The Biblical Background of the Lord’s Day (Sunday)

From New Testament times, the church met for worship on the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The Lord’s Day has absorbed some features of the Jewish Sabbath but also differs in important respects. It is a day that incorporates within it all the festivals of the Christian year.

Terminology

The first day of the week quite early became the regular day on which the church assembled for worship in place of the Jewish Sabbath (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). There is no New Testament injunction to observe this day, but the second-century Didachē, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, directs the church to “assemble and give thanks” on the Lord’s Day (Didachē 14). The title “the Lord’s Day” is found in the New Testament only in Revelation 1:10, where John states that he was in the Spirit “on the Lord’s Day” when he received his commission to write the revelation of Jesus Christ. The expression “Day of the Lord” in the Old Testament generally describes an impending time of judgment, although in some contexts it might refer to a festival known as “Yahweh’s Day,” perhaps a celebration of his enthronement and possibly the new year festival (cf. Amos 5:18). In early Christian writings, “the Lord’s Day” designates Sunday, the first day of the week, observed from apostolic times as a day of Christian worship. The English name Sunday is a holdover from the original pagan dedication of this day to the sun god; in the Romance languages, in contrast, the meaning of “Lord’s Day” is better represented by names such as domingo or dimanche, from the Latin Dominus, “Lord.”

Origin of the Lord’s Day

A popular belief is that the Lord’s Day originated in the Jewish Sabbath, which Jesus himself, or his apostles, changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. This belief has persisted, although there is no scriptural teaching that the Sabbath has been transferred from one day to another. The origin of the Christian Sunday is more complicated, for the transition from the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day was a gradual one. Since the transition took place while Christianity was emerging from its Jewish background, it was inevitable that Judaism should contribute a great deal to a Christian institution such as the weekly day of assembly and worship. At this time, also, the church was entering into conflict with pagan cults, which, especially in later centuries, made their influence felt in the formation of Christian institutions. The Christian day of worship was bound to embrace elements that would distinguish it from both the Jewish day of assembly and the pagan observances.

The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day

The Sabbath held a distinctive place in the life of the Jewish community. During the time of the Exile in Babylon, when the Judeans were cut off from their festival worship in Jerusalem, the Sabbath began to emerge as an institution that held the people together. It has been said that it was not the Jews who kept the Sabbath but the Sabbath that kept the Jews. Even after the restoration of the temple, the Sabbath continued to grow in importance; the local religious rites of the Jews came to center around this day, especially outside Palestine, and all the more so with the destruction of Herod’s temple in a.d. 70.

It was natural that many of the traditions of the Sabbath should be incorporated into the life of the early church; Jews, who had been accustomed to observe the Sabbath by resting from their ordinary labors and by prayer and study in the synagogue, would have found it difficult not to maintain these customs as Christians. At first, Jewish Christians apparently observed both the seventh and the first days of the week. Later, when the Christian movement became more Gentile in its constituency, and when its distinction from Judaism became more apparent, the majority of Christians observed only the first day of the week. However, they transferred to it many of the features of the earlier institution, which had occupied such an important place in the heritage they had received from Judaism. To an extent, therefore, the character of the Jewish Sabbath was imitated in the Christian Sunday. Like the Sabbath, it was regarded as a day of joy and festivity, and fasting on it was forbidden. As the Sabbath opened and closed with appropriate celebrations, the first Christians also met early in the morning on the Lord’s Day and again in the evening to worship and share a meal together.

To the Jew, the Sabbath was a memorial of the Creation of the world and of the preservation of the Lord’s people. It was a weekly reminder of God’s rest after the six days of Creation and also of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery (Gen. 2:3; Exod. 20:11; Deut. 5:15). The most prominent feature of the Sabbath, even before it became a day of assembly, was the cessation of all kinds of work. Although this feature of the Jewish sacred day was the last to be carried over into the Christian Sunday, there are indications as early as the beginning of the third century that Christians abstained from work on the Lord’s Day. The fact that the Lord’s Day became a weekly day of worship and rest for Christians, as opposed to a monthly or annual observance, can be explained only by analogy with the Jewish Sabbath.

Christian Distinctives of the Lord’s Day

Although it borrowed important features from the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day was from the beginning a distinctively Christian institution. It was observed on the first day of the week because it was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead. All four Gospels indicate that the Resurrection was discovered early in the morning on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Six of the eight appearances of Christ to his followers after the Resurrection took place on the first day: to Mary Magdalene (John 20:1–18), to the women bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body (Matt. 28:7–10), to two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13–33), to Simon Peter (Luke 24:34), to the ten disciples when Thomas was absent (John 20:19–23; cf. Luke 24:36–49), and possibly (although the text uses the phrase “after eight days”) to the eleven disciples when Thomas was present (John 20:24–29). These appearances of Christ on the first day were sufficient to set it apart as a day of particular significance. If the crucifixion of Jesus took place on the sixth day of the week (Friday), as is traditionally held, then the day of Pentecost that year was also on the first day of the week, since it falls fifty days after Passover (which would have coincided with the Sabbath). If so, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles also occurred on the Lord’s Day (Acts 2:1–4).

The resurrection of Jesus, which verified that he was the Christ, the Son of God, was denied by the church’s Jewish opponents. Since the Resurrection was foundational to the Christian movement, it is understandable that Christians—even those who were Jews by descent—would view a separate day of worship as something demanded by the contrast between Christianity and Judaism. In assembling on the first day of the week, the church continuously proclaimed the central fact of the gospel. In his first Apology (I. 67)—a defense of the church addressed to the Roman Emperor—Justin Martyr (c. 100–165) explains that the church chose this day for worship because it was both the first day of Creation and the day of the resurrection of Christ. Thus the Lord’s Day contrasts with the Sabbath in a second respect closely related to the Resurrection. Whereas the Sabbath, or seventh day, marked God’s resting from his creative activity (Gen. 2:1–2), the Lord’s Day is a day of “new creation.” By worshiping on the first day of the week, the Christian church is making a statement about the new beginning God has made in Jesus Christ and the people of the new covenant (2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:1–5).

When questioned about his authority, Jesus quoted a psalm: “The stone the builders rejected has become the Stone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (cf. Matt. 21:42; Ps. 118:22–23). Peter, in his address before the Jewish Sanhedrin, quoted part of the same passage and applied it to the resurrection of Christ (Acts 4:11). Athanasius, in the fourth century, added the following verse and applied it to the day of Resurrection: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”