"The Day After the Sabbath": A Rebuttal and Some Food For Thought!

 A few days ago, I came across an article entitled “The First Wave-Sheaf Offering” in the United Church of God newspaper, the United News. Or rather, it was brought to my attention. You can find this article on pp. 6-7 of the latest issue, the May-June 2025 issue.

The article begins by analyzing Joshua 5 and asserts that Israel offered a wave sheaf on “the day after the Passover” (Josh. 5:11) before eating the produce of the land — an assertion I agree with. It then continues, based on this passage, to try to establish when we should begin our count to Pentecost.

But unfortunately, the article makes several inaccurate and unproven claims, some of which beg for a response. Now, the purpose here isn’t to examine the article as a whole or even to prove when we ought to keep Pentecost, but merely to address two or three specific claims.

Let’s give our attention in particular to the section “Timing of the Offering.” Here in this section, we read,

It helps to more directly consider the language used in Leviticus 23:11, which says the wave-sheaf is to be offered “on the day after the Sabbath.” Over the centuries, this phrase has been interpreted variously as the day after the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread, the day after the last Holy Day, or the day after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast, as we have understood the reference.

All this is very true! There are indeed disputes over when the wave sheaf was offered, and when the count to Pentecost begins. Some do count from the day after a weekly Sabbath, and others from the day after an annual Sabbath, a Holy Day. Even among those who interpret the “Sabbath” here as the weekly Sabbath and who always observe Pentecost on Sunday, as many folks do, there are sometimes disputes about when to begin counting, and this year is one of those years.

Let’s continue reading:

But even this last option benefits from closer attention. In Hebrew, the phrase “day after the Sabbath” is evidently what linguists refer to as a phraseme — a fixed idiom or multi-word unit.

There is no sensible reason to believe this. The phrase “the day after the Sabbath,” or mi-makhorat ha-Shabbat in Hebrew, appears only twice in the Bible, and those are both right here in Lev. 23:11 and Lev. 23:15 regarding the time of the wave sheaf offering. But you’ll find the Hebrew word makhorat (Strong’s # H4283) many times in the Bible, and its meaning is quite straightforward: morrow, day after, next day, etc. Describing “the day after the Sabbath” as an idiom lacks any Biblical foundation.

Now, our English phrase “kick the bucket,” meaning “die,” is a true example of an idiom or a figure of speech. It is not to be understood literally, nor would it make sense. But there is no reason to suppose that “the day after the Sabbath” is an idiom or figure of speech when its literal meaning is plain and readily understandable.

Let’s return to the article, picking up where we left off:

In the biblical calendar, days of the week were not named but were numbered in relation to the Sabbath: “first from the Sabbath” (Sunday), “second from the Sabbath” (Monday), and so on.

Likewise, the phrase “the day after the Sabbath” is simply a term for Sunday. It should be considered as a compound unit, perhaps even hyphenated “the-day-after-the-Sabbath.” This removes all confusion. Understanding this usage helps clarify why God did not specify which Sabbath. He was not pointing to an annual Sabbath or even directly to the weekly Sabbath, but rather to another point in the weekly cycle, what is now called Sunday (named from its position relative to the Sabbath). Thus, He was not referring to the day after “the Sabbath that falls during Unleavened Bread.” Rather, He was referring to “the-day-after-the-Sabbath (Sunday) that falls during Unleavened Bread.”

This section builds on the previous unproven claim that “the day after the Sabbath” is “a phraseme — a fixed idiom or multi-word unit.” The new presumption is that this “idiom” is simply another name for Sunday and cannot be used in any other way.

But this is all based on nothing. Just assumptions that the Sabbath in question must be the weekly Sabbath and not an annual Sabbath, that the day after the Sabbath can therefore only be Sunday, and that this phrase is exclusive to Sunday.

It’s really no different than the reasoning some folks use to “prove” that Jesus Christ was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday. They assume that “the preparation day” mentioned in the Gospels’ crucifixion accounts must be Friday, the preparation day of the weekly Sabbath rather than of the First Day of Unleavened Bread (John 19:14, 31), and then attempt to argue that it cannot apply to any other day. All of which is nonsense, of course.

And if we were to suppose that a phrase involving “the day after” is a fixed idiom, then we might also extend the same thought process to Josh. 5:11 and suppose that “the day after the Passover” is also an idiom for a fixed day and that the wave sheaf must always be offered on that day. This, however, is an assertion which the UCG ministry would vigorously protest, even though it uses their very own reasoning!

The Biblical Name For Sunday

The truth is, nowhere else in the Bible is Sunday described as “the day after the Sabbath,” but rather as the first day of the week. When God began His creation, He did not describe Sunday as “the day after the Sabbath”; He simply called it “day one” or “the first day.”

Even the New Testament, which mentions Sunday several times, never speaks of it as “the day after the Sabbath.” There’s a good reason for this, which we’ll get to in a moment.

But first, let’s turn to the only passage in the New Testament that anyone could even possibly interpret that way, which is Mat. 28:1: “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” Notice that, although Sunday is said to be after the Sabbath has ended, it is not called “the day after the Sabbath” but rather “the first day of the week.”

Even so, this translation isn’t quite faithful to the original Greek manuscripts. “After the Sabbath” should actually be rendered “after the Sabbaths,” plural, which is how the YLT and other literal versions render it. In other words, this was after both the high day Sabbath (the First Day of Unleavened Bread) and the weekly Sabbath had passed.

“Week” is the same Greek word used for “week” throughout the New Testament, but it’s also the same Greek word used for “Sabbath”: sabbaton (Strong’s # G4521). Whether the intended meaning is the seventh day Sabbath or the week as a whole is determined solely by context. In this verse, it, too, is plural, and could be rendered either as “first [day] of the sabbaths” or “first [day] of the weeks.” That is, it’s the first day of each week, or the first day of each “sabbath.”

Everywhere else in the New Testament that Sunday, the first day of the week, is mentioned, it is again described as “the first of the week(s)” and not as “the day after the Sabbath.” Here are the remaining verses:

Mark 16:2 NKJV - Very early in the morning, on the first [day] of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

Mark 16:9 NKJV - Now when [He] rose early on the first [day] of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.

Luke 24:1 NKJV - Now on the first [day] of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain [other women] with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

John 20:1 NKJV - Now on the first [day] of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw [that] the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

John 20:19 NKJV - Then, the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace [be] with you."

Acts 20:7 NKJV - Now on the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:2 NKJV - On the first [day] of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

In each of these verses except Mark 16:9 (which doesn’t exist in the oldest manuscripts), the Greek word translated “week” is plural, meaning that the correct translation is “first of the sabbaths” or “first of the weeks.” Now, it’s sometimes disputed whether Acts 20:7 is referring to the first day of the week or to “one of the Sabbaths,” but that’s irrelevant at the moment. The point is, Sunday is the first day of the weeks, that is, the first day of every week.

(Any period of seven days can also be called a week [e.g., Gen. 29:27], but that’s another matter entirely.)

If indeed “the day after the Sabbath” in Leviticus 23:11 & 15 refers to Sunday, then it is the only such example in all of Scripture! Contrary to the assertions in the United News article, this is not a fixed Biblical idiom for Sunday. It’s not even the common Biblical term for Sunday. The Biblical term for Sunday is the first day of the week.

Nor is it the modern Hebrew term for Sunday. In modern Hebrew, Sunday is simply called yom rishon, or, First Day. The first day of the week.

Likewise, modern Hebrew has dubbed Friday, the sixth day of the week, as yom shishi, or Sixth Day. This, too, follows the Biblical precedent. When the Bible mentions Friday, it is identified as the sixth day of the week. For example, “See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Ex. 16:29).

What’s After the Sabbath?

Now, indulge me a little further, and let’s explore the spiritual implications of this. As noted already, the Bible does not describe Sunday as “the day after the Sabbath,” but rather as the first day of each week. If “the day after the Sabbath” in Lev. 23:11 & 15 applies to Sunday, then it’s the only such example in Scripture! Let’s give a little more thought to this.

Why is this? Why doesn’t the Bible make a custom of describing Sunday as “the day after the Sabbath”?

Quite simply because, in God’s design, there is no day after the weekly Sabbath! The Sabbath is the end of the week. The end of the cycle. The next day, Sunday, begins a whole new week and a whole new cycle, which will likewise end with the Sabbath.

Each week begins with the first day and ends with the seventh day. Then the cycle starts over again, beginning with the first day and ending with the seventh day.

Sunday is not a continuation of the Sabbath. Sunday is 180 degrees away from the Sabbath, as far as the beginning from the end. Viewing Sunday as a continuation of the Sabbath is a failure to discern the end from the beginning.

There is no “eighth day of the week,” contrary to what some of the so-called “early church fathers” claimed. Those were the pagans, the apostates who departed from the faith once delivered, the men who freely mixed paganism with the truth of God and who adopted Sunday worship along with a host of other heresies.

The number 7 itself means completion. God rested on the seventh day because He had finished His creation: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Gen. 2:1-2). That means the Sabbath is complete. Finis. The end.

And the Sabbath itself pictures the Kingdom of God. We labor during this life so that we may enter God’s rest:

4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. (Heb. 4:4, 9-11.)

God’s Kingdom never ends: “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:7). “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33).

And so, spiritually speaking, the Sabbath endures forever. There is no day after — there is nothing else at all after the Sabbath! It is eternal. As we read in Zech. 14:7, “It shall be one day which is known to the LORD – neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light.” That one day is the Sabbath! God’s eternal Sabbath rest.

I would argue, then, that it is wholly inconsistent with Scripture to interpret “the day after the Sabbath” to be Sunday, or to call Sunday by that name. Not linguistically impossible, necessarily, but wholly inconsistent with Scriptural usage. But I digress from the main point of this post.

Concluding Thoughts

Here’s the main point. When establishing doctrine, let us take extreme care to build on the foundation of God’s Word and not on the foundation of men. Let us not use extra-Biblical commentaries, theories of men, or unfounded assumptions to define what certain Biblical passages mean. The Bible itself defines those passages for us.

“The day after the Sabbath” isn’t an idiom at all, let alone an idiom for Sunday. As we’ve observed, if Leviticus 23 applies it to Sunday, then it’s the only such example in the whole Bible! Biblically unprecedented, and contrary to how the Bible typically describes Sunday. Arguing that it can only mean Sunday is a theory based on other theories, and has no Scriptural foundation.

God’s Word is the foundation of rock; commentaries, theories, and assumptions of men are a foundation of sand. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isa. 40:8).

And so, whether you agree with the all the implications and thoughts expressed in this blog post or not, I do hope that it has been thought-provoking, that it has reasserted the need to stick with Scripture and not other men, and that you will examine everything said here in the light of Scripture to see whether it is so!