Part 1
Scholars and laymen are questioning the validity of Sunday as the Biblical day of worship.
The question of how Sunday, the first day of the week, replaced Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the main day of Christian worship has received increasing attention in recent years.
One widely acclaimed study, for example, suggests that the weekly Christian Sunday arose from Sunday evening Communion services in the immediate postresurrection period, with Sunday itself being a workday until after the time of Constantine the Great in the early fourth century.[1] Eventually, however, Sunday ceased to be a work day and became a Christian “Sabbath.”[2]
Some simpler and more popular views are that either (1) Sunday was substituted immediately after Christ’s resurrection for the seventh–day Sabbath, or (2) Sunday–keeping was introduced directly from paganism during the second century or later.
But is either of these views correct? What do the actual source materials tell us?
Both days observed. One thing is clear: The weekly Christian Sunday –whenever it did arise– did not at first generally become a substitute for the Bible seventh–day Sabbath, Saturday; for both Saturday and Sunday were widely kept side by side for several centuries in early Christian history. Socrates Scholasticus, a church historian of the fifth century AD, wrote, “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [the Lord’s Supper] on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.”[3]
And Sozomen, a contemporary of Socrates, wrote, “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”[4]
Thus, “almost everywhere” throughout Christendom, except in Rome and Alexandria, there were Christian worship services on both Saturday and Sunday as late as the fifth century. A number of other sources from the third to the fifth centuries also depict Christian observance of both Saturday and Sunday.
For example, the Apostolic Constitutions, compiled in the fourth century, furnished instruction to “keep the Sabbath [Saturday], and the Lord’s day [Sunday] festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection.” “Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath–day [Saturday] and the Lord’s day [Sunday] let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety.”[5]
About the same time an anonymous writer, known as the interpolator of Ignatius, advised, “Let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law. … And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection–day, the queen and chief of all the days.”[6] And in the fifth century, John Cassian refers to attendance in church on both Saturday and Sunday, stating that he had even seen a certain monk who sometimes fasted five days a week but would go to church on Saturday or on Sunday and bring home guests for a meal on those two days.[7]
Gregory of Nyssa in the late fourth century referred to the Sabbath and Sunday as “sisters.”[8] And about AD 400 Asterius of Amasea declared that it was beautiful for Christians that the “team of these two days comes together” — “the Sabbath and the Lord’s day,”[9] which each week gathers together the people with priests as their instructors.
It is clear that none of these early writers confused Sunday with the Bible Sabbath. Sunday, the first day of the week, always followed the Sabbath, the seventh day. Furthermore, the historical records are clear in showing that the weekly cycle has remained unchanged from Christ’s time till now, so that the Saturday and Sunday of those early centuries are still the Saturday and Sunday of today.
In two subsequent articles we will return to data from early church history of the second and subsequent centuries to trace the manner in which Sunday eventually eclipsed the Sabbath, but first it is important here to take a look at the New Testament evidence, inasmuch as the New Testament is normative for Christian practice. How did Christ and the apostles regard the Sabbath and Sunday?
Sabbath in the New Testament. According to Luke 4:16, it was Christ’s “custom” to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Moreover, at the time of Christ’s death and burial, the women who had followed Him from Galilee “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56), indicating that there had been no instruction from Him to the contrary. They were still observing the seventh day of the week!
We may, in addition, take note of the fact that the implication of this text is that when Luke wrote the account several decades after Christ’s crucifixion he took for granted that no change in Sabbath observance had occurred. He reports this Sabbath observance “according to the commandment” in a totally matter–of–fact way, with no hint that there had been any new day of worship added in the interim.
On the other hand we must also recognize, of course, that Christ was accused of Sabbath–breaking by the scribes and Pharisees. We may take, for example, the incident where Christ’s disciples plucked grain as they walked through a grain field, rubbed it in their hands, and ate it (Matthew 12:1–8). And we could also notice several instances of Christ’s healing work that ran counter to the Sabbath–keeping views of the Jewish leaders – perhaps most strikingly the incident regarding the man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:10–13). What do these experiences mean?
In order to understand the situation, one must recognize that Jewish Sabbath observance in Christ’s day did not mean simply following Scripture laws but also adherence to strict regulations in Jewish oral tradition. The Mishnah, wherein multitudinous regulations of this so–called oral law were written down about AD 200, gives an idea of what Sabbath observance was like among the scribes and Pharisees. There were both major laws and minor laws.
Additional Sabbath regulations. The thirty–nine major laws listed in the tractate (or section) of the Mishnah entitled “Shabbath” are given as follows: “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer, and taking out aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one.”[10]
These thirty–nine laws had many variations and ramifications. It would make a difference, for instance, whether two letters of the alphabet were written in such a way that they could both be seen at the same time. If an individual scribbled one letter on one face of a wall, and another around the corner so that the two letters were placed on walls that could be seen at the same time, the person would have broken the Sabbath.[11]
An object could be carried in a manner other than the usual one, and food could be carried out of a house in two acts (to the threshold, and then later the rest of the way) or by two people, for then it would not be work in a technical, purposeful sense; but to carry anything out of a house in the normal way on the Sabbath would be to violate the major Sabbath law against “taking out aught from one domain to another.”[12]
If water were to be drawn from a well in a gourd, a stone used as a weight in the gourd would be considered as a part of the vessel if it did not fall out. However, if it should happen to fall out, it would be considered as an object being lifted, and therefore the individual with such an experience would be guilty of Sabbath–breaking.[13] Objects could be tossed on the Sabbath, but there were regulations pertaining to allowable distance and as to whether the object went from a private domain to a public domain, for example.[14]
The foregoing are but a very few of the specifics mentioned in the tractate “Shabbath.” And in addition to the laws mentioned in that tractate, the Mishnah contains other Sabbath regulations, the largest number of which deal with the Sabbath day’s journey. (These are treated in the tractate “Erubin.”)
In the context of this sort of casuistry regarding Sabbathkeeping, it is obvious why Christ’s disciples were being accused of Sabbathbreaking by their picking and rubbing kernels of grain. One of the thirty–nine major Sabbath laws was “reaping”; another was “threshing.” Thus Christ’s disciples were both reaping and threshing — breaking two of the major laws of the Sabbath.
If they blew chaff away, they could also possibly have been considered as engaged in “sifting” – in which case they would have broken three different major Sabbath laws. Such “Sabbathbreaking,” it must be emphasized, was not against God’s commandments as given in Scripture but was purely and solely against the Jewish restrictions.
As for the matter of healing illness and taking care of suffering on the Sabbath, the Rabbinic laws made certain exceptions, such as allowing an animal to be lifted out of a pit.[15] However, there were some Jews in Christ’s time that were stricter than the Rabbinic requirements and who would not even allow a newborn animal to be rescued on the Sabbath if it happened to fall into a hole. Also, they would not permit nurses to carry babies around on the Sabbath.[16]
In considering the various miracles that Christ performed on the Sabbath for the purpose of alleviating suffering, it is interesting that Christ Himself never accepted the Pharisees’ criticism that He was breaking the Sabbath. Indeed, in connection with the case of the man with the withered hand, He raised a question, “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (Matthew 12:11, 12).
After this, He proceeded to heal the man. Thus He emphasized the lawfulness of this kind of deed on the Sabbath.
If one reads details of all the Sabbath activities of Christ, it is clear that (1) He attended worship services; (2) He performed works of mercy which He, as Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28), claimed were in harmony with the intent of the Sabbath; (3) and He never claimed to abrogate the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship for His followers. Indeed, with respect to the last point, His followers, as we have already noted, rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment at the time Christ was in the grave.
How about the apostles? But now, what can we say about apostolic practice after Christ’s resurrection? The Book of Acts reveals that the only day on which the apostles repeatedly were engaged in worship services on a weekly basis was Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The apostle Paul and his company, when visiting Antioch in Pisidia, “went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down” (Acts 13:14). After the Scripture reading, they were called upon to speak. They stayed in Antioch a further week, and that “next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God” (verse 44).
In Philippi Paul and his company went out of the city by a riverside on the Sabbath day, to the place where prayer was customarily made (Acts 16:13). In Thessalonica, “as his manner was,” Paul went to the synagogue and “three sabbath days reasoned with them [the Jews] out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). And in Corinth, where Paul resided for a year and a half, “he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4; compare verse 11).
Thus the evidence in the Book of Acts multiplied regarding attendance at worship services on Saturday.
Sunday as a worship day? On the other hand, the only case in the entire Book of Acts where there is record of a Sunday meeting is Acts 20:7–11. This was an evening service – probably Saturday evening (even translated “the Saturday night” by the New English Bible). It was obviously a special meeting that continued all night, inasmuch as Paul was planning to depart (and did depart) the next day.
But are there not other New Testament texts that indicate there were regular Sunday worship services in New Testament times? Not one!
It is true, of course, that there was an occasion or two where Christ met with the disciples on a Sunday evening. He came to them, for example, on the very night after His resurrection; but they were not assembled to celebrate the resurrection, for they did not even recognize that it had occurred (John 20:19–25; Mark 16:14). And eight days later He again met with them (John 20:26–29).
But prior to His ascension He also appeared to the disciples on a number of other occasions, and the record of the one or two specific Sunday evening meetings gives no indication that a new day of worship had been instituted. Indeed, not once in the Gospel records, nor anywhere else in the New Testament, is there any claim that a Sunday meeting of Christ with His disciples set a precedent for Sunday worship services among Christians. Saturday continued to be, as we have seen, the regular day when apostles attended worship services.
Two other texts that some mention as evidence for Sunday worship services in New Testament times are 1 Corinthians 16:2 and Revelation 1:10. But it must be immediately noticed that neither of these texts so much as mentions a worship service!
In 1 Corinthians 16:2 we read, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” In the King James Version the phrase “by him in store” indicates no more than an individualized savings plan. Other translations seem to render the Greek more clearly on this point, to the effect that the money was to be set aside at home.
It may be of interest to add here that the church father John Chrysostom (died AD 407), in commenting on this verse, says, “He [Paul] said not, ‘Let him bring it into the church,’ lest they might feel ashamed because of the smallness of the sum; but ‘having by gradual additions swelled his contribution, let him then produce it, when I am come: but for the present lay it up,’ saith he, ‘at home, and make thine house a church; thy little box a treasury.’”[17] Chrysostom, himself a Sunday–keeper, interestingly enough did not seem to think of 1 Corinthians 16:2 as evidence for a Sunday worship service.
The Lord’s day. As for Revelation 1:10, John here simply states that he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Although it is true that eventually the term “Lord’s day” came to be used for Sunday, no evidence indicates this was the case until about a century after the Book of Revelation was written![18] In fact, as we shall see in our next article, there is likelihood that the term was applied to Easter Sunday before it was applied to a weekly Sunday.
But the Roman province of Asia, to which the Revelation applies, had no Sunday–Easter tradition, either at the time the Revelation was written or even a century later.[19] Thus “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10 could not refer to an Easter Sunday.
Most pointedly of all, there is neither prior nor contemporary evidence that Sunday had achieved in New Testament times a status which would have caused it to be called “Lord’s day.” Another day –the seventh–day Sabbath– had, of course, been the Lord’s holy day from antiquity (see Isaiah 58:13) and was the day on which Christ Himself and His followers, including the apostle Paul had attended religious services, as we have seen.
In this connection, a statement from the apocryphal “Acts of John” may be of interest in spite of its dubious worth: “And the soldiers, having taken the public conveyances, traveled fast, having seated him [John] in the midst of them. And when they came to the first change, it being the hour of breakfast, they entreated him to be of good courage, and to take bread, and eat with them. And John said: I rejoice in soul indeed, but in the meantime I do not wish to take any food. … And on the seventh day, it being the Lord’s day, he said to them: Now it is time for me also to partake of food.”[20]
(The “seventh day” here may refer to the seventh–day Sabbath specifically or to the seventh day of the journey. If it is the latter, it would be the seventh–day Sabbath as well, inasmuch as the practice in John’s area was not to fast on the Sabbath.[21])
In sum total, there is not one piece of concrete evidence anywhere in the New Testament that Sunday was considered as a weekly day of worship for Christians. Rather, Christ Himself, His followers at the time of His death, and apostles after His resurrection regularly attended worship services on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
Moreover, when widespread Christian Sunday observance finally did become evident during the third to fifth centuries, this was side by side with the seventh–day Sabbath, as we have seen. The question now arises as to when and how Christian Sunday observance arose. This vital question will be dealt with as we probe the historical sources further in our next two articles.
[1] Willy Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church, trans. A. A. K. Graham from the German ed. of 1962 (Philadelphia, 1968).
[2] This development will be treated in a later article in this series.
[3] Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, ch. 22 (The Nicene and Post–Nicene Fathers [NPNF] 2nd Series, Vol. 2, p. 132).
[4] Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 7, ch. 19 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 12, pp. 7, 8).
[5] Apostolic Constitutions, bk. 7, ch. 23; bk. 8, ch. 33 (The Ante–Nicene Fathers [ANF], Vol. 7, pp. 469, 495).
[6] Pseudo–Ignatius, To the Magnesians, ch. 9 (ANF, Vol. 1, pp. 62, 63).
[7] Cassian, Institutes of the Coenobia, bk. 5, ch. 26 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 11, p. 243). Cf. Institutes iii. 2 and Conferences iii. 1 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 11, pp. 213, 319).
[8] Gregory of Nyssa, De Castigatione (“On Reproof”), in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 46, col. 309 (Greek) and col. 310 (Latin).
[9] Asterius, Homily 5, on Matthew 19:3, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 40, col. 225 (Greek) and col. 226 (Latin).
[10] “Shabbath,” 7.2 (in Herbert Danby, trans., The Mishnah [London, 1933], p. 106).
[11] Ibid., 12.5 (Danby, p. 112).
[12] Ibid., 10.2–5 (Danby, p. 109).
[13] Ibid., 17.6 (Danby, p. 115).
[14] Ibid., 11.1–6 (Danby, pp. 110–111).
[15] Cf. Matthew 12:11 and Luke 14:5. Rabbinic interpretation also allowed the saving of life (in real emergency) as taking precedence over the Sabbath regulations. Compare, e.g., “Mekilta Shabbath,” 1, where an interpretation is given to the effect that one Sabbath could be disregarded for the sake of saving a person’s life so that the person could observe many Sabbaths.
[16] The Damascus Document (Zadokite Document), x. 14–xi. 18, mentions these and other restrictions.
[17] From comment on 1 Corinthians 16:2 in Homily 43: 1 Corinthians 16:1–9 (NPNF, 1st Series, Vol. 12, p. 259).
[18] The earliest clear patristic source is Clement of Alexandria. See, e.g., his Miscellanies, ch. 14 (ANF, Vol. 2, p. 469). Further reference to this will appear in our next article.
[19] In the Easter controversy of cAD 190 the Roman province of Asia held to Quartodecimanism (celebration of the 14th of Nisan, regardless of the day of the week), a practice which Polycrates of Ephesus traced back to the apostles John and Philip. The account of this controversy is given in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, ch. 23–25 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 1, pp. 241–244).
[20] English translation from ANF, Vol. 8, pp. 560, 561.
[21] The East, including the Roman province of Asia, never adopted the weekly Sabbath fast. Further details will appear in the next two articles in this series.
Scholars and laymen are questioning the validity of Sunday as the Biblical day of worship.
The question of how Sunday, the first day of the week, replaced Saturday, the seventh day of the week, as the main day of Christian worship has received increasing attention in recent years.
One widely acclaimed study, for example, suggests that the weekly Christian Sunday arose from Sunday evening Communion services in the immediate postresurrection period, with Sunday itself being a workday until after the time of Constantine the Great in the early fourth century.[1] Eventually, however, Sunday ceased to be a work day and became a Christian “Sabbath.”[2]
Some simpler and more popular views are that either (1) Sunday was substituted immediately after Christ’s resurrection for the seventh–day Sabbath, or (2) Sunday–keeping was introduced directly from paganism during the second century or later.
But is either of these views correct? What do the actual source materials tell us?
Both days observed. One thing is clear: The weekly Christian Sunday –whenever it did arise– did not at first generally become a substitute for the Bible seventh–day Sabbath, Saturday; for both Saturday and Sunday were widely kept side by side for several centuries in early Christian history. Socrates Scholasticus, a church historian of the fifth century AD, wrote, “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [the Lord’s Supper] on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.”[3]
And Sozomen, a contemporary of Socrates, wrote, “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”[4]
Thus, “almost everywhere” throughout Christendom, except in Rome and Alexandria, there were Christian worship services on both Saturday and Sunday as late as the fifth century. A number of other sources from the third to the fifth centuries also depict Christian observance of both Saturday and Sunday.
For example, the Apostolic Constitutions, compiled in the fourth century, furnished instruction to “keep the Sabbath [Saturday], and the Lord’s day [Sunday] festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection.” “Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath–day [Saturday] and the Lord’s day [Sunday] let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety.”[5]
About the same time an anonymous writer, known as the interpolator of Ignatius, advised, “Let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law. … And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection–day, the queen and chief of all the days.”[6] And in the fifth century, John Cassian refers to attendance in church on both Saturday and Sunday, stating that he had even seen a certain monk who sometimes fasted five days a week but would go to church on Saturday or on Sunday and bring home guests for a meal on those two days.[7]
Gregory of Nyssa in the late fourth century referred to the Sabbath and Sunday as “sisters.”[8] And about AD 400 Asterius of Amasea declared that it was beautiful for Christians that the “team of these two days comes together” — “the Sabbath and the Lord’s day,”[9] which each week gathers together the people with priests as their instructors.
It is clear that none of these early writers confused Sunday with the Bible Sabbath. Sunday, the first day of the week, always followed the Sabbath, the seventh day. Furthermore, the historical records are clear in showing that the weekly cycle has remained unchanged from Christ’s time till now, so that the Saturday and Sunday of those early centuries are still the Saturday and Sunday of today.
In two subsequent articles we will return to data from early church history of the second and subsequent centuries to trace the manner in which Sunday eventually eclipsed the Sabbath, but first it is important here to take a look at the New Testament evidence, inasmuch as the New Testament is normative for Christian practice. How did Christ and the apostles regard the Sabbath and Sunday?
Sabbath in the New Testament. According to Luke 4:16, it was Christ’s “custom” to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Moreover, at the time of Christ’s death and burial, the women who had followed Him from Galilee “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56), indicating that there had been no instruction from Him to the contrary. They were still observing the seventh day of the week!
We may, in addition, take note of the fact that the implication of this text is that when Luke wrote the account several decades after Christ’s crucifixion he took for granted that no change in Sabbath observance had occurred. He reports this Sabbath observance “according to the commandment” in a totally matter–of–fact way, with no hint that there had been any new day of worship added in the interim.
On the other hand we must also recognize, of course, that Christ was accused of Sabbath–breaking by the scribes and Pharisees. We may take, for example, the incident where Christ’s disciples plucked grain as they walked through a grain field, rubbed it in their hands, and ate it (Matthew 12:1–8). And we could also notice several instances of Christ’s healing work that ran counter to the Sabbath–keeping views of the Jewish leaders – perhaps most strikingly the incident regarding the man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:10–13). What do these experiences mean?
In order to understand the situation, one must recognize that Jewish Sabbath observance in Christ’s day did not mean simply following Scripture laws but also adherence to strict regulations in Jewish oral tradition. The Mishnah, wherein multitudinous regulations of this so–called oral law were written down about AD 200, gives an idea of what Sabbath observance was like among the scribes and Pharisees. There were both major laws and minor laws.
Additional Sabbath regulations. The thirty–nine major laws listed in the tractate (or section) of the Mishnah entitled “Shabbath” are given as follows: “The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer, and taking out aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one.”[10]
These thirty–nine laws had many variations and ramifications. It would make a difference, for instance, whether two letters of the alphabet were written in such a way that they could both be seen at the same time. If an individual scribbled one letter on one face of a wall, and another around the corner so that the two letters were placed on walls that could be seen at the same time, the person would have broken the Sabbath.[11]
An object could be carried in a manner other than the usual one, and food could be carried out of a house in two acts (to the threshold, and then later the rest of the way) or by two people, for then it would not be work in a technical, purposeful sense; but to carry anything out of a house in the normal way on the Sabbath would be to violate the major Sabbath law against “taking out aught from one domain to another.”[12]
If water were to be drawn from a well in a gourd, a stone used as a weight in the gourd would be considered as a part of the vessel if it did not fall out. However, if it should happen to fall out, it would be considered as an object being lifted, and therefore the individual with such an experience would be guilty of Sabbath–breaking.[13] Objects could be tossed on the Sabbath, but there were regulations pertaining to allowable distance and as to whether the object went from a private domain to a public domain, for example.[14]
The foregoing are but a very few of the specifics mentioned in the tractate “Shabbath.” And in addition to the laws mentioned in that tractate, the Mishnah contains other Sabbath regulations, the largest number of which deal with the Sabbath day’s journey. (These are treated in the tractate “Erubin.”)
In the context of this sort of casuistry regarding Sabbathkeeping, it is obvious why Christ’s disciples were being accused of Sabbathbreaking by their picking and rubbing kernels of grain. One of the thirty–nine major Sabbath laws was “reaping”; another was “threshing.” Thus Christ’s disciples were both reaping and threshing — breaking two of the major laws of the Sabbath.
If they blew chaff away, they could also possibly have been considered as engaged in “sifting” – in which case they would have broken three different major Sabbath laws. Such “Sabbathbreaking,” it must be emphasized, was not against God’s commandments as given in Scripture but was purely and solely against the Jewish restrictions.
As for the matter of healing illness and taking care of suffering on the Sabbath, the Rabbinic laws made certain exceptions, such as allowing an animal to be lifted out of a pit.[15] However, there were some Jews in Christ’s time that were stricter than the Rabbinic requirements and who would not even allow a newborn animal to be rescued on the Sabbath if it happened to fall into a hole. Also, they would not permit nurses to carry babies around on the Sabbath.[16]
In considering the various miracles that Christ performed on the Sabbath for the purpose of alleviating suffering, it is interesting that Christ Himself never accepted the Pharisees’ criticism that He was breaking the Sabbath. Indeed, in connection with the case of the man with the withered hand, He raised a question, “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (Matthew 12:11, 12).
After this, He proceeded to heal the man. Thus He emphasized the lawfulness of this kind of deed on the Sabbath.
If one reads details of all the Sabbath activities of Christ, it is clear that (1) He attended worship services; (2) He performed works of mercy which He, as Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28), claimed were in harmony with the intent of the Sabbath; (3) and He never claimed to abrogate the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship for His followers. Indeed, with respect to the last point, His followers, as we have already noted, rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment at the time Christ was in the grave.
How about the apostles? But now, what can we say about apostolic practice after Christ’s resurrection? The Book of Acts reveals that the only day on which the apostles repeatedly were engaged in worship services on a weekly basis was Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The apostle Paul and his company, when visiting Antioch in Pisidia, “went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down” (Acts 13:14). After the Scripture reading, they were called upon to speak. They stayed in Antioch a further week, and that “next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God” (verse 44).
In Philippi Paul and his company went out of the city by a riverside on the Sabbath day, to the place where prayer was customarily made (Acts 16:13). In Thessalonica, “as his manner was,” Paul went to the synagogue and “three sabbath days reasoned with them [the Jews] out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). And in Corinth, where Paul resided for a year and a half, “he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18:4; compare verse 11).
Thus the evidence in the Book of Acts multiplied regarding attendance at worship services on Saturday.
Sunday as a worship day? On the other hand, the only case in the entire Book of Acts where there is record of a Sunday meeting is Acts 20:7–11. This was an evening service – probably Saturday evening (even translated “the Saturday night” by the New English Bible). It was obviously a special meeting that continued all night, inasmuch as Paul was planning to depart (and did depart) the next day.
But are there not other New Testament texts that indicate there were regular Sunday worship services in New Testament times? Not one!
It is true, of course, that there was an occasion or two where Christ met with the disciples on a Sunday evening. He came to them, for example, on the very night after His resurrection; but they were not assembled to celebrate the resurrection, for they did not even recognize that it had occurred (John 20:19–25; Mark 16:14). And eight days later He again met with them (John 20:26–29).
But prior to His ascension He also appeared to the disciples on a number of other occasions, and the record of the one or two specific Sunday evening meetings gives no indication that a new day of worship had been instituted. Indeed, not once in the Gospel records, nor anywhere else in the New Testament, is there any claim that a Sunday meeting of Christ with His disciples set a precedent for Sunday worship services among Christians. Saturday continued to be, as we have seen, the regular day when apostles attended worship services.
Two other texts that some mention as evidence for Sunday worship services in New Testament times are 1 Corinthians 16:2 and Revelation 1:10. But it must be immediately noticed that neither of these texts so much as mentions a worship service!
In 1 Corinthians 16:2 we read, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” In the King James Version the phrase “by him in store” indicates no more than an individualized savings plan. Other translations seem to render the Greek more clearly on this point, to the effect that the money was to be set aside at home.
It may be of interest to add here that the church father John Chrysostom (died AD 407), in commenting on this verse, says, “He [Paul] said not, ‘Let him bring it into the church,’ lest they might feel ashamed because of the smallness of the sum; but ‘having by gradual additions swelled his contribution, let him then produce it, when I am come: but for the present lay it up,’ saith he, ‘at home, and make thine house a church; thy little box a treasury.’”[17] Chrysostom, himself a Sunday–keeper, interestingly enough did not seem to think of 1 Corinthians 16:2 as evidence for a Sunday worship service.
The Lord’s day. As for Revelation 1:10, John here simply states that he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Although it is true that eventually the term “Lord’s day” came to be used for Sunday, no evidence indicates this was the case until about a century after the Book of Revelation was written![18] In fact, as we shall see in our next article, there is likelihood that the term was applied to Easter Sunday before it was applied to a weekly Sunday.
But the Roman province of Asia, to which the Revelation applies, had no Sunday–Easter tradition, either at the time the Revelation was written or even a century later.[19] Thus “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10 could not refer to an Easter Sunday.
Most pointedly of all, there is neither prior nor contemporary evidence that Sunday had achieved in New Testament times a status which would have caused it to be called “Lord’s day.” Another day –the seventh–day Sabbath– had, of course, been the Lord’s holy day from antiquity (see Isaiah 58:13) and was the day on which Christ Himself and His followers, including the apostle Paul had attended religious services, as we have seen.
In this connection, a statement from the apocryphal “Acts of John” may be of interest in spite of its dubious worth: “And the soldiers, having taken the public conveyances, traveled fast, having seated him [John] in the midst of them. And when they came to the first change, it being the hour of breakfast, they entreated him to be of good courage, and to take bread, and eat with them. And John said: I rejoice in soul indeed, but in the meantime I do not wish to take any food. … And on the seventh day, it being the Lord’s day, he said to them: Now it is time for me also to partake of food.”[20]
(The “seventh day” here may refer to the seventh–day Sabbath specifically or to the seventh day of the journey. If it is the latter, it would be the seventh–day Sabbath as well, inasmuch as the practice in John’s area was not to fast on the Sabbath.[21])
In sum total, there is not one piece of concrete evidence anywhere in the New Testament that Sunday was considered as a weekly day of worship for Christians. Rather, Christ Himself, His followers at the time of His death, and apostles after His resurrection regularly attended worship services on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
Moreover, when widespread Christian Sunday observance finally did become evident during the third to fifth centuries, this was side by side with the seventh–day Sabbath, as we have seen. The question now arises as to when and how Christian Sunday observance arose. This vital question will be dealt with as we probe the historical sources further in our next two articles.
[1] Willy Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church, trans. A. A. K. Graham from the German ed. of 1962 (Philadelphia, 1968).
[2] This development will be treated in a later article in this series.
[3] Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, ch. 22 (The Nicene and Post–Nicene Fathers [NPNF] 2nd Series, Vol. 2, p. 132).
[4] Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 7, ch. 19 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 12, pp. 7, 8).
[5] Apostolic Constitutions, bk. 7, ch. 23; bk. 8, ch. 33 (The Ante–Nicene Fathers [ANF], Vol. 7, pp. 469, 495).
[6] Pseudo–Ignatius, To the Magnesians, ch. 9 (ANF, Vol. 1, pp. 62, 63).
[7] Cassian, Institutes of the Coenobia, bk. 5, ch. 26 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 11, p. 243). Cf. Institutes iii. 2 and Conferences iii. 1 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 11, pp. 213, 319).
[8] Gregory of Nyssa, De Castigatione (“On Reproof”), in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 46, col. 309 (Greek) and col. 310 (Latin).
[9] Asterius, Homily 5, on Matthew 19:3, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 40, col. 225 (Greek) and col. 226 (Latin).
[10] “Shabbath,” 7.2 (in Herbert Danby, trans., The Mishnah [London, 1933], p. 106).
[11] Ibid., 12.5 (Danby, p. 112).
[12] Ibid., 10.2–5 (Danby, p. 109).
[13] Ibid., 17.6 (Danby, p. 115).
[14] Ibid., 11.1–6 (Danby, pp. 110–111).
[15] Cf. Matthew 12:11 and Luke 14:5. Rabbinic interpretation also allowed the saving of life (in real emergency) as taking precedence over the Sabbath regulations. Compare, e.g., “Mekilta Shabbath,” 1, where an interpretation is given to the effect that one Sabbath could be disregarded for the sake of saving a person’s life so that the person could observe many Sabbaths.
[16] The Damascus Document (Zadokite Document), x. 14–xi. 18, mentions these and other restrictions.
[17] From comment on 1 Corinthians 16:2 in Homily 43: 1 Corinthians 16:1–9 (NPNF, 1st Series, Vol. 12, p. 259).
[18] The earliest clear patristic source is Clement of Alexandria. See, e.g., his Miscellanies, ch. 14 (ANF, Vol. 2, p. 469). Further reference to this will appear in our next article.
[19] In the Easter controversy of cAD 190 the Roman province of Asia held to Quartodecimanism (celebration of the 14th of Nisan, regardless of the day of the week), a practice which Polycrates of Ephesus traced back to the apostles John and Philip. The account of this controversy is given in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, ch. 23–25 (NPNF, 2nd Series, Vol. 1, pp. 241–244).
[20] English translation from ANF, Vol. 8, pp. 560, 561.
[21] The East, including the Roman province of Asia, never adopted the weekly Sabbath fast. Further details will appear in the next two articles in this series.