Sunday in Scripture by J. O. Corliss

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 29, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 17.

Sunday in Scripture

By J. O. Corliss

The word "Sunday" does not occur in the Scriptures. It is but a term used to designate the first day of the week, which is specifically mentioned eight times in the New Testament. The word "Sunday," like the common names for other days of the week, is of heathen origin. Webster's "International Dictionary" says of this name, "So called because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship."

The Old Testament unmistakably places the first day of the week in the list of working-days. The only commandment of the Bible requiring the observance of a rest day, plainly reveals this. Thus it is written: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20: 8. From this positive statement, no line of reasoning is needed to establish the proposition made above; for there being but seven days in any given week, and all of them being designated labor days, except the seventh, it is clear that the first day must be included in the days set apart for personal labor.

The Working-Days

Again, by instruction given through the prophet concerning regulation of sanctuary service, this rule was distinctly given: "The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working-days; but on the Sabbath it shall be opened." Eze. 46: 1. This counsel, given nearly a thousand years after the delivery of the Sabbath law from Sinai, is an added evidence that the Sabbath law not only distinguished the first day of the week as laboring time, but that God so regarded it in Ezekiel's period of life, and so spoke of it to the people of that time.

It may be in place here, too, to say that the teaching of the Old Testament is as valid now, in its positive truth, as when it was given to the world; because to discount these writings is but to reject the foundation proof of the New Testament authenticity. On this point it has been justly said that "the New Testament was hid in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New." On this point see Heb. 1: 1, 2; 1 Peter 1: 10-12. One may therefore safely count on the New Testament's continuing to communicate sentiment the same as or similar to that contained in the Old.

The New Testament Testimony

Coming, then, to the New Testament to look for the location and nature of the first day of the week, one is quickly satisfied on both of these points; for in his search he finds the first mention of this definite day in Matt. 28: 1. Referring, in that text, to the two Marys who came to view the tomb of Christ, the record reveals that their visit occurred "in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week."

This statement may be cleared of any misapprehension of meaning by reading its parallel account, given by another writer. Here it is: "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun." Mark 16: 1, 2.

Considering these two testimonies together, only a single conclusion can be drawn from them, and that is this: The first day was not reckoned as a Sabbath, or rest day, as late as A.D. 37, when Matthew wrote his account, nor yet in A.D. 63, when Mark submitted his record from Rome; because each of these chronicles locates the first day as time next following the Sabbath, which always came on the seventh day.

Would Not Anoint the Lord's Body on the Sabbath

A further point of interest in this associated testimony is more fully developed by still another witness, when making record of the same historic fact; that is that these women came to the tomb on that first day with their anointing spices, which had been prepared on the day before the Sabbath, and which they might have used on the Sabbath, had the Sabbath law but permitted it. Following is the inspired record of the three days which began with the crucifixion of the Saviour: "That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23: 54-56.

There can be no question but that that Sabbath day rest "according to the commandment" was the original seventh-day Sabbath; and as no divine commission was known which permitted the anointing of a dead body on the Sabbath, such labor was included by them in the list of human works which were not permissible according to the commandment of Sabbath rest. There was, however, no question about the legality of such performance on the first day, since, "according to the commandment," that was a time in which one might do all or any part of his work. Accordingly, "upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke 24: 1.

The Church Founders' View of Sunday

These records declare precisely how the founders of the Christian church regarded the first day of the week. It is certain that they looked upon it as a day in common with the other working-days of the week, and therefore ordered all their business arrangements, both in the church and in the world, accordingly. This same principle was held inviolate by the apostle Paul in every instance, so far as known. Coming on one occasion to Troas, at the close of a week's visit, he held an all-night meeting on the first day of the week, so that he might say all that he would to the church, before departing on the morrow. Acts 20: 7. In determining the exact significance of this meeting, however, it should be remembered that, according to God's order, each day begins and ends with the setting of the sun. See on this point Lev. 23: 32 and Mark 1: 32.

To keep this Troas night meeting within the confines of the first day, it must therefore have been held on the night following the Sabbath, on what is now called Saturday night, so that on the morning of the first day, or Sunday, the apostle might go early afloat on his journey across to Assos, a distance of about twenty miles. This was evidently the case, as may be gathered from Luke's account of the affair; for he says, in verse four, that seven companions besides himself accompanied Paul on this trip, and in a succeeding statement, tells just what they did while the apostle was thus occupied. In this he says: "And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afloat." Verse 13.

This arrangement by the apostle was evidently because the sixty-mile journey around the promontory from Troas to Assos would consume more time than he wanted to spare, and he preferred to use part of it in giving needed instruction, with the expectation of arriving at Assos across country, by the time the others reached there by ship. It would not be creditable to the great apostle to think that if he had believed the time of that Troas meeting was holy time, he would have "appointed" his companions to do the common work of sailing a vessel sixty miles over the Ægean Sea during that period, simply to hasten his journey a few hours toward Ephesus, whither he was going. On the other hand, one is forced to believe that the apostle considered those hours a part of the six working-days, and arranged the departure of his brethren accordingly.

Business Transacted by the Apostles on Sunday

In conformity with this established principle, the apostle instructed the churches of Galatia and Corinth systematically to raise funds for the poverty-stricken believers at Jerusalem. The plan was this: "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." 1 Cor. 16: 2.

A brief examination of this text will show that the apostle had in view a simple business proposition. To avoid the uncertainty of a superficial collection upon a hurried visit he expected soon to make, these people were exhorted to lay aside beforehand a certain amount of funds on each first day, the exact sum to be determined by the rate of prosperity enjoyed the previous week. The rule of calculation enjoined could not well be followed otherwise, since to compute future smiles of fortune, so as to lay aside its due proportion for charity, would be only problematical, and therefore inaccurate and unsatisfactory. But to reckon up one's actual amount of income for such a purpose, would be an act of real business, proper only for a working-day, if due consideration be given to the law of the Sabbath.

Some have supposed that because Christ ushered Himself into the fortified upper chamber among His frightened disciples, on His resurrection first day, such an act was the sanction for an interminable observance of the first day. But this is bare supposition without any foundation in fact. Nothing can be more certain than that the Saviour designed for His followers to observe the Sabbath, as He Himself observed it during His earthly ministry. See Luke 4: 16. The ground of this certainty is found in the fact

that when predicting the distant future overthrow of Jerusalem, and the necessary hasty departure therefrom by His disciples, He commanded, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Matt. 24: 20.

In this express direction, both the physical and the spiritual needs of the people were considered. Whatever view may be taken as to the full divine intention of this caution, one thing can not be denied; and that is that in the words uttered, the Sabbath was surely safeguarded, even under the most dire conditions. Another thing must also be apparent: If the Sabbath was to be held thus sacred by Christians forty years after the death of Christ, it is good ground for believing that it should be held sacred throughout an added eighteen hundred years. And there being no divine requirement for more than one holy rest day in each week, the first day can have no place as holy time in the Christian economy.