Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
The Annual Sabbath in Luke
"54 And it was the day in front of a Sabbath." (DLT: torahtimes.org, Luke 23:54, Codex Bezae).
Comment: Codex Bezae (Catabrigiensis) is "one of the five most important Greek New testament MSS" (newadvent.org). "St. Luke's Gospel alone, of the books contained, is preserved complete" (ibid); "there is no indication that it was, like the other great uncial manuscripts, ever joined to the text of the Old Testament" (ibid) [significance: Eusebius under Constantine has no control over it]; "the text of D bears a remarkable resemblance to the text quoted by St. Irenĉus [ca. 140-202 AD], even, says Nestle, in the matter of clerical mistakes, so that it is possibly derived from his very copy"; "Following Scrivener, scholars universally dated it from the beginning of the sixth century [500], but there is a tendency now to place it a hundred years earlier [400]." (ibid). "The type of text found in D is very ancient, yet it has survived in this one Greek manuscript alone, though it is found also in the Old Latin, the Old Syriac, and the Old Armenian versions. It is the so-called Western Text, or one type of the Western Text. All the Fathers before the end of the third century used a similar text and it can be traced back to sub-Apostolic times." (ibid).
Comment: The NA-27th Text reads, και ημερα ην παρασκευης και σαββατον επεφωσκεν. Codex Bezae reads ην δε η ημερα προ σαββατου. The reason we should go with the reading of D is that the word επεφωσκεν means dawning, and does not make any sense at this point in the narrative. The Sabbath does not begin with "dawning"; The word is composed of επι (on, upon) and φωσκω (light). BDAG, "grow towards or become daylight, sine forth, dawn, break, perh. draw on " (pg. 386, 3rd edition). The reason for "perhaps" is that BDAG is only forced to adopt "draw on" to explain one text, i.e. Luke 23:54. One text is hardly evidence that a word has a linguistic meaning totally divorced from its etymology. One text is only an enigmatic evidence of a mistake or misuse. The word clearly means "dawning" in Matthew 28:1. The later and obviously dependent Gospel of Peter, επεφωσκοντος του σαββατου cannot be considered lexical evidence since the use obviously comes from just one source, namely the Byzantine Luke 23:54.
Comment: The Western Codex Bezae has a consistent chronological record of turning out to be correct over and against the official Byzantine Text. For example in Mark 15:25, D omits the problematic "third hour" in agreement with the old itala. It also has Matthew 16:21=Luke 9:22 in correct agreement with Mark 8:31=μετα τρεις ημερας. Likewise Mark 9:31 and 10:34 for their respective parallel passages. For a full rundown see torahtimes.org/book/page50.pdf. Also the words κατα την εντολη are omitted from Luke 23:56. (DLC: torahtimes.org)
Comment: The day in question was the annual Sabbath, Nisan 15, which fell on Thursday, March 25, AD 34. It was from the sunset on Wednesday, March 24 to sunset on Thursday, March 25 Julian Period (J.P.). Codex Bezae does not call the day before it the preparation day. Even so, the day before this Sabbath was the preparation of the Passover (John 19:14; 31).
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/luk2354.html)
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