Church of God, New World Ministries

Bible Q & A

Q. 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?
 
A. 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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