"Easter Morning" verses, meaning of "day."

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> Ed

> 

> You'd have to read Mark and Matt. interpretively only if you're wanting to

> reconcile the accounts.  As you know, the gospelers (Luke and John

> especially) weren't very familiar with Judaism, so it's entirely possible

> that they were writing with the Greco-Roman sense of the day beginning at

> dawn, while Mark and Matt. were thinking of it beginning at sundown.

> 

> By the way, were all Jewish "days" thought to begin at sundown, or was it

> merely a way of determining when certain observances began?  In other

> words, if I said to a friend, "I'll spend the day with Mom," would he

> assume that I'd show up at her place at about sundown, or would he assume

> that I'd be with her during the hours of daylight?

> 

Achilles
It's definitely *not* "merely a way of determining when certain observances 
began." However, it is still possible for a jew to refer to a day starting at 
dawn. Let me explain. 

I will use "day (sub1)" and "day (sub2)" to distinguish the two senses in which 
the word can be used, as a calendar day or a period of daylight, respectively. 

In the jewish calendar, all days (sub1) begin at sundown. However, there are 
two different meanings of the word day. Day (sub1) is a 24 hour period, a 
calendar day or a "day (sub2) and a night" and it is this which starts at 
sundown. So the jewish day (sub1) includes the night before the day (sub2) 
whereas most other calendars at the time included the night after the day 
(sub2) instead. Our modern calendar, of course, has the days start at midnight, 
so the modern day (sub1) includes the second half of the night before the day 
(sub2) and the first half of the night after the day (sub2) but that is a 
system no one used for centuries after the NT. 

"Day" (sub2) starts at dawn, for jews or gentiles, ancient and modern. Of 
course, given that the koine for "dawning" in some of the passages we have been 
looking is ambiguous as well, and can signify "dusking," there is some serious 
ambiguity here if the context doesn't make it clear which sense is being used. 

Now I am not 100% sure, and would appreciate someone who is confirming this for 
me, but I believe that the word commonly translated "day" in the NT is just as 
ambiguous as the translation in this sense. So which meaning was intended will 
have to be revealed (or concealed) by context. 


/Achilles     achillesz@usa.net

Random thought for the moment:

    'Dum vivimus, vivamus!' - 'While we live, let us live!' 
           -- Star in Glory Road

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