The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian StatesmanLittlejohn, Wolcott H.
Religion
The Constitutional Amendment: or, The Sunday, the Sabbath, the Change, and Restitution: A discussion between W. H. Littlejohn, Seventh-day Adventist, and the editor of the Christian Statesman
Littlejohn, Wolcott H.
Sabbath; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works; Sunday; Sunday legislation -- United States
Not a few eminent writers, such as Dwight, and Wilson, of Calcutta,
who are followed by many lesser authors, quote Ignatius, as saying:
“Let us no more Sabbatize, but keep the Lord’s day.” From the literal
rendering of the original above given, it will be seen that these
writers take an unwarrantable liberty with their author. The words of
Ignatius are, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν κυριακὴν ζωὴν ζῶντες. To separate the noun
ζωὴν from the preceding adjective, and connect it with the following
participle, so as to read, “Living a life according to the Lord’s
day,” is an unnatural separation of the words of the original. To drop
out the word ζωὴν is unwarranted. If this word were spurious, then the
rendering would be, “Living according to the Lord’s day,” the
adjective κυριακη without the noun for “day” being expressed occurring
frequently for “the Lord’s day.” But there is no ground for rejecting
the word “life.” To color the language of an author for the sake of
giving it point in favor of one side of a question is unworthy of a
seeker after truth. In the present case there is really nothing gained
by departing from the precise language of the writer. Another passage,
often quoted as from Ignatius, is part of the spurious epistle to the
Galatians. It is as follows: “During the Sabbath, Christ continued
under the earth, in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathea had laid
him. At the dawning of the lord’s day, he arose from the dead. The day
of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Lord’s day
contains the resurrection.” This certainly has some weight as the
testimony of comparatively early writer, but it must not be ascribed
to Ignatius.
A REJOINDER.
“TESTIMONY OF THE EARLY FATHERS TO THE FIRST-DAY SABBATH.”
There is one feature which has characterized this debate, hitherto,
which has been a source of considerable satisfaction. The controversy,
up to this point, has been urged purely with reference to the teaching
of the Bible, as drawn from its sacred pages. Henceforth, however, this
is not to be the case. We are now to have, not the “sure word of
prophecy,” with the clear and forcible lines of textual evidence, drawn
from its inspired utterances, but that “word of prophecy,” supplemented
and explained by the apostolic fathers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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