|
Hi, Barrow —
You said:
- How could these
women buy the spices and ointments
after the Sabbath, and yet have
them prepared before the Sabbath?
That's impossible,
unless there were two Sabbaths that
week —
There were indeed two Sabbaths that
week, but that is not the only explanation.
A very simple explanation is that
they had some spices already, which
they prepared before the Sabbath
(Friday night), but didn't have enough,
so they went out Sunday morning to
buy more. (As I understand it, very
large quantities of spices were required,
certainly several dozen pounds, if
not over a hundred pounds.) In other
words, there is no obligation to
conclude that the spices they bought
in Mark 16:1 are the spices they
prepared in Luke 23:56.
Another explanation is in a mistaken
assumption that they prepared the
spices before the sabbath. The text
says,
| 56 And they returned, and prepared
spices and ointments; and rested
the sabbath day according to the
commandment. (KJV) |
Despite how it comes across, the
words used do not demand that we
interpret this as a sequence of events.
For example, the (NIV) New International Version of the Scriptures say,
| 56 Then they went home and
prepared spices and perfumes.
But they rested on the Sabbath
in obedience to the commandment. (NIV) |
Here it comes across as merely saying
that they rested on the Sabbath,
without regard, grammatically, for
when the spices were prepared. In
fact, one could argue that what it
says suggests that they delayed their
preparation on account of the Sabbath;
in effect, that they prepared the
spices but not without first obeying
the sabbath.
This interpretation
would be consistent with Mark 16,
which says that after the Sabbath
they bought spices. So there is a
way to reconcile these verses with
the idea they refer to a single sabbath.
I hope this helps,
Eric Ewanco
|
