Festival Articles
Sunday and the Sabbath: An Introduction


This call to intercession for the peace of Jerusalem
is a reminder of something worth praying for on the Sabbath.


Introduction

I grew up in a church that believed that Sunday was the New Testament Sabbath. We went to church on Sunday and we regarded Sunday as the Sabbath. To us, the 4th commandment was speaking of Sunday.

When I decided to read through the Bible myself, I couldn't help but notice that the Shabbat was the 7th day, that is Saturday, and there was nary a mention of a Sunday Shabbat for Christians. Still, it never occurred to me that I should be keeping Sabbath on the 7th day because to me Sabbath and Church were synonymous and Church was on Sundays.

But do you see something wrong here? The fact that the Sabbath is on the 7th day is so obvious that even a teen-ager giving the Bible a casual reading can see it. There's no mystery. It's not some hidden or secret knowledge. It is one of the Ten Commandments! Something peculiar is going on here...

I was first introduced to the idea of Sabbath relevance for believers when my brother was attending a Seventh Day Baptist church. This seemed like a contradiction in terms, but when introduced to the warmth of the Erev Shabbat, I was immediately struck with the depth of symbolism and the spirit of sweetness that came with the Sabbath. It still took many years for me to realize that the Biblical Sabbath was, indeed, a legitimate part of my heritage as a believer.

Many years later my family and I began to keep the Sabbath. We started slowly, cautiously and perhaps a bit reluctantly. We have never regretted it since, and it has been a source of family strength and unity. I encourage all believers everywhere to reevaluate the commandment of the Seventh Day Sabbath. Try it. You might even like it.

How did Sunday become honored as the Sabbath? The question of how the early Church lost the Sabbath always puzzled me. I am pleased to be able to share with you some of the historical factors that were involved in Christianity's transition from Jewish sect to separate religion and from Sabbath observance to Sunday worship.

People usually point to paganism and claim that early Christians worshipped the sun, hence the name "Sunday." While syncretism certainly played a large role in early Christian development, a quick look at the history of the transition to Sabbath proves it was not quite so sinister nor so simple. The following brief history is compiled from the NT record, Talmudic sources, Eusebius and Josephus including a general historical perspective on Jewish-Roman relations in the First and Second Centuries and Dr. Samuele Bacchiocci's fine work on the subject, From Sabbath to Sunday.

Click here to read the article
The Sabbath in Early Christianity

Kehilat Sar Shalom

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