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    THE SABBATH BETWEEN, OR THE MARGINAL READING OF Acts 13:42

    Some of the marginal readings of the Scriptures are an improvement of the common version, while others are not. Acts 13:42, as it stands in the common version, reads as follows: “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.” The marginal reading appended to this text is, “Gr., in the week between, or, in the Sabbath between.”RFOS 81.2

    As this scripture contains a request from the Gentiles to have the gospel preached to them on the Sabbath that the Jews kept, and is, in connection with verse 44, strong evidence that the apostle did not preach on the Sabbath simply to accommodate the Jews, and that there was no other day acknowledged as the Sabbath by the writer of the book of Acts and by the Gentiles who received the teachings and knew the practice of the great apostle to the Gentiles, than the day on which the Jews worshiped, some adopt the marginal reading, that they may avoid the forceRFOS 81.3

    If the first day of the week was called the Sabbath in the Bible, there would be some plausibility in this position; but as that day is never acknowledged as a weekly Sabbath in the Bible, we repel this position as fallacious, and as being antagonistic to the first principle of Protestantism, which leads us to protest against adding to the teachings of Holy Writ.RFOS 82.1

    But even admitting that “the Sabbath between” is the right rendering of the clause under consideration, is it necessary to apply this expression to the first day of the week?-By no means. Though John Wesley adopted the marginal reading, yet he applied it to the seventh-day Sabbath. In his notes on the New Testament, he says:-RFOS 82.2

    The Sabbath Between.-So the Jews to this day call the Sabbath between the first day of the month Tisri (on which the civil year begins) and the tenth day of the same month, which is the solemn day of expiation.”RFOS 82.3

    Daniel Whitby says:-RFOS 82.4

    Verse 42. [Eis to metaxu Sabbaton.] This phrase doth not signify the intermediate week, as some conceive, or on the second and fifth day of the week, but on the following Sabbath; for we learn from the 44th verse, that they came not together till the following Sabbath.”-A Paraphrase and Commentary on the New Testament, by Daniel Whitby, D. D., vol. 1, p. 657, London, 1703.RFOS 82.5

    We admit that one of the definitions of the original word from which “next” is here translated is between, but claim that in the Greek of the text before us it signifies next or following. The following from the pen of Eld. J. N. Andrews is to the point:-RFOS 82.6

    “No one would gather, from what Eld. Preble here gives, that these lexicographers also give to metaxu the sense of after, following, succeeding, next, etc., yet such is the case. Still less would they gather the idea that these two scholars, in the case of the text in question (Acts 13:42), decide that metaxu must here have the sense of next. Yet this is also the fact. So that each of these authorities actually testifies against Eld. P. Thus, Parkhurst says (beginning just where Eld. P. left off), ‘2. With the article prefixed, it denotes time. John 4:31. En de to metaxu (chrono namely), In the mean, or intermediate, time. 3. After, following, succeeding. Acts 13:42. Eis to metaxu Sabbaton. On the following Sabbath. This expression is plainly equivalent to erchomenon Sabbaton, the next Sabbath, verse 44.’ So much for Parkhurst. And Dr. Robinson gives the second definition of metaxu thus: ‘2. Intervening, intermediate, put for next following, next, as Acts 13:42.’ We cannot commend the candor and fairness of Eld. P. in thus causing these men to cast their influence against that which they plainly assert to be the truth.RFOS 83.1

    “We also cite other lexicons. Thus Pickering says, ‘Metaxu, adv., in the midst of, between, in the interval; while, in the meantime; sometimes rendered afterward, or next after, as in Acts 13:42. With ho, he, to, intermediate, intervening. It is used as an adverb, (1.) with the article; as, en to metaxu (chrono understood), in the meantime, Xen. Sympos. 1, 14; to metaxu Sabbaton, the next, or following Sabbath, Acts 13:42; ton metaxu bion, the subsequent part of his life, or his after life. Lys. c. Eratosth,’ etc. The lexicon of Dunbar gives the same words as these in defining metaxu, and so does the lexicon of Schrevelius. The lexicon of Liddell and Scott, after giving the classical definitions of metaxu as, ‘in the midst,’ ‘betwixt, between,’ ‘meanwhile,’ adds this: ‘Also afterwards, New Testament.’RFOS 83.2

    “We cite some of the authorities sustaining the common version:-RFOS 84.1

    “Cranmer’s translation reads: ‘The next Sabbath’; the Geneva translation: ‘The next Sabbath’; Rheims Testament: ‘The Sabbath following’; Taverner’s version: ‘The Sabbath following’; the Bishop’s Bible: ‘The next Sabbath.’ The Syriac Testament says: ‘The next Sabbath day.’ The Comprehensive Commentary says: ‘It appears (verse 44) that it was the next Sabbath day that they came together.’ And after stating the names of some who dissent, it adds, ‘Erasmus, Glass, Kype, Krebs, Morus, Heinr., Kuin., also Syriac. Vulgate, Arabic, Æthiopic, coincide with our English version; confirmed by verse 44.’ Dr. Tischendorf’s translation, founded on the Sinaitic Codex, the Vatican, and the Alexandrian, is the same as our common version. Prof. Hackett, in his commentary on the Acts, says: ‘The next Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath is of course here meant, corresponding to our Saturday.’ Dr. Owen on the Acts reads thus: ‘The next Sabbath.’ Kenrick reads: ‘The next Sabbath.’ Jacobus, in his notes on the Acts, says: ‘The usage of the Greek authorizes the sense of our common version. See verse 44.’ Whedon’s Commentary says: ‘Desired their preaching again next Sabbath.’ A. Campbell’s revision of Doddridge, ‘On the following Sabbath.’ The Testament of Prof. Whiting is the same as our common version; and so of the Bible Union. Dr. Bloomfield says: ‘The sense expressed by our common version is, no doubt, the true one. It is adopted by the best recent commentators, and confirmed by the ancient version.’ Dean Alford says that this rendering in verse 42, ‘“the next Sabbath,” is correct.’ Olshausen also confirms the common version, and so of many others. * * *RFOS 84.2

    “We now introduce three witnesses, Paul, James, and Luke, that each may bear positive testimony excluding Sunday from the title of Sabbath in the New Testament.RFOS 85.1

    “1. Paul: ‘For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.’ Acts 13:27. These words of Paul do acknowledge as the Sabbath the day hallowed weekly by the Jews, and do absolutely exclude this so-called ‘first-day Sabbath,’ unless all the Jews who dwelt at Jerusalem kept the first day as well as the seventh! Believest thou this? And let it be remembered that Paul spoke these words in the very sermon which the Gentiles desired to have repeated the next Sabbath.RFOS 85.2

    “2. James: ‘For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.’ Acts 15:21. If there were any other weekly Sabbath besides that which from ancient days had been observed by the people of Israel, these words of James would be untrue.RFOS 85.3

    “3. Luke: ‘And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.’ Acts 18:4. This statement of Luke shows that he did not recognize the existence of Eld. P.’s first-day Sabbath, unless the Jews were at this time its observers.”RFOS 85.4

    For a thorough exposure of other perversions of the Greek to sustain the Sunday cause, read the tract entitled “A Greek Falsehood.”RFOS 86.1

    Address, Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Michigan.RFOS 86.2

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