Sabbath appears 45 times in the New Testament in the singular as σαββατον (sabbaton), σαββατου (sabbatou), or σαββατω (sabbatw) and 25 times in the plural as σαββατα (sabbata), σαββασιν (sabbasin) or σαββατων (sabbatwn, pronounced like sabbtōn) (see Interlinear Bible). The sabbath(s) are neuter in Greek, i.e., genderless. In our context, the plural forms are particularly interesting because they were used by the evangelists in the resurrection chapter (except Mark 16:9):

1. σαββατα: The plural nominative occurs only once in the NT: „επι σαββατα τρια“ („on three Sabbaths“; Acts 17:2).
2. σαββασιν: The plural dative occurs 13 times in the NT and means „in/on the Sabbaths“ (τοις σαββασιν; (Mt 12:1,5,10,11,12; Mk 1:21; 2:23,24; 3:2,4; Lk 4:31; 6:2; 13:10).
3. σαββατων: The plural genitive is found 11 times in the NT: Mt 28:1 (2x); Mk 16:2; Lk 4:16; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1,19; Acts 13:14; 16:13; Acts 20:7; Col 2:16). In 5 places (Mt 28:1a; Lk 4:16; Acts 13:14; 16:13; Col 2:16) this word was even rendered in the singular as "on the Sabbath" or "on the Sabbath day" in almost all Bibles, but only in the passages dealing with the resurrection of Jesus was the 100% same word replaced as "week" or "Sunday" without reason. According to this, Jews, Romans and Greeks would never have been able to say "on the one/first of the Sabbaths" in their life, because then it would always have to mean „on a Sunday“ or „on the first day of the week“. One can only bear this with a lot of humor. No, the truth is: they could all say "on the one/first of the Sabbaths“ because there are always 3 Sabbaths in the Passover week and even always 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost. So it was a matter of what happened on one of these (many) Sabbaths. All can also say „on one of the Sundays“, which of course also does not mean „on a Monday“. Every child understands this, only some theologians don't, because they want to see the Sunday in the NT with all force.

Many Bible translators, who would like to have Sunday in the NT, have a big mistake in reasoning. Because if they transfer the plural Sabbats (σαββατων) into week, then they have overlooked that an ordinary week has only one Sabbath (singular). So when they speak of several Sabbaths in the NT, they must mean several weeks. So they would have to write „on the one/first day of the weeks“ (plural). But again, they don't want to do that, because no Christian or Jew would understand that. So they simply replace "one" by "first", then "Sabbaths" (plural) by "week" (singular) and add the word "day". And just like that, they have erased the Sabbath from the Bible and achieved their Easter Sunday. Nor do they care that the NT mentions the Sabbath exactly 70 times (number of completeness, 7x10; see Interlinear). They simply erase some of them, but only in the resurrection chapter of the NT, which reveals the dramatic manipulation of God's words.

God is quite capable of expressing Himself clearly, and the text of the Greek New Testament is easy to understand; any twisting of God's words will not go unpunished because it will deceive God's children.

Regardless of singular or plural, it is always only about the Sabbath and no other day. Both forms have their meaning and do not contradict each other. It is very important to note that in the ancient Greek language there is no strict division between the plural and singular with respect to the Sabbath. There are historical reasons for this. First of all, it is known that the Jews divided the Sabbath into two parts, namely the night and the day phases; therefore, some theologians think that this is the reason why the Jews called a whole Sabbath day the "day of Sabbaths" (ημερα των σαββατων). But in fact there is another much more important reason, namely the linguistic peculiarities between the translation of Aramaic terms into Greek. Considering the fact that sabbata is not a Greek term, but a foreign word from Hebrew or Aramaic, it must be noted that its use was very flexible because of special grammatical rules in the ancient Greek language.

At the time of Jesus, the Jews spoke mainly Aramaic, so their spoken words and phrases had to be transferred into the Greek language when writing the New Testament, this also applies to the Sabbath. The Greek language has no word of its own for the Sabbath, but had to take this word from Hebrew/Aramaic. Although the word Shabbat sounds the same in Hebrew and Aramaic, the article "the" is used BEFORE the Sabbath in Hebrew, but AFTER the Sabbath in Aramaic. Thus, "the Sabbath" with article in Hebrew was haShabbat, but in Aramaic it was Shabbata or sabbata, that is, with the Aramaic article "a" at the end of the word. But this creates a problem, because this very Aramaic singular word sabbata (the Sabbath), which all the evangelists used, is not strictly speaking a singular word when translated into Greek, but a plural word, because in Greek words with an "a" at the end were considered plural. Thus, the Aramaic singular word sabbata sounded in Greek as if it were plural, even though it clearly meant only a single Sabbath day. Some terms (and these include not only sabbata) are not strict plurals in ancient Greek, but can mean both singular and plural. That this is indeed so is impressively demonstrated by their use in the Septuagint and in historical books (e.g., by Flavius Josephus).

This peculiarity in the Greek language is the reason why the adopted word sabbata was used very flexibly and could mean both the Sabbath (singular) and the Sabbaths (plural). In other words: In the understanding of the Jews and Greeks, the phrases transferred from Aramaic into Greek with the word sabbata (plural, nominative) and σαββατων (plural, genitive) often meant only a single Sabbath day. Therefore, the Septuagint (LXX) has almost always used only the plural terms σαββατα or σαββατων to translate the Hebrew haSabbath (the Sabbath, singular), although often clearly only one (!) single Hebrew Sabbath day (singular) was meant in each case. Anyone who does not know this is lacking important basic knowledge. No matter in which form, however, it is always about the Sabbath or the Sabbath days and never about the Sunday or the Sundays or the week and the weeks. Anyone who erases the Sabbath or Sabbaths and replaces them with other days is falsifying the Word of God. Here are some translation examples from the LXX:

Thus, in their translation from Hebrew into Greek in the Septuagint, the Jews themselves used several plural terms (σαββατα, σαββατων, σαββατοις) to describe only a single Sabbath day in the singular. They themselves wrote it this way. Conversely, of course, all New Testament phrases in which exactly the same Greek plural forms of Sabbath (σαββατων) are used can also be translated in the singular as „on the Sabbath“ or „on the Sabbath day.“ Why would the evangelists have had to change the ancient Greek grammar just because some theologians desire a Sunday resurrection of Jesus? Thus, anyone who studies the Septuagint and the New Testament at the same time and translates them into any other language will have no comprehension problems whatsoever in dealing with plural and singular terms of Sabbath. However, both forms always described only the Sabbath and never any other day of the week. This is an extremely important fact to keep in mind in any Bible translation work.

But even if someone would rather translate "on the one of the Sabbaths" instead of "on a/one Sabbath", it would also be correct, because a series of Sabbaths is meant, namely the three Sabbaths during the Passover week and the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost and Mark emphasizes that it was the first of these Sabbaths on which the women came to the tomb. They did not come on the "first day of the week" but on the "first Sabbath" or "one of the Sabbaths," namely one of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost. Every child can understand this, but not the theologians, because they want to have their Sunday and have to come up with their own new definitions.

That the plural σαββατων means a single Sabbath day is not new information, but an old known matter of course, which was known to all translators of the Septuagint, like Jerome (Vulgate), Martin Luther and worldwide many others after them.

Eduard Schwyzer makes the following remark in the Sprachwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift of 1934: In Aramaic and in Greek both languages make claim "to the closing vowel of σαββατα. From the Oriental side, the apparently undoubtedly Greek final α of the apparently undoubtedly Greek plural form σαββατα is traced to Aramaic.... Accordingly, in addition to σαββατα, according to the original, τη ημερα των σαββατων (also του σαββατου) stands for the one Sabbath day" (Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiet der indogermanischen Sprachen 62. Bd., 1./2. H., 1934, pp. 1-16).

The explanation of terms in the Elberfelder Study Bible also states, "the plural ta sabbata [which includes the genitive form σαββατων; note by author] means either the Sabbaths (Acts 17:2); or it is synonymous with the singular, which has the following meaning: Sabbath, Jewish holiday." Despite this realization, the writers of the Elberfeld Bible did not adhere to their own definition and translated the same plural term σαββατων differently. In various biblical passages (Mt 28:1a; Lk 4:16; Acts 13:14; Acts 16:13; Col 2:16) it was given in the singular sense, but only in the passage dealing with the day of Jesus' resurrection were new phrases introduced quite without reason: "on the first day of the week" or "on the day after the Sabbath" or "on Sunday." God did not mean the last mentioned phrases, because there are own other Greek equivalents for them, as was proved in chap. 3.1. God meant the Sabbath, so He used this word and no other. Some translators and priests/pastors simply did not want to accept that the Sabbath was the day of Jesus' resurrection, so they substituted week or Sunday for Sabbath in both the singular (Mk 16:9) and plural (Mt 28:1b; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1,19) in these few passages.

Many translators (e.g. Menge) also speak of the "day after the Sabbath" (singular) and not of the "day after the Sabbaths" (plural), although the Greek basic text uses the plural. So they themselves have translated the Greek plural sabbaton (σαββατων) as singular. But they still shy away from saying "on a Sabbath" and instead add the word AFTER to the Bible in the resurrection chapter, thus shifting the day back by 24 hours.

Unlike many theologians of today, Jerome (author of the Latin Vulgate) had no comprehension problems with the Greek Sabbath plural term and correctly translated the σαββατων appearing in the Old Testament of the Septuagint as sabbati (Sabbath) in the singular. In the New Testament, too, Jerome has used σαββατων in the plural (Mt 28:1a; Mt 28:1b; Lk 4:16; 24:1; Jn 20:1, Acts 20:7) as well as σαββατου in the singular (Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28; 16:9; Lk 6:5; 13:14. 16; 14:5; Jn 19:31; Acts 1:12; 1Cor 16:2 ), always used the same word „sabbati“ (Sabbath) or „una sabbati“ (a Sabbath, in the singular) (cf. chapter Latin Bibles) and never the corresponding Latin words for week, Sunday, or Lord's Day. It was clear to him that the entire Bible always reports events "on a Sabbath day," even though the plural sabbaths (σαββατων) was used in the basic Greek text.

Every Greek speaking person at the time of Jesus and in all the centuries after knew and knows these grammatical forms and peculiarities of the old Greek language, because every translator transferred even several times the plural "Sabbaths" (σαββατων) mentioned in the NT in some places with the singular "Sabbath". There is no reason, only on the day of the resurrection of Jesus, to invent completely new rules, so that a Sabbath becomes a Sunday.

In many Bibles the Greek Sabbath terms have been translated into other languages at will, sometimes in the singular and sometimes in the plural, without any fixed rules. In some places where the word Sabbath clearly appears in the singular σαββατον in the basic Greek text, it has been translated in the plural form. For example, Acts 18:4 (Luther 1984) reads, „and he [Paul] taught in the synagogue on all the Sabbaths“ (plural), although it should correctly be translated „every Sabbath“ (παν σαββατον, singular!). So, although it is reported here that Paul taught „on all Sabbaths“ or „every Sabbath,“ many theologians now want to change Paul's mention of Sabbath preaching, which appears only two chapters later, to Sunday preaching without reason and translate Acts 20:7: „But on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul preached to them...“ However, the same Paul actually broke bread and preached on a Sabbath day, for the literal translation of „εν δε τη μια των σαββατων“ is undoubtedly „on but one of the Sabbaths“ or „on but one Sabbath day“ or „but on the one Sabbath day...“ So it describes what Paul did „on one of the Sabbaths“ in which he had been ministering (as already indicated in Acts 18:4). It is a figure of speech that any small child can understand. In Acts 20:7, the Sabbath term σαββατων was simply erased in the revised translation and replaced by „first day of the week.“ Martin Luther would certainly not have agreed with such a revision of his translation, for he correctly translated in 1545: „Now on a Sabbath, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them...“ Many English Bibles have translated this correctly as well, see Acts 20:7.

There are many places where the plural sabbata was translated in the singular sense as a Sabbath (and not week). This was a matter of course for all translators of the Bible. In Mt 12:10 Jesus was asked „is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?“ but in the basic Greek text it literally says „τοις σαββασιν“ (in the Sabbaths, plural), and so the text continues: (11) „Then He said to them, What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath [literally plural: τοις σαββασιν; in the Sabbaths], will not lay hold of it and lift it out? (12) Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath [literally plural: τοις σαββασιν; in the Sabbaths]“ (Mt 12:11-12, NKJV). „And He [Jesus] came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee; and He was teaching them on the Sabbath [literally plural: εν τοις σαββασιν; in the Sabbaths]“ (Luke 4:31; NASB). Not only Jesus, but also the disciples used the same plural phrases to describe what happened on a single Sabbath day: the disciples „went into the synagogue on the sabbath day [literally plural: τη ημερα των σαββατων; on the day of the Sabbaths; plural] and sat down“ (Acts 13:14, KJV) and „on the sabbath [literally plural: τη ημερα των σαββατων; on the day of the Sabbaths; plural] we went out of the city by a river side...“ (Acts 16:13; KJV).

It must be again emphasized that all the translators of the world have had no trouble translating the plural σαββατων in the singular in several places (Lk 4:16; Acts 13:14; 16:13; Col 2:16). But only in the passages that tell of the day of Jesus' resurrection has this exact same word σαββατων greatly disturbed some translators. Therefore they did not keep to the basic text given to them by God, but interpreted and twisted around according to their church doctrine until they got the desired meaning. Thus in 3 places (Lk 18:12; Mk 16:9; 1Cor 16:2) the singular genitive σαββατου and in 6 places (Mt 28:1; Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1, Jn 20:19; Acts 20:7) the plural genitive σαββατων was simply replaced by the week or even by Sunday, which is absolutely wrong in content and language. The manipulation in translation is especially evident in Mt 28:1. Here in many Bibles at Mt 28,1a first the Sabbath is used in the singular (!), but then in Mt 28,1b the „first day of the week“ or Sunday is mentioned, although in the same verse twice 100% the same word σαββατων appears in the plural: „οψε δε σαββατων τη επιφωσκουση εις μιαν σαββατων ηλθεν μαριαμ.“

Further clear evidence that the plural σαββατων also means a single Sabbath in the singular comes from the different original Greek textual content of 1 Cor 16:2. While the Codex Sinaiticus (CS-Tisdf 1862, CS-WH 1881) and the Nestle-Aland text (NA28 2012) mention the Sabbath in the singular (κατα μιαν σαββατου = concerning a Sabbath; singular), the Textus Receptus (TR-Erasm 1516, TR-Steph 1550, TR-Scr 1894) and the Majority Text (MjTxt 2005) write Sabbath in the plural (κατα μιαν σαββατων = concerning a Sabbaths; plural) in the same Bible verse, which clearly proves that these phrases are interchangeable in ancient Greek and always mean a single Sabbath, but never a week or Sunday. It is absurd to think that some original texts at 1Cor 16:2 should mention a Sunday and the others a Sabbath. No, they all meant the Sabbath. The copyists did not make a mistake. Both options are possible, it is always about the one Sabbath day in all of them:

It is very interesting to compare the Codex Bezae from around 400 AD with the other editions of the basic Greek text, because it becomes clear that Sabbath always means the same thing, namely a/the Sabbath day, both in the plural (NA28, Textus Receptus, Majority Text) and in the singular. Both terms are arbitrarily interchangeable according to the linguistic rules of the ancient Greek language, because the meaning never changes. Therefore, they appear in different basic text editions either in the plural or in the singular. So in Mk 16:2 the Codex Bezae says 100% exactly the same Sabbath (genitive singular) as in Mk 16:9. So always only the "one Sabbath" of the three Sabbaths at the Passover or the "first Sabbath" (Mk 16:9) of the 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost is meant:

It is very interesting and important to note that the Jews translated the Hebrew phrase "yom ha-Shabbat" (=day of Shabbat; Sabbath day, in the singular) in the Septuagint as "ημερα των σαββατων" (=day of Sabbaths, in the plural). And even more interestingly, the disciples of Jesus in the New Testament used exactly the same phrase to describe a single Sabbath day that their fathers had also used centuries before them. If today's Bible translators were to translate the Septuagint into English, they cannot translate the 100% same phrase in the OT as "on the Sabbath day" on one side and "on the first day of the week" on the other side in the NT. This is illogical. In fact, from the point of view of meaning, it is the same whether someone translates "on the one of the Sabbaths" or "on the day of the Sabbaths" or "on a Sabbath day". The meaning is the same, since it always refers only to the Sabbath day. In any case, the Sabbath must always be preserved and must not be replaced by another day of the week. In chapter about substitution-5 it is described in more detail what is meant by a "day of Sabbaths".

The plural Sabbata appears very often in the Old Testament (OT) in the Septuagint (LXX). But also the Hebrew Shabbat in the singular (!) was translated in it into the Greek often in the plural form, although in each case only a single Sabbath day (singular) and never the week or the Sunday were meant. Some examples with the text of the KJV, the text of the Septuagint and the literal English equivalent follow:

What becomes clear now? Due to special language rules in the ancient Greek language, the Hebrew Shabbat in the singular was often translated in the Septuagint (LXX) as the plural (Shabbaths). This list includes some passages from the King James Bible (KJV) in which Sabbath is in the singular, although the literal quotations from the Septuagint mean the plural (Sabbaths). The Greek words are followed by the literal English translation. The phrase „day of the Sabbaths“ (ημερα των σαβββατων) in the plural, which has always been used to describe a single Hebrew Sabbath day in the singular, is marked in blue. The most famous Bible verse is Exodus 20:8 (Proclamation of the 10 Commandments), where the Hebrew „remember the Sabbath day“ (yom ha Shabbat) in the singular was translated into ancient Greek as „remember the day of the Sabbaths“ (ημεραν των σαββατων) in the plural, but this Greek plural means a Hebrew, Spanish, English, and German Sabbath day in the singular. Whoever studies the Septuagint will understand the same sentences also in the New Testament and cannot even get the idea that the plural αβββατων mentioned in the NT can supposedly also be translated as week or Sunday; this is complete nonsense, because Sabbath in singular and plural always means only the Sabbath(s) and nothing else, the 7th day of the week clearly defined since creation.

For us it is unusual to speak of Sabbaths in the plural when we mean a single Sabbath day in the singular, but in ancient Greece it was something perfectly normal and every child understood it, because the ancient Greek plural meant not only "Sabbaths" but also the single Sabbath day in the singular. Nothing has changed in the New Testament.

Consequently, it is completely unimportant whether the ancient Greek sabbaton was written in the singular or the plural, for it has always meant ONLY a Sabbath and never the multi-day week or Sunday. So anyone who says that the phrase "day of zhe Sabbaths" supposedly means "first day of the week" or Sunday can be convinced otherwise in a few minutes by opening the Septuagint.

Once again, when God proclaimed the Sabbath commandment in Ex 20:8-10, the literal translation of the Septuagint reads "Remember the day of Sabbaths [σαββατων, plural]..., but the seventh day is Sabbath [σαββατα, plural] to the Lord your God." Is it not clear that always the Sabbath was meant? If some theologians want to bring Sunday into the NT because of the Greek plural sabbaton, then they consequently have to force it into the Septuagint as well, because the same grammatical rules exist there.

This may sound strange to us, but to the people of that time it was a matter of course, understood by everyone without exception. This biblical passage is therefore also correctly translated into the English translation from the Septuagint: „Remember the day of the sabbaths [Plural] to consecrate it. For six days you shall labor and do all your labor, but on the seventh day there is Sabbata [Plural] to the Lord your God“ [NETS 2009; A New English Translation of the Septuagint by Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright].  

It is clear to all translators of the earth that not only in the Old Testament of the Septuagint, but also in the New Testament text the word σαββατων (plural) in several places means a single Sabbath day (singular) and never the week or Sunday. The following is the text of the King Jamesr Bible, the basic Greek text and the literal English equivalent:

Also interesting is John 20:19, which literally says, „ουσης (was) ουν (now) οψιας (evening) τη (that/on) ημερα (day) εκεινη (same/that) τη (the) μια (one) σαββατων (Sabbaths, plural).“ Here it is clearly speaking of „that/same ONE Sabbath“ (singular) on which Jesus appeared first to the women and then to the disciples. Yet the plural σαββατων is used in the Greek language. Most modern translations have now turned „on the same Sabbath" (singular) into „day after the Sabbath“ or „first day of the week“ or „on a Sunday.“ Martin Luther knew exactly how to translate the original Greek text, and he correctly wrote, "Now in the evening of the same Sabbath, when the disciples were gathered together and the doors were shut...“ His original translation was printed worldwide until around 1900 and even in recent years new printed editions came out with the same text (see Luther Bible).

John Wycliffe translated 1382:

„Therefore when it was even in that day [Therefore when eventide was in that day], [in] one of the sabbaths, and the gates were shut, where the disciples were gathered, for dread of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in the middle of the disciples, and he saith to them, Peace to you [and said to them, Peace be to you].“ See more correct translations Jn 20:19.

Even today all (!) translators of the world agree that the plural σαββατων can mean both one and several Sabbaths, depending on the context. In their own Bible translations, all theologians have translated the plural σαββατων in the singular as „on the Sabbath“ or „on a/the Sabbath day“ in several places (Mt 28:1a; Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14; Acts 16:13; Col 2:16). Consequently, it makes no sense to translate the 100% same word now as week or Sunday, of all places, which are about the resurrection of Jesus. This would not only be an ecclesiastical interpretation, but it would be a clear falsification of the Word of God! Jesus did not rise „on the first day of the week“ but „on a Sabbath“ or „on the one/first of the Sabbaths“ (there are 3 Sabbaths in the Passover) and „early on the first Sabbath“ (Mark 16:9), namely the first Sabbath of a series of 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost. But if Christians are not familiar with God's calendar because the Old Testament is not important to them, then they cannot possibly translate the New Testament text correctly because it does not sound logical to them. If God really meant the „first day of the week“ or Sunday, then He would have more than 24 phrases in ancient Greek to choose from (see the chapter No Sunday).

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increas 

 (Daniel 12:4)

 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil"

(1Thess 5:21-22)

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them"

(Epheser 5:11)