Jewish Sabbath, Christian Sabbath

Submitted by Tony

As a child attending the Anglican Sunday School, I became aware that Jesus kept the original Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week; which was actually Friday sunset to Saturday sunset since proper Jewish days run from sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight as ours do. I remember discussing this issue with our Vicar at confirmation class. The gist of the conversation was that I asked him why Christians keep the Sunday as their Sabbath, when the Bible makes no mention of the Sunday being this special day of rest and worship. In his reply he acknowledged that the Bible makes no mention of Sunday worship, nor specifically authorises a change of the Sabbath to Sunday for Christians, but explained that the change to Sunday was made by the church on extra biblical authority given to it by God.

Because I became an atheist not long after my confirmation, I didn’t really give the conversation anymore thought. However, the issue confronted me again 20 or so years later at my conversion when information concerning the Friday evening / Saturday Sabbath, and details of the change to Sunday, were again brought to my attention.

What follows is a summary of this information, and some of my thoughts on it, spanning the following topic areas:

• Sunday in the bible
• Sunday in church history
• The Sabbath in the commandments
• Nine out of ten (are there any commandments we shouldn’t keep?)

Sunday in the Bible

It’s worth noting for a start that there are no texts anywhere in the Bible that announce a change of the day of worship. While many texts are alluded to by various church doctrines in terms of the disciples possibly worshiping on a Sunday, we cannot find any texts that authorise a change in the day of Sabbath worship with a clear “thus says the Lord”.

There are eight texts that mention the first day of the week. Let’s start by looking at each of them to see if they indicate a change of the day of worship:

Math 28:1 In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

This is not about Christ’s disciple’s day of worship, Mary merely went to see Christ’s tomb.

Mark 16:2 - And very early in the morning the first [day] of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Same as above

Mark 16:9 - Now when [Jesus] was risen early the first [day] of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

Again worship is not mentioned. Many Christians indicate that the day of worship was changed to Sunday because Jesus was raised on the Sunday. However, there are no Bible texts anywhere indicating this to be the case. In these texts about Resurrection Sunday, worship is not mentioned.

Luke 24:1 - Now upon the first [day] of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain [others] with them.

Again, worship is not mentioned

John 20:1 - The first [day] of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Same as before

John 20:19 - Then the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace [be] unto you.

Here the disciples are at an assembly, but the stated reason for the assembly is they were hiding from the Jews. To say it was their day of worship would be to wrest another meaning from the text.

Acts 20:7 - And upon the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

Of the eight texts that mention the “first day of the week” this, and one other, are the only texts that appear to mention the day of worship. However, let us examine the text closely to see if the day of worship is what it is talking about. The argument for it talking about the day of worship is that it mentions breaking bread and preaching. However, when we look at it in context, we find it difficult to use this text to prove that a day of worship was taking place on the Sunday. Firstly, preaching was not confined exclusively to the day of worship. Preaching is mentioned many times in the book of Acts. So many times, and in so many places, that it indicates they were preaching at public campaigns possibly every day of the week. The disciples also preached in synagogues and therefore preached also on the Saturday (see Acts 13:5). Secondly, the breaking of bread does not necessarily mean communion, since it was simply the term in that day for eating a normal meal. We need to look at the wider context of this text to see if it was a special day of worship, or if they were just listening to Paul preach at meal time.

First we need to appreciate that in New Testament times, there were two calendars in use. The Jewish calendar, based on the Genesis account of creation, marking each day as spanning from sunset to sunset, and the Roman calendar which was based on midnight to midnight as our modern calendar is. New Testament texts, being written from a Jewish perspective presumably use the Jewish calendar. Therefore “the first day of the week” as mentioned in the Bible spans from about 6:00pm Saturday to 6:00pm Sunday on our Roman calendar. This fits with the texts above which are all about the resurrection. It is described as taking place on the “first day of the week” and all Christians agree that the resurrection took place on a Sunday morning (our calendar).

Now Acts 20:8 mentions that “there were many lights in the upper chamber”. This places the time of the meeting where Paul preached till midnight as being in the evening meal time on Saturday night (our calendar). The context of the text is that this is Paul’s last night with them, “ready to depart on the morrow”. So it is most likely that this is a fellowship gathering of the disciples and Paul, held because it is their last chance to be together since Paul is departing the next day. Even if Christians did meet regularly at this time, it would in such a case appear to be for a fellowship meal at the end of the Sabbath; Sunday evening quite possibly being what is referred to as “the first day of the week”, taking into account the Jewish day and the fact that Paul preached to midnight.

1 Cor 16:2 - 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.

Basically, this mentions putting aside some money for an offering on the “first day of the week”. As described above, this does not necessarily mean a Sunday on our calendar. It could be any time from Saturday night to Sunday night. In addition no mention of made when the offering is to be taken up. It uses the words “lay by him in store”. Therefore there is no indication here that worship is taking place.

In addition to the term “the first day of the week”, the Bible also uses the term “the Lord’s day” but only once in Revelation 1:10. Since there are no other references to that term in the Bible, we cannot determine, from the Bible alone, what day that is. Tradition has it as Sunday, but if our beliefs are to be based on the Bible and the Bible alone, we cannot determine what day John had the vision.

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