The Week in Jewish Greek

During the time of Jesus and the first Christians, the normal Greek word for “week” was hebdomas (ἑβδομάς). However, this word is never used in the New Testament. Instead, the word which the New Testament writers used for “week” was always sabbaton (σάββατον), which is a borrowing from šabbāṯ (שַׁבָּת), the Hebrew word for “Sabbath”. Greek readers who were not familiar with the Jewish scriptures would have found this quite odd!

Therefore, it seems that the New Testament books were written in Greek not so much so that everyone would be able to read it, but rather because even Jews living in the land of Israel were using Greek primarily as the language of everyday life—a uniquely Jewish-flavoured Greek.