Luke’s Historical Details in Acts 18-20 and the Sabbath Week of Acts 20:7
by Philip Derstine
In a previous Sentinel article we saw that John Calvin understood from 1 Cor 16:2 and Acts 20:7 that Paul retained the day of worship to which the Godfearers in the synagogues were accustomed, which was the Mosaic Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 27, 42-44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4). By ignoring the genitive plurality of the Greek word sabbatōn (σαββατων) and mistranslating the phrase as “first day of the week” (mia tōn sabbatōn), Bible translations have effectively limited the New Testament’s use of the word “Sabbaths” (plural) to Acts 17:2 and Col 2:16. Clearly there would have been a need for the expression “one of the Sabbaths” in Acts 20:7. It will be shown that this Sabbath was “one of the Sabbaths” in the count toward Pentecost, which figures prominently in the narrative of Chapter 20 (cf. 20:16), and in the overall theme of Luke’s second historical treatise. Luke’s historical details place the end of Paul’s third missionary journey and the final trip to Jerusalem in the spring of 55 AD. After making that determination, we will see that the seventh day after Paul arrived in Troas (Acts 20:6) likely fell on a Saturday Sabbath!….
This article was printed in one of our 2017 Sabbath Sentinel Magazines.
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