"One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." (Romans 14:5-6A)
Now let's look at some other scriptures about certain times of the week":
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." (Matthew 28:1)
"Now when Jesus was risen early the first [day] of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils." (Mark 16:9)
"The first [day] of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre." (John 20:1)
"Then the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." (John 20:19)
"And upon the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight."(Acts 20:7)
"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 Corinthians 16:2)
There seems to be a lot that has happened on the first [day] of the week. You will notice that every time the word "day" is used in the King James version of scriptures listed above, the word is placed in [brackets] meaning it was not original to the Greek text. Without that word [day] all of these scriptures would read "the first of the week." It is only the first one listed in Matthew 28:1 that indicates that the first of the week, in that scripture for certain, is the day that immediately followed the Sabbath. And, in fact, that scripture says that it was very early, still nearly dark, just before dawn, on the morning of Sunday, that the women went to the tomb of Jesus.
From ancient times the Hebrews use a weekly 7 day cycle bases on the seven days of Creation in Genesis; the following scripture is what they have always based their 24 hour days on, with the beginning of the day to be at evening, as it appears that God's day began at evening:
"…and the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis 1:5)
Perhaps the evening arrival of the dove with evidence of a new life for Noah and his family helped contribute to this as well:
"And the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." (Genesis 8:11)
But certainly this scripture from Leviticus 23 in which the Lord stated that the Passover begins in the evening helped them determine as well that to the Lord each day begins at evening:
"In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passover." (Leviticus 23:5)
Thus, on the Jewish calendar, the Sabbath begins at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday. Sundown Friday was the beginning of the seventh day. Therefore, knowing that most of the early church were Jewish and were still observing the Sabbath (for reasons that will be further explained below), then the first [day] of the week referred to in any of these scriptures other than the one listed in Matthew, could be indicating Saturday evening after sundown; but it does not HAVE to be Sunday morning, which is when most Christians attend church services and they do so believing that the early Christians had church services on the first day of the week, as per these scriptures. I just don't know that this is correct.
Certainly the Jews did not work on the Sabbath (Friday sundown to Saturday sundown), but on Saturday evening, after sundown, they could get together and break bread if they chose to. In fact, there is a Jewish tradition of doing so which is known as Havdalah [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havdalah ] in which immediately following the Sabbath, Jewish brethren will get together and have a meal together as a way of ushering out the Sabbath; which means that in Acts 20:7, the disciples could have been eating a meal together on Saturday evening, or having a Havdallah, when Paul arrived and began speaking, and continued speaking through midnight.
Study of scripture would also show you that God rested on the 7th day, not the first day of the week, and made it holy:
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:1-3)
A further study of scripture will show you that when God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath, it was meant to be the 7th day of the week, and not only the Israelites, but any stranger abiding with them, was to observe that Sabbath as a day of rest and was NOT to do any work:, which meant that the Sabbath applied to Gentiles (servants and strangers) as well as the "chosen" Israelites:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, not thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11)
So, having all these scriptures in hand, what do you think the believers in the church at Rome were debating over or judging each other for? Did some think Sunday should be honored as the Day of the Lord's Resurrection? Did they then assume that it should now be the new Sabbath? I don't think they were arguing over the sabbath at all, as Sunday observance was not a church institution in the early or primitive church. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_Christianity ]. I think it might have been some folks, Gentiles perhaps who were less well taught in the ways of God so early on, thinking that they should mark certain days special, such as the first day of the week, when Jews have always marked a day special because GOD marked it special. But I still don't think the Gentiles were trying to make Sunday the new Sabbath. Nevertheless, you can see how some might consider some days to be more important or at least equal in importance to others.
It is just like our lists of "detestable" things to avoid eating. Are we to observe our lists or God's list?
Same applies here: are we to observe a day that the LORD God has called holy (His Word specifically says that He made the seventh day a "hallowed" (holy) day and blessed it), or are we to choose another day that He has not called specifically called "hallowed" and use it for our "sabbath"?
I suspect that Paul, especially being a Jew, is not saying in any portion of Romans that we are to "disregard" the Sabbath…and here is why:
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." (Exodus 31:16)
Now, unless Paul considered himself no longer to be a child of Israel, he surely kept the Sabbath observance on the 7th day, the day the Lord God called holy, as Paul must have believed God when He said it was to be a "perpetual" covenant sign "throughout their generations."
That doesn't meant that Christians didn't get together and celebrate the Day that Jesus was resurrected, just as we still do today…we call it Easter. I am sure they did also, with both Jesus in mind and the Passover and Firstfruits and all that was Jewish that went along with the celebration of that day and all that preceded or followed it. But from what I have found in the Bible, and including what can be found in online sources, such as the link given above concerning "Sabbath in Christianity" – I do not believe that they exchanged the 7th day Sabbath for the 1st day of the week because Jesus was resurrected on that day. Which means, doesn't it, that we ARE to still observe the 7th day as the Sabbath?
If this is true, then what are we to do with that information?
Perhaps in the next posting it will help if we study just exactly what the Sabbath was meant to be for us and why.
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