Sabbath to Sunday

One of the central controversies about the movement from the Jewish orientation of the first century New Testament documents to the contemporary Christian culture is the place of the Sabbath. Marianne Dacy wrote her doctoral dissertation on this shift and other critical changes in the first few centuries following the death of Yeshua. Her analysis of the Sabbath controversy is worth examining. Here’s what she found:

The Shift from Sabbath to Sunday

Evidence provided by Marianne Dacy, The Separation of Early Christianity from Judaism

Dacy summaries the gradual shift with these key points:

1. There is no conclusive evidence of such a shift in the New Testament. In fact, NT writings suggest just the opposite.

2. Writings of Clemet show that Sabbath and Sunday worship were both practiced in the community. First day of the week gatherings had not replaced Sabbath and there is no connection between the resurrection and the Sunday observance.

3. The Epistle of Barnabas, a non-canonical work, is the first document to introduce the theme of replacement theology. It is strongly anti-Semitic, distorting Old Testament texts to advocate an extreme separation of Judaism and Christianity similar to the separation found in Qumran and Philo. It advocated allegorical exegesis and shows considerable Hellenistic influence (written sometime between 100 and 125AD)

4. The work of Ignatius of Antioch appears to acknowledge both Sabbath and Sunday worship, although his writing also moves in the direction of the replacement of Sabbath with Sunday worship. Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch. He died near the end of the first century (between 98 and 117AD).

5. Justin Martyr (103-165AD) provides the most ancient detailed description of Christian liturgy. It is clear from his work that Sunday has replaced Sabbath. Justin’s description shows that the Shema is now omitted from the service. There is no reference to the death and resurrection of Yeshua as the basis for Sunday worship. Instead, the Eucharist meal is used to Christianize the Sunday worship.

6. By the late second century, Origen compares the Lord’s Day (Sunday) with the Sabbath, laying the ground for the move to treat Sunday as the “day of rest.”

7. By the third century writings begin to show disapproval for Christians who continue to observe the Sabbath.

8. Fourth century works such as the Apostolic Canons condemn anyone who observes Sabbath fasting.

“Thus, there were differences in various areas of the church. The Sabbath was regarded more favourably in places in the east such as Alexandria and Cyprus than in the west, as in Rome. However, the early church was ridden by various heresies such as docetism, arianism and gnosticism, and in some areas syncretistic forms of Christianity existed, as in Antioch, as attested by John Chrysostom in his sermons on the autumn feasts and earlier by Ignatius of Antioch. This was not an isolated case. Again, the variations may be due to lack of a strong centralising authority in Rome, the primacy of Rome being first attested in the introduction of the first Epistle of Ignatius. When the ecumenical Councils began in the fourth century, areas of the eastern Church began to split off from the Roman Church, as disagreements about the nature of Christ and the Trinity became irreconcilable. Politics, differences in culture and rivalry were also elements which contributed to this process of separation between different strands of Christianity, and the different rate of separation from the practice of the Sabbath.” (p. 188)

Dacy demonstrates that the replacement of Sabbath with Sunday was a gradual, theologically motivated shift, culminating in a declaration that this Jewish practice was no longer acceptable within Western Christian circles.  Considerable theological reconstruction was necessary to remove the obstacle that Sabbath was a part of the Decalogue, but once Sabbath was connected with the Eucharist, this shift could be justified as a superior expression of worship.

Most Christians are ignorant of this historical development, usually believing that Sunday worship began with the establishment of the “church” as recounted in Acts 2.  They do not realize that for nearly 200 years following the death of Yeshua, Christians continued to observe the Sabbath in various locations across the Mediterranean world.   Sunday only replaced Sabbath through the efforts of influential theologians and bishops who were committed to creating a distinctive difference between Judaism and Christianity.  Were it not for the work of these men, Christians would probably worship on the Sabbath today.