FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY
CHAPTER IX
THE THEOLOGY OF SUNDAY
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
What are the basic theological motivations advanced by the
early Fathers to justify both the choice and the observance of
Sunday? Were they developed out of Biblical-apostolic teachings
or were they elicited by the existing need to silence opposition
coming from Sabbath-keepers? Do the early theological
explanations reflect an organic and positive view of Sunday
observance or theological uncertainty and polemic? These are
questions we shall bear in mind while surveying the theological
reasons adduced by the Fathers to justify Sunday worship. Such an
analysis hopefully will enable us to test the validity of the
conclusions emerging from our study.
The major motives for Sunday observance which appear in the
early patristic literature perhaps can be best grouped around
three basic headings: Resurrection, Creation and Symbology of the
Eighth day. We shall examine them in this order, bearing in mind
that the theological reflections are not static but dynamic,
evolving in the course of time.
Resurrection
In chapter III we already showed that no indication can be
found in the apostolic period of efforts made to institute a
weekly or yearly commemoration of the resurrection on Sunday.
Nevertheless it is a fact that the resurrection did become the
dominant reason for Sunday abservance. Augustine((A.D.354-430)
perhaps provides the most explicit enunciation of the
resurrection as the reason for the origin of Sunday, when he
writes, "The Lord's day was not declared to the Jews but to the
Christians by the resurrection of the Lord and from that
event its festivity had itsorigin." 1 In another epistle the
Bishop of Hippo similarly states that "the Lord's day has been
......
1 Augustine, "Epistula" 55, 23, 1, CSEL 34, 194.
......
preferred to the Sabbath by the faith of the resurrection." 2
This concise and explicit recognition of the resurrection as
the CAUSE of the origin of Sunday observance represents the cul-
mination of long theological reflection.
Early in the second century the resurrection is not
presented as the first or the sole motivation for Sunday
observance. Ugnatius, we have found, alludes to Christ's
resurrection in his "Epistle to the Magnesians," when speaking of
the "divine prophets who lived according to Jesus Christ" (8:2).
He says that they "attained a new hope, no longer sabbatizing but
living according to the Lord's life, on [or by] which also our
life rose up through his death" (9:1). The probative value of the
resurrection for Sunday observance is rather negligible in this
text, both because the reference to the resurrection of Christ is
indirect and because we have shown earlier that Ignatius is not
contrasting days but rather ways of life. 3
In the "Epistle of Barnabas" (ca. A.D.135) we found that the
resurrection is mentioned by the author as the second of two
reasons, important but not dominant. The first reason, which we
shall consider subsequently, is eschatological in nature. Sunday,
which he designates as the "eighth day" is the prolongation of
the Sabbath of the end of time and marks, "the beginning of
another world" (15:8).
The second reason is that Sunday is the day "on which Jesus
also (Greek) rose from the dead, and having shown Himself
ascended to heaven" (15:9). The resurrection of Jesus is
presented here as an additional justification, presumably because
it was not yet viewed as the primary reason for Sunday
observance. 4
In Justin Martyr (ca. A.D.150) the situation is strikingly
similar. Like Barnabas he displays a profound antagonism towards
Judaism and the Sabbath. In "I Apology" Justin, like Barnabas,
presents the resurrection as the second of two reasons:
......
2 Augustine, "Epistula" 36, 12, 14, CSEL 34, 4.
3 The passage is discussed above pp 213f.
4 In Barnabas, the material cause of the origin of Sunday is the
exigency to break with Judaism (see above pp. 218f.) of which the
Sabbath was a chief stronghold. The formal cause, on the other
hand, is the fact that the eighth day represents eschatologically
the beginning of the new world and in the present age it
commemorates the risen Christ. The resurrection is not viewed as
the first cause but as the second of two reasons.
......
Sunday, indeed, is the day on which we all hold our common
assembly because it is the first day on which God,
transforming the darkness and [prime] matter, created the
world; and our Saviour Jesus Christ arose from the dead on
the same day. 5
For Justin "the primary motivation for the observance of
Sunday," as W. Rordorf admits, "is to commemorate the first day
of the creation of the world and only secondarily, in addition,
the resurrection of Jesus." 6 It is noteworthy that both
Barnabas and Justin who lived at the very time when Sunday
worship was rising, present the resurrection as a secondary
motivation for Sunday-keeping, apparently because initially this
was not yet viewed as the fundamental reason. Nevertheless, the
resurrection of Christ did emerge as the primary reason or the
observance of Sunday. Several liturgical practices were in fact
introduced to honor its memory specifically. The Lord's supper,
for instance, writes Cyprian (d. ca. A.D.258), "though partaken
by Christ in the evening... we celebrate it in the morning on
account of the resurrection of the Lord." 7 Similarly, "fasting
and kneeling in worship on the Lord's day," according to
Tertullian (ca. A.D.160-225), were regarded as "unlawful." 8
Though he gives no explicit reason for these practices, 9
(undoubtedly well understood by his contemporaries) other Fathers
clearly explain that these were designed to aid in remembering
Christ's resurrection. Augustine (A.D.354-430) for instance,
explicitly states that on Sunday "fasting is interrupted and
we pray standing, because it is a sign of the resurrection." 10
......
5 Justin, "I Apology" 67,5-7, Falls, Justin's Writings, pp.
106-107. These are not the only motivations, since we noticed
that in his polemic with Jews and Jewish Christians Justin argues
for Sunday observance on the basis of the eighth day of the
circumcision and of the eight persons saved from the flood; see
above pp.230-232.
6 W.Rordorf, "Sunday," p.220.
7 Cyprian, "Epistola" 63, 15, CSEL 3,2,714; Jerome, "Commentarius
in epistola ad Galatos" 4, 10, PL 26, 404-405, extends the symbol
of the resurrection to the daily celebration of the Eucharist as
well.
8 Tertullian, "De corona" 3, 4, ANF 111, p.94.
9 The reason is suggested by Tertullian in his treatise "On
Prayer" 23, ANF III, p,689 where he admonishes to stand for
prayer on "the day of the Lord's Resurrection" and "in the period
of Pentecost" because both festivities were distinguished "by the
same solemnity of exultation."
10 Augustine, "Epistola" 55, 28, CSEL 34, 202; cf. Epistola 36,
2, CSEL 34,32; the same reason is given by Hilary of Poitiers,
"Praefatio in Psalmum 12, PL 9, 239; Basil, "De Spiritu Sanctu"
27, 66, SC p. 236 explains that the standing position during the
Sunday service helps to remember the resurrection. However, he
comments that the origin of the custom is veiled in mystery; cf.
"Apostolic Constitution" 2, 59, ANF VII, p. 423 "We pray thrice
on Sunday standing in memory of Him who arose in three days."
......
It appears therefore that initially Christ's resurrection
was not felt to be the exclusive or the preponderant
justification for Sunday worship, but it did emerge rather early
as the dominant reason which inspired several liturgical
practices. 11 We need, then, to recognize and evaluate the role
played by other theological motives as well.
Creation
The commemoration of the anniversary of the creation of the
world is a justification often adduced by the Fathers for
observing Sunday. We notice above that Justin Martyr in his "I
Apology 67" presents this as the primary reason for the
Christian Sunday gathering: "Sunday, indeed, is the day on which
we hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which
God, transforming darkness and prime matter, created the world."
In our previous discussion of this passage, we concluded
that Justin's allusion to the creation of light on the first day
seems to have been suggested by its analogy with the day of the
Sun. The statement, however, indicates that even the inauguration
of creation on the first day per se was viewed as a valid
justification for the Christian weekly gathering. F.A.Regan
points out that Justin's creation motif found in chapter
sixty-seven is "evolved from the opening lines of chapter
fiftynine where he unfolds the simple account of the original
creation of light and the world." 12 The beginning of creation
on the first day of the week is associated by Justin with the
resurrection of Christ, apparently because both events occurred
on the same day and could be symbolically linked together as
representing the beginning of the old and of the new creation.
......
11 The fact that in the mind of many Fathers Easter-Sunday and
weekly Sunday were regarded as one basic festival commemorating
at different times the same event of the resurrection (see above
pp.204f.) suggests the possibility that both of these originated
contemporaneously, possibly in the early part of the second
century in Rome (see above pp.198f.).
12 F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.86.
......
Justin's effort to establish a nexus between creation and
resurrection was not an isolated attempt. We noticed earlier
the testimonies of Eusebius and Jerome where the two events are
explicitly linked together. 13 Ambrose (ca. A.D.339-397)
Bishop of Milan, also echoes this teaching in a hymn of
praise to Sunday where he says: "On the first day the blessed
Trinity created the world or rather the resurgent Redeemer who
conquered death, liberated us." 14 This link between creation
and resurrection is found even more explicitly in a sermon of
Eusebius of Alexandria(ca. A.D.500):
The holy day of Sunday is the commemoration of the Lord. It
is called Lord's (Greek) because it is the Lord (Greek) of
all days....It was on this day that the Lord established the
foundation of the creation of the world and on the same day
He gave to the world the first-fruits of the resurrection
.... This day is therefore for us the source of all
benefits; the beginning (Greek) of the creation of the
world, the beginning of the resurrection, the beginning of
the week. Since this day contains three beginnings, it
prefigures the principle of the Trinity. 15
Additional patristic testimonies could be cited where the
inauguration of creation on the first day is presented and
defended as a valid justification for the observance of Sunday.
16
This view raises an important question: Why would Christians
claim that Sunday commemorated creation, when in the Old
Testament and in Jewish thinking this was regarded as an ex-
......
l3 See above p.262.
14 M.Britt, "The Hymns of the Roman Breviary and Missal," 1948,
p.91; Britt attributes the hymn to Pope Gregory the Great while
J.Danielou to Ambrose ("Bible and Liturgy," p.249).
15 Eusebius of Alexandria, "De die Dominico," PA 86, 416.
16 See, for instance, Gregory of Nazianzus, "Oratio 44 In novam
Dominicam," PG 36, 612: "As the first creation began on the
Lord's Day (this is clearly indicated by the fact that the
Sabbath falls seven days later, being repose from work), so the
second creation began on the same day"; Dionysius of Alexandria,
"Analecta sacra spicilegio solesmensi" 4, ed. J.B.Pitra, 1883, p.
421: "God Himself has instituted Sunday the first day both of
creation and also of resurrection: on the day of creation He
separated light from darkness and on the day of the resurrection
He divided belief from unbelief"; the author known as the
Ambrosiaster, "Liber quaestionum veteris et novi testamenti" 95,
2, CSEL 50, 167, proposes a variation on the same theme: "In fact
the world was created on Sunday and since it fell after creation,
again it was restored on Sunday... In the same day He both
resurrected and created."
......
clusive prerogative of the Sabbath? That this was well understood
by early Christians is exemplified by the clear differentiation
made between creation and resurrection by those who observed both
Saturday and Sunday. In the "Apostolic Constitutions" (ca A.D.
380), for instance Christians are enjoined to keep the Sabbath
and the Lord's day festival: "The Sabbath on account of creation,
and the Lord's day of the resurrection." 17
Was perhaps the transference of the commemoration of
creation from the Sabbath to Sunday a calculated attempt to
deprive the Sabbath of its theological "raison d'dtre?" Was the
creation motive attributed to Sunday in order to silence
Sabbath-keepers who were defending the superiority of the Sabbath
on account of its commemoration of the completion of creation?
The echo of this controversy reverberates in several testimonies.
In the "Syriac Didascalia" (ca. A.D.250), for instance, the terms
of the dispute are most explicit:
Cease therefore, beloved brethren, you who from among the
people have believed, yet desire still to be tied with
bonds, and say that the Sabbath is prior to the first day of
the week because the Scripture has said: "In six days did
God make all things; and on the seventh day he finished all
his works, and he sanctified it."
We ask you now, which is first, Alaf or Tau? For that (day)
which is the greater is that which is the beginning of the
world, even as the Lord our Saviour said to Moses: "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 18
......
17 "Apostolic Constitutions" 8, 33, 1, ANF VII, p.495; cf. ibid.
7, 36, 1, ANF VII, p.474: "O Lord Almighty, Thou has created the
world by Christ, and has appointed the Sabbath in memory thereof,
because that on that day Thou hast made us rest from our works,
for the meditation upon Thy laws"; Ignatius, "Epistle to the
Magnesians 9" (longer version), ANF 1, p.62: "But let every one
keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in the
meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring
the workmanship or the works of creation of God."
18 "Syriac Didascalia" 26, ed. Connolly, p.233; other interesting
arguments are submitted to prove the superiority of Sunday over
the Sabbath. For instance, the author argues that when the first
day Sunday was made, "the seventh day was yet unknown ... Which
is greater, that which had come into being, and existed, or that
which was yet unknown, and of which there was no expectation that
it should come to be?" Another argument is drawn from the
priority enjoyed by the firstborn in the paternal blessings: "Are
your last children blessed, or the firstborn? As the Scripture
also saith: "Jacob shall be blessed among the firstborn"; the
author then argues for the superiority of Sunday by quoting
Barnabas 6:13: "Behold, I make the first things as the last and
the last as the first" and Matthew 20:16: "The last shall be
first, and the first last"; he concludes by referring to the
contention that Sunday as the "ogdoad [i. e. eighth day] ... is
more than the Sabbath" (Connolly, pp.234-236). The variety and
bizarre nature of these arguments is indicative of an ongoing
polemic between Sabbath and Sunday-keepers, as well as of an
effort put forth by both sides to defend the superiority of their
respective day of worship.
......
The issue of the controversy is precise. Jewish converts,
some at least, were claiming superiority for the seventh-day
Sabbath on the ground that the day symbolized the completion of
creation. Sunday-keepers, on the other hand, refuted such an
argument by arguing that Sunday is superior to the Sabbath
inasmuch as being the first day it commemorates the anniversary
of creation. This reasoning appears again, though in a more
refined theological form, in the treatise "On the Sabbath and
Circumcision," found among the works of Athanasius (ca. A.D.
296-373), but probably spurious. The author, rather than arguing
for the superiority of Sunday by means of the dualism,
anniversary versus completion of creation, presents the two days
as symbols of two successive creations:
The Sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord's
day was the beginning of the second in which He renewed and
restored the old. In the same way as He prescribed that they
should formerly observe the Sabbath as a memorial of the end
of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the
memorial of the new creation. Indeed, He did not create
another one, but He renewed the old and completed what He
had begun to do. 19
Sabbath and Sunday are curiously contrasted here as symbols
of the old and new creation. The superiority of Sunday is
established by virtue of the nature of the "second creation which
has no end," contrary to the first creation commemorated by the
Sabbath which "has ended" with Christ. Moreover, since the new
creation "renewed and restored the old one," it incorporated the
Sabbath and its meaning. By this clever, yet artificial,
theological construction, the Sabbath is made a temporary
institution "given to the former people [i.e. the Jews], so that
they would know the end and the beginning of creation." 20
This notion of the Sabbath, as announcer of the end of
......
19 Athanasius, "De sabbatis et circumcisione" 4, PG 28, 138 BC.
20 Loc. cit.
......
the first and the beginning of the second creation, is totally
foreign to the Scriptures. To claim, for instance, that God by
resting on the Sabbath "from all His works wishes to say by this
that His works need the completion that He Himself has come to
bring," 21 is to misconstrue the actual meaning of the divine
"otiositas" - rest. In the creation story God's Sabbath rest
symbolizes specifically the completion and perfection of
creation. 22
What caused some Christians to devise such an artificial and
unscriptural doctrine of two successive creations? In the light
of the existing polemic, reported by documents such as the
"Didascalia," it would seem that this clever apologetic argument
was evoked by the necessity to refute the Sabbath-keepers' claim
of the superiority of the Sabbath as memorial of creation. 23
In the ongoing polemic, the symbology of the first day
apparently provided an effective instrument to defend the new day
of worship from the attacks of both pagans and Sabbath keeping
Christians. To the pagans, Christians could explain that on the
day of the Sun they did not venerate the Sun-god but rather they
celebrated the creation of the light and the rise of the Sun of
Righteousness, events which occurred on the first day. To
Sabbath-keepers they could show that the first day is
......
21 Ibid.
22 J. Danielou, "Le Dimanche comme huitieme jour," "Le Dimanche,
Lex Orandi" 39, 1965, p.62: "In the Old Testament ... the Seventh
Day is the expression of perfection"; Niels-Erik A.Andreasen,
"The Old Testament Sabbath" SBL Diss. Series 7, 1972, p.196: "We
must remind ourselves that it is not the rest (cessation from
work) which concludes creation, but it is the concluded creation
which occasions both rest and the Sabbath"; on the seventh day as
symbol of totality, completion and perfection, see Nicola
Negretti, I"I Settimo Giorno," Analecta Biblica 55, 1973, pp.
44-45, 57-58.
23 Another interesting variation of the creation argument is the
interpretation of the first day, not as the anniversary of the
creation of the world but of the generation of Christ. This idea
appears in Clement of Alexandria (ca. A.D.150-ca. 215) for whom
"the seventh-day, by banishing evils, prepares the primordial
day, our true rest." This first day of creation is allegorically
interpreted as "the Word illuminating hidden things," since on
that day "He who is the light was brought forth first of all"
(Stromateis 6,16, GCS 2, 501-502); Eusebius elaborates this
concept by explaining that on the first day only light was
created, since "there was no other creation that would befit the
Word" ("Commentaria in Psalmos," PG 23, 1173-1176). This concept
of the generation of the Word on the first day, which most
Christians today would reject as subordinationism, must be
regarded as another ingenious attempt to devise a viable
theological justification for the observance of Sunday.
......
superior to the seventh, because the day commemorated the
beginning of creation, the anniversary of the new creation and
the generation of Christ. These were by no means the sole
arguments advanced to justify Sunday observance. The symbology of
the eighth day provided another valuable arsenal of apologetic
techniques to defend the superiority of Sunday over the Sabbath.
These we shall consider now in order to gain additional
information on the motivations for the adoption of Sunday.
The Eighth Day
The speculations on the meaning of the first day have
already made us aware of how important numerical symbolism was
for early Christians. This type of symbolism, alien to modern
thought, provided early Christian preachers and theologians with
practical and yet profound argumentations that captivated much of
the thinking of Christian antiquity. Since the Sabbath was the
seventh day of the Jewish week, Sunday could be considered, as
stated by Gregory of Nazianzus (A.D.329-389), as "the first day
with reference to those that followed and as the eighth day with
regard to those that preceded." 24 The latter designation for
Sunday, as we shall discover, was employed far more frequently
than the former in the Christian literature of the first five
centuries.
The irrationality of an eighth day in a seven-day week did
not seem to bother the ancients. An explanation is suggested by
the prevailing custom, still common in countries like Italy, to
reckon a week by counting inclusively from any given day to the
same day of the following week. For instance, an Italian will
often set an appointment on a Sunday for the following Sunday not
by saying, "I will meet you a week from today," but rather "oggi
otto-eight days today" since both Sundays are counted. By the
same principle the Romans called their eight-day marked cycle
"nundinum-ninth day." That this method of inclusive reckoning was
used by Christians is indicated by several patristic testimonies.
Tertullian (ca. A.D.160-ca. 225), for instance, writes that
pagans celebrated the same festival only once a year, but
Christians "every eighth day," meaning every Sunday.
......
24 Gregory of Nazianzus, "Oratio" 44 "In novam Dominicam," PG 36,
612C - 613A.
25 Tertullian, "On Idolatry" 14, ANF III, p. 70; "Syriac
Didascalia" 26, connolly, p.236: "But the Sabbath itself is
counted even unto the Sabbath, and it becomes eight [days]; thus
an ogdoad is [reached], which is more than the Sabbath, even the
first of the week"; it is not clear how the eighth day could be
applied to Sunday, when the number is derived by counting from
Sabbath to Sabbath; see below p.290; Justin, "Dialogue" 41, ANF
I, p.215: "For the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the
first of all the days, is called, however, the eigth, according
to the number of all the days of the cycle"; cf."Dialogue" 138.
......................
To be continued
Theology of Sunday The adoption of the Evening after the Sabbath! FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY
THE EIGHTH DAY continued
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
The fact that Sunday could be viewed as the eighth day "with
reference to those preceding" 26 does not explain why such a
name became so popular a designation for Sunday until about the
fifth century. The task of tracing its origin is not an easy one,
because, as A.Quacquarelli observes, "the octave [i.e., the
eighth] provided the Fathers with material for continuous new
reflections." 27
Baptism
W.Rordorf proposes that "Sunday came to be associated with
the number eight because baptism was administered on Sunday and
we know that baptism was early connected with the symbolism
associated with the number eight." 28 While it is true that
baptism came to be regarded as the fulfillment of the typology of
the eighth day of the circumcision and of the eight souls saved
from the waters of the flood, this connection, however, is not
common in the writings of the Fathers before the fourth century.
Eusebius (d. ca. A.D.340), to our knowledge, is the first to
explain explicitly that:
the ogdoad is the Lord's day of the resurrection of the
Saviour when we believe that the cleansing of all our sins
took place. It was on that day that children were
symbolically circumcised, but that in reality the whole soul
which is born of God is purified by baptism. 29
This theme of the baptismal resurrection, built on the
typology of the circumcision and of the story of the flood,
occurs again in the fourth century in several texts 30 and it
gave
......
26 See fn. 24.
27 A.Quacquarelli, "L'Ogdoade Cristiana e i suoi riflessi nella
liturgia e nei monuments," 1973, p.45.
28 W.Rordorf, "Sunday," p.277. In the New Testament a typological
relationship is established between the circumcision and baptism,
but there are no allusions to the significance of the eighth day
per se; see Col.2:11-13; cf. O.Cullmann, "Baptism in the New
Testament," 1950, pp.56ff.
29 Eusebius, "Commentaria in Psalmos" 6, PG 23, 120A.
30 Ambrose, "Expositio Psalmi" 118, 2:1-3, CSEL 62. 4f., teaches
that the eighth day of the circumcision is the symbol of baptism,
the spiritual circumcision inaugurated at the first Easter; cf.
also "De Abraham" 2, 11, 79, CSEL 32, 631; Gregory of Nyssa, "De
octavo," PA 44, 608-609; Athanasius, De sabbatis et
circumcisione, PG 28, 140C-14113; Chrysostom, "De circumcisione,"
PA 50, 867D.
......
rise to the octagonal shape of Christian fonts and baptistries.
"At this moment," however, as J.Danielou points out, "we are very
far from its relationship to Sunday." 31 In earlier texts the
eighth day of the circumcision and the eight persons saved from
the flood are regarded primarily as a prefiguration of the
resurrection of Christ on Sunday. Justin Martyr (ca. A.D.100-ca.
165), for instance, interprets the eight persons of the ark as
"symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose
from the dead, for ever the first in power." 32 Cyprian (c. A.D.
258) flatly rejects the suggestion that children should be
baptized on the eighth day in accord with the ancient custom of
the circumcision, because, he maintains, "the eighth-day, that is
to say, the first after the Sabbath, was to be that day on which
the Lord would resurrect and vivify us and give to us the
spiritual circumcision." 33 Origen (ca. A.D. 185-ca. 254)
similarly views the eighth day as the symbol of the resurrection
of Christ which provided an immediate and global circumcision,
namely the baptismal purification of the world. He writes:
Before the arrival of the eighth day of the Lord Jesus
Christ the whole world was impure and uncircumcised. But
when the eighth day of the resurrection came, immediately we
were cleansed, buried, and raised by the circumcision of
Christ. 34
In these texts the circumcision is not associated with
Sunday baptismal ceremony, but rather with the event itself of
the resurrection, to which is attributed cleansing power.
Moreover, baptism was not administered in the primitive Church
exclusively on Sunday. Tertullian (ca. A.D. 160-ca. 225) in his
treatise "On Baptism," while he recommended Passover and
Pentecost as
......
31 J.Danielou (fn. 22) p.88.
32 Justin, "Dialogue" 128, ANF l, p.268; cf. Dialogue 41, ANF 1,
p.215: "The command of circumcision, again, bidding them always
to circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the
true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and
iniquity through Him who rose from the dead on the first day
after the Sabbath"; cf. "Dialogue" 23.
33 Cyprian, "Carthaginense Concilium sub Cypriano tertium" 3, 3,
1. PL 3, 1053; cf. "Epistola" 64 CSEL 3, 719.
34 Origen, "Selecta in Psalmos" 118, PG 12, 1588.
......
the most suitable times for baptism, also admits that "every day
is the Lord's, every hour, every time is apt for baptism." 35
Cosmic-week
More plausible appears the explanation that the "eighth day"
became a designation for Sunday as a result of prevailing chili-
astic-eschatological speculation on the sevenday creation week,
sometimes called "cosmic week." In contemporary Jewish
apocalyptic literature the duration of the world was commonly
subdivided into seven periods (or millennia) of which the seventh
generally represented paradise restored." 36 At the end of the
seventh period would dawn the eternal new aeon which, though not
so designated, could readily be viewed as "the eighth day," since
it was the continuation of the seventh.
These speculations were common in Christian circles as well.
37 In the Slavonic "Secrets of Enoch," for instance (an
apocryphonof the Old Testament interpolated by Jewish Christians
toward the end of the first century) we find not only the
......
35 Tertullian, "On Baptism" 19, ANF 111, p.678.
36 W.Rordorf, "Sunday," pp.48-51, provides a concise summary and
an illustrative chart of the prevailing eschatological
interpretations of the cosmic week found in late Jewish
apocalyptic literature. The eschatological Sabbath, usually
viewed as a seventh millennium which would follow the present age
(measured in six millennia) was interpreted according to three
basic variants: (1) paradise restored, (2) an empty time of
silence which would follow the Messianic age and precede the new
age and (3) an interim period of the Messiah which marks the
anticipation of the new world. These divergent interpretations
are indicative of the keen interest in late Judaism and in New
Testament times, for eschatological-chiliastic problems. F.A.
Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.212, comments in this regard: "The
Judaic preoccupations with the millennium ... gained a wide
following during the New Testament era and the centuries
immediately preceding it. The coming of the Messianic age, the
so-called 'days of the Messiah' with its transition between 'this
world' and 'that world to come' as well as the 'end of days' were
terms that dotted the vocabulary of the age"; cf. J.L.McKenzie,
"The Jewish World in New Testament Times," "A Catholic Commentary
on the Holy Scriptures," 1953, ed. 738f.; J.Bonsirven, "Judaisme
Palestinien au temps de Jesus Christ," 1935, pp.341f.
37 In the Oriental tradition, as we shall see, the Biblical week
was usually interpreted as representing the whole duration of the
world in contrast to the eighth day of eternity. In the Western
tradition, however, the cosmic week was interpreted historically
as representing succession of specific time periods; cf.
Irenaeus, "Adversus haereses" 5,28,3; 5,33,2; Hippolytus, "In
Danielem commentarius" 4,23-24; Tertullian, "Adversus Marcionem"
4,39; "De anima" 37,4; see J.Danielou, "La typologie millenariste
de la semaine dans le christianisme primitif," "Vigiliae
christianae," (1948): 1-16.
......
seven-day millennia scheme, 38 but also the first explicit
designation of the new aeon as "the eighth day":
And I appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day
should be the first created after my work and that the first
seven should revolve in the form of seven thousand, and that
at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a
time of no-counting, endless, with neither years nor months
nor weeks nor days nor hours. 39
This eschatological symbol of the eighth day as a type of
the new eternal world apparently appealed to those Christians who
were trying to break away from the Sabbath, since it prvided them
with a weighty argument to justify their choice and observance of
Sunday. In "The Epistle of Barnabas" (ca. A.D.135) we find the
first instance of this usage. Here the teaching of the "Book of
Enoch" concerning the cosmic week followed by the eighth day is
polemically employed to repudiate the Sabbath and to justify
Sunday observance. 40
Barnabas interprets the six days of creation as meaning
"that in six thousand years the
......
38 See. J.Quasten, "Patrology," 1950, 1, p.109. The prevailing
interpretation of the millennium as a thousand years reign of
Christ and of His saints upon the earth, was based upon a
misinterpretation of Revelation 20:1f. It was believed that
"during this time, intervening before the final end of the world,
there would be a superabundance of spiritual peace and harmony
... It can be easily seen how such a theory would fit into a
formulation of a Christian world-day-week" (F.A.Regan, "Dies
Dominica," p.214).
39 "Enoch 33:7, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament," ed. R.H.Charles, 1913, 11, p.451. This millenarian
interpretation of the week possibly derived from another
apocryphal work, the "Book of Jubilees." Mario Erbetta comments
on this regard: "From the fact that Adam did not attain to the
age of one thousand years, Jubilees 4:30 concludes that the
prophecy of Genesis 2:17 ("In the day that you eat of it you
shall die") was effectively fulfilled. It is clear that such way
of reasoning must have led, already before the Christian era, to
suppose that one day of the world was equivalent to one thousand
years. The transition to a world week of 7000 years: 6000 from
creation to judgment and 1000 of rest, did not require much
acumen" ("Gli Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento," 1969, III, p.31,
fn. 67); cf. F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.215; P.Prigent, "Les
Testimonia dans le christianisme primitif." "L'Epitre de
Barnabe" I-XVI "et ses sources," 1961, pp.65-71, argues for the
presence of the notion of the eighth day already in Jewish
apocalyptic.
40 F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.215: "The dependency of the
author of the Epistle of Barnabas is also quite evident. In the
fifteenth chapter, verse four of this work we have an exposition
of II Enoch 32:2-33."
......
Lord will bring all things to an end, for a day with him means a
thousand years" (15:4). The seventh day, he explains, represents
the return of Christ that will put an end to the reign "of the
lawless one and judge the ungodly and change the sun and moon and
stars, then he will rest well on the seventh day" (15:5).
Therefore, he argues, the sanctification of the Sabbath is
impossible at the present time, but it will be accomplished in
that future age (seventh millennium) "when there is no more
disobedience, but all things have been made new by the Lord"
(15:6-7). Barnabas then closes making a renewed attempt to
disqualify the observance of the Sabbath for the present age and
to present instead the "eighth day" as a valid substitution:
Further he says to them, "Your new moons and Sabbaths I
cannot endure." You see what he means: it is not the present
Sabbaths that are acceptable to me, but the one that I have
made, on which having brought everything to rest, I will
make the beginning of an eighth day, that is, the beginning
of another world. This is why we also observe the eighth day
with rejoicing, on which Jesus also rose from the dead, and
having shown himself ascended to heaven. 41
This cosmic-eschatological symbolism of the eighth day
employed by Barnabas to justify the observance of Sunday is
constantly reiterated and elaborated by numerous Fathers. This
bespeaks a widespread tradition that speculated on the duration
of the world by means of the cosmic week. The existence of such
speculation could readily have encouraged the choice of the
"eighth day" because as symbol of eternity it not only provided a
valid justification for Sunday observance, but, in the polemic
against Sabbath-keepers, offered also an effective apologetic
argument. 42 In fact, as symbol of the eternal new world, the
eighth day far surpassed the seventh day which symbolized the
kingdom of one thousand years in this transitory world.
Continuation of Sabbath
Some scholars suggest that Sun-
......
41 "The Epistle of Barnabas" 15:8-9, trans. Edgar J.Goodspeed,
"The Apostolic Fathers," 1950, p.41.
42 Since Jewish Christians belonged to those Jewish apocalyptic
circles (see J.Danielou, fn. 22, p.71) who attributed great
importance to calendric speculations, it is easy to understand
why in the controversy between Sabbath-keepers and
Sunday-keepers, the latter capitalized on the eschatological
value of the eighth day, inasmuch as being a symbol of the
eternal new world, Sunday could devaluate the meaning and role of
the Sabbath.
......
day was denominated "eighth day" because it originated as a
continuation of the Sabbath services which extended into Sunday
time. 43 According to Jewish reckoning, the first day of the
week began on Saturday evening at sunset. Any worship conducted
at that time could readily have been regarded as a continuation
of the Sabbath services. Christians who gathered for worship on
Saturday night could then have coined the denomination "eighth
day," to signify that their worship was the prolongation of that
of the Sabbath. Barnabas suggests this possibility. We noticed
that he defends the eighth day more as a continuation of the
eschatological Sabbath than as a commemoration of the
resurrection. The irrationality is striking since Barnabas
justifies the observance of the eighth day by the very same
eschatological reasons advanced previously to abrogate the
Sabbath. This effort does suggest however that the "eighth day"
(as implied by the number) was viewed at that time not as a
substitution but as an addition to the Sabbath. Note that
Barnabas says, "This is why we also (Greek) observe the eighth
day." The adjunctive "also" presupposes that the Sabbath still
enjoyed recognition, in spite of the prevailing efforts to
invalidate it. 44 It is possible, therefore, that Sunday
......
43 J.Danielou (fn. 22.), p.70; the passage is quoted below, see
fn. 45; Jean Gaillard, "Le Dimanche jour sacre," "Cahiers de la
vie spirituelle" 76, 1947, p.524: "Initially Sunday was a
Christian complement of the Sabbath, without any thought of
supplanting the traditional sacred day of the Jews "; H.
Riesenfeld, "Sabbat et jour du Seigneur," "New Testament Essay"
"Studies in Memory" of T.W.Manson, 1958, pp.210-217, suggests
that initially Christians assembled for worship on Saturday
evening and later the meeting was shifted to Sunday morning; cf.
H. Leclerq, "Dimanche," DACL, col. 1523; C.F.D.Moule, "Worship in
the New Testament," 1961, p.16. It is possible that Saturday
evening was reckoned as Sunday time not only by the Jews but by
Christians as well. Augustine, for instance, referring to the
vigil of Easter-Sunday, explicitly states: "Then in the evening
as the Sabbath was over, began the night which belongs to the
beginning of the Lord's day, since the Lord consecrated it by the
glory of the resurrection. Therefore we celebrate now the solemn
memory of that night which belongs to the beginning of the Lord's
day" (S.Guelf. 5, 4, "Miscellanea Augustiniana" I, p.460; cf.
"Epistola" 36, 28, CSEL 34,57).
***(READ AGAIN what Augustine said!! If you have studied my
writings on the subject of WHEN Christ was resurrected, you will
know He was resurrected on Saturday EVENING, AFTER SUNSET, AFTER
THE SABBATH WAS OVER, HENCE A 1ST DAY RESURRECTION, BUT IN THE
EVENING OF WHAT WE WOULD CALL SATURDAY EVENING. JESUS TYPIFIED
THE WAVE SHEAF CUTTING, DONE AFTER THE SABBATH WAS OVER, THEN
THE COUNTING FOR PENTECOST WAS STARTED ON THAT FIRST DAY OF THE
WEEK DURING THE PASSOVER/UNLEAVENED BREAD FEAST. Now the words of
Augustine take on VIVID meaning. The truth was KNOWN in those
centuries that Jesus rose from the dead AFTER the Sabbath, in the
evening of Saturday evening or the evening of the first day of
the week - Keith Hunt)***
C.S.Mosna, "Storia della domenica," pp.46,59, observes that
Sabbath evening was "a favorable time" for a Christian gathering,
since it followed the rest of the Sabbath and Christians at that
time were free to meet.
44 C.S.Mosna, "Storia della domenica," p.26, perceives in this
"the effort which Judaeo-Christians were making to justify their
worship"; see above p.222 for a discussion of the passage.
......
was initially denominated "eighth day" because, as J.Danielou
realistically explains, the Judaeo-Christians
who celebrated the Sabbath, the seventh day, as the rest of
the Jews, after the Sabbath, they prolonged the Jewish
liturgy with the specifically Christian eucharistic cult.
This was regarded by the Christian community as the
continuation of the Sabbath, that is of the seventh day. It
was therefore only natural that they should consider it as
eighth day, even though in the calendar it continued to be
the first day of the week. And the feelings which Christians
had to succeed to Judaism, of which the Sabbath was a
symbol, must have contributed to confirm this impression. 45
Superiority of Eighth Day.
In the growing conflict between the Church and the Synagogue
and between Sabbath-keepers the eighth day came to be dissociated
from the Sabbath. Its rich symbology became widely used primarily
as a polemic argument to prove the fulfillment, the substitution,
and the supersedure of Judaism and of its Sabbath as well as the
superiority of Christianity and of its Sunday. To accomplish this
objective, the Old and the New Testament were searched for
references (so called Testimonia) which would denigrate the
Sabbath and provide some theological justification for the eighth
day. Barnabas indicates that this process had already begun. He
endeavors not only to find theological justifications for the
eighth day, but also attempts to invalidate the observance of the
Sabbath, by quoting, among other texts, Isaiah 1:13: "Further he
says to them, 'Your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure.' You
see what he means: it is not the present Sabbaths that are
acceptable to me" (15:8).
Barnabas' initial endeavor to exhalt the superiority of the
eighth day at the expense of the seventh is carried on by several
Fathers who enriched this teaching with new testimonia and
arguments. Justin Martyr (ca. A.D.100 ca.165), for instance,
extrapolates from the Scriptures some new interesting "proofs" to
show that "the eighth day possessed a certain mysterious import,
which the seventh did not possess." 46 The eighth day of the
circumcision, the eight persons saved from the flood and possibly
the fifteen cubits (seven plus eight) of the flood-waters which
rose above all mountains are arbitrarily interpreted as
......
45 J.Danielou (fn. 22), p.70.
46 Justin, "Dialogue" 24, 1. Falls, "Justin's Writings," p.183.
......
prefiguration of the justification for the observance of the
eighth day.
.....................
To be continued
Theology of the Eighth Day What the mind of men will Do! FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY
by the late Samuele Bacchioocchi PhD
On the other hand, we noticed that Justin reduces the
seventh day to a trademark of Jewish infidelity. To prove such a
thesis he contends that the Sabbath was not observed before
Moses, that God Himself did not keep it and that several persons
in the Old Testament, like the priests, legitimately broke it. 47
These "proofs" became the standard repertory utilized in the
controversy not only by the Fathers but even by Gnostic sects.
Irenaeus (ca. A.D.130-ca. 200) refers to a group of them, known
as Marcosians, who defended the doctrine of the "ogdoad" (eighth)
not only by arguing from the story of the flood and of the
circumcision (already used by Justin), but also from the fact
that David was the eighth son and that the fleshy part of man was
allegedly created on the eighth day. "In a word," Irenaeus
comments, "whatever they find in the Scriptures capable of being
referred to the number eight, they declare to fulfill the mystery
of the ogdoad." 48
The Gnostics, in fact, who, as J.Danielou points out, "were
decided enemies of Judaism, were carried away by this theme [i.e.
eighth day ]," 49 since it enabled them to do away with the
"Jewish" Sabbath. However, they substituted the Judaeo-Christian
eschatological view of the eighth day as symbol of the eternal
kingdom to come, with the view of the cosmological and spiritual
world of rest and eternity found above this world of sevenness.
They developed this interpretation by bringing together the
Pythagorean notion of the seven spheres which were embraced by
the eighth, immovable firmament, with the prestige attributed by
Christians to the eighth day." 50 Thus,
......
47 Justin's arguments against the Sabbath and in favor of Sunday
are discussed above pp.226f.
48 Irenaeus, "Adversus haereses" 1, 18, 3, ANF 1, p.343.
49 J.Danielou, "Bible and Liturgy," p.258; cf. Irenaeus,
"Adversus haereses" 1,25A
50 J.Danielou, "Bible and Liturgy," p.258, comments: "They [i.e.
the Gnostics] borrowed this vision from astrology, which had
spread its notions throughout the Hellenistic world of the time
and especially in neo-pythagoreanism. Basic to this idea was the
contrast between the seven planetary spheres which are the domain
of the cosmocratores, the archontes, who hold man under the
tyranny of the heimarmene, and, beyond the heaven above, that of
the fixed stars, which is the place of incorruptibility and
repose (Cumont, "Les Religions orientales dans le paganisme
romain," p.162)." Danielou then explains how the Gnostics
"brought together the supreme dignity of the eighth day in
Christianity with the pythagorean view of the planetary spheres.
Thus they were led to the conception of the octave as meaning,
not the kingdom to come of Judaeo-Christian eschatology, but the
world on high, of which all creation is only the degradation"
(ibid., p.259). A significant example is provided by Irenaeus'
report of the Gnostic sect, known as Valentinians, who held that
"He [the Demiurge] created also seven heavens, above which they
say that he, the Demiurge, exists. And on this account they term
him Hebdomas, and his mother Achamoth Ogdoads, preserving the
number of the first-begotten and primary Ogdoad as the Pleroma"
("Adversus haereses" 1, 5, 2, ANF 1, p. 322). In this case the
Ogdoad [i.e. Eighth] apparently represents the supreme God.
......
for the Gnostic, Sunday became the symbol of full and perfect
life attainable here below by "spiritual" people. Theodotus
illustrates this in a text reported by Clement of Alexandria (ca.
A.D.150-215): "The rest of the spiritual men takes place on the
day of the Lord (Greek) in the ogdoad which is called the day of
the Lord (Greek)" 51 Here the Lord's day is identified with the
ogdoad to designate the super-celestial kingdom inhabited by the
soul of spiritual persons.
This heretical Gnosis is reflected in Clement of Alexandria,
one of the most liberal minds of Christian antiquity. In a
comment on the passage of Ezechiel 44:27, "the priests are
purified for seven days" and on the eighth sacrifices are
offered, Clement in a neutral fashion summarizes the prevailing
meanings attributed to the numbers seven and eight. The former,
he explains, represents the seven ages of the world or the seven
heavens or the present state of change and sin. The latter, on
the other hand, symbolizes the supreme rest in the future world
or the super-celestial kingdom or the state of changelessness and
sinlessness. 52
In spite of his syncretistic mind, Clement manifests a clear
antagonism toward the number seven, symbol of the Sabbath. In
fact, he regards it as "a motherless and childless number." The
number eight, on the other hand, not only possessed prestigious
qualities but, according to Clement, it is also the day the Lord
has made which all men should celebrate." 53
Returning now to the mainstream of Christianity, we shall
notice that the seventh and the eighth day are interpreted more
eschatologically than cosmologically. Several other practical
......
51 Clement of Alexandria, "Excerpta ex Theodoto" 63, 1 SC 23,
185; cf. Origen, "Contra Celsum" 6,22; especially Irenaeus,
"Adversus haereses" 1, 5, 3, ANF I, p.323.
52 Clement of Alexandria, "Stromateis" 4,25; 6, 16,
53 Ibid., 6,16,138.
......
meanings are also devised out of the Scriptures and the natural
world. The function of all these interpretations is obviously
polemic, designed, as noted by F.A.Regan, "to point out the
superiority of the Lord's day over the Sabbath, and the
fulfillment of the seventh in this eighth." 54
Irenaeus reproposes the millenarian scheme of Barnabas,
interpreting the seventh day as the symbol of the judgment and
world to come and the eighth as the eternal blessedness. 55
Like Justin, he also reduced the Sabbath to an existential
meaning, namely, perseverance in the service of God during the
whole life and abstention from evil. 58
......
54 F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.224; J.Danielou (fn. 22), pp.
72,74, explicitly points out that "the doctrine of the ogdoad as
heavenly world and future world was developed to seek a
justification for Sunday observance. Beginning with this
reflection, a search was made for texts announcing the eighth day
in the Old Testament ... It is an aspect of the anti-Jewish
polemic designed to exalt Sunday in order to reject the Sabbath.
... Initially the opposition is between the Jewish day of worship
and that of the Christians."
55 J.Danielou (fn. 22), p.65, notes: "Irenaeus develops greatly
the notion of the seven millennia and of the eighth day. We cite
a text 'And in the seventh day he will judge the earth. And on
the eighth, which is the aeon to come, he will deliver some to
eternal punishment and others to life. This is why the Psalms
have spoken of the octave' (5,28,3)."
56 Irenaeus' concept of the Sabbath is not homogeneous. In some
instances he shares Justin's view that the Sabbath and
circumcision were given by God to the Jews "for their punishment
... for bondage" because "righteousness and love to God had
passed into oblivion, and became extinct in Egypt" ("Adversus
haereses" 4, 16, 3 and f, ANF I, pp.481-482). Like in Justin so
in Irenaeus, this view was encouraged by the conflict with Jews
and Jewish-Christians. Irenaeus however was faced also with the
reverse error of the Gnostic who depreciated the Sabbath to
justify their view of the evil god of the Old Testament. To
refute this Gnostic dualism, Irenaeus defends the positive
function the Sabbath fulfills in helping the progressive
development of humanity: "These things, then, were given for a
sign; but the signs were not unsymbolical, that is, neither
unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given by a
wise Artist ... But the Sabbath taught that we should continue
day by day in God's service" ("Adversus haereses" 4, 16, 1, ANF
I, p.481). To this ecclesiastical meaning Irenaeus adds an
eschatological sense to the Sabbath: "The times of the kingdom
... which is the true Sabbath of the righteous, in which they
shall not be engaged in any earthly occupation; but shall have a
table at hand prepared for them by God, supplying them with all
sorts of dishes" ("Adversus haereses" 5, 33, 2, ANF I, p.562; cf.
ibid., 5,30,4; 4,8,2). Augustine, we shall notice (see below p.
294), at first accepted but later rejected this materialistic
interpretation of the seventh millennium. Note that Irenaeus'
spiritualization of the Sabbath (widely followed by the Fathers)
does not represent a positive effort to enhance the Sabbath, but
rather a subte subterfuge to do away with the commandment while
safeguarding at the same time the immutability of God.
......
Origen (ca. A.D.185-ca. 254) continues the Irenaeus tradition by
limiting the Sabbath to a spiritual dimension, but differs from
him in its eschatological interpretation. Contrary to the Western
tradition which interpreted the seven days as the seven millennia
of the history of this world, Origen, consistent with the Eastern
tradition, views the number seven as the symbol of this present
world and the eighth as symbol of the future world: "The number
eight, which contains the power of the resurrection, is the
figure of the world to come, just as the number seven is the
symbol of this present world." 57 Though Origen approaches the
controversy over the two days in a philosophical Gnostic fashion,
his intention to denigrate the seventh day, and to exhalt in its
place the eighth, should not be missed. In the same Commentary on
Psalm 118 he presents the seventh day as the sign of matter, of
impurity and of uncircumcision, while to the eighth day he
reserves the symbol of perfection, of spirituality and of
purification by the new circumcision provided by Christ's
resurrection. 59
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (d. A.D.258), free from
excessive allegorism or chiliastic speculations, views the eighth
day as the "first and sovereign after the Sabbath - "id est post
sab batum primus et dominus" - fulfilling both Sabbath observance
and the circumcision ritual. The eighth day "preceded in symbol -
"praecessit in imagine" the seven, therefore it represents the
fulfillment of and the superiority over the Sabbath. 59
In the "Syriac Didascalia" (ca. A.D.250) the eighth day is
curiously obtained by counting inclusively from Sabbath to
Sabbath: "The Sabbath itself is counted even unto the Sabbath,
and it becomes eight [days]; thus an ogdoad is [reached], which
is more than the Sabbath, even the first of the week." 60
Inasmuch as by counting inclusively from Sabbath to Sabbath, the
......
57 Origen, "Selecta in Psalmos" 118, 164, PG 12, 1624.
58 Ibid., 118, 1, PG 12, 1588; "In Exodum homiliae" 7, 5, GCS 29,
1920, Origen argues: "If then it is certain according to the
Scriptures that God made the manna rain on the Lord's Day and
cease on the Sabbath, the Jews ought to understand that our
Lord's day was preferred to their Sabbath."
59 Cyprian, "Epistola" 64, CSEL 3, 719; cf. "Carthaginense
Concilium sub Cypriano tertium," PL 3, 1053.
60 "Syriac Didascalia" 26, ed. Connolly, p.236.
......
eighth day is still the Sabbath, one wonders how the author could
legitimately apply this designation to Sunday. Perhaps he himself
became aware of his irrationality, for when arguing for the
superiority of Sunday over the Sabbath, he uses exclusively the
symbology of the first day. He contends, in fact, that the first
day was created before the seventh, that it represents the
inauguration of creation, that it was shown to be prestigious by
the law of the first-born and that it was predicted that it would
take the place of the seventh since it says. "The last shall be
first and first last." To devaluate the Sabbath further the
"Didascalia" too reiterates the traditional arguments that the
patriarchs and righteous men before Moses did not keep the
Sabbath and that God Himself is not idle on the Sabbath. He then
concludes by stating more explicitly and emphatically than
Barnabas that "the Sabbath therefore is a type of the [final]
rest, signifying the seventh thousand [years]. But the Lord our
Saviour, when He was come, fulfilled the types and ... destroyed
that which cannot help." 61
Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers (ca. A.D.315-367), perhaps
provides the classic example where the eighth day stands
explicitly as the continuation and fulfillment of the Sabbath.
He writes "Although the name and the observance of the Sabbath
had been established for the seventh day, we [Christians]
celebrate the feast of the perfect Sabbath on the eighth day of
the week, which is also the first." 62 Later he interprets the
fifteen gradual Psalms as "the continuation of the seventh day of
the Old Testament and the eighth day of the Gospel, by which we
rise to holy and spiritual things." 63
Victorinus, Bishop of Pettau in Austria (d. ca. A.D.304), in
his short treatise "On the Creation of the World," devotes
special attention to the meaning of the seventh and eighth days.
He explores and synthesizes all the possible uses of the number
seven, but can find only that such a number bespeaks of the
duration of this present world, of the consummation of the
humanity of Christ and of the "seventh millenary of years, when
Christ with His elect shall reign." The eighth day, on the
contrary, which he finds announced in the title of "the sixth
Psalm for the eighth day ... is indeed the eighth day of that
future judgment, which will pass beyond the order of the
seven-fold
......
61 Ibid., p.238; see above fn. 18.
62 Hilarv, "Tractatus super Psalmos" 12, CSEL 22, 11.
63 Ibid., CSEL 22, 14.
......
arrangement." It is on account of this inferiority that,
according to Victorinus, the Sabbath was broken by Moses when he
commanded "that circumcision should not pass over the eighth
day," by Joshua, when on the Sabbath "he commanded the children
of Israel to go round the walls of the city of Jericho," by
Matthias, when "he slew the prefect of Antiochus," and finally by
Christ and His disciples. 64
What motivated this systematic devaluation of the Sabbath
and the consequent enhancement of the eighth day by such bizarre
and irrational arguments? Victorinus leaves us in no doubt that
this was a calculated attempt to force the Christians away from
any veneration of the Sabbath. This is indicated not only by the
fantastic arguments which are devised for Sunday and against the
Sabbath, but also by the specific injunction to fast on the
Sabbath lest Christians "should appear to observe any Sabbath
with the Jews, which Christ Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath,
says by His prophets that 'His soul hateth.'" 65
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (ca. A.D.339-397), reproposes
several traditional interpretations of the symbol of the seventh
and eighth days while at the same time adding his own practical
arguments to the controversy. He claims, for instance, that "the
Sabbath was symbol of the ancient economy based on the
sanctification of the law," while the eighth day represents the
new economy "sanctified by His [Christ's] resurrection." 66
The Christian's eighth day for Ambrose begins here on the
earth below, since "the seventh age of the world has ended and
the grace of the eighth which made man not of this world but of
above, has been revealed." 67 However, the full rest of the
eighth day, which "Jesus has purchased for His people through His
resurrection," according to Ambrose, "is not to be found on earth
but in heaven." 68
In his Letter to Horontius Ambrose uses the analogy of
......
64 Victorinus, "On the Creation o f the World," ANF VII, 342;
Asterius of Amasa, "Homilia" 20, 8, PG 40, 444-449 defends the
superiority of the eighth day by the fact that the number eight
is not related to any time cycle. Furthermore he says: "Inasmuch
as the first resurrection of the race after the flood happened to
eight persons, the Lord has begun on the eighth day the
resurrection of the dead."
6s Victorinus, see fn. 64.
66 Ambrose, "Explanatio Psalmi" 47, CSEL 64, 347; cf. "Epistola"
26, 8, PL 16, 1088: "Therefore the seventh day represents a
mystery, the eighth the resurrection."
67 Ambrose, ibid., 1140.
68 Ambrose, ibid., 1139,
......
........................
To be continued
THEOLOGY of the EIGHTH day Trying to establish Sunday as the Sabbath FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY
THEOLOGY OF SUNDAY
The EIGHTH Day continued
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
In a "Letter to Horontius" Ambrose uses the analogy of
the natural and supernatural birth to prove the superiority of
the eighth day. A baby born at seven months will face hardship;
but the child regenerated on the eighth day will inherit the
kingdom of heaven. 69 Then Ambrose rather enigmatically says
that in the seventh is found the "name" while in the eighth the
"fruit" of the Holy Spirit. 70 Old Testament passages such as
Ecclesiastes 11:2, "Give a portion to those seven, and also to
those eight," and Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has
made," as well as the rite of the circumcision, are again
interpreted as predictions and prefigurations of the eighth day.
Like previous Fathers, Ambrose also believes that "God appointed
beforehand another day . . . because the Jews refused through
contempt the commands of their God." 72 He urges that Christians
therefore leave behind the seventh day, the symbol of the seventh
age of the world which has ended and that they enter into the
grace of the eighth day: prefigured in the Old Testament,
inaugurated by Christ's resurrection, and representing the
fulfillment and supplantation of the Sabbath.
Jerome (ca. A.D.342-420), like his contemporary Ambrose,
sees in the seventh and eighth days the symbol of the passage
from the Law to the Gospel: "The number seven having been
fulfilled, we now climb to the Gospel through the eighth." 74
Therefore, for Jerome to observe the Sabbath is a sign of
retrogression, because he explains (alluding to Ecclesiastes
11:2) that "the Jews by believing in the Sabbath, gave the
seventh part, but they did not give the eighth because they
denied the resurrection of the Lord's day." 75
Augustine (A.D.354-430) represents perhaps the maximum
speculative effort of the Western Fathers to interpret the
seventh and eighth days both eschatologically and mystically.
Though his treatment of the subject is relatively free from
polemic and captivates the reader by its profound spiritual
insights, the Sabbath still retains a temporary and subordinate
......
69 Ambrose, ibid., 1137.
70 Ambrose, ibid., 1137: "Great is the merit of the seventh day
by virtue of the Holy Spirit. However the same spirit names the
seventh day and consecrates the eighth. In that is the name, in
this is the fruit."
71 Ambrose, ibid., 1137-1138.
72 Ambrose, ibid., 1139.
73 Ambrose, ibid., 1140-1141.
74 Jerome, "Commentarius in Ecclesiastem" 11, 2, PL 23, 1157. 7 5
Jerome, loc. cit.
......
role which finds its fulfillment in the eighth day. Before the
resurrection of Christ, the mystery of the eighth day, according
to Augustine, "was not concealed from the holy Patriarchs, . . .
but it was locked up and hidden and taught only as the observance
of the Sabbath." 76 Like his predecessors he sees in the
baptismal symbols of the circumcision and the flood,
prefigurations of the eighth day. He explicitly associates the
eight persons saved from the flood with the eighth day, saying
that they are "the same thing which is signified in different
ways by the difference of signs, as it might be by a diversity of
words." 77
Augustine's teaching on the eighth day, as C.Folliet well
argues, is inseparable from that of the Sabbath. 78 Following
the Western millenarian tradition of Irenaeus, Hippolytus,
Tertullian and Victorinus, 79 he interprets the creation-weak as
representing the seven ages of the history of this world, which
are followed by the eighth day, the new eternal age. At first
Augustine held to a clear distinction between the eschatological
meaning of the seventh and the eighth day. He writes, for
instance, "the eighth day signifies the new life at the end of
the ages, the seventh the future rest of the saints on this
earth." 80 Later, as a result of intense and mature reflection,
......
76 Augustine, "Epistola" 55, 23, CSEL 34, 194.
77 Augustine, "Sermo" 94, Biblioteca Nova ed. May, p.183.
78 C.Folliet, La Typologie du sabbat chez saint Augustine, "Revue
des Etudes Augustiniennes" 2 (1956):371-390.
79 On Irenaeus see fn. 56; on Victorinus see above p.291 fn. 64;
Tertullian, "Adversus Marcionem," 3, 24, and 4, 39 interprets the
millennium as a literal period of one thousand years on the
earth, in the city of the New Jerusalem rebuilt by God;
Hippolytus, "In Danielem cornmentarius" 4,23-24 elaborates a
scheme of seven ages, speculating on the actual date of Christ's
return.
80 Augustine, "Sermo" 80, PL 38, 1197; in this sermon Augustine
enumerates distinctly the five ages from Adam to Christ already
passed. He then explains: "With the coming of the Lord begins the
sixth age in which we are living ... When the sixth day has
passed, then rest will come ... and the saints completed, we
shall return to that immortality and blessedness which the first
man lost. And the octave shall accomplish the mysteries of God's
children." The basic difference between the eschatological
seventh and eighth day, according to Augustine, is qualitative;
"For it is one thing to rest in the Lord while still being in the
midst of time - and this is what the seventh day Sabbath
signifies and another thing to rest endlessly beyond all time
with the Artisan of time, as signified by the eighth day" ("Sermo
94, Biblioteca Nova," ed. Mai, p.184); in his "Epistola" 55, 23,
CSEL 34, 194, Augustine represents the eighth day as a revelation
of the resurrection: "Before the resurrection of the Lord,
although this mystery of the octave which represents the
resurrection was not concealed from the holy Patriarchs, filled
as they were with the prophetic spirit, but was reserved,
transmitted and hidden by the observance of the Sabbath."
......
Augustine rejected the prevailing material understanding of the
seventh millennium as a time of carnal enjoyment of the saints on
this earth and merged the rest of the seventh day with that of
the eternal octave. 81
The eighth day, however, for Augustine represents not only
this historical continuation and culmination of the
eschatological Sabbath, but also the mystical progress of the
soul toward the internal world of peace. In this case the Sabbath
which "Christians observe spiritually by abstaining from all
servile work, that is to say, from all sin" symbolizes the
spiritual "tranquillity and serenity of a good conscience," while
the eighth day stands for the greater eternal peace awaiting the
saints. 82 Thus, for Augustine the eighth day epitomized the
fulfillment of the Sabbath both as historical perspective and as
interior reality.
Pope Gregory the Great (ca. A.D.540-604), the last great
Doctor of the ancient Latin Church, provides perhaps a final
example of a speculative and practical effort to use the sym-
bology of the eighth day to prove the superiority of Sunday over
the Sabbath. The Pontiff denounces in no uncertain terms certain
Sabbath-keeping Christians who advocated abstention from work on
the Sabbath. He wrote in a letter:
It has been reported to me that certain men of a depraved
spirit have sown among you the seeds of a perverted doctrine
contrary to the holy faith, forbidding to perform any work
on the Sabbath day. What shall I say of such men except that
they are the preachers of the Antichrist? ... This
......
81 See Augustine, "City of God" 20,7: "I also entertained this
notion at one time. But in fact those people assert that those
who have risen again will spend their rest in the most
unrestrained material feasts, in which there will be so much to
eat and drink that not only will those supplies keep within no
bounds of moderation but will also exceed the limits even of
credibility. But this can only be believed by materialists"
(trans. Henry Bettenson, ed. David Knowles, 1972, p.907).
Augustine did not repudiate totally the notion of the seventh
millennium, but fused the rest of the seventh with that of the
eternal octave: "The important thing is that the seventh will be
our Sabbath, whose end will not be an evening, but the Lord's
Day, an eighth day, as it were, which is to last for ever" ("City
of God" 22, 30, trans. Henry Bettenson, p.1091).
82 Augustine, "In Johannis evangelium tractatus" 20, 2, PL 35,
1556; cf. "Enarratio in Psalmos" 91, 2, PL 37, 1172: "He whose
conscience is good is tranquil; and this very tranquillity is the
Sabbath of the heart."
......
is why we accept in a spiritual way and observe spiritually
what is written about the Sabbath. For the Sabbath means
rest and we have the true Sabbath, the very Redeemer, our
Lord Jesus Christ. 83
To find support for the eighth day, Gregory refers to the
traditional admonition of Ecclesiastes 11:2, "Give portion to
seven and also to eight," interpreting it as a prefiguration of
the day of Christ's resurrection, "for He truly rose on the
Lord's day, which since it follows the seventh day Sabbath is
found to be the eighth from creation." 84 For another Old
Testament prediction foretelling the eighth day, the Pontiff
turns to the seven sacrifices which Job offered on the eighth day
after the feasting of his sons and daughters. He explains
that "the story truly indicates that the blessed Job when
offering sacrifices on the eighth day, was celebrating the
mystery of the resurrection . . . and served the Lord for the
hope of the resurrection." 85
Gregory also introduces a new and interesting eschatological
interpretation of the seventh and eighth days by viewing the
Christian life as a mirror of the life of Christ Himself: "What
the wonderful Saviour experienced in Himself, truly signifies
what happens in us, so that we, like Him, might experience sorrow
in the sixth and rest in the seventh and glory in the eighth."
The sixth day represents, therefore, the present life
"characterized by sorrow and distressing torment." The Sabbath
signifies man's repose in the grave when "the soul freed from the
body finds rest." The eighth day symbolizes "the bodily
resurrection from death and the rejoicing at the glorious
reunification of the soul with the flesh." Then Gregory concludes
with a veiled allusion to the day of the Sun, stating that "the
eighth day opens to us the vastness of eternity, through the
light which follows after the seventh day." 86
These testimonies reveal a continuity in the usage of the
rich symbology of the eighth day. The chief purpose appears to
have been primarily to demonstrate the fulfillment and con-
tinuation of the Sabbath through Sunday. We have noticed what a
wide range of "a posteriori" arguments were devised from the
Scriptures, from prevailing calendric speculation and from
......
83 Gregory the Great, "Epistola" 13, 6, 1, PL 71, 1253.
84 Gregory the Great, "Moralium" 35, 8, 17, PL 76, 759.
85 Gregory the Great, "Moralium" 1, 8,12, PL 75, 532.
86 Gregory the Great, "Homiliarum in Ezechielem" 2, 4, 2, PL 76,
973f.
......
the natural world, to prove the superiority of the eighth day,
Sunday, over the seventh day, Sabbath.
The detachment of the Eighth Day from Sunday.
Beginning with the fourth century a new trend appears where the
numeric symbolism of the eighth day is progressively detached
from Sunday and is used less as a polemic argument and more as a
pedagogical device. It is employed, on the one hand, to preserve
among Christians eschatological expectation and thereby keep them
from being captivated by material things. On the other hand, it
is retained and used as a symbol of the resurrection per se,
because as J.Danielou has well observed, it permitted "to
establish a link between the texts of the 0. T. where the number
eight is found and the resurrection and to see, therefore, in
these passages prophecies of the resurrection." 87 This new
trend is particularly noticeable in the East. The three
Cappadocian Fathers, for example, though they deal at length with
the symbolism of the eighth day, seem to avoid applying its name
and meaning to Sunday. 88 They prefer to devote their attention
to the implications of the eschatological meaning of the eighth
day for the present life.
Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (ca. A.D.330-379), regards the
eighth day, which, he says, is "outside the time of the seven
days" as a figure of "the future life." 89 He prefers, however,
to establish the meaning of the future world to come by the
number "one" rather than "eighth." He does this by associating
the "monad" of Greek thought with the Biblical "one-uia," which
he derives from the original day of creation, arguing that the
week by returning perpetually on itself (day one) has no
beginning or end and therefore is a figure of eternity." 90
......
87 J.Danielou (fn. 22) p.87; cf. by the same author, "Bible and
Liturgy," p.264.
88 The fact that Sunday came to be viewed no longer as the
continuation but rather as the replacement of the Sabba - the new
Sabbath limited the possibility of applying to Sunday the
eschatological symbolism of the eighth day, since the latter
implies continuation rather than substitution. Eusebius expresses
explicitly this concept of "transference" when he states: "All
that had been prescribed for the Sabbath, we have transferred to
the Lord's day, since it is more authoritative, the one that
dominates, the first and the one which has more value than the
Sabbath" ("Commentaria in Psalmos" 91, PG 23, 1172).
89 Basil, "In Hexaemeron" 2, 8, SC p.177; cf. PG 29, 52B; "De
Spiritu Sancto" 27, SC, pp.236-237.
90 Basil, "In Hexaemeron" 2, 8, SC, p.180: "Why did he [Moses]
not
call this day the first, but one? ... The week itself constitutes
one single day, revolving seven times upon itself. Here is a true
circle, beginning and ending with itself. This is why the
principle of time is called not the first day, but one day"; cf.
"De Spiritu Sancto" 27, SC p. 236: "There was an evening and a
morning, one day as though it returned regularly upon itself."
......
Because of this meaning, expressed by both the number "one"
and "eight," according to Basil, "the Church teaches her children
to recite their prayers standing on Sunday so that, by the
continual reminder of eternal life, we may not neglect the means
necessary to attain it." 91 This association of the meaning of
the eighth with the practice of standing for prayer on Sunday
represents a solitary reference. We shall see that it secured no
following.
Gregory of Nazianzus (A.D.329-389), a contemporary of Basil,
employs the eighth day, which for him "refers to the life to
come," not to encourage Sunday observance but rather to urge
"doing good while yet here on earth." 92 This trend is even more
pronounced in the other Cappadocian, Gregory of Nyssa (ca. A.D.
330-395), the younger brother of Basil. Though he wrote a
treatise "On the Ogdoad," as remarked by F.Regan, he does not
make "a single reference to the Lord's day." 93 As a philosopher
he defines the octave in platonic terms as the future age which
is not susceptible of "augmentation or diminution" and which does
not "suffer either alteration or change." 94 As a mystic he
views the ogdoad as "the future age toward which the internal
life is turned." 95 In commenting on the eighth beatitude, he
finds the meaning of the octave in the Old Testament rites of
purification and circumcision, which he explains mystically as
representing "the return to purity of man's nature stained by
sin.... and the stripping, off of the dead skins," symbol of the
mortal and carnal life. 96 Gregory, therefore, finds in the
meaning of the number "eight" not polemic arguments to urge the
observance of Sunday in place of the
......
91 Basil, "De Spiritu Sancto" 27, SC p. 237.
92 Gregory of Nazianzus, "Oratio" 44, "In novam Dominicam," PA
36, 612.
93 F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.240; J.Danielou (fn. 22),
pp.80-81 acutely notes: "Basil's effort to retain for Sunday its
archaic name of the eighth day will have no following. What will
remain will be the eschatological symbolism which was attached to
it ... This is what we meet in Gregory of Nyssa, that is typical
of this attitude. In his "Hexaemeron," he makes no allusion to
Sunday."
94 Gregory of Nyssa, "De octavo," PG 44, 609 B-C.
95 Gregory of Nyssa, "In Psalmos" 2, 8, PG 44, 504D-505A.
96 Gregory of Nyssa, "De beatitudinibus, Oratio" 8 PG 44, 1292
A-D.
......
Sabbath, but rather the symbol of the eternal and spiritual life
which has already begun here below. His avoidance of any
association between the number eight and Sunday observance is
perhaps explained by his view (prevailing in the East) that
Sabbath and Sunday were not antagonists but brothers: "With which
eyes do you look at the Lord's day, you have dishonored the
Sabbath? Do you perhaps ignore that the two days are brothers and
that if you hurt one, you strike at the other?" 97
The Cappadocians' detachment of the eschatological meaning
of the eighth day from the cultic observance of Sunday finds
sanction in a surprising statement from John Chrysostom (ca. A.D.
347-407), Bishop of Constantinople. In his second "Treatise on
Compunction," he makes a startling statement:
What is then the eighth day but that great and manifest day
of the Lord which burns like straw and which makes the
powers on high tremble? The Scripture calls it the eighth,
indicating the change of state and the inauguration of the
future life. Indeed, the present life is one week only,
beginning on the first day, ending on the seventh and
returning to the same unit again, going back to the same
beginning and continuing to the same end. It is for this
reason that no one calls the Lord's day the eighth day
but only first day. Indeed, the septenary cycle does not
extend to the number eight. But when all these things come
to an end and dissolve, then the course of the octave will
arise. 98
This statement of Chrysostom represents the culmination of
the development of the eschatological interpretation of the eight
day, which by reflex epitomizes to some extent the vicis situdes
which accompanied the birth and development of Sunday observance.
The very name "eighth day" and its inherent eschatological
meaning, which at first Barnabas and afterwards several Fathers
used to justify the validity and superiority of Sunday over the
Sabbath, are now formally and explicitly repudiated since their
"raison d'etre" has ceased. 99 The eighth day
......
97 Gregory of Nyssa, "Adversus eos qui castigationes aegre
ferupt," PG 46, 309.
98 John Chrysostom, "De compunctione" 2, 4, PG 47, 415 (emphasis
supplied).
99 J.Danielou, "Bible and Liturgy," p.275, acknowledges this
development: "This text of Chrysostom marks the furthest point of
the eschatological interpretation of the eighth day, since it
formally denies this name to the Lord's Day and reserves it for
the age to come."
......
is retained exclusively as symbol of the age to come and of the
resurrection. The search for texts in the Old Testament
containing the number eight or fifteen (seven plus eight)
continues but now no longer to prove that "the eighth day
possesses a more mysterious import which the seventh did not
possess," 100 but rather that the resurrection event (whether it
be the resurrection of Christ or the baptismal resurrection or
the eschatological resurrection) was already prefigured and
predicted by the prophets." 101
Some significant conclusions regarding the origin of Sunday
emerge from this brief survey of the use of the "eighth day" in
early Christianity.
The fact that the typology of the eighth day first appears
especially in the writings of anti-Judaic polemics, such as the
"Epistle of Barnabas" and the "Dialogue with Trypho," and that it
was widely used as an apologetic device to prove the superiority
of Sunday over the Sabbath, suggests, first of all, that Sunday
worship arose as a controversial innovation and not as an
undisputed apostolic institution. The polemic was apparently
provoked by a Sabbath-keeping minority (mostly Jewish-Christians)
who refused to accept the new day of worship. This we found to be
indicated by the very speculations on the eschatological
superiority of the eighth day over the seventh, since these
contentions had meaning only in a polemic with Jewish-Christians
and Jews. In these circles where the Sabbath and the cosmic week
played an important role, the opposition to the new day of
worship was strong enough to cause the development of the
apologetic arguments about the eighth day, in order to refute the
claims of these sabbatarians.
The wide range of arguments drawn from apocalyptic
literature, the Scriptures, philosophy and the natural world to
prove the superiority of the eighth day over the seventh,
presupposes also that the validity of Sunday observance was being
constantly challenged by a significant segment of Sabbath-keeping
Christians. l02 In the controversy over the two days, however,
the
......
100 Justin, "Dialogue" 24, 1.
101 For texts, see J.Danielou (fn. 22), pp.87-88.
102 The existence of Christian Sabbath-keepers in early
Christianity has been largely discounted in recent studies. This
creates the false impression that Sunday observance was
unanimously and immediately adopted by all Christians. What is
greatly needed to correct this view, is a comprehensive analysis
of all the patristic references providing direct or indirect
information on the survival of the practice of Sabbath-keeping in
early Christianity. It is the hope of the present author to
undertake this study in the near future.
......
symbolism of the eighth day was found to provide an effective
apologetic device, since it could justify Sunday on several
grounds. As the eighth eschatological day, Sunday could be
defended in Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalyptic circles as
the symbol of the new world, superior to the Sabbath which
represented only the seventh terrestrial millennium. As the
Gnostic ogdoad, Sunday could represent the rest of the spiritual
beings in the super-celestial eternal world, found above the
sevenness of this transitory world. As the Biblical number eight
which the Fathers found in several references of the Old
Testament (such as, the eighth day of the circumcision, the eight
souls saved from the flood, the fifteen cubits-seven plus
eight-of the flood-waters above all mountains, the title of
Psalms 6 and 11 "for the eighth day," the fifteen gradual Psalms
- seven plus eight - the saying "give a portion to seven or even
to eight" of Ecclesiastes 11:2 and others), Sunday could be
prestigiously traced back to the "prophecies" of the Old
Testament. Invested with such "prophetic" authority, the eighth
day could "legitimately" represent the fulfillment of the reign
of the law allegedly typified by the Sabbath and the inauguration
of the kingdom of grace supposedly exemplified by Sunday. Jerome
expressed this view well, saying that "the number seven having
been fulfilled, we now rise to the Gospel through the eight." 103
It appears that the denomination "eighth day," coined very
early by Christians, epitomizes to some extent the manner and the
causes of the origin of Sunday. It suggests that Sunday worship
arose possibly "as a prolongation of that of the Sabbath," 104
celebrated initially on Saturday evening. Later, due to the
existing necessity for Christians to differentiate themselves
from the Jews, the service was apparently transferred from
Saturday evening to Sunday morning. 105 While we have been
unable to document this transference, the fact that the
introduction of Sunday worship provoked a controversy, we
......
103 Jerome, "Commentarius in Ecclesiastem" 11, 2, PL 23, 1157.
104
104 H.Riesenfeld (fn. 43) p.213.
105 See above fn. 43; Louis Duchesne, "Origines du culte
chretien," 1920, p.48: "Sunday initially was placed in
juxtaposition with the Sabbath. As the gulf between the Church
and the Synagogue widened, the Sabbath became less and less
important until finally it was completely neglected."
......
found to be well attested, especially by the polemic use of the
symbolism of the eighth day which was developed out of
apocalyptic, Gnostic and Biblical sources to prove the
superiority of Sunday over the Sabbath. We also found an indirect
evidence for the existence of a controversy over the two days in
the fact that the name and the meaning of the eighth day were
detached from Sunday and retained exclusively as a symbol of the
resurrection of Christ, when the Sabbath-Sunday controversy
subsided. 106
Conclusion.
This brief survey of the various early Christian
motivations for Sunday observance suggests that the new day of
worship was introduced in a climate of controversy and
uncertainty. The very memory of the resurrection, which in time
became the dominant reason for Sunday observance, we found,
initially played only a secondary role. On the contrary, the
great importance attached to the symbolism of both the first and
the eighth days, is indicative of the polemic which accompanied
the introduction of Sunday observance. It appears that because of
the exigency which arose to separate from the Jews and their
Sabbath, Gentile Christians adopted the venerable day of the Sun,
since it provided an adequate time and symbolism to commemorate
significant divine events which occurred on that day, such as the
creation of light and the resurrection of the Sun of Justice.
This innovation provoked a controversy with those who maintained
the inviolability and superiority of the Sabbath. To silence such
opposition, we found that the symbolism of the first and of the
eighth day were introduced and widely used, since they provided
valuable apologetic arguments to defend the validity and
superiority of Sunday. As the first day, Sunday could allegedly
claim superiority over the Sabbath, since it celebrated the
anniversary of both the first and the second creation which was
inaugurated by Christ's resurrection. The seventh day, on the
other hand, could only claim to commemorate the completion of
creation. As the eighth day Sunday could claim to be the alleged
continuation, fulfillment and supplantation of the Sabbath, both
temporally and eschatologically.
......
106 J.Danielou (fn. 22), p.89 notes this development: "The
theme of the eighth ... is progressively detached from Sunday and
loses its liturgical roots when Sunday is no longer in opposition
to the Jewish seventh day."
......
In closing this survey of the theology of Sunday in early
Christianity, we need to restate a question we raised at the
beginning of this chapter, namely, Do the earliest theological
justifications for Sunday observance reflect Biblical-apostolic
teachings or rather "a posteriori" arguments solicited by
prevailing circumstances? We need not take time to test the
orthodoxy of the various arguments developed, for instance, out
of the numeric symbolism of the first and of the eighth day, nor
do we need to examine the often ridiculous testimonia drawn from
the Old Testament to prove that the eighth day was more
prestigious than the seventh. The very fact that Sunday-keepers
have long ago rejected not only the initially popular designation
"eighth day," but also the whole train of arguments based on
items such as the creation of light, the new world, the eighth
day of the circumcision, the eighth day of purification, the
eight souls saved from the flood, Ecclesiastes 11:2, the title of
Psalm 6 and others, represents an implicit admission that such
arguments were not warranted by sound Biblical exegesis and
theology.
What about the motive of the resurrection which in time
became the dominant reason for Sunday observance? Should not this
constitute a valid justification for worshiping on Sunday rather
than on the Sabbath? To this question we shall address ourselves
in our concluding chapter. By reviewing in retrospect the origin
of Sunday we shall consider the implications of the early
Christian theology of Sunday for the pressing problem of the
present observance of Sunday.
...........................
To be continued
NOTE:
It should be observed, the effort put forth by some to establish
the "eighth" or "one" day, to establish that Sunday was now the
chief day and the Lord's day, to observe above the "old" Sabbath
day, is MOST PRONOUNCED in the writings of many of the early
"church fathers" so-called.
You will notice they did not come close to using Romans 14 ("one
man esteems one day and another man esteems another day" etc.). Of
course they could not use this passage of Scripture to try and
dogmatically prove that Sunday was the day God wanted to honor
and establish as the Christian day of worship. Some in the
fundamental Protestant world, in their tracks, throw Romans 14 at
you, trying to use Romans 14 to establish Sunday, but if anything
regarding "a special day of holiness and worship" is to be
ascertained from the New Testament, such as Sunday over the
original Sabbath, then common logic tells you that using Romans
14 is NOT the way to prove such validity as Sunday becoming the
Christians NT holy day or day set aside to worship God in some
constructed form as church services. For Romans 14 in its full
context ALLOWS each person to choose whatever day to regard it to
the Lord, and Romans 14 would then fly in the face, blow away,
smash to pieces, any theology of establishing Sunday as superior
to all other days of the week.
All clear-headed thinking (which many do not seem to be blessed
with) would certainly not try to use Romans 14 to ascertain the
NT Scriptures make a change in holy day commandment from the 7th
to the 1st day of the week. If Paul is talking about "sabbath"
day in this passage (which by the way he is not - we have
answered this passage in detail on this Website in other studies)
then all that can be shown is that a person has the right to pick
their holy day from ANY of the days of the week.
Romans 14 was never brought into the equation by the early church
Fathers, as it would have been counter-productive to them in
trying to establish Sunday as the chief and only holy day of the
week to replace the old holy day - namely the original 7th day
Sabbath.
Keith Hunt
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