The Bible Sunday

Sunday In Scripture

It is natural, as some have suggested, that the worship of the sun in various ancient pagan religions may have influenced the Christian preference for Sunday during the early centuries, as pagans were converted to Christianity.

Jesus never specifically mentioned the first day of the week, and neither He nor the NT writers ever alluded to it as a day Christians observed. Although the word Sunday does not occur in the Bible, the phrase "first day of the week" appears eight times in the NT (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), the first six with reference to the day of the Lord’s resurrection.

1. The Resurrection. Jesus died and was buried on the sixth day of the week, which was "the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath" (Mark 15:42). The Christians who attended His burial "beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" (Luke 23:55, 56). "And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun" (Mark 16:1, 2).

2. The Meeting With the Disciples. When Mary Magdalene and the other women told the apostles that Christ had risen, "their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not" (Luke 24:8–11; Mark 16:10, 11). When the two disciples who had met Jesus on the road to Emmaus returned to Jerusalem on the night of that same first day of the week, they likewise met with incredulity. "Neither believed they [the disciples at Jerusalem] them" (Mark 16:12, 13; Luke 24:33–35). "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" (John 20:19). Note that "the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews," not for a religious meeting. Nor was it a public gathering, for "the doors were shut"; that is, bolted and barred. Furthermore, it was probably after sunset, when, according to Jewish reckoning, the first day of the week had ended and the second day of the week had already begun (Luke 24:33–35; Mark 1:32). Moreover, Jesus "appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat" (Mark 16:14); that is, they were eating their evening meal. Instead of rejoicing when they saw Him, "they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit" (Luke 24:36, 37). It was only with difficulty that Jesus convinced them that it was really He, and that He had risen. This was not the religious gathering it is often perceived to be.

"After eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst" (John 20:24–26). At this meeting Thomas, who had not been with the disciples on the evening after the Resurrection and who remained skeptical for a full week, acknowledged the risen Lord.

This second appearance occurred "after eight days"; that is, by common inclusive reckoning, a week later, probably implying that it too took place on a Sunday night, after the second day of the week-by Jewish reckoning-had begun. The fact that the doors were again shut suggests that it was not a public meeting.

The fact that Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the believers at Jerusalem most probably fell on a Sunday (the day of the week is not mentioned) is merely coincidental. Pentecost would normally fall on a Sunday in a year when the Passover, Nisan 14, came on a Friday (the fiftieth day after the day of the wave sheaf, on Nisan 16). Had the fact that Pentecost fell on the first day of the week been significant, as indeed it would have been had the Holy Spirit thus intended to honor Sunday as a new day of rest in place of the Jewish Sabbath, we would expect to find mention of such an intended change in the Bible record. But the Scriptures are entirely silent concerning any significance being attached to the coincidence.

3. A Weekly Offering for the Needy. Writing to the church at Corinth toward the close of his third missionary journey, Paul gave instructions concerning the collection of a special fund for the relief of the needy believers in Judea (Acts 11:27–30). He asked that on each first day of the week every believer lay aside a certain sum for the fund "so that contributions need not be made when I come" (1 Cor. 16:2, RSV). No mention is made of a religious service on the first day of the week. On that day each believer was to "lay by him in store"—at home. For the KJV "lay by him in store" the RSV reads "put something aside and store it up."

4. The Meeting at Troas. A few months later, on his voyage to Jerusalem, Paul spent seven days at Troas.

"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. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together" (Acts 20:7, 8).

Then about midnight a youth named Eutychus, who had fallen asleep in a third-story window "as Paul was long preaching," fell to the ground and was taken up for dead; and Paul interrupted the meeting to restore the lad (verses 9, 10). When Paul "had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day," he departed on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 20:3–14).

It should be remembered that in Bible times the Jews reckoned the solar day of 24 hours from sunset to sunset. By biblical reckoning, the first day of the week began at sunset Saturday night and ended at sunset Sunday night. If the meeting began after sunset, it would have been held between sunset Saturday night and sunrise Sunday morning. (The New English Bible, for example, reads "on the Saturday night.") If Paul preached until midnight on Saturday night, then broke bread with the believers and conversed with them until daybreak Sunday morning and set out at dawn on foot for Assos, 19 miles (30 kilometers) away, he must have spent most of Sunday on the road traveling. Obviously, in that case Paul did not observe that Sunday, at least as a day of rest. The farewell meeting at Troas took place on that day for the reason that Paul intended to board ship at Assos the following day.

Some have insisted that the breaking of bread at Troas (v. 11) was a Communion service and that the celebration of the Lord’s Supper between sundown Saturday night and sunrise Sunday morning constitutes recognition of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. In the first place, it should be noted that the Lord and the apostles never specified when or how often this rite should be celebrated. In the second place, the breaking of bread at that nightlong meeting may have been no more than a common meal. But if reference is to the Lord’s Supper, even this cannot be cited as evidence of special honor being accorded the first day of the week, for the same expression is used in Acts 2:47, where it is said that members of the apostolic church broke bread together every day. Finally, if the celebration of the Lord’s Supper should be on a particular day, and if such a celebration is to be considered as designating the day thus honored to be a holy day, it should be remembered that our Lord selected Thursday night as the time for instituting this rite.

5. The New Testament Evidence Evaluated. A candid examination of the eight instances in which the phrase "first day of the week" occurs in NT scriptures thus shows that:

• Neither Christ nor His apostles gave a commandment to keep that day holy.

• They never instructed Christians to observe Sunday, either as the Christian Sabbath or as the Lord’s day.

• Not once did they refer to that day as sacred or blessed, nor did they so much as intimate that secular work done on that day constituted sin.

• There is no instance on record of Sunday ever having been kept as a holy day in NT times in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, or for any other purpose.

• The NT nowhere mentions a transfer of the obligations of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue from the seventh to the first day of the week by either the Lord or His apostles.

Because Sunday later came to be known as "the Lord’s day," some have concluded that Revelation 1:10 refers to Sunday. The context does not reveal to what day John refers as "the Lord’s day," but on the basis of the statement in the fourth command of the Decalogue that "the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord" (Ex. 20:10), and of Jesus’ statement that "the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day" (Mark 2:28), Seventh-day Adventists have concluded that John referred to the seventh day of the week. Inasmuch as the Bible contains no record whatever of a substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh-day Sabbath as the Lord’s day, the assumption that John here refers to Sunday observance is unwarranted (see Sabbath).