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SUNDAY

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 95 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SUNDAY , or the See also:

LORD'S See also:DAY (1) Toil i)kiov a jApa, See also:dies See also:solis; ,) KupcaKil nµipa, dies See also:dominica, dies dominicus 1), in the See also:Christian See also:world, the first day of the See also:week, celebrated in memory of the resurrection of See also:Christ, as the See also:principal day for public See also:worship. An additional See also:reason for the sanctity of the day may have been found in its association with See also:Pentecost or Whitsun? There is no See also:evidence that in the earliest years of See also:Christianity there was any formal observance of Sunday as a day of See also:rest or any See also:general cessation of See also:work. But it seems to have from the first been set apart for worship. Thus according to Acts xx. 7, the disciples in Troas met weekly on the first day of the week for exhortation and the breaking of See also:bread; r See also:Cor. xvi. 2 implies at least some observance of the day; and the See also:solemn commemorative See also:character it had very See also:early acquired is strikingly indicated by an incidental expression of the writer of the See also:Apocalypse (i. ro), who for the first See also:time gives it that name (" the Lord's Day ") by which it is almost invariably referred to by all writers of the See also:century immediately succeeding apostolic times? Indications' of the manner of its observance during this See also:period are not wanting. Teaching of the Apostles (c. 14) 1 The See also:Teutonic and Scandinavian nations adopt the former designation (Sunday, Sonntag, Sbnclag, &c.), the Latin nations the latter (dimanche, domenica, domino, &c.). : From an expression in the See also:Epistle of See also:Barnabas (c. 15), it would almost seem as if the See also:Ascension also was believed by some to have taken See also:place on a Sunday.

6 In the Epistle of Barnabas already referred to (c.15) it is called "'the eighth day ": " We keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also in which Jesus See also:

rose again from the dead." Cf. See also:Justin See also:Martyr, See also:Dial. c. Tryph. c. 138.contains the See also:precept: " And on the Lord's day of the Lord (Kara KvptaK1)v Kvpiov) come together and break bread and give thanks after confessing your transgressions, that your See also:sacrifice may be pure." See also:Ignatius (Ad Magn. c. 9) speaks of those whom he addresses as " no longer Sabbatizing, but living in the observance of the Lord's day (Kara KvpiaKry 'iavres) on which also our See also:life sprang up again." ° See also:Eusebius ( H.E iv. 23) has preserved a See also:letter of See also:Dionysius of See also:Corinth (A.D. 175) to See also:Soter, See also:bishop of See also:Rome, in which he says: " To-day we have passed the Lord's See also:holy day, in which we have read your epistle ", and the same historian (H.E. iv. 26) mentions that See also:Melito of See also:Sardis (A.D. 170) had written a See also:treatise on the Lord's day. See also:Pliny's letter to See also:Trajan in which he speaks of the meetings of the Christians " on a stated day " need only be alluded to. The first writer who mentions the name of Sunday as applicable to the Lord's day is Justin Martyr; this designation of the first day of the week, which is of See also:heathen origin (see See also:SABBATH), had come into general use in the See also:Roman world shortly before Justin wrote. He describes (Apol. i.

67) how "on the day called Sunday " See also:

town and See also:country Christians alike gathered together in one place for instruction and See also:prayer and charitable offerings and the See also:distribution of bread and See also:wine; they thus meet together on that day, he says, because it is the first day in which See also:God made the world, and because Jesus Christ on the same day rose from the dead. As See also:long as the Jewish Christian See also:element continued to have any See also:influence in the See also:Church, a tendency to observe Sabbath as well as Sunday naturally persisted. Eusebius (H.E. iii. 27) mentions that the See also:Ebionites continued to keep both days, and there is abundant evidence from See also:Tertullian onwards that so far as public worship and abstention from See also:fasting are concerned the practice was widely spread among the See also:Gentile churches. Thus we learn from See also:Socrates (H.E. vi. c. 8) that in his time public worship was held in the churches of See also:Constantinople on both days; the Apostolic Canons (can. 66 [65]) sternly prohibit fasting on Sunday or Saturday (except Holy Saturday); and the See also:injunction of the Apostolic Constitutions (v. 20; cf. ii. 59, vii. 23) is " hold your solemn assemblies and rejoice every Sabbath ta. day (excepting one), and every Lord's day." Thus the earliest observance of the day was confined to congregational worship, either in the early See also:morning or See also:late evening. The social See also:condition of the early Christians naturally forbade any general suspension of work. See also:Irenaeus (c.

140-202) is the first of the early fathers to refer to a tendency to make Sunday a day of rest in his mention that harvesting was forbidden by the Church on the day. Tertullian, See also:

writing in 202, says " On the Lord's day we ought abstain from all See also:habit and labour of anxiety, putting off even our business." But the whole See also:matter was placed on a new footing when the See also:civil See also:power, by the constitution of See also:Constantine mentioned below, began to legislate as to the Sunday rest. The See also:fourth commandment, holding as it does a conspicuous place in the See also:decalogue, the precepts of which could not for the most See also:part be regarded as of merely transitory See also:obligation, and never of course escaped the See also:attention of the fathers of the Church: but, remembering the See also:liberty given in the Pauline writings " in respect of a feast day or a new See also:moon or a Sabbath " (See also:Col. ii. 16; cf. Rom. xiv. 5, Gal. iv. to, 1r), they usually explained the " Sabbath day of the commandment as meaning the new era that had been introduced by the See also:advent of Christ, and interpreted the rest enjoined as meaning cessation from See also:sin. But when a See also:series of imperial decrees had enjoined with increasing stringency an See also:abstinence from labour on See also:Sun-day, it was inevitable that the Christian See also:conscience should be roused on the subject of the Sabbath rest also, and in many minds the tendency would be such as finds expression in the Apostolic Constitutions (viii. 33) : " Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath day and the Lord's day let them have 4 The longer recension runs: " But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner . . , And after the observance of the Sabbath let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's day as a festival, the resurrection day, the See also:queen and See also:chief of all the days." The writer finds a reference to the Lord's day in the titles to Ps. vi. and xii., which are " set to the eighth." leisure to go to church for instruction in piety." There is evidence of the same tendency in the opposite See also:canon (29) of the See also:council of See also:Laodicea (363), which forbids Christians from Judaizing and resting on the Sabbath day, and actually enjoins them to work on that day, preferring the Lord's day and so far as possible resting as Christians. About this time accordingly we find traces of a disposition in Christian thinkers to distinguish between a temporary and a permanent element in the Sabbath day precept; thus See also:Chrysostom (loth See also:homily on See also:Genesis) discerns the fundamental principle of that precept to be that we should dedicate one whole day in the circle of the week and set it apart for exercise in spiritual things. The view that the Christian Lord's day or Sunday is but the Christian Sabbath transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week does not find categorical expression till a much later period, See also:Alcuin being apparently the first to allege of the Jewish Sabbath that " ejus observationem mos Christianus ad diem dominicam competentius transtulit " (cf. DECALOGUE).

End of Article: SUNDAY

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