English prints from 1946 to 2002 and the Sabbath

As could already be shown in the previous chapters, many English manuscripts (handwritings), the first Bible prints and the printed Bibles up to the Second World War (WW2) show the resurrection of Jesus "on a Sabbath morning". This is also the statement of many Bibles printed after WW2, especially those that came on the market after 2003 (see Bible Prints-4). 

The New World Translation (NWT) is the Bible of Jehovah's Witnesses. The foundation of this religious community goes back to Charles Taze Russell (*1852, †1916), although the actual demarcation from other Christians did not occur until the adoption of the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931. Beginning in 1950, Jehovah's Witnesses published their own translation of the NT, which reinterpreted the Greek NT to such an extent that a new church split in Christianity inevitably had to occur, with many families broken up in quarrels. Jehovah's Witnesses do use the same basic Greek text (Westscott/Hort) for their own Bible that other translators use; but they have, according to their church doctrine, replaced the Word of God by introducing their own words such as "Jehovah" and "week" that were never in the basic Greek text. Thus, among other things, they themselves correctly translated the three biblical passages (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14; 16:13) that speak of "τη ημερα των σαββατων" (on the of the Sabbaths) in the plural as "on the Sabbath day" in the singular. But in the very passages that tell of the resurrection of Jesus and use the same phrase (when the feminine "day" is added after the feminine mia [one], as done by Jehovah's Witnesses themselves), the Sabbath day has been removed from the Bible and replaced by Sunday. This is a falsification of the Bible! In 1969 and 1985 an extremely interesting English language interlinear translation was published: Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (KIT). It is one of the most interesting translations ever, since no other Bible so clearly exposes the church translation errors. Below is the three-line text of the Interlinear KIT 1985. Here, as a comparison, is [1.] the basic Greek text, [2.] what Jehovah's Witnesses believe is the literal English equivalent (KIT-W), and [3.] the Church's interpretation in the form of the New World Translation (NWT). Since the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses is not familiar with God's calendar, they consequently cannot understand that Mark means by the "first Sabbath" (Mk 16:9) the first of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost. In Mt 28:1a the evening (Oψε) is eliminated and replaced by the word "after", although in other places the evening was correctly mentioned. Since the women came to the tomb after the High Sabbath (Nisan 15) on a weekly Sabbath (Nisan 17), this "after" would not be literal, but would still be correct in content. After the feminine mia (one), the "day," also feminine in Greek, was added, which is acceptable. However, Jehovah's Witnesses do not note that by the expression thus created, "on a day of the Sabbaths," nothing else is meant than "on a Sabbath day." This is a well-known ancient Greek phrase that was often used in colloquial language and in Septuagint to describe only a single Sabbath day (e.g., in the proclamation of the 10 commandments in Ex 20:8; LXX). Jehovah's Witnesses, in the literal equivalent (line 2) on one side, admit that the Greek sabbaton always means only the Sabbath or Sabbaths, but they still add "week" to the Bible in the third line. To create a harmonious sounding sentence, they simply replace "one" with "first" in addition. Even Christians who have only basic English can clearly see the falsifications in the third line (NWT). The comparison with KIT clearly proves that Jehovah's Witnesses were fully aware of removing and adding to God's Word, and thus seducing millions of Christians:

Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press published a modern English NT beginning in 1961. The Full Bible appeared in 1970, in which the Sabbath was removed and replaced by Sunday. It was one of the first English Bibles ever to dare to add the word "Sunday" to the Bible. Only Acts 20:7 still speaks of "a Saturday". But everyone who is familiar with the basic Greek text (see Interlinear Bible) can immediately see that something cannot be right here. For Acts 20:7 is based on exactly the same words as in Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1 and John 20:1, namely "μια των σαββατων" (see translations). God would not have spoken of "a Sabbath" 7 times if He really meant "not a Sabbath" but "a Sunday", which, by the way, is not found even once in the entire Bible. The 100% same Greek phrase cannot mean both Saturday and Sunday. The NEB is one of the worst translations ever in this respect:  

Jay Patrick Green, Sr. (*1918, †2008) was a Bible translator from the United States who had translated several significant Bibles from the basic texts into English, also known as "the Green Bibles." After his children asked him "Dad, why don't you make a Bible we can understand?", he began his translation work, which kept him busy until his death. His most important works were:

1960: The Children's 'King James' Bible New Testament

1962: The Teen-Age Version of the Holy Bible

1962: MKJV - Modern King James Version of the Holy Bible (several revisions, i.e. 1998/99)

1966: The Living Scriptures: A New Translation in the King James Tradition (NT)

1971: King James II Version, später auch „Modern King James Version“ genannt

1979: The Interlinear Hebrew / Greek English Bible Four Volume Edition Volume Four (NT) 

1985: LITV - Literal Version

2005: KJ3 Literal Translation New Testament, Word for Word English Translation From The Greek TR Text

In the MKJV the resurrection Sabbath in Mt 28:1 and Mk 16:2 was not correctly reproduced, since Green did not understand how it could be possible that according to Mk 16:1 the women went shopping "after the Sabbath" and then came to the tomb "on a Sabbath". But in the other passages he mentions the resurrection of Jesus on the morning of the first of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost:

In the first editions (MKJV) Patrick Green still translated Mt 28,1 and Mk 16,2 as "on the first day of the week". But he came to the conviction to detach himself even more from the text of the KJV and to always mention the Sabbath according to the Greek basic text. The improvements can be seen in his LITV 1985 (see below) and in his last version (KJ3 2005, see below) by bringing the Sabbath back into his Bible. 

The Good News Bible, also called Good News Translation (GNT), is a version published by the American Bible Society that appeared as a complete Bible as early as 1976. This Bible in modern English was published in 1966 under the name Good News for Modern Man. It was also known as Today's English Version (TEV), but as of 2001 it was renamed Good News Translation. Over the years, only minor changes have been made to the text. Except in Acts 20:7, the biblical Sabbath of the Greek NT was erased in all places and replaced by the unbiblical Sunday. The footnote in Acts 20:7, "Saturday; or Sunday", appears to be a joke; it sounds as if the reader could pick a day, illustrating the translators' helplessness. The basic text says "μια των σαββατων" (one of the Sabbaths, see translation) in Acts 20:7, as it does in Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1 and John 20:1. So the Sabbath belongs in these passages as well:

The Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (LITV) by Patrick Green (cf. note to MKJV 1962) mentions in all places the first of the 7 Sabbaths until Pentecost and not the "first day of the week" or Sunday. Only in Mark 16:2 did he still mention the week, not understanding the connection to verse 1 (the women prepared the ointments after the Sabbath). However, this error was corrected in his subsequent KJ3 translation in 2005. Green unfortunately did not differentiate between "one" and "first" in the basic Greek text. Only 1Cor 16,2 he has rendered the Greek wording "one" quite correctly:

This edition was published by The World Bible Translation Center. It claims to be easy to read. But the coming of the women "on a Sabbath" would have been even easier to read, because it would automatically make some contradictions in other places disappear. The replacement of the biblical Sabbath with the unbiblical Sunday is disastrous:

This edition published by the American Bible Society (Full Bible 1995; abbr.: CEV), also called Bible for Today's Family, completely removes the Sabbath from the Word of God in important passages and replaces it with the unbiblical Sunday:

Herb Jahn from the USA studied the biblical languages for 40 years and realized that in the King James Bible some serious translation errors were made and some words and phrases were not correctly translated. He therefore published a comparative Bible (abbreviated ERRB) in which first the text of the KJV was shown (in italics was the particular word that needed interpretation) and then in bold the correct translation. In Mt 28:1 he points out that it is not about the end but the evening (eve) of a Sabbath. He often uses the Aramaic rather than the Greek pronunciations for names, e.g., Shabbath or Miryam (Mary). Jahn points out that in all places in the resurrection chapter the original text reports an event "on a Shabbath" or "on the first of the Shabbaths" and not "on the first of the Sundays" and not "on a Sunday":

In addition to the ERRB, Herb Jahn also published a Bible text edition without the text of the KJV in 1992, the ExeGeses Companion Bible (ECB). In all places the Sabbath was mentioned correctly, even if he replaces the Greek mia (one) by prote (first). However, since it is actually the first of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost, the error is not significant:

William E. Paul ignores the Greek sabbaton (Sabbath), introduces the unbiblical and pagan Sunday and also does not distinguish between prote (first) and mia (one). In 1Cor 16:2 he even reports a regular Sunday assembly of the church. How far his Bible is from the content of the evangelists. It is one of the worst Bibles in the world. The closer we get to the coming of Jesus Christ, the more Bible translations call Sunday by name, so that Christians do not turn to the biblical Sabbath and learn nothing about the biblical resurrection of Jesus "on a Sabbath":

This Bible was produced by God's Word to the Nations Bible Mission Society  in Ohio. It was written in an English that is spoken daily (so it is easy to understand). But the resurrection day was moved to Sunday. The point was not so much to translate the basic Greek text correctly as to spread the Sunday dogma. Mt 28:1a speaks of a "day of worship," a phrase that no Greek manuscript ever used, any more than Sunday:

Based on the same text of the GW 1995, the Names of God Bible (NOG 2011) was published, which introduces the names Yahweh, El Shadday, El Elyon and Adonay and at the same time also Sunday. But what is the use of pronouncing Hebrew/Aramaic names on the one hand, which are not found in the Greek NT, if on the other hand the much more important Day of God and Jesus (Sabbath) is erased, which is often found in the original Greek text?

This edition was published by the Tyndale House Foundation. It is a Bible approved by the Catholic Church in modern English. It corresponds to the German "Neues Leben Übersetzung" (NLB) of 2002, but it contains significant errors, for the basic Greek text speaks only of the women coming "on a Sabbath" and not "on Sunday morning" or "the first day of the week":

The Aramaic NT is also called Disciples New Testament. The translator Victor N. Alexander points out on his website that his translation is more accurate than others. QUote: " Jesus the Messiah spoke in the Galilean dialect of the Ancient Aramaic language… The translation that you find on this website is made from the original Ancient Aramaic Scriptures directly into English, bypassing the errors of translation introduced in the Greek Original, the Latin Vulgate and all the Western translations made from them. This is an attempt to rekindle the Apostolic Faith in the name of Eashoa Msheekhah (Jesus the Messiah) throughout the world" Unquote. In fact, this version reveals serious errors, because Sunday is not found in any of the basic Greek texts. Even the ancient Vulgate was more accurate than this "Aramaic Sunday NT 1998". According to Mt 28:1, the women even came "in the evening of the week, when Sunday was coming to an end", that is, on Sunday evening. It is a terrible translation that twists the word of God and deceives the readers:

The Complete Jewish Bible is an translation that was heavily influenced by the Jewish language. As early as 1917, Bruce Metzger was working on a Jewish translation of the Tanakh (Mazoretic Text). Theology professor Dr. David H. Stern completed the work and added his own translation of the NT, the Jewish New Testament (abbr.: JNT). Stern became a Christian in 1972, so this Bible is also called the Messianic Bible. It was published by the Jewish New Testament Publications Inc. While the Old Testament is quite accurate, the NT reveals major weaknesses. The Greek words have been replaced with Hebrew names, e.g. Miryam (Mary), Sha'ul (Paul), Yeshua (Jesus). The use of these names has not made the translation any better. God does not ask us to pronounce the old names the same way as the Jews did at the time of Jesus, but everyone can do it in their own language. What is the use of pronouncing the Hebrew names if at the same time God's Word is twisted by erasing the Hebrew Shabbat and adding the pagan and unbiblical Sunday to the Bible? Is this supposed to be for the glory of God? Surely not! This is more of a Catholic translation than a Messianic translation. In some places it simply speaks of the "next day" without specifying which day was meant at all? But in the basic Greek text, the exact name (Sabbath) is in there. In Acts 20:7 the term Motza'ei-Shabbat appears, which means the time after the end of the Sabbath, i.e. after 6 p.m. on Saturday:

Ray W. Johnson also adds Sunday to the Bible. He could neither distinguish between Sabbath and Sunday nor between one and first in the original Greek text. He also probably never heard of a biblical or Jewish calendar. Therefore errors of understanding are inevitable. It is a Bible so bad that it becomes clear that we really have to live "in the last days" before Jesus' return. But the church meeting took place "on Saturday," after all. The basic text here has the same words "μια των σαββατων" (see translation) as in Mk 16:2; Lk 24:1 and Jn 20:1, so it is clear that the other passages could also have been translated as "on Saturday" if the author did not necessarily want to find Sunday in the Bible. With the correct translation of Acts 20:7, the author has admitted that he deliberately postponed the resurrection day and thus determined his own judgment before God. :

English Jubilee Bible 2000 (abbr.: JB2000 or EJ2000): Russell Martin Stendal (*1955), a Protestant missionary from Minneapolis (USA) working in Colombia, has worked intensively on historical Spanish and English Bibles. This resulted in an updated edition:

„Translated from the Original Texts in Hebrew and Greek into Spanish by Casiodoro de Reina (1569) and compared with the revision of Cipriano de Valera (1602). Based on the New Testament of Francisco de Enzinas (1543) and on the New Testament (1556) with the Psalms (1557) of Juan Perez de Pineda. This material was translated from Spanish into English and compared with the Old English Translation of William Tyndale and compared word for word with the Authorized Version (KJV) of 1611."

Stendal is a proponent of the concordant translation and his English (JB2000) and Spanish (Reina Valera RV2000 = RV Version Antigua, SEV) Bible is highly recommended. He mentions the first of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost, which is correct. But with an accurate translation of the basic text, he should have spoken of the "first Sabbath" (in the singular, not plural) only in Mark 16:9, since the other passages actually speak of "on a Sabbath day" or "on the one of the Sabbaths:"

Dallas E. James from the USA has compared the King James Version (KJV) and the Young's Literal Translation (YLT) for his translation besides the basic Greek text. As a Christian, while defending the Sunday resurrection, he specified the meeting of the church "on the only one Sabbath of the week." Who is to understand this? The corresponding Greek word for "week" does not exist in the entire basic text of the NT. Consequently, he would have to translate the other passages in the resurrection chapter as "on the one Sabbath of the week." In Mt 28:1a, "on the evening of the Sabbath" rightly mentions: 

The World English Bible (WEB) is a revision of the American Standard Version (ASV). The goal was to produce a modern translation that is not subject to copyright and can be freely copied. While this is to be commended, unfortunately this version continues to support the unbiblical Sunday resurrection. However, the basic Greek text only knows the resurrection of Jesus "on a Sabbath morning" and not the day after:

The World English Bible (WEB) text was used to bring out a Messianic version that includes the Hebrew names but continues to conceal the Hebrew Shabbat, emphasizing instead the Gentile Sunday. The same question that was asked earlier applies here: What sense does it make to add the Hebrew names to the Bible if, at the same time, the Hebrew Shabbats are erased?

The English Standard Version 2001 (ESV) is a revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of 1971. Additional minor changes were made in the 2007 and 2011 revisions. The text of the ESV has served as the basis for several study Bibles, e.g., Reformation Study Bible, ESV Study Bible, The Lutheran Study Bible, and the popular MacArthur Study Bible. But what good is a study Bible if it hides the most important questions about the biblical day of Jesus' resurrection? The biblical Sabbath was not mentioned at all and replaced with "first day of the week," leaving many Christians with study Bibles but no way to know the true day the women came to the tomb:

The Orthodox Jewish Bible was prepared in 2002 by Phillip Goble (b. 1943). It is an edition used by some Messianic Christians in the USA who believe in a resurrection of Jesus "on a Sunday". Although the English text contains many Yiddish names, a translation work from the basic Greek text was not available, because the shavua (shabuha, week) was introduced to the NT and the New Testament shabbos (Sabbath) was simply replaced by Sunday (Yom Rishon). No distinction was made between the Greek mia (one) and prote (first) either. This edition, therefore, only has the outward appearance of accuracy because it uses Jewish names and designations. But a closer look reveals catastrophic falsifications of the Greek original. The original Greek text never speaks of "Yom Rishon" and never of the "first day of the shavua" (first day of the week), but always only of Shabbos (Sabbath). Therefore, the errors are unmistakable: 

The Bible of pastor Eugene H. Peterson (*1932) in temporal English is good to read, but it falsifies the message of the evangelists, because these spoke of a coming of the women to the grave "on a Sabbath", or "on the first Sabbath" of the seven Sabbaths until Pentecost. But Peterson made it a Sunday walk. In John 20:19 he did not even mention the Sabbath mentioned in the basic Greek text, simply referring to his erroneous statement in verse 1. It is really painful to see how some Christians want to erase the Word of God just to support the teachings of the Pope:

Numerous Bibles in many languages teach the resurrection of Jesus on a Sabbath morning:

7.  Many old Bibles proclaim the resurrection of Jesus on a Sabbath or Saturday morning 

7.1   Greek Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.2   Latin Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection  

7.3   Gothic Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.4.1  German Bible manuscripts show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.4.2  German Bible prints 1 (before Luther) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.4.3  German Bible prints 2 (since Luther) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.4.4  German Bible prints 3 (since 1600 to 1899) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.4.5  German Bible prints 4 (since 1900) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.5.1  English Bible manuscripts show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.5.2  English Bible prints 1 (from 1526 to 1799) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.5.3  English Bible prints 2 (from 1800 to 1945) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.5.4  English Bible prints 3 (from 1946 to 2002) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.5.5  English Bible prints 4 (from 2003) show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.6    Spanish Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.7    French Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.8    Swedish Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.9    Czech Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.10  Italian Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.11  Dutch Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

7.12  Slovenian Bibles show the Sabbath resurrection 

 "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)