Sabbath in Christianity is a weekly day of rest or religious observance, derived from the Biblical Sabbath.[1]
Seventh-day Sabbath observance, i.e. resting from labor from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, is practiced by seventh-day Sabbatarians. This practice is similar to the observance of Shabbat in Judaism.
Within one hundred years after the founding of Christianity, the practice of observing a corporate day of worship on the first day of the week, Sunday, had become commonplace as attested in the patristic writings.[2] The term Lord's Day came to mean Sunday. From the 4th century onwards, Sunday worship has taken on the observance of Sunday rest in some Christian traditions—most notably, the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among these "first-day Sabbatarians", Sunday rest eventually became synonymous with a first-day "Christian Sabbath".
Non-Sabbatarianism, the principle of Christian liberty from being bound to physical Sabbath observance, has significant historical support. Non-Sabbatarians focus on the Sabbath's typological meaning; i.e. its represention of present or future spiritual rest in Christ.
Most dictionaries provide both first-day and seventh-day definitions for "Sabbath" and "Sabbatarian", among other related uses.
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Sabbath was first described in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation (Gen. 2:2-3). Observation and remembrance of Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Most people who observe first-day or seventh-day Sabbath regard it as having been instituted as a "perpetual covenant for the people of Israel" and proselytes (Ex. 31:13-17, Ex. 23:12, Deut. 5:13-14), a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having complete in six days (Gen. 2:2-3, Ex. 20:8-11).[3]
In the New Testament, Jesus debates the Jews about the topic of Sabbath observance and declares that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath (e.g., Mk. 2:23-28). Early Jewish Christians such as Paul of Tarsus visit the synagogue on Sabbath. (Acts 13:13-14). The New Testament epistles contain Sabbath teachings interpreted variously by Christians as affirming seventh-day rest, first-day worship, and/or freedom from legalistic requirements to observe days.
According to Bauckham, the post-apostolic church contained diverse practices as regards Sabbath. In some instances, worship on Sunday was practised alongside observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.[4]
Some early Christians continued to observe Sabbath as evidenced in Ignatius' letter to the Magnesians.[4]
We have seen how former adherents of the ancient customs have since attained to a new hope; so that they have given up keeping the sabbath, and now order their lives by the Lord's Day instead (the day when life first dawned for us, thanks to Him and His death.)—Ignatius, To the Magnesians, chapter 9[5]
According to some classical sources, widespread seventh-day and first-day Sabbath observance by Gentile Christians prevailed in the 3rd and 4th centuries. In the 4th century, Socrates Scholasticus Church History book 5 states:[6]
For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebaïs, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general: for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings they partake of the mysteries.
In the 5th century, Sozomen Church History book 7, referencing Socrates Scholasticus, states:[7]
Assemblies are not held in all churches on the same time or manner. The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.
Early observance of Sunday is attested in patristic writings of the 2nd century.[2] These writers and approximate dates include Ignatius of Antioch (107), Bardaisan (154), Irenaeus (178), Cyprian (200), Victorinus of Petovio (280), and Eusebius of Caesarea (324).
Didache 14:1 (AD 70-120?) contains an ambiguous text, translated by Roberts as, "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving";[8] the first clause in Greek, "κατά κυριακήν δέ κυρίου", literally means "On the Lord's of the Lord".[9] This is one of only two extrabiblical Christian uses of "κυριακήν" where it does not clearly refer to Sunday.[10] Breaking bread may refer to Christian fellowship, agape feasts, or Eucharist (cf. Ac. 2:42, 20:7).
The Epistle of Barnabas or Pseudo-Barnabas on Is. 1:13 stated the eighth-day assembly marks the resurrection and the new creation: "He is saying there: 'It is not these sabbaths of the present age that I find acceptable, but the one of my own appointment: the one that, after I have set all things at rest, is to usher in the Eighth Day, the commencement of a new world.' (And we too rejoice in celebrating the Eighth Day; because that was when Jesus rose from the dead, and showed Himself again, and ascended into heaven.)"[11]
By the mid-2nd century, Justin Martyr stated, "We all gather on the day of the sun" (recalling both the creation of light and the resurrection);[12] he stated that Sabbath was enjoined as a sign to Israel because of Israel's sinfulness,[13] no longer needed after Christ came without sin.[14]
Tertullian (early 3rd century), writing against Christians who participated in pagan festivals (Saturnalia and New-year), defends the Christian celebration of Sunday against the accusation of sun-worship.
By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons and festivals formerly beloved by God, the Saturnalia and New-year's and Midwinter's festivals and Matronalia are frequented--presents come and go--New-year's gifts--games join their noise--banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord's day, not Pentecost, even it they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! If any indulgence is to be granted to the flesh, you have it. I will not say your own days, but more too; for to the heathens each festive day occurs but once annually: you have a festive day every eighth day.—Tertullian, On Idolatry, 14
Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity.—Tertullian, Ad Nationes, 1:13
On 7 March AD 321, the Roman Emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor stating:
All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish.—Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History [15]
Nevertheless, widespread seventh day Sabbath observance by Gentile Christians prevailed in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Some authorities continued to oppose this as a Judaizing tendency.[4] For example, the Council of Laodicea (canon 29) states Christians must not Judaize by resting on Sabbath but must work that day and then if possible rest on the Lord's Day and any found to be Judaizers are anathema from Christ.[16][17]
The origin of Sunday worship remains a debated point, with at least three scholarly positions being taken.
Augustine of Hippo followed the early patristic writers in spiritualizing the meaning of the Sabbath commandment, referring it to eschatological rest rather than observance of a literal day. However, the practice of Sunday rest increased in prominence throughout the early Middle Ages.[19] Thomas Aquinas taught that the Decalogue is an expression of natural law which binds all men, and therefore the Sabbath commandment is a moral requirement along with the other nine. Thus Sunday rest and Sabbath became increasingly associated.[19]
According to Bauckham, the reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin repudiated the idea that Christians are bound to obey the Mosaic law, including the fourth commandment of the Decalogue concerning Sabbath, although they followed Aquinas' concept of natural law. They viewed Sunday rest as a civic institution established by human authority, which provided an occasion for bodily rest and public worship.[20]
Sunday Sabbatarianism became prevalent amongst both the continental and English Protestants over the following century. A new rigorism was brought into the observance of the Christian Lord's Day among the 17th-century Puritans of England and Scotland, in reaction to the laxity with which Sunday observance was customarily kept. Sabbath ordinances were appealed to, with the idea that only the word of God can bind men's consciences in whether or how they will take a break from work, or to impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Their influential reasoning spread to other denominations also, and it is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". The most mature expression of this influence survives in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), Chapter 21, "Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day". Section 7-8 reads:
7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.
8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.
Though first-day Sabbatarian practice declined in the 18th century, the evangelical awakening in the 19th century led to a greater concern for strict Sunday observance. The founding of the Lord's Day Observance Society in 1831 was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson.[20]
In 1998 Pope John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter Dies Domini,[21] "on keeping the Lord's day holy". He encourages Catholics to remember the importance of keeping Sunday holy, urging that it not lose its meaning by being blended with a frivolous "weekend" mentality.
In the Western Catholic Church, "Sabbath" is a synonym of "Lord's Day" (Sunday), which is kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and celebrated with the Eucharist (Catholic Catechism 2177).[22] It is also the day of rest. Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week, symbolizing both first creation and new creation (2174).[22] Roman Catholics view the first day as a day for assembly for worship (2178, Heb. 10:25),[22] but consider a day of rigorous rest not obligatory on Christians (Rom. 14:5, Col. 2:16).[23] Catholics count the prohibition of servile work as transferred from seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday (2175-6),[22][24] but do not hinder participation in "ordinary and innocent occupations".[25]
The Eastern Orthodox church distinguishes between "Sabbath" (Saturday) and "Lord's Day" (Sunday), and both continue to play a special role for the faithful. Many parishes and monasteries will serve the Divine Liturgy on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning. The church never allows strict fasting on any Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday, and the fasting rules on those Saturdays and Sundays which fall during one of the fasting seasons (such as Great Lent, Apostles' Fast, etc.) are always relaxed to some degree. During Great Lent, when the celebration of the Liturgy is forbidden on weekdays, there is always Liturgy on Saturday as well as Sunday. The church also has a special cycle of Bible readings (Epistle and Gospel) for Saturdays and Sundays which is different from the cycle of readings allotted to weekdays. However, the Lord's Day, being a celebration of the Resurrection, is clearly given more emphasis. For instance, in the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday is always observed with an All-Night Vigil on Saturday night, and in all of the Orthodox Churches it is amplified with special hymns which are chanted only on Sunday. If a feast day falls on a Sunday it is always combined with the hymns for Sunday (unless it is a Great Feast of the Lord). Saturday is celebrated as a sort of leave-taking for the previous Sunday, on which several of the hymns from the previous Sunday are repeated.
In part, Orthodox Christians continue to celebrate Saturday as Sabbath because of its role in the history of salvation: it was on a Saturday that Jesus "rested" in the tomb after his work on the cross. For this reason also, Saturday is a day for general commemoration of the departed, and special requiem hymns are often chanted on this day.
The Ethiopian Orthodox church (part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, having about 40 million members) observes both Saturday and Sunday as holy, but places extra emphasis on Sunday.
Lutheran founder Martin Luther stated "I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should reject the law of Ten Commandments...Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also."[26] The Lutheran Augsburg Confession states "They (Roman Catholics) allege the change of the Sabbath into the Lord's day, as it seemeth, to the Decalogue (the ten commandments); and they have no example more in their mouths than they change of the Sabbath. They will needs have the Church's power to be very great, because it hath dispensed with the precept of the Decalogue."[27] Lutheran church historian Augustus Neander[28] states "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance".[29]
The Baptist Church Manual states "We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government."[30] The founder of the Moody Bible Institute states "The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember,' showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?"[31]
In 1831, Joseph Smith published a revelation commanding his related movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to go to the house of prayer, offer up their sacraments, rest from their labors, and pay their devotions on the Lord's day. (D&C 59:9–12). Latter-day Saints believe this means performing no labor that would keep them from giving their full attention to spiritual matters (Ex. 20:10). LDS prophets have described this as meaning they should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events, or participate in similar activities on that day. Elder Spencer W. Kimball taught that mere idle lounging on Sabbath does not keep the day holy, and that Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts (Miracle of Forgiveness, pp. 96–97).
Latter-day Saints prepare only simple foods on Sabbath (D&C 59:13, Is. 58:13) and believe the day is only for righteous activities. In most areas of the world, Latter-day Saints worship on Sunday, but in parts of the world where traditional Sabbath is on another day, such as in Israel or in Saudi Arabia, Latter-day Saints observe local Sabbath.[32]
The Seventh-day Sabbath was observed sporadically by a minority of groups during the middle ages.
Still farther to the east there is a body of Christian Sabbath keepers mentioned from the eighth to the 12th century. They are called Athenians (“touch not”) because they abstained from things unclean and from intoxicating drinks,-- the translator of Neander styles them Athinginians, -- as the following shows:
“This sect, which had its principal seat in the city of Armorion, in upper Phrygia, where many Jews resided sprung out of a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. They united baptism with the observance of all the rites of Judaism, circumcision excepted. We may perhaps recognize a branch of the older Judaizing sects.” [33]
Cardinal Hergenrother says that they stood in intimate relation with Emperor Michael II (AD 821-829), and testifies that they observed the Sabbath.[34] As late as the 11th century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time. But in the 10th and 11th centuries, there was a great extension of sects from the East to the West. Neander states that the corruption of the clergy furnished a most important vantage-ground on which to attack the dominant church. The abstemious life of these Christians, the simplicity and earnestness of their preaching and teaching, had their effect. “Thus we find them emerging at once in the eleventh century, in countries the most diverse, and the most remote from each other, in Italy, France, and even in the Harz districts in Germany.” Likewise, also, “traces of Sabbath-keepers are found in the times of Gregory I, Gregory VII, and in the twelfth century in Lombardy.”[35]
Seventh-day Sabbatarianism was advocated in England by John Traske (1586–1636) and Thomas Brabourne, whose ideas gave rise to the Seventh-day baptists.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church arose in the mid-19th century in America, having inherited seventh-day Sabbatarianism from the Seventh-day Baptists.
The Worldwide Church of God (Armstrongism) taught seventh-day Sabbath Observance. The United Church of God teaches seventh-day Sabbath Observance.
Justin Martyr, writing in the 2nd century, rejected the need to keep literal seventh-day Sabbath, arguing instead that "the new law requires you to keep the sabbath constantly."[36] Similarly, Irenaeus wrote that the Christian "will not be commanded to leave idle one day of rest, who is constantly keeping sabbath",[37] and Tertullian argued "that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh-day, but through all time".[38] This early metaphorical interpretation of Sabbath applied it to the entire Christian life.[4] Augustine, Luther and Calvin taught that the Sabbath commandment of the Decalogue is not binding on Christians as a legal requirement. Other historical non-sabbatarians from more recent times include the Anglicans Peter Heylin, William Paley and John Milton; the nonconformist Philip Doddridge; the Quaker Robert Barclay; and Congregationalist James Baldwin Brown.[20]
By synecdoche the term "Sabbath" in the New Testament may also mean simply a seven-day week, namely, the interval between two Sabbaths. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (Greek dis tou sabbatou, literally, "twice of the Sabbath").
Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name miqra ("called assembly") in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to the plan of Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on Sabbath. They are observed by Jews and a minority of Christians. Three of them occur in spring: the first and seventh days of Passover, and Pentecost. Four occur in fall, in the seventh month, and are also called Shabbaton: Trumpets; Atonement, the "Sabbath of Sabbaths"; and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles.
The year of Shmita (Hebrew שמיטה, literally, "release"), also called Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During Shmita, the land is to be left to lie fallow. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven.
Jewish Shabbat is a weekly day of rest cognate to Christian Sabbath, observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night; it is also observed by a minority of Christians. Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhically calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place.
The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some Messianic and Pentecostal churches, such as the native New Israelites of Peru and the Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church, do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from evening to evening. New-moon services can last all day.
In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, now called the Day of Reconciliation, as annual Sabbath (holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838, commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu.
Many early Christian writers from the 2nd century, such as pseudo-Barnabas, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Hippolytus of Rome followed rabbinic Judaism in interpreting Sabbath not as a literal day of rest, but as a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, which would follow six millennia of world history.[4]
Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to Sunday, is often stated in North America to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of Christendom. In McGowan v. Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.
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