236 ABROGATION OF TIIE SABBATH. 



No reference made to any assembly. The day observed — " at home." 



liberal concession lie can claim," tliat "Sanday assemblies" 

 were by this time (the middle of the first century) widely and 

 familiarly established among various of the primitive churches, 

 it would leave the true question, the sinfuhiess of labor on 

 '^the first day" wliolly untouched! 



But are we fixirly entitled to infer even the irrelevant fact of 

 "Sunday assemblies" from this text? Let us give it a mo- 

 mentas attention. The injunction is : kxasto^ vficav rta^' eavtot 

 TiOstoi, ^Tjaav^t^uiv u -ti av ivob^tav. literally, ^'let each one of 

 you lay up with himself, storing as he may prosper;" or, as it 

 may with equal propriety be rendered, ^^let every one, treasur- 

 ing up what he may gain, reserve it at home." Two important 

 circumstances are disclosed by a critical analysis of the passage. 

 First, that these ''collections" were not to be made (as Sunday 

 Sabbatarians very unanimously assume) in ^'Sunday assem- 

 blies'^ of the Gralatian and Corinthian churches, but each indi- 

 vidual was to set apart from his weekly gains, privateJ}/ — Tta^' 

 tavT-w (in the Yulgate, '^ apud se"), by himself — ''at his own 

 home."* And secondly, that these "gatherings" bad no rela- 

 tion to any assemhlies whatever, since each member was ex- 

 pressly enjoined not only to reserve a portion of his earnings, 

 but to continue separateli/ lioarding these appropriations. The 

 only possible antecedent subject oi ttrisav^i^av is the separative 

 kxaGto'^, ^^ each one of you treasuring up" as he has been suc- 



* So, in John xs. 10, the disciples went away — Tr^oj iavrovs — "unto 

 their own home." See, also, Greenfield's Lexicon, Bloomfield's 

 Greek Testament, in loco, and Valpy's do. The old Sybiac version ren- 

 ders this passage : "Let every one lay aside and preserve at his oivn 

 house." Erasmus (a. d. 1520) paraphrases it: " Upon the first day 

 of the week (that is to say, in the Sunday) let every one of you set 

 aside at home and lay up as much as he for this purpose thinketh 

 meet." (Paraphrase, in loco.) Tyndale translates it (a. d. 1534): 

 " Upon some Sunday [sondaye] let every one of you put aside at home 

 and lay up whatsoever he thinketh meet, that there be no gatherings 

 when I come," The Geneva translation (a. d. 1557) is similar : "Every 

 first day of the week let every one of you put aside at home,''' &c. 



