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Bible Q & A
Q.
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Today’s English Version of the Bible says in Acts 20:7, “on Saturday evening we gathered together,” which is directly contrary to
what the Authorized Version says. So may I ask, did those disciples meet on the first day or the last day of the week?
Will you please explain?
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A.
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The literal Greek wording of this passage is “on the first
day of the week.” However, because in today’s English
language the phrase ”first day of the week” is commonly
regarded as referring to Sunday, the Today’s English
Version translators evidently felt it necessary to
specify that the disciples’ meeting was on Saturday
evening rather than on Sunday morning.
In both Old and New Testament times, days were begun at evening
(roughly
at sunset) and ended at the following evening. However,
Roman practice was to count days from midnight to
midnight, and this became the system of the modern
world. When names for the days were adopted, Sunday of
course meant a midnight-to-midnight period. It is
obvious the Acts 20:7 meeting did not take place on
Sunday morning, since in that very unusual circumstance
Paul preached till midnight. |
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