Apologetically speaking, the most twisted phrase in the New testament is 'the first day of the week'. This is because the most important doctrine of the scriptures pertains to the resurrection from the dead. Let the Apostle Paul establish how serious this is.
Galatians 1:6-10 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace (Gr. karis, the root of charisma meaning the anointing, not just 'unmerited favor') of the Messiah (the Anointed One) unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you , and would pervert the gospel of the Messiah. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or YHWH? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of the Messiah.
We are speaking here of the original, True Gospel preached by the apostles of Yahshua who witnessed it with their lives. The True Gospel is all about the anointing that comes to us when we believe in the Anointed One, Yahshua the Messiah. But there is a detail that was put into the Apostle's Creed because it set apart the true from the false in the early years when grievous wolves, who loved preeminence like Diotrephes did, had already entered in, not sparing the flock.
The True Gospel is the message that exposes the man of sin (see 2nd Thess. 2), The son of perdition anyone who suppress (Gr. catecho, the root of catechism) the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). The restrainer (catecho) therefore is not the Holy Spirit and it is truth, not sin, which is being restrained. It is The True Gospel which reveals the Wicked One, the one who twists things.
1st Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that the Messiah died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures:
This phrase 'THE THIRD DAY' means The Third Day of the week, in Hebrew Yom Sh'lishi, and in Greek, te trite hemera. It does not mean the third day of a series or sequence. This is easily seen from the following verses that conclusively establish this truth:
Mattityahu (Matthew) 27:62-66 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until The Third Day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, "You have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can." So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
The Third Day in question is not referring to the third of a sequence of three days because it would make the preceding verses nonsensical. Further corroborating evidence of this important fact is to be found in the next verses cited:
Acts 27:14-18 But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship; 27:19 And the third (Gr. te trite without hemera) day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
The word day is italicised in the preceeding verse because it is not to be found in the Greek but was added by the translators. Without doubt te trite without the word hemera following is the way the Greek expresses the idea of the third day of a series, or sequence. Why this is important is most profound, because the foundations of institutional Christianity have been destroyed by the subtle sleight of hand of translators doing the bidding of wealthy potentates who had them systematically engage in the suppression of the Jewishness of the New Testament. Let us turn our attention to the matter at hand to see how destructive their work was to be.
The phrase 'mia twn sabbatwn' in Greek has been translated into the English as 'the first day of the week'. As we have already mentioned, when a word is italicised in the English it has been added by the translators, ostensibly 'to clarify the meaning of the verse' we are told. Day is not found in this phrase in the Greek, which immediately tells us we are dealing with a series of something here, and not a specific day of the week.
Upon further investigation we note that the regular word for 'first' in Greek is 'prote', or 'proto', not 'mia', which is the feminine form of the word 'heis' which means one, not first. There are some forty odd times where this word was translated as one and it is only in the phrase 'mia twn sabbatwn' that the translators elected to change it to 'first', instead of one.
Next we notice that the word Sabbatwn is plural, not singular, and should have been rendered by the translators as weeks, not week. While one might think Sabbaths is appropriate here instead of weeks, in English, weeks is the better choice because the meaning of 'mia twn sabbatwn' is (week) One of the Weeks and refers to the beginning of the counting of the Omer, which is the seven week period that occurs annually between Passover and Pentecost. This phrase in context is only found during that time of the year as established by time clues in each passage of the New Testament scriptures, wherever it is to be found.
We have therefore documented that the translators of ALL English versions of the New Testament, starting with, and including the KJV, have deliberately engaged in the suppression of the truth of the Jewishness of Yahshua and his apostles. I discovered this because as a Jewish man I was looking to find Jewish practices in the New Testament and as I was searching for the counting of the Omer specifically, nowhere could I find direct mention of it. So I decided to collect the time clues relevant to this ritual which is practiced faithfully by observant Jews each year. Naturally I went to the four gospels first, et voila! This phrase I found to only and always occur at the appropriate time each year, but there was a major problem related to this discovery; it affected the teaching that 'Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a sunday'.
The goal of the translators, at the time the KJV was made, was to distance themselves from Rome. But they did not want to go so far as to restore the Jewishness of the scriptures. And who knows, maybe their motive was that the agents of the Catholic Church would say that the Church of England was just another 'Jewish conspiracy' and having fought Cromwell in a civil war, there was no desire to risk engendering another civil war. Regardless of their reasons, which may have been more wicked than noble, we have proof from the scriptures themselves, that they engaged in the systematic suppression of all Jewish ways, the most fundamental of which is the weekly Sabbath.
Mattityahua 15:1-9 Then came to Yahshua scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, "Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread." But he answered and said unto them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of Elohim by your tradition? For YHWH commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, "Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou might be profited by me and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free." Thus have you made the commandment of Elohim of none effect by your tradition. You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, "This people draws nigh unto me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." But in vain they do worship me (i.e. they violate The Third Commandment), teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Jews have been accused with this verse that applied to a generation of Jews who lived two thousand years ago, ALL THE WHILE CHRISTIANITY HAS REJECTED YHWH's SABBATH EVERY WEEK FOR SEVENTEEN HUNDRED YEARS! And that by nothing more than invented Christian tradition.
We are living in the day of the restoration of all things. The True Gospel that the Jewish Messiah who kept, and keeps, ALL of his Father's commandments, is that He rose from the dead The Third Day of the week, according to the scriptures. You can read more about this in full detail in the article The Third Day, but let me here offer one more proof for what has been given.
Acts 1:1-12 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Yahshua began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of : And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ".... you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence." When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, "Rabbi, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" And he said unto them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, "You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Yahshua, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven." Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey.
Luke is careful to record both here and in Luke 24, the necessary detail to establish The True Gospel without equivocation. He mentions a sabbath day's journey because forty days after the resurrection of our Saviour was the sixth weekly Sabbath of the counting of the Omer. And forty days before this noted Sabbath was The Third Day of the week, the same day, when Yahshua rose from the dead to the glory of YHWH.
Luke 24:1-21 Now upon the first day of the week (sic), very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of Yahshua. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and The Third Day rise again."
And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Pehter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs (which is greater than a sabbath day's journey therefore it was not the weekly sabbath when Yahshua rose from the dead). And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Yahshua himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, "What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad?" And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, "Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which are come to pass therein these days?" And he said unto them, "What things?" And they said unto him, "Concerning Yahshua of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before Elohim and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is The Third Day (te trite hemera) since these things were done."
Many foolish people are spending their idle time trying to be the first one to calculate a chronology of Yahshua's passion, death, and resurrection. This can only be seen by observation of written testimony given by true witnesses who were there at the time. I will leave the dates for others to confirm with their prognosticatings, but the pattern for Yahshua's passion is established by believing the eyewitness testimony recorded for us in the scriptures. I invite you, brother, to read and use the testimony I have written about these matters. Feel free to circulate it as you see fit, buy the truth and sell it not. Acts 15 is Paul's commentary on Genesis 1-6, the first Torah portion taught to five year old boys in Bet Cheder (grade school). Gen. 1:9-13 tells us of the events that happened on the inaugural Third Day of the week. Seed with the pattern of life in itself is parallel with the truth of bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial. All flesh is grass is what the spirit of Elijah spoke through John the Baptist. Pehter said to remember that with YHWH, a day is as a thousand years to YHWH and a thousand is as a day.
We are two thousand years past the first coming of Messiah. BEHOLD, ALL FLESH IS GRASS and the Day comes which burns like an oven....." A five year old Orthodox Jewish boy would marvel and completely understand the elegant simplicity of the Gospel of Yahshua Messiah, the resurrection from the dead The Third Day of the week, if it could only reach his innocent ears before an adult (idolator) perverts it.