Among the more important phrases that we need to consider regarding the cacophonous cataclysm that will take place at the end of time [Please cf. https://the-dragon-is-slain.com/2024/12/03/the-roar-of-war-the-roar-of-death-and-the-roar-of-victory-the-eternal-sons-roar-was-heard-once-and-will-be-heard-once-more-are-you-ready/ ] is found in the very beginning of the book of Revelation, where John describes the setting for what he was about to write at the behest of the Risen Moshiah Yeshua. John tells us that he is “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” Does he mean by this, Sunday, as it has come be used by the evangelical Body of Christ > (‘as we gather for worship on this Lord’s Day…have a great Lord’s Day’)? How did this come to be, since nowhere else in the New Testament is this phrase used? I am persuaded that this designation, which also insinuates that it is the first day of the week, is based on a false assumption, driven by the mistranslation and therefore the misrepresentation, of the time line surrounding the death and resurrection of Yeshua. (Please see https://the-dragon-is-slain.com/2022/01/21/subject-regarding-sunday-to-be-the-lords-day-i-e-the-day-on-which-jesus-rose-from-the-grave/ ). (In fact, the only time similar phraseology is used is when Paul refers to communion as “the Lord’s Supper.”)

Before delving into the Greek, however, it is imperative that we first take a look at the Hebrew genitive construction, conveniently known as the ‘construct state,’ from which it is certain John as well as the other writers of the New Testament, with the exception of Luke, drew their equivalent genitive constructions in Greek. These men were, after all, first and foremost, 1^st century Jews and therefore thought in Hebrew, independent of whether their everyday language was the region’s lingua franca, Aramaic, or Greek. John, in particular, wrote his Gospel to show that Yeshua was Yahwah of the Old Testament, indicating his in-depth knowledge of the Old Testament canon of Torah, Prophets, and Writings, known by its Hebrew acronym TANAK (Torah, Nevi’im, and K^etuvim). For his part, Paul spoke of himself as being ‘a Hebrew of Hebrews’ (Philippians 3:5) who sat ‘at the feet of Gamaliel’ (Acts 22:4), certainly the same Gamaliel who was a ‘teacher of the Law and highly esteemed by all the people.’ (Acts 5:34) It is my personal opinion that Luke not only accompanied Paul as attending physician, but also as a native Greek speaker, served as his resident Greek language expert.

All this to present my case that the writers of the New Testament thought in Hebrew and applied that language’s grammatical structure to Greek.

In Biblical Hebrew, the genitive is usually formed by the placing of two words next to one another in an appositional relationship, in which the second word is in the genitive case (‘of’). In his Biblical Hebrew grammar, Wilhelm Gesenius uses the example: “דָּבָר [‘davar’] word, דְּבַר אֱלֹהִים [‘Elohim’/God] word of God (a sort of compound, as with us in inverted order, God’s-word).” The other way of signifying a possessive relationship between two words is to attach the preposition ‘ל/L’, the two basic meanings of which are ‘for’/’to’, to the word being possessed (i.e., in the genitive case (‘of’)). A frequent application in this sense of the preposition ‘ל/L’ is found in the Psalms, when a certain Psalm is attributed to David as “A Psalm of David/ (מזמור לדוד/mizmor ldavid).” Another example is Exodus 12:27 where Yahwah details for Moses the Passover Feast, which was to be held from generation to generation to commemorate His deliverance of His people Israel from Egypt: ואמרתם זבח-פסח הוא ליהוה אשר פסח על-בתי בנ-ישראל במצרים בנגפו את-מצרים ואת-בתינו הציל ויקד העם וישתחוו: “You will answer, this is a sacrifice of Passover of [lit.: ‘to’/’for’] Yahwah Who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and our houses He delivered/rescued. And the people bowed the[ir] head[s] and prostrated themselves [before] Him.” One of the techniques used by some translators has been to attach the possessive ‘s to Lord, thus translating the phrase as “the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover” (KJV, ESV), certainly a legitimate handling of the Hebrew syntax by treating the prepositional phrase ליהוה of [lit.: ‘to’/’for’] Yahwah as a possessive adjective. Just to round out the other main treatments of the phrase, let’s compare three other translation options that treat the preposition as such: “the Passover sacrifice of the LORD” (NKJV); the Passover sacrifice to the LORD (NIV); and, the [P]assover sacrifice to יהוה (Sefaria, The Contemporary Torah, JPS, 2006).

I have chosen the Exodus passage concerning the Passover because it pertains to the Passover’s New Covenant counterpart, the “Table of the Lord”/ “Lord’s Supper” – both phrases being employed by Paul in 1^st Corinthians 10:21/11:20, respectively. I have translated each, as rendered grammatically, directly from the Koine Greek > τραπεζ[α] κυριου (noun + noun in the genitive case)/κυριακον δειπνον (possessive adjective + noun), two observations concerning which must be made: 1) Despite the obvious grammatical relationship in “Table of the Lord,” an estimated half of the translations of the Bibles that I examined have switched the syntax to read the “Lord’s Table.” Why do this? In my opinion, the reason is for consistency, since the other phrase is translated almost exclusively as the “Lord’s Supper,” in order not to confuse the one with the other. But then, why not translate the latter as the “Supper of the Lord” in order to be compatible with “Table of the Lord”? After all, although syntactically different, the two phrases are equivalent semantically. This brings us to the second observation: 2) there is a textual prejudice which reaches far beyond the issue of “Table of the Lord” and “Lord’s Supper” to a similar expression found in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, chapter 1, verse 10, where John uses the second type of possessive, i.e., the possessive adjective + noun, when he speaks of being “in the Spirit εν κυριακη_ι ημερα_ι/on the Lord’s Day.” Thus, we have come face-to-face with the crux of the matter, which we initially broached a few paragraphs earlier.

There are basically three issues involved when translating a foreign language – in this case, Hebrew > Greek – into English: 1) to remain true to, and accurately reflect, the original text, while 2) rendering it into a style of English that is neither stilted nor that clangs on the ear of the native speaker as dictated by the translator’s predilections concerning what constitutes good English. Of course, entering into the mix is 3) the translator’s textual prejudices.

Now, let’s investigate further the issue of textual prejudice in the context of the options available for expressing the genitive relationship and the attending implications.

First, I would like to draw your attention to the remarks of Biblical languages scholar, Nigel Turner, concerning the use of the genitive case in NT Greek: “This is a large subject, as the genitive is so hard worked [i.e., frequently used] a case in Greek. The adjectival is the commonest way the case is used, and Luke is particularly fond of it. [Comment: Turner is most probably referring to Luke’s propensity to use participles, which, of course, are verbal adjectives. That adjectival form use, however, is not what is being addressed here, rather that of making an adjective from a noun, specifically kyrios/κυριος -> kyriakos/κυριακος (adjectivization).] The relationship expressed by the gen. is so vague that it is only by means of the context and wider considerations that it can be made definite.” (A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. III Syntax, by Nigel Turner, 1963, p. 207. The emboldened and italicized portions are mine.)

Multiple sources agree that the above adjective occurs a mere two times in the New Testament and not at all in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. As noted above, stylistics and consistency are two reasons for ignoring the differences in syntax in the two 1^st Corinthians passages. However, in my opinion, there is a third reason for doing so, and that is to maintain the integrity of the translation and the accompanying interpretation of Revelation 1:10 as it has come down through the centuries that the phrase “on the Lord’s Day” refers to the day when Yeshua rose from the grave, i.e., the first day of the week, i.e., the Christian ‘sabbath.’ (Once again, please refer to my post see https://the-dragon-is-slain.com/2022/01/21/subject-regarding-sunday-to-be-the-lords-day-i-e-the-day-on-which-jesus-rose-from-the-grave/ for a counter argument to that proposition.)

As for the first day of the week: Yeshua abrogated the Jewish 7^th day sabbath when He rose from the dead at the very end of that day’s observance; and, as He promised, sent the Holy Spirit as the First Fruits of the Resurrection 50 days later [i.e., 7 sabbaths (7×7) + 1, meaning the 1^st day of the week. [Comment: I must disagree with one commentator on this subject, who claimed that on the occasion when Paul preached until midnight, this time reference was according to the Roman time scheme. This line of thinking would support the Western concept of morning-evening, rather than the Jewish of evening-morning, which I believe continued to be observed by the Jewish Christians, especially Paul, as well as by the Gentiles who worshipped among them. This would indicate that when the relevant scripture says that “On the first of the week we gathered to break bread…[Paul] prolonged the discourse until midnight,” rather than beginning in the morning and continuing to midnight, this would have been an evening meal after sunset and that Paul spoke until midnight, whatever time that may have been in the Jewish time keeping schematic.] The active entry of the Ruah Kodesh|Holy Spirit into the world both fulfilled the Old Testament Festival of Pentecost and symbolized the 50-year Jubilee, at the expiration of which time span, those who had been forced into servitude (bondage) after losing their landed inheritance regained it. The Holy Spirit’s coming, in like manner, freed those who had lost their inheritance as His children as Yahwah had planned – due to the Fall – by calling them to faith in the Risen Moshiach. Spiritually, all things became new. No longer bound by the Old Testament Law in its entirety, those made spiritually alive through faith in Yeshua haMoshiach by the power of the Ruah Kodesh, are under a new obligation – to fulfill the new commandment of love: “Yeshua answered, ‘…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your understanding and with all your might.’ And the second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no greater commandment than these.’”

 Suffice it to say that there is no obligatory new, Christian sabbath day – let alone retaining the old ‘thou shalt nots’ required for keeping the OT sabbath – on which to worship “our Great Elohim and Moshia Yeshua haMashiach || אלהינו הגדול ומושיענו יש וע המשיח ||του μεγαλου θεου και σωτηρος ημων Ιησου Χριστου|our Great God and Savior Jesus the Messiah/Christ, the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of whom we anticipate” [paraphrase of Titus 2:13]. I would suggest that this ‘appearing glory’ is another way of referring to the ‘day of the Lord’/’Lord’s Day.’

To wrap up this discussion, I would refer you to Georgios Babiniotis’ Dictionary of the Modern Greek Language, where we find the following explanation of the etymology of the modern Greek word for ‘Sunday’ > Kyriaki/Κυριακη: “Original meaning > ‘day of the Lord’ (ημερα του κυριου) feminine noun of the adjective kyriakos/κυριακος from the primary noun kyrios/κυριος. The use of this word as the name of the first day of the week began in the first centuries A.D. to counter the Jewish sabbath. … On the Roman celebration of the sun (dies solis – day of the sun) is built the name of the day in Germanic languages: in English > Sunday, in German > Sonntag, [etc.].” [My translation from the modern Greek, the language in which the Dictionary was published.]

To recap the wrap, Greek Orthodoxy mistakenly applied the feminine adjectival form, correctly translated as ‘day of the Lord,’ to the first day of the week as if Ιησους had risen on that day. But the Greeks were not alone; Russian Orthodoxy was guilty of the same misreading of scripture, having named the first day of the week, Voskreseniye/воскресенье > resurrection. On the other hand, the West, via Rome, coopted the pagan day of worshipping the sun to inaugurate the first day of the week to be Sunday, again mistakenly attributing the Resurrection to have occurred on that day. In all three cases, two misreadings of Scripture account for where we are today and have been for the past 1½+ millennia: worshipping on the day apparently dictated by the Scriptural event of the Resurrection, which has meant in pietistic (legalistic) denominations following the prohibitions of the OT sabbath; and, misapplying the phrase ‘Lord’s Day’ to also indicate the former, rather than applying to it the same meaning as ‘the day of the Lord,’ when Yahwah will roar as He wreaks vengeance on Satan and an unrepentant world.