The Greek word for "week" is ebdomadoV [ebdomados] or ebdomaV [ebdomas]. Strictly speaking it does not mean "week" except as a functional equivalent in some contexts. The word, like its Hebrew counterpart, uwbc [Shavuah] means a period of seven or simply seven. Since a week is seven days, the same period was refered to as a seven.

The Greek word for seventh, ebdomoV [ebdomas] is strictly speaking equivalent to the adjective yuybc, [Sh'vi'i] in Hebrew, which also means "seventh." However, after the model of dja, [echad], which means both one and the ordinal first, and the Hebrew word ubc [Shevah], which means seven and seventh (BDB, pg. 988), so the usage was also carried over into Greek under the term ebdomadoV [ebdomados], which was used for seven days, i.e. a week, and the seventh day, i.e. the Sabbath by Josephus.

Two good examples are, (1) Year of the seven, ubch tnc [Sh'nat Ha-Shevah], Deut. 15:9, which means The seventh year, the Hebrew term ubc [Shevah] being equivalent to the Hebrew yuybc [Sh'vi'i]. The other example is (2) Daniel 9:24, sevens seventy, \yubc \yubc [Shavu'im Shiv'im], which means seventy sevenths, i.e. in that case a seventh = a sabbatical year. This point is extremely important for understanding that prophecy, however we will not digress from the question at hand.

On the other hand, if the word "Shabbat" is to be translated, it would be incorrect to render it "the seventh day" even if the meaning is equivalent in the context. It was only when the post first century Church confused contextual sense with semantic meaning that "sabbath" sabbatwn came to be regarded as equal in meaning to "week," and since that time even some Yehudim [Jews] have regarded "Shabat" tbc as equivalent of week. But before the end of the first century there is no evidence in any context where the meaning "week" for "Shabbat" makes sense, and "Shabbat" does not make sense, and since "Shabbat" is the normative meaning, it follows that in any context where both make sense that "Shabbat" must take precedence.

Now we will turn to debunk some of the so called proof texts where translators of the "New Testament" have rendered "sabbath" sabbatwn as "week" (see Vol. 1., No. 4 for a more general treatment).

First Luke 18:12, which Miss Lau has kindly cited for us: I fast twice a week. In Greek this is nhsteuw diV tou sabbatou, which literally means, I fast twice from the Sabbath. The Pa'rushim [Pharisees] fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, but they are reckoning time from the Sabbath. The only seeming difficulty with this translation is the word from, which is an uncommon genitive called, "The genitive of separation" (BLASS §180), and which ultimately was driven out of the language by the Greek prepositions apo and ek. However, the usage still survives in Lukos and Paulos. For example, Paulos writes to Timothy: aposthsontai tineV thV pistewV, Will depart from, some from the faith (T. 4:1). We cannot render this of the faith, because it is not the "faith" which is departing. Neither does some the faith, or some faithfulness make any sense. (It could be some from faithfulness.) The idea of separation "from" must be present.

Lukas writes: ekwlusen autouV tou boulhmatoV, He forbade them from [their] intention (Acts 27:43). Once again, it is the genitive of separation. One might attempt to translate He forbade them the intention, but autouV is the object of the verb, not tou boulhmatoV. Another case, from classical Greek: deuterw etei toutwn = in the second year from these events (cf. §213 BLASS, Hdt. 6.46) is specifically in the sense of time after some point.

Now I was also asked to explain Mk. 16:1 and 16:9. First 16:1: kai diagenomenou tou sabbatou = And passing the Sabbath. The Sabbath refered to here is the Passover rest day or "The Sabbath" (Lev. 23:11), which fell on our Wednesday (3/24/34) sunset to Thursday sunset (3/25/34). After this Sabbath was past, the women "bought spices," which was Friday (3/26/34), and then on the annual weekly Sabbath known as "the first of the Sabbaths" [th mia twn sabbatwn] (Lev. 23:15-16), the women went to the tomb.

The word mia [mia] is equivalent to the Hebrew dja [echad], and means "one" or "first." The gender of mia implies the presence of the word "day" hmera [hemera], i.e. "first [day] of the sabbaths," and the word "sabbaths" sabbatwn [sabbaton] is plural in the Greek. The sub phrase "[day] of the sabbaths," [hmera] twn sabbatwn, is the usual idiom for "the Sabbath day". The word twn [ton] means "of the," being a normal genitive. The Hebrew equivalent of the whole phrase is: twtbch \wy dja = [echad yom ha-shabbat-ot] = first day of the sabbaths.

The correct Greek for "the first day of the week," is th prwth hmera thV ebdomadaV = the first day of the seven. Mark 16:9 is in the disputed section [16:9-20], which the most reliable MSS omit, and I concur that it does not belong in the accepted writings. Nevertheless, Mk. 16:9 is prwi prwth sabbatou = early first [day] of sabbath. "[day] of sabbath" = "sabbath day," hence it means first Sabbath day.

We have translated Mt. 28:1 as, "The latter of the Sabbaths, at the dawning on the first of the Sabbaths ...." The first part of the verse, in Greek, is oye de sabbatwn [opse de sabbaton]. Literally, we translate it as "Later yet of Sabbaths." The "Later Sabbath" is the second of the two Sabbaths in Pesakh week.

(1. See BLASS, §185, "The genitive of comparison." BLASS (A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961) cites the usage for oye we speak of, "the gen. with oye and metoligon have become associated in meaning with usteron toutwn, proteron toutwn" (§164.4). That is, oye (later), is associated with "the latter of these," and the "former of these.")

Translating oye [opse] as "After," however, is most strange. This is a meaning that oye does not have according to some sources (cf. Thayer). Normally, the word is translated "late," and like English it might be used in serveral senses, "the late President Kennedy," or "the style, of late, is to wear long dresses."

Late, though, is not the only meaning given to the word. Scholars cite examples where the word means "later than" (cf. BAG, i.e. oye thV wraV), and thus comes to approximate "after." But we should note, if the word can mean "later than," it can also be a simple "later."

It can be a simple "later," because the word "than" in "later than" is not a function of oye at all. Rather "than" is just one of several ways of rendering a genitive. The genitive can also be rendered "of," and it is rendered "of" more often than "than." Hence, the same scholars that argue for "later than," must conceed that the word can also mean "later of." Therefore, we are justified in translating "Later of the Sabbaths ...."

The Greek speaks of the "latter rain," i.e. oyimoV uetoV, but it might also speak of the "late rain" oye uetou and mean the same thing. What oye de twn uetwn means is readily apparent to the reader of Greek, i.e. "Late yet of the rains." The phrase in Mt 28:1 is to be taken in the same sense, oye de [twn] sabbatwn , i.e. "Late yet of the Sabbaths." A good translation into idiomatic English might be:

Another example cited in BAG is oye musthriwn, i.e. "later [than the] mysteries." Also oye toutwn, "later of these things," or "later [than] these things." Note that the exact sense is dependent on the ambiguity of the genitive case. The genitive is interpreted as a comparitive genitive by using "than" to arrive at the sense of "after." However, this has not gone undisputed:

Liddell and Scott's Lexicon appends a timid "perh[aps]" to the suggestion that oye means after in Matthew 28:1. Moulton, uncertain of himself, says "A Latinism? Just After," (Grammar of New Testament Greek, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, c. 1963, vol. III., pg. 278). Obviously, someone needs to go through all the claimed usages of this word meaning after to see if it is really so.