Saturday or Sunday Evening

In 1961 the New English Bible translated "the first day of the week" in Acts 20:7 as Saturday evening. That seems to be based on current Jewish practice when the day begins after sundown and goes to the next sundown. This translation was also picked up by the Today's English Version (also currently known as the Good News Translation) which became a model for translations around the world that are easy to read. The problem is that the current Jewish practice was not the practice in the first century. In the Bible we find two ways of counting the day. There is the practical day which goes from when one rises in the morning until one goes to bed at night. There is also the ceremonial day which goes from sunset to the next sunset. It is mandated in scripture for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Day of Atonement (Exodus 12:18; Leviticus 23:32). It was probably also practiced for the Sabbath even if not mandated, as indicated by Nehemiah 13:19. The practical day was used for days of the month and days of the week (except for the Sabbath). We find that the Passover lamb was killed on the afternoon (literally, "between the two evenings") of the fourteenth day of the first month (Exodus 12:6; 2 Chronicles 35:1) and was eaten on the evening of the fourteenth day (Joshua 5:10). Obviously, that evening followed the killing of the lamb and was not the preceding evening. John 20:1 says that Mary Magdalene came to the empty tomb of Jesus on the first day of the week early while it was still dark. Then later, in John 20:19 it states that Jesus appeared to his disciples "on the evening of that day, the first day of the week." Here again it is obvious that in New Testament times the evening of the first day of the week followed the morning, not preceded it as is the current Jewish practice. It is for this reason that the Gute Nachricht für Sie, the German Good News version, translates "first day of the week" as Sonntagabend, that is Sunday evening. Some churches today have adopted the current Jewish way of counting days and thus have Sunday assembly on Saturday evening, but that is not the New Testament practice.