Mia Ton in the New Testament

When a phrase in Scripture seems to say something unexpected, the safest way to test it is to let Scripture answer. If the words mia ton sabbaton σάββατον sab'-bat-on really mean “one of the sabbatons,” then the same construction should mean “one of the …” wherever else it appears. If it is a special idiom with some other meaning, the other places will show that too.

So we leave the resurrection morning for a while and look at a handful of ordinary sentences in which the New Testament uses mia ton, one of the, with a plural noun. None of them has anything to do with the sabbath. That is exactly why they are useful.

One of the Commandments

Matthew 5:19 Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whoever keeps and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

The Greek for “one of the least of these commandments” begins mian ton entolon μίαν τῶν ἐντολῶν en-tol-ay', one of the commandments. Yeshua is not speaking of the first commandment. He is speaking of any one among many, even the least of them.

One of the Servant-Girls

Mark 14:66 As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came

Here the words are mia ton paidiskon, one of the servant-girls. The high priest had more than one servant-girl in his house, and this was one of them. No reader takes the verse to mean “the first servant-girl.”

One of the Cities, One of the Days

Luke 5:12 And it came about that while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full of leprosy; and when he saw Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."

Luke 5:17 And it came about that on one of those days He was teaching; and Pharisees and teachers of the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the dynamis δύναμις doo'-nam-is(power) of the Lord was present to heal them.

In the first verse Luke writes mia ton poleon, one of the cities. In the second he writes mia ton hemeron, one of the days. Yeshua went through many cities and taught on many days. Luke picks out one city and one day from among them, and he uses the same three words to do it each time: one, of the, and a plural noun.

The second verse is worth a moment more. In Luke 5:17 the word for day is written out in full: hemeron, of the days. In the resurrection verses it is left unwritten, because mia is feminine and the word for day is feminine, so the reader supplies it. The pattern is the same. Mia ton hemeron, one of the days, in Luke 5:17, and mia ton sabbaton, one of the sabbatons, in Luke 24:1, from the same writer.

Luke uses the same words for days in other places as well, among them “on one of those days” in Luke 8:22, when Yeshua got into a boat with His disciples, and “On one of the days” in Luke 20:1, when He was teaching the people in the temple. Each time a single day is picked out from many. No reader takes either of them to mean “on the first day.”

One of the Synagogues

Luke 13:10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23).

Luke writes mia ton synagogon, one of the synagogues. There were many synagogues in the land, and on this occasion Yeshua was teaching in one of them.

Notice the end of the verse as well. The YLV reads “on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23).” Luke writes the word sabbaton here in the plural again, en tois sabbasin, and he does so without any explanation. The YLV renders it as it stands.

One of the Seals, One Voice From the Horns

The same family of phrases holds when the preposition ek, out of, is added between one and the plural.

Revelation 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying like a voice of thunder, "Come and see."

John writes mian ek ton hepta sphragidon, one of the seven seals, and in the same verse he hears one of the four living creatures. There were seven seals, and the Lamb opened one of them. There were four living creatures, and one of them spoke.

Revelation 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God,

Here the Greek is phonen mian ek ton tessaron keraton, one voice out of the four horns. The word one stands with voice, and out of the four tells where that single voice came from. Even here, one is set against a group of many, and the group is written in the plural. A little later in the same book, John writes mian ek ton kephalon, one of its heads (Revelation 13:3), of the beast that had seven heads.

This is the plainest way to read any writer: let him explain his words by the way he uses them elsewhere. Luke, John, Mark, and Matthew are asked only to mean what they meant in every other sentence where they wrote one of the with a plural noun.

What the Construction Means

Set the examples side by side:

In every line above the last, one is picked out of a group of many, and the group is named in the plural. No translator renders any of them as “the first commandment,” “the first city,” or “the first synagogue.” They would have no reason to. One of the commandments means one of the commandments.

English Bibles render these verses with one, one of, a, or a certain. A few modern versions write “the first of the seven seals” in Revelation 6:1, because the second, third, and fourth seals follow in the next verses (Revelation 6:3-7), but the words themselves say one of the seals. The construction used for commandments, servant-girls, cities, days, synagogues, heads, and seals is the very construction used for sabbatons. Mia ton with a plural noun means one of many, and when the noun is sabbaton, it means one of the sabbatons.

Why This Is Not a Small Point

It would be easy to treat this as a question of grammar only, a matter for scholars alone. But the whole picture of the resurrection week turns on it.

If the phrase meant the first day of a week, one would have to mean first, and in none of the verses above does it mean anything but one of many. If the phrase means one of the sabbatons, then the plural is a plain count, and the chart of the Passover week shows exactly what was being counted: hap-Pesach, ham-Matzot, and Omer Reshit, three sabbatons in a row, with the resurrection on the third.

The writers did not reach for a special idiom on the morning of the resurrection. They used the same ordinary words they used for cities, days, and servant-girls.

One Gospel writer, however, chose to say more. Matthew does not write mia ton sabbaton. He writes sabbaton twice in one verse, both times in the plural, and he joins the two with a word for the coming of the light. The next chapter takes that verse one word at a time.