Why is Christian Sabbath on Sunday?

[yehudai]

Does anybody know the history and justification for the shift of the holiest day of the week from (Jewish) Saturday to (Chrisitian) Sunday?

You get extra points if you also know how Muslims came to use Friday as their holiest day of the week.

[James Peter]

Well its old, we know that much at least (references to Day of the Lord in contrast to Sabbath in NT texts). If we look at what the Apostles spent the Sabbath doing we see that they were generally preaching and teaching in the synagogues. It was their busiest day, hardly a day of rest. The Resurrection occured on a sunday (the day after the Sabbath) and as that was the key event for the early Church it is natural that the Church celebrated it on a weekly basis. Before the Passion there was no reason for the first day to be especially Holy, afterwards it was far more significant.

I'd argue that those who call sunday the sabbath of the church are misinformed. It isn't that the Church moved the sabbath, it is that they began to commemorate a new event and the gentiles had no instruction to keep the sabbath a day of rest and so they didn't.

As for why Muslims assemble on friday...I'm not entirely sure. Friday, whilst the Day of Assembly, is not a day of rest or anything. It is simply the day that instead of praying individually they come together to pray. One could argue the change was largely to distinguish themselves from the two faiths they are trying to replace but there is I'm sure some story used to justify the change theologically.

[b488]

As for why Muslims assemble on friday...I'm not entirely sure. Friday, whilst the Day of Assembly, is not a day of rest or anything. It is simply the day that instead of praying individually they come together to pray. One could argue the change was largely to distinguish themselves from the two faiths they are trying to replace but there is I'm sure some story used to justify the change theologically.


From experience, the most likely answer you are likely to hear about "why friday?" is simply that Allah commands it to be so.

I cant remember where, but one sura basically states that after the assembly, one ought to go right back to whatever they are doing, so that they "might prosper." There is no establishment of any day off in Islam. Just an hour or so to meet and pray.

In fact, there is a controversy surrounding this very thing in Iraq right now. What days off ought the nation now have? the choices are Thursday and Friday, or Friday and Saturday? The latter is the more pragmatic and more likely to occur so that another day is not lost in international commerce. It has come under fire from more conservative groups because they think it is a conspiracy for them to be forced to observe the "Jewish Sabbath."

[micah4]

Does anybody know the history and justification for the shift of the holiest day of the week from (Jewish) Saturday to (Chrisitian) Sunday?


As James peter said, Sunday is not the sabbath and there has been no shift of the "holiest day of the week". Sunday worship-time is an observance people have adopted, but it is not in any sense the Sabbath or an especially holy day.

[Secretary of Funk Jnthn]

Does anybody know the history and justification for the shift of the holiest day of the week from (Jewish) Saturday to (Chrisitian) Sunday?

You get extra points if you also know how Muslims came to use Friday as their holiest day of the week.

I can't find the quote to hand (blush), but I believe that there are reference in Acts to the early church meeting on the first day of the week, which translates into Sunday.

J

[Amazing Rando]

I can't find the quote to hand (blush), but I believe that there are reference in Acts to the early church meeting on the first day of the week, which translates into Sunday.

J

Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2

[Berean Todd]

It's allready well covered, but we have the fact of a remembrance of the ressurection on a Sunday, there is the fact that the church in Acts was meeting on Sunday. Also we are told we no longer need observe the Sabbath, that no one is our judge as to holy days, and that Jesus Himself is our sabbath rest.

[PioneerSDA]

When I hear the phrase the "Christian Sabbath" I think about the Sabbath that belongs to Christ.

"For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." Mark 12:8
"Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. "Mark 2:28
"And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." Luke 6:5

This must be why some Christians refer to it as "the Lord's day." He made it very clear which Sabbath was His.

Now, about the Muslim Sabbath. I find that very interesting what B488 in his post # 3 said that Muslims don't want [" to be forced to observe the "Jewish Sabbath."]

I've never heard anything in scriptures about a Jewish Sabbath or a Gentile Sabbath for that matter. I thought the Sabbath of the Bible was called the Sabbath of the Lord as we have already seen earlier. The Lord made the Sabbath for all mankind and not for any particular race according to Jesus. "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: " Mark 2:27

The Sabbath was made long before there ever was a Jew so that means there wasn't Gentiles either. People were just people and that was good.

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 2:2,3

So we see that God made the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week.
Maybe the other days that some people choose for their rest days have something to do with the creation week as well.

Some people's rest day is the first day of the week and they call it Sunday. I find that very interesting because God created the sun on the first day of the week.

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. " Genesis 1:5

I know that if I worshipped the Sun, I'd want to do it on the first day of the week that He created the sun on. I surely wouldn't want to worship the sun on the seventh day of the week that God "blessed and santified"Genesis 2:3

Maybe the creation week can also help us figure out why some religions would like to make Friday their rest day Friday is the sixth day of the week and God created man. So if I was to worship man instead of God, I'd like to do that on the sixth day of the week when God created man. I surely wouldn't want to worship man on the seventh day of the week that God"blessed and hallowed" Exodus 20:11

Maybe I'm wrong about why these religions don't want to keep God's holy day or maybe I'm right. It really doesn't matter. What is important that all Bible believers are one in Christ.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. " Galations 3:28

New Testament Christians did not know anything about seperate Sabbath days.

"And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath." "And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42,44