(1.) That among the Greek-speaking Jews of Palestine, in the days of the Gospel, ἡ μία τῶν σαββάτων was the established method of indicating “the first day of the week,” is plain, not only from the fact that the day of the Resurrection is so designated by each of the Four Evangelists in turn;(259) (S. John has the expression twice;) but also from S. Paul’s use of the phrase in 1 Cor. xvi. 2. It proves, indeed, to have been the ordinary Hellenistic way of exhibiting the vernacular idiom of Palestine.(260) The cardinal (μία) for the ordinal (πρώτη) in this phrase was a known Talmudic expression, which obtained also in Syriac.(261) Σάββατον and σάββατα,—designations in strictness of the _Sabbath-day_,—had come to be _also_ used as designations of the _week_. A reference to S. Mark xvi. 9 and S. Luke xviii. 12 establishes this concerning σάββατον: a reference to the six places cited just now in earlier note establishes it concerning σαββάτα. To see how indifferently the two forms (σάββατον and σαββάτα) were employed, one has but to notice that S. Matthew, _in the course of one and the same chapter_, five times designates the Sabbath as τὰ σαββάτα, and three times as τὸ σάββατον.(262) The origin and history of both words will be found explained in a note at the foot of the page.(263) (2.) Confessedly, then, a double Hebraism is before us, which must have been simply unintelligible to Gentile readers. Μία τῶν σαββάτων sounded as enigmatical to an ordinary Greek ear, as “_una sabbatorum_” to a Roman. A convincing proof, (if proof were needed,) how abhorrent to a Latin reader was the last-named expression, is afforded by the old Latin versions of S. Matthew xxviii. 1; where ὄψε σαββάτων, τῇ ἐπιφωσκούση εἰς μίαν σαββάτων is invariably rendered, “Vespere _sabbati_, quæ lucescit in _prima sabbati_.” (3.) The reader will now be prepared for the suggestion, that when S. Mark, (who is traditionally related to have written his Gospel _at Rome_,(264)) varies, in ver. 9, the phrase he had employed in ver. 2, he does so for an excellent and indeed for an obvious reason. In ver. 2, he had conformed to the prevailing usage of Palestine, and followed the example set him by S. Matthew (xxviii. 1) in adopting the enigmatical expression, ἡ μία σαββάτων. That this would be idiomatically represented _in Latin_ by the phrase “prima sabbati,” we have already seen. In ver. 9, therefore, he is solicitous to record the fact of the Resurrection afresh; and _this_ time, his phrase is observed to be _the Greek equivalent for the Latin _“prima sabbati;” viz. πρώτη σαββάτου. How strictly equivalent the two modes of expression were felt to be by those who were best qualified to judge, is singularly illustrated by the fact that the _Syriac_ rendering of both places is _identical_.