Mark 1:21 reads in part, …και ευθυς τοις σαββασιν εισελθων…
σαββατον, being second declension, would seem to me to be declined as follows: σαββατο(the root) + ις(plural,dative,neuter) giving σαββατοις. Instead it looks like third declension using σιν(plural,dative,neuter). What am I missing?
Thanks for any help.[/list]
You are not missing anything. You have just shown that you are very observant. σάββατον is indeed 2nd declension but in the NT the dative plural is written as σάββασιν instead of σαββάτοις. Other writings will use the other form or even both forms. Just a strange thing about this word. Middle Liddell calls this phenomenon “heteroclisis.” (Which I am thinking stands for ‘other declencion’)
P.s. Just in case I had you fooled into thinking that I’m smart; I didn’t know any of this untill I started looking it up after I read your question.
Thackeray in his Septuagint Grammar (the very best there is…eisenbrauns sells it as a reprint for $77) writes a fairly good bit about these kinds of words. They fall under the more general catagory of "Metaplasms.
It is strange, but it does happen to a number of different words. They just change gender. It is indeed a sign that you are very observant though. When I tend to read, I’m usually moving through at a pretty good pace (unless I’m diagramming) and I miss that kind of stuff.