Is “first day of the week” a mistranslation of the Greek phrase “mia ton sabbaton”?
Is it possible that Bible translators have been wrong for two thousand years?
Or worse yet, was there a great conspiracy to alter the Biblical text?

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 ton sabbaton” 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.”

I admit that if you isolate that phrase from it’s context, it is possible to come away with that translation, but context and culture are vital to proper Bible translation.

So, let’s look at the context of some of these uses for the phrase “sabbaton” to determing what it means in context.

The first place I want to look is the resurrection of Yeshua.

“Now when the Sabbath (Sabbaton) was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary 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 (mia ton Sabbaton), they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.”
– Mark 16:1-2

If we translated “mia ton sabbaton” to mean “first of the sabbaths”, this passage wouldn’t make any sense.

“Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary 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 (mia ton Sabbaton), they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.”

How can it be the first of the Sabbaths if the Sabbath is past? That doesn’t make sense.

Some people have suggested that “mia ton Sabbaton” 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 past, and they came to the tomb the next Sabbath, that is 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 is 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.”
– Acts 20:6-7

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 Unleavened bread.

That means it’s impossible for the phrase “mia ton Sabbaton” 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 need to also 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 Sunday morning.

There is a final place where Sabbaton is used to refer to week, 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.'”
– Luke 18:12

The Greek phrase used here is, “dece tou sabbatou”, 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 week, depending on the context of how it is 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, “mia ton Sabbaton” 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 Sabbaton 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 “mia ton Sabbaton” is correctly translated as “the first day of the week”.