Did 2,000 Years of Translators Get It Wrong?

is first day of the week a mistranslation of the greek phrase miatone sebatone is it possible that bible translators have been wrong for 2000 years or worse yet was there a great conspiracy to alter the biblical text hi my name is lex and welcome to unlearn i want to dive deep into the greek text and hebrew context on this topic to see if we can figure out why bible translators translated mia tone sabaton as first day of the week i studied greek in college but i am by no means a greek scholar however i do believe i know enough greek to adequately speak on this topic some people have recently questioned the integrity of the translation first day of the week and they argue that a better translation would be one of the sabbaths admit that if you isolate that phrase from its context that it is possible to come away with that translation but proper context and culture are vital to proper bible translation so let's look at the context for some of these uses for the phrase sabaton to determine what it means in its context the first place i want to look is the resurrection of yeshua now when the sabbath sabaton was passed mary magdalene married the mother of james and salome bought spices that they might come and anoint him very early in the morning on the first day of the week miatone sebaton they came to the tomb when the sun had risen if we translated miatone sabaton to mean first of the sabbaths this passage wouldn't make any sense now when the sabbath was passed mary magdalene married the mother of james and salome bought spices that they might come and anoint him very early in the morning on the first of the sabbaths they came to the tomb when the sun had risen how could it be the first of the sabbaths if the sabbath is past that doesn't make sense some people have suggested that mieton sabaton refers to the counting of weeks leading up to shavuot they say it should be translated on the first sabbath meaning the first sabbath following passover during the counting of seven sabbaths to shavuot however that still doesn't make sense in this context because if the sabbath had passed and they came to the tomb the next sabbath that's an entire week between the death and resurrection of yeshua which is impossible because he rose on the third day for more information about the third day please watch my teaching titled finally understanding the sign of jonah there's another verse found in the book of acts that shows this to be an impossible translation as well but we sailed away from philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them at troas where we stayed seven days now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread paul ready to depart the next day spoke to them and continued his message until midnight from the context of this passage we see that 12 days had passed after the feast of unleavened bread in five days they joined them at troas and they stayed there for seven days that's 12 days after the feast of unlimited bread that means it's impossible for the phrase miaton sabaton to refer to the first sabbath in the counting to shavuot because they would be at least two weeks into the count by then the only possible translation in this context is on the first day of the week we also need to understand that the jewish way of reckoning a day was from sunset to sunset so this event would have taken place on saturday night after sunset when the first day began and paul preached until midnight because he was leaving the following morning which happened to be a sunday morning there's a final place where sabaton is used to refer to weak and it's obvious from the context that it cannot be referring to the sabbath day we find this in the parable yeshua told about two men who went to the temple to pray the pharisee in this parable was bragging about his righteousness and he said i fast twice a week i give tithes of all that i possess the greek phrase used here is de se tu saba tu meaning twice a week obviously the pharisee was not speaking about fasting twice on the sabbath day it's impossible for this verse to be translated i fast twice on the sabbath because that doesn't make sense you can fast on the sabbath but you can't fast twice on the sabbath the only way this phrase makes sense is if we translate it twice a week so we see here that sabbatou can mean weak depending on the context of how it's used understanding the context and culture is vital to bible translation the pagans named the days of the week after whichever god was to be venerated on that day for example sunday was the sun god's day and monday was the moon god's day during the first century the jewish people didn't name the days as the pagans did they counted the days of the week in reference to the sabbath thus miatone sabaton means the first day with reference to the sabbath i.e the first day following the sabbath or as we would say the first day of the week they counted the days like this one of sabbath two of sabbath three of sabbath four of sabbath five of sabbath six of sabbath sabbath greek scholars agree that the word sabaton in these contexts is used to denote a week or a period of seven and does not refer to the sabbath day so we see that the phrase miaton sabaton is correctly translated as the first day of the week if you want to learn more about the sabbath then you might like this video and if you want to understand the sign of jonah being three days and three nights then watch this video and remember the truth will set you free we'll see you next time