Other articles from this issue | Version in English | Version in French
Tensions between Sabbath and Sunday
David Flusser
On Sabbath morning the Jews say in their synagogues: y And thou didst not give it (the Sabbath), 0 Lord out God, unto the nations of other lands, nor didst thou, 0 our King, make it the heritage of worshippers of idols, nor do the uncircumcised dwell in its rest: but unto thy people Israel thou didst give it in love, unto the seed of Jacob whom thou didst choose. » This is a poetical expression of the concept that the Sabbath was given as a gracious gift to the children of Israel: only they are obliged to observe it, since the Gentiles, according to Judaism, are free from the yoke of the Mosaic Law. If they live a moral life and are not idolatrous, they will be saved. This concept was, as is known, accepted by the apostolic Christian community of Jerusalem. The difference between Paul and Peter was that Peter saw in the apostolic decree a minimum of demands and Paul, on the other hand, saw in those precepts the maximum of what the Gentiles had to observe. Later, in the Middle Ages, by a parallel development, Jewish halakhah reached the same position as Paul: it became forbidden to the Gentiles to observe the Jewish law. The first saying hinting in this direction is that of Rahbi Johanan (250 C.E.), according to whom it is forbidden to a Gentile to observe the Sabbath.
Thus, from the point of view of abstract dogmatics the situation is more or less clear, and Jewish and Christian positions are similar. Paul's special position about the very nature of holiness did not play a special role in Christian wrestling with the problem of the Sabbath and with the changing shape of the content of Sunday. Paul's opinion about the indifference of the holy days themselves and of the importance of man's intention is expressed in Romans 14:5-6: «One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind. » This is not exactly the opinion of the Church about Sunday and Christian feasts. Though Paul's invective against the Galatians is also based upon theological positions which could have weakened the importance of Sunday and Christian feasts, the passage still had some influence upon Christian polemics against Judaizers: ... how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have laboured over you in vain » (Gal. 4:9-11). Here Paul hints at the Jewish religious calendar, but the Sabbath is not expressly named. The only explicit mention of the Sabbath in this context in the New Testament is in Colossians 2:16: « Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. »
The problem of Sabbath and Sunday, and the tensions between these days in Christian thought, would not arise, as far as we can see, if Christianity had risen and developed not in this concrete world but in the abstract world of ideas. According to both Judaism and the original plan of Christianity, as expressed in the apostolic decree, God-fearing Gentiles are free from the Law, and the Sabbath was not given to them. But how can Christianity enjoy the achievements of Judaism and of the Old Testament? This problem is even more burning because almost all trends of Christianity see in their religion not a break with the mother-religion, but its better continuation, and the Old Testament which contains the sanctification of the Sabbath is the holy book of Christianity. Somehow, Christianity not only wants to enjoy the achievements of the religion of Israel, but it has also to solve the problem of its obligations towards Judaism stemming from the Jewish origin of Christianity and its acceptance of the Old Testament. This typically Christian attitude towards Judaism is clearly reflected in Christian evaluation of the seventh day of the week, Sabbath or Sunday.
It was clear from the beginning that the Sabbath could not be accepted as a Christian holiday, as it was and is one of the central phenomena of the Jewish c legalism », and it is even astonishing how frequently it was partially observed by Christians in the fourth century. One of the reasons is that the precept of the Sabbath is contained in the decalogue, which was seen by the Church as the natural law which could not be abolished by the coming of Christ. And there is no difficulty for Christianity in accepting the decalogue verbally with the exception of the precept of the Sabbath. Jesus' Sabbath controversies in the Gospels were understood as if he had abolished the legal aspect of the Sabbath: on the other hand, Church authors acted in connection with the Sabbath as they used to do with many other Jewish precepts. This procedure is commonly called typological explanation; it can also be called sublimation, from the psychological point of view, or even spiritualization. Even if this kind of reevaluation of the Sabbath precept was often combined with unjust and erroneous reproaches against the « fleshly? and unworthy nature of the Jewish Sabbath, Christian spiritualization of the concept of the Sabbath in the old patristic literature is sometimes sublime, and even those Jews who observe the Sabbath according to the letter, can find new inspiration for their own religion in patristic concepts of the spiritual meaning of the seventh day.
In the whole development it is interesting to notice that the very observance of the Sabbath by the Jews was, as far as I can see, less attacked by Christian theoreticians than Jewish observance of other commandments until the time when Sunday became in its structure the substitute for the Jewish Sabbath. Only then it became strictly forbidden to Christians to observe the Sabbath, and Jews who were converted by force to Christianity were executed by the Inquisition in Spain when it was discovered that they observed, even partially, the Sabbath. The Sabbath could not be completely opposed as long as a Christian predilection for this day existed in wide circles, and this predilection existed as long as the Sunday had not taken on many of the characteristics of the Sabbath.
What is the origin of the Christian Sunday? The notion of the week in later antiquity expanded from the Orient not only through the Jews. In this oriental week the individual days were consecrated to certain heavenly bodies, until today in European languages the days bear the names of their gods, a usage against which the Church protested in vain. Sometimes, in the Christian era, Thursday was a holy day, because it was dedicated to Jupiter. So it is probable that Sunday could be more easily accepted because the Invincible Sun was the main god of the Roman Empire. Even Constantine revered this god before he became converted to Christianity, and he was also the emperor who promoted the first law of Sunday, the day of the sun.
But the pagan component, while corroborating in some measure the acceptance of Sunday, was not the main cause of the origin of Sunday. Nor was this a tendency to find another day which should abrogate the Jewish Sabbath; we have seen that at the beginning, the importance of the Sabbath was not completely abolished. Sunday is the day of the Lord's resurrection, and this became a very important component of the Christian Sunday. But I do not believe that this fact gave birth to the Christian Sunday, a feast which repeats itself all seven days. It is far more probable that the origin of Sunday dates from the very beginning of Christianity, when the Christians were Jews and visited the synagogue on the Sabbath; the following day was thus a natural candidate for becoming a proper day for the new community, and this assumption was already suggested. Paul writes to the Christians of Corinth (I Cor. 16:1-2): c Now concerning the contribution for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week [day after the Sabbath] each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper ...» It seems that the Jewish background of this arrangement is clear enough. And so Sunday became a special day for Christians, as the Sabbath was the Jewish feast.
Already in the legislation of Constantine, Sunday became a free day, but all work was not forbidden. The special aim was that Sunday was to be a holiday, devoted to God and to the service in the churches, and this is its main meaning until today. But already in the early Middle Ages Sunday was more assimilated to the Jewish Sabbath; many kinds of work were forbidden on Sunday and transgressions were punished. This severe rule exists in places up till today. This is not always caused especially by a clegalistios approach to the character of Sunday. If Sunday is a day of rest, then disciplinary regulations cannot be avoided.
We have already said that the partial assimilation of Sunday to the Sabbath caused Sunday to become a surrogate for the Sabbath, and only then was the Sabbath seen as a day which had nothing to do with Christianity. At the second Council of Nicaea in 787 it was decided that Jewish Christians who secretly observed the Sabbath and other Jewish precepts were not to be accepted into the community of the Church, and their children were not to be baptized until they renounced their Jewish way of life. So Sunday completely superseded the Jewish Sabbath.
In speaking about the tensions between Sabbath and Sunday, one point at least should be stressed, namely, the social aspect of the Sabbath. This is very clearly present in the Old Testament. It is one of the characteristics of divine revelation and of the gracious gifts of God that the social importance of the Sabbath is only one side of its value; its main task is to consecrate to holiness one day in the week, the day which symbolizes the rest of God after creation. Thus the Sabbath surpasses social legislation, and even the social side of the Sabbath was revealed at a time when it seems to me such a social institution cannot be explained as a human response to the social needs of that ancient period. It is the very nature of divine revelation to be wiser than the men who receive it. Only in our modern time can we fully appreciate the social importance of the Sabbath and of Sunday. This secular side of the divine institution is so evident that today, in many countries, Friday has become the day of rest for Muslims, from Israel to India, although according to the Koran Friday is the day of prayers and not the day of rest, and this is said by Mohammed himself clearly enough. So the history of the Sunday rest from the legislation of Constantine until today does not imply a Judaization of the Church, and it is not a mere coincidence that Sunday is both the day of public rest and the day of services in the churches.
At the beginning we spoke about the original plan of Christianity which is identical with the common Jewish attitude; only the Jews have to observe the Mosaic Law, while Gentiles are exempt from it. If so, the form that Sunday has finally received is, to my mind, in accordance with this rule. The Sabbath in its content is a Jewish affair; it is a remembrance of the creation of the world, a day which is as a whole dedicated to holiness, a sign of the covenant between God and his people. Resting on the Sabbath has its social aim: it includes not only the children of Israel, but also the foreigner and even the animals. But onthe other hand, the Sabbath rest includes also prescriptions which fit the larger aim of the Sabbath, namely, the realization of the concept of holiness, both according to its psychological aspect and according to the meaning of holiness as understood by Jewish law. Sunday symbolizes for Christians the resurrection of the Lord and the beginning of the new era. As was probably the case from its very beginnings, it is a day when the community of Christians is assembled for common prayers and service. This is the day of the Christian Ecclesia, and as such, Sunday has a special importance for the Church today, in a period of deep religious crisis, when Christian presence must be manifested in the secular world. On the other hand, Sunday is not a Jewish but a Christian feast: according to the original plan of Christianity, Gentiles are not under the yoke of the Law of Moses. Then again, true Christians not only feel that they live in the atmosphere of the joy of salvation, but they also have their own kind of sanctity. According to the faith of the Church, this sanctity became concrete in the sacraments which all developed from Jewish commandments. At the center of Sunday is the celebration of the sacrament of the Mass, and this is both the element of holiness and a leaven which symbolically unifies the community. And the Sunday. rest which is of Jewish origin and was transferred from Sabbath to Sunday, does not have all the character and implications of Jewish law. The yoke of the law is not typical of the Sunday rest; the Sunday rest is the expression of the social benefit of the Sabbath, and I see no reason why this achievement should be denied to non-Jews. So today, Sunday and Sabbath can coexist, the one for the Christians and the other for the Jews, and the old tension between the two days can finally be forgotten.
Professor Flusser teaches in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the author of Jesus (New York 1969) which first appeared as Jesus in Selbstzeugnissen and Bilddokumenten (Hamburg 1968).
