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From Sabbath to Sunday:
How Sunday Worship Replaced
the Jewish Sabbath in the Christian Church
By Shiao Chong, Christian Reformed Campus Minister
& Director of Leadership, Culture &
Christianity
Serving at York University, Toronto
www.logoscrc.ca |
chaplain@logoscrc.ca
The Sabbath is the seventh day in our seven-day
week, established in the Old Testament as a day of rest. The following passages,
for instance, makes this teaching clear:
Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their
multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he
rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the
seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he
had done in creation.” (NRSV unless otherwise stated)
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall
labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your
God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or
female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six
days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but
rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and
consecrated it.”
Why, then, do present-day Christians not observe the seventh-day, or Saturday,
as the Sabbath? How did Sunday, the first day of the week, become the day of
observance for Christians? Are Seventh-Day Adventists more faithful to Scripture
at this point?
Well, two developments contributed to the switch from seventh day Sabbath
observance to first day Sunday observance for Christians. These are:
1. The practice of the New Testament Church in meeting on Sundays;
2. The legislation of rest on Sundays by the Roman Emperor Constantine.
New Testament Practice
We do not have a lot of Scriptural proof that the early Christians started
worshipping on Sundays. In fact, we have only three New Testament references.
Acts 20:7 is the clearest evidence that New Testament Christians were meeting
regularly on Sunday to have the Lord’s Supper and to hear the Word of God
preached: “On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was
holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he
continued speaking until midnight.”
The second bit of evidence is in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 where Paul was giving
instructions to the Corinthian Christians on collecting offerings, which notably
are the same instructions he gave to the Galatian churches: “Now concerning the
collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the
churches of Galatia. On the first day of the week, each of you is to put aside
and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I
come.”
Thus, already from these two references, we see three elements of Christian
worship in this apparently regular Sunday gatherings of the early Christians:
breaking of bread, preaching and collection of offerings.
The final text is from Revelation 1:10 where the apostle John wrote, “I was in
the spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a
trumpet.” Some commentators think that John may be referring to a special
occasion like Easter or the Day of Judgment. But the majority of Bible scholars
think it is more likely that “the Lord’s day” refers to the day of the week when
Christians met regularly to worship their Lord Jesus. Of course, it is not clear
from this verse which day of the week is the Lord’s Day, but the evidence of
Acts 20 and 1 Corinthians 16 supports the likelihood of Sunday being the Lord’s
Day.
Why Sunday? Why did the New Testament Christians pick the first day of the week
to gather and worship their Lord? Probably because the Lord Jesus resurrected on
a Sunday morning, making it a most appropriate day to commemorate the event.
Furthermore, the Spirit’s outpouring on Pentecost also likely occurred on Sunday
as the festival of Pentecost is 50 days after Passover. Since Passover is on the
Sabbath, a Saturday, fifty days later is Sunday.
These three texts, however, only show that Christians were gathering to worship
on the first day of the week. It does not prove that Sunday also became the day
of rest for Christians, which is what Sunday has now become. Sunday is now not
only the day of worship for Christians but also the Sabbath day, the day of
resting.
All evidence seems to suggest that the New Testament Christians, who were mostly
Jews initially, observed both the Sabbath (the Saturday) as the day of rest and
Sunday as the Lord’s Day of worship. How did the change came about where the
Lord’s Day also became the Sabbath day?
First of all, the foundation for this shift is in the New Testament already,
particularly in the apostle Paul’s treatment of the Sabbath. First of all, Paul
identifies the Sabbath as a shadow, a type, of what is to come in Christ:
“Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of
observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is
to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17) The
implication is that since Christ has now come, there is, therefore, no need for
the shadow.
Paul, elsewhere, suggests that all days are holy to the Lord: “Some judge one
day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all
be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in
honor of the Lord.” (Romans 14:5-6) Furthermore, in Galatians 4:10-11, Paul
warns Christians from putting too much emphasis in observing Jewish practices:
“You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid
that my work for you may have been wasted.”
This ambivalent attitude or teaching towards the Jewish Sabbath paves a
foundation for later Christians to abandon the Jewish Sabbath altogether in
favor of only observing the Lord’s day on Sunday.
Before we move on to see how that actually occurred in history, we need to look
at some statements in the epistle to the Hebrews on the Sabbath. In Hebrews
4:9-11 we read, “So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;
for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.
Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall
through such disobedience as theirs.” Does this text imply that observing the
Sabbath day of rest is still binding on Christians?
Actually, the context of the passage suggests that the author of Hebrews here
has in mind more the spiritual rest of the heart, which is found in Christ,
rather than the once-a-week day of rest. This is clear in Hebrews 3:18-4:1: “And
to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who
were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take
care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.” The rest here is
not a physical rest but a spiritual rest that can only be entered by faith, by
those “who have believed” (Hebrews 4:3). This sentiment is well captured, for
instance, by the 16th century Heidelberg Catechism: “that every day of my life I
rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin
in this life the eternal Sabbath” (Q&A 103).
Historical Developments
Constantine became Roman Emperor (of the West) in 306 AD. In the year 312, he
made Christianity a legal religion for the first time. Historians debate over
the genuineness of his conversion to Christianity. Nevertheless, Constantine
made significant laws that impacted the history of Christianity in Europe
forever. It was Constantine who made Sunday a public holiday. In 321 AD,
Constantine forbade most kinds of work on Sunday, thus linking the Lord’s Day of
worship with the Sabbath day of rest. Ever since then, Christians have
associated their Sunday of worship with the day of rest.
Considering the apostle Paul’s teachings, this development is neither good nor
bad. All days are holy to the Lord and no day has any special sacredness to it.
The concept of Sabbath rest, however, is important and enshrined in the Ten
Commandments. Thus, having a day of rest from regular work is still necessary
and important to our well-being. Combining the day of worship with the day of
rest seems an appropriate and prudent move.
However, some later Christians have placed too much emphasis on the Sabbath
observance of Sunday. Such “Sabbatarianism” can be seen, for instance, in the
Lord’s Day Observance Society (founded in 1831). Sabbatarianism usually
interprets the command to rest as also forbidding any form of recreational
activity. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin (leaders of the Protestant
Reformation) opposed strict sabbatarianism, in the spirit of Christ’s opposition
to the sabbatarian Pharisees of his day: “The Sabbath was made for humankind,
and not humankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
Bibliography
Field, D.H. “Sunday” in New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral
Theology, eds. David J. Atkinson, David F. Field, Arthur Holmes, Oliver
O’Donovan (IVP 1995), pp. 826-827.
Coble, Ann. “Sabbath” in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, eds. David Noel
Freeman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck (Eerdmans 2000), pp. 1145-1147.
Copyright © Shiao C. Chong 2007
This article can be copied and distributed freely provided its content has not
been changed. This resource cannot be sold or distributed for financial gain. It
must be free. And it must be unedited. Otherwise, the author reserves all rights
to the resource.
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