be translated literally from the Greek as "the first day of the weeks." That Sunday, following the Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread, was when Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples, and was accepted by the Father as the first of the firstfruits, and the count to Pentecost began. In addition to these 5 verses in the gospels, the phrase mia sabbaton is found in two other places. One place is in I Corinthians 16:2, which we will not turn to because there is some disagreement over whether the word sabbaton in that instance is singular. Four of the seven sources I checked said that it is plural, and the other three said it is singular. If it is singular, it simply means "the first of the week," and by implication "the first day of the week." If it is plural, then we have another instance of the wavesheaf day. This is interesting because I Corinthians 16:2 is the occasion when Paul was instructing them to gather together a collection of food for the brethren in the area of Jerusalem. So if he was talking about wavesheaf day, it is clear that it was a common work day, and not a holy day. But we do not know if the Passover was on a Sabbath that year, so it is not conclusive. The seventh place this phrase is found chronologically is in Acts 20. We will read verses 6-7: Acts 20:5-6 And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week [upon the mia sabbaton], when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow [see—the morrow after the Sabbath]; and continued his speech until midnight.
Verse 7 has the exact same Greek phrase that is in the gospel accounts. It literally says, "Upon the first of the weeks." The fact that sabbaton is plural shows that this is not merely talking about a Saturday night or Sunday, even though that is when it happened. It is talking about Wavesheaf Day. So here we see Paul and the disciples having a meal together after the Sabbath, at the beginning of the count to Pentecost. He preached throughout the night, and then left the next morning. If we were to read further, we would see that there is even a death and a subsequent resurrection that night. Remember that the wavesheaf was the beginning of the harvest, and that a harvest is symbolic of the resurrection and the redemption of God's people. Here a young man named Eutychus was cut down in the prime of his life after falling out of a third-story window, and then he was resurrected, all on this day when the harvest begins. It all fits together perfectly. Now, some of you may have noticed an apparent problem in these verses. If we take verse 6 exactly as it is translated, it means that this wavesheaf day took place 12 days after the Days of Unleavened Bread. Even with the disagreements over whether it is the Sabbath or the morrow after that is the critical point, nobody in the church of God or in any of the Jewish groups has ever proposed that the count be started 12 days after the Days of Unleavened Bread. That calls into question everything that we have understood about the wavesheaf. Something has to give here. This dilemma is resolved rather easily when we understand the Greek word that is translated after in verse 6. It is the Greek word meta (Strong's #3326). This word does not have a perfect counterpart in the English language. It can mean "after" in certain situations, but it can also mean "with" or "into the midst of." Strong's concordance says that it denotes accompaniment, which is why it is most frequently translated as "with." Then Strong's goes on to say that it also means "amid". The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament says "Its primary meaning is mid, amid, in the midst, with, or among, implying accompaniment." If you want to get really technical, Thayer's Greek Lexicon says that when it is used in the accusative—which it is in Acts 20:6—it means "into the middle of, into the midst of, or among." Now, we have already seen that a major contradiction is caused if the word after is used, because it would put the Wavesheaf Day 12 days after the Days of Unleavened Bread. However, the Greek here does not say "After the days of unleavened bread.” It says, “Into the midst of, or among the Days of Unleavened Bread.” Suddenly, a very clear picture emerges. Here, then, is an alternate way of translating Acts 20:6: And we sailed away from Philippi. Into the midst of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we came to them in Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the mia Sabbaton [the Wavesheaf Day, the first day in the count to Pentecost] when we came together to break bread [this was Saturday evening], Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, [Sunday morning] and continued his speech until midnight [Saturday night].
What this shows, then, is that the journey from Philippi to Troas took five days, and they got to Troas somewhere "among" or "in the midst of" the Days of Unleavened Bread. They stayed seven days, and departed on the mia Sabbaton. Now, just to make the picture even more clear, the last day that they were in Troas was a Sabbath. We know that because the next day was the Wavesheaf Day. But if they arrived "among" or "in the midst of" the Days of Unleavened Bread, and stayed 7 days, that means that they would have arrived on the first Day of Unleavened, the previous Sunday. And the significance of all of this is that the mia Sabbaton—the Wavesheaf Day, the first day in the count to the Feast of Weeks—was on the Sunday right after the Days of Unleavened Bread. This is a New Testament example that proves that it is the weekly Sabbath that has to be within the Days of Unleavened Bread, rather than the "morrow after the Sabbath." It is perfectly fine for the Wavesheaf Day to be outside the Days of Unleavened Bread, as Acts 20:7 shows.
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