In the eastern part of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ there were various numbering systems for days of the week, and also various practices about whether a working week – often culminating or starting with a market day – should have seven, or up to ten days.
However in Judea and Galilee and Jewish settlements in the Diaspora, such as the cities where churches were first established, ‘on the first day of the week’ in Jewish Greek uses the Greek ordinal ‘mia’ = first, the nominative singular feminine of ‘eis’ – one.
In the New Testament this is found in the Gospels (for Sunday, the day of the resurrection)
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- 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.”
- Mark 16:2 – “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.”
- Mark 16:9 – “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene…”
- Luke 24:1 – “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre…”
- John 20:1 – “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre…”
- John 20:19 – “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled…”
Thereafter the “first day of the week” becomes the Sunday when the disciples and later church habitually met:
- Acts 20:7 – “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them
- 1 Corinthians 16:2 – “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him…
Ps47:2 ψαλμὸς ᾠδῆς τοῖς υἱοῖς Κορε δευτέρᾳ σαββάτου (47:2) μέγας κύριος καὶ αἰνετὸς σφόδρα ἐν πόλει τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν ὄρει ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ
Footnotes
Lexical entry adapted from New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE)
In Greek, σάββατον (sábbaton) has two meanings,
1. the Sabbath (the 7th day of the week)
2. one week, a period of 7 days (with the Sabbath, our Saturday, being the seventh day).
This second usage may occur with an ordinal (first, second) followed by sabbath in genitive plural μία σαββάτου/σαββάτων – first of the sabbath singular or sabbaths plural. Per NIDNTTE etc.
«the combination μία σαββάτου/σαββάτων, [mía sabbátou/sabbátōn] “the first day of the week” (e.g., Mark 16:2; John 20:1)» is a straightforward reflection of «both rabbinic Hebrew (e.g., m. Ned. 8:1) and Aramaic (e.g., חד בשבתא, “the first day of the week,” Gen. Rab. 11.8 on Gen 2:3)»
(from the entry for σάββατον in NIDNTTE where the rabbinical citation m. Ned. 8:1 stands for Mishnah, Tractate Nedarim, Chapter 8, Mishnah 1. And Gen. Rab. stands for Genesis Rabbah.)
This second usage therefore originates in Jewish Greek literature and is first found in the Septuagint (rarely) and then the New Testament. This then became normal usage for Greek speaking Jewish Christians, and thus normal usage in the early church and in the New Testament. As the Christianity grew Gentile believers adopted this new Greek vocabulary alongside other Hebrew and Aramaic terms normalised by the New Testament such as ‘Rabbi’, ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Pascha’, ‘Amen’, ‘Gehenna’, ‘Satan’, ‘Mina’, ‘Manna’, etc. but even also New Testament coinages in Greek totally unheard in the Greek language such as the concept word ‘baptisma’.
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