What day did early Christians worship on?
Let them speak for themselves.
90AD DIDACHE: But every Lord's day, do ye gather yourselves together, and
break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions,
that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his
fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice
may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord... [Matt.
5:23-24] (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, , Chap. 14:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers
Vol. 7, page 381)
90AD DIDACHE: And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's
day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus,
and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from
the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on
that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection...? (Constitutions
of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 7, pg. 423)
90AD DIDACHE: And how can he be other than an adversary to God, who takes
pains about temporary things night and day, but takes no care of things eternal?
Who takes care of washings and temporary food every day, but does not take care
of those that endure forever? How can such a one even now avoid hearing that
word of the Lord, "The Gentiles are justified more than you" as He
says, by way of reproach, to Jerusalem, "Sodom is justified rather than
thou." For if the Gentiles every day, when they arise from sleep, run to
their idols to worship them, and before all their work and all their labors
do first of all pray to them, and in their feasts and in their solemnities do
not keep away, but attend upon them; and not only those upon the place, but
those living far distant do the same; and in their public shows all come together,
as into a synagogue: in the same manner those which are vainly called Jews,
when they have worked six days, on the seventh day rest, and come together in
their synagogue, never leaving or neglecting either rest from labor or assembling
together... If, therefore, those who are not saved frequently assemble together
for such purposes as do not profit them, what apology wilt thou make to the
Lord God who forsakes his Church, not imitating so much as the heathen, but
by such, thy absence grows slothful, or turns apostate. or acts wickedness?
To whom the Lord says to Jeremiah, "Ye have not kept My ordinances; nay,
you have not walked according to the ordinance of the heathen and you have in
a manner exceeded them... How, therefore, will any one make his apology who
has despised or absented himself from the church of God? (Constitutions of the
Holy Apostles, 100's AD? [date uncertain], Ante-Nicene Fathers , Vol. 7, page
423)
90AD DIDACHE: ...every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice:
for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the
resurrection... (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol.
7, pg. 449)
90AD DIDACHE: On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, that is, the Lord's
day, assemble yourselves together, without fail, giving thanks to God, and praising
Him for those mercies God has bestowed upon you through Christ, and has delivered
you from ignorance, error, and bondage, that your sacrifice may be unspotted,
and acceptable to God, who has said concerning His universal Church: "In
every place shall incense and a pure sacrifice be offered unto me; for I am
a great King, saith the Lord Almighty, and my name is wonderful among the heathen,
[Malachi 1:11, 14] (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Ante-Nicene Fathers
Vol. 7, pg. 471)
110AD IGNATIUS: Be not deceived with strange doctrines,
nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according
to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace... If, therefore,
those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession
of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living
in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up
again by Him and by His death (which some deny), through which mystery we received
faith, and on account of which we suffer in order that we may be found disciples
of Jesus Christ our only teacher, how shall we be able to live apart from him
for whom even the prophets were looking as their teacher since they were his
disciples in the spirit?... let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as
a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the
week. It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish
in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end. for where there is Christianity
there cannot be Judaism.... These things I address to you, my beloved, not that
I know any of you to be in such a state; but, as less than any of you, I desire
to guard you beforehand, that ye fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but
that you may rather attain to a full assurance in Christ... (Ignatius, Epistle
to the Magnesians, chp 9. Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, pg. 62-63.)
130AD BARNABAS: Moreover God says to the Jews, 'Your new moons and Sabbaths
1 cannot endure.' You see how he says, 'The present Sabbaths are not acceptable
to me, but the Sabbath which I have made in which, when I have rested from all
things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of
another world.' Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which
also Jesus arose from the dead and when he appeared ascended into heaven. (15:8f,
The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, pg. 147)
150AD JUSTIN: But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly,
because it is the first day of the week and Jesus our saviour on the same day
rose from the dead. (First apology of Justin, Ch 68)
150AD JUSTIN: Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [after
mentioning Adam. Abel, Enoch, Lot, Noah, Melchizedek, and Abraham], though they
kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his
descendants until Moses... And you were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you
might retain the memorial of God. For His word makes this announcement, saying,
"That you may know that I am God who redeemed you." (Dialogue With
Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page 204)
150AD JUSTIN: But if we do not admit this, we shall be liable to fall into
foolish opinion, as if it were not the same God who existed in the times of
Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised after the flesh, nor observed
Sabbaths, nor any other rites, seeing that Moses enjoined such observances...
For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observance
of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need is there of
them now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of
God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of Abraham.
(Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page
206)
150AD JUSTIN: ...those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they
do not repent, shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain. But the Gentiles,
who have believed on Him, and have repented of the sins which they have committed,
they shall receive the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets,
and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although they neither keep
the Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts. Assuredly they shall
receive the holy inheritance of God. (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165
AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, page 207)
150AD JUSTIN: We are always together with one another. And for all the things
with which we are supplied we bless the Maker of all through his Son Jesus Christ
and through his Holy Spirit. And on the day called Sunday there is a gathering
together in the same place of all who live in a city or a rural district. (There
follows an account of a Christian worship service, which is quoted in VII.2.)
We all make our assembly in common on the day of the Sun, since it is the first
day, on which God changed the darkness and matter and made the world, and Jesus
Christ our Savior arose from the dead on the same day. For they crucified him
on the day before Saturn's day, and on the day after (which is the day of the
Sun) he appeared to his apostles and taught his disciples these things. (Apology,
1, 67:1-3, 7; First Apology, 145 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers , Vol. 1, pg. 186)
150AD JUSTIN: There is no other thing for which you blame us, my friends,
is there than this? That we do not live according to the Law, nor, are we circumcised
in the flesh as your forefathers, nor do we observe the Sabbath as you do. (Dialogue
with Trypho 10:1. In verse 3 the Jew Trypho acknowledges that Christians 'do
not keep the Sabbath.')
150AD JUSTIN: The commandment of circumcision, requiring them always to circumcise
the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision by which
we are circumcised from error and evil through the resurrection from the dead
on the first day of the week of Jesus Christ our Lord. For the first day of
the week, although it is the first of all days, yet according to the number
of the days in a cycle is called the eighth (while still remaining the first).
(Dialogue 41:4)
150AD EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLES.- I [Christ] have come into being on the eighth
day which is the day of the Lord. (18)1
180AD GOSPEL OF PETER: Early in the morning when (he Sabbath dawned, a multitude
from Jerusalem and the surrounding country came to see the scaled sepulchre.
In the night in which the Lord's day dawned, while the soldiers in pairs for
each watch were keeping guard, a great voice came from heaven. [There follows
an account of the resurrection. I Early in the morning of the Lord's day Mary
Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord ?. came to the sepulchre. (9:34f.; 12:50f.)
180AD ACTS OF PETER.- Paul had often contended with the Jewish teachers and
had confuted them, saying 'it is Christ on whom your fathers laid hands. He
abolished their Sabbath and fasts and festivals and circumcision.' (1: I)-2
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Plato prophetically speaks of the Lord's day
in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: 'And when seven days have
passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they must go on." (Miscellanies
V.xiv.106.2)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: (in commenting on each of the Ten Commandments
and their Christian meaning:) The seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest, preparing
by abstention from evil for the Primal day, our true rest. (Ibid. VII. xvi.
138.1)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: He does the commandment according to the Gospel
and keeps the Lord's day, whenever he puts away an evil mind . . . glorifying
the Lord's resurrection in himself. (Ibid. Vii.xii.76.4)
200AD TERTULLIAN: Others . . . suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians,
because it is well-known that we regard Sunday as a day of joy. (To the Nations
1: 13)3
200AD TERTULLIAN: To us Sabbaths are foreign. (On Idolatry, 14:6)4
200AD TERTULLIAN: Let him who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed
a balm of salvation, and circumcision on the eighth day because of threat of
death, teach us that in earliest times righteous men kept Sabbath or practiced
circumcision, and so were made friends of God. .. ...Therefore, since God originated
Adam uncircumcised, and inobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his offspring
also, Abel, offering Him sacrifices, uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath,
was by Him commended... Noah also, uncircumcised - yes, and inobservant of the
Sabbath - God freed from the deluge. For Enoch, too, most righteous man, uncircumcised
and inobservant of the Sabbath, He translated from this world... Melchizedek
also, "the priest of most high God," uncircumcised and inobservant
of the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God. (An Answer to the Jews
2:10; 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 153)
200AD TERTULLIAN: It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition
of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated
at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated
to have been temporary. (An Answer to the Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol.
3, page 155)
200AD TERTULLIAN: "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction
to those who call this day their Sabbath" (Tertullian's Apology, Ch 16)
200AD BARDESANES: Wherever we are, we are all called after the one name of
Christ Christians. On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves
together (On Fate)5
220AD ORIGEN "On Sunday none of the actions of the world should be done.
If then, you abstain from all the works of this world and keep yourselves free
for spiritual things, go to church, listen to the readings and divine homilies,
meditate on heavenly things. (Homil. 23 in Numeros 4, PG 12:749)
250AD CYPRIAN: The eight day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and
the Lord's Day." (Epistle 58, Sec 4)
300AD EUSEBIUS: [The Ebionites] were accustomed to observe the Sabbath and
other Jewish customs but on the Lord's days to celebrate the same practices
as we in remembrance of the resurrection of the Savior. (Church History Ill.xxvii.5)
300AD EUSEBIUS: "They did not, therefore, regard circumcision, nor observe
the Sabbath neither do we; ? because such things as these do not belong to Christians"
(Ecc. Hist., Book 1, Ch. 4)
So by the time Constantine ratified it into civillian law it had been kept
as the Christian day of worship for 300 years!
|