# religion worship question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 8, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175 "2001-10-08T20:05:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/1 "2001-10-08T20:05:33Z")
Why do Christians worship on Sundays, Jews on Saturdays and Muslims on Fridays?(I know Muslims worship everyday but isn’t friday their main day of worship? someone grab **Muslim Guy** )
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### Author:  [@ozonebaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ozonebaby)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/2 "2001-10-08T20:07:26Z")
Because that’s the way life is.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/3 "2001-10-08T20:07:56Z")
[nitpick]
Not all Christians worship on Sunday. Seventh Day Adventists do their thing on a Saturday, and I think there are a couple other smaller denominations that follow that practice.
[/nitpick]
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### Author:  [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/4 "2001-10-08T20:10:14Z")
Not all “Christians” do a Sunday worship, I understand. I think some observe Saturday. There was a group that is maybe splintered or extinct: The Worldwide Church of God that was led by the late Herbert W Armstrong – they reportedly “worshipped” on Sat.
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### Author:  [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/5 "2001-10-08T20:39:19Z")
Just to jump on the Correction Bandwagon:
Jews don’t specifically worship on Saturday. We worship every day. Several times a day.
Perhaps what the OP was referring to was each Religion’s “Day of Rest.” In Judaism, the “Day of Rest” is indeed on Saturday (well, Friday night to Saturday night…) and Christianity’s is on Sunday.
I don’t know about the rest.
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### Author:  [@Niobium\_Knight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Niobium_Knight)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/6 "2001-10-08T21:53:01Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I don’t know about the rest.
yes you do you just told us about it.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/7 "2001-10-08T22:08:09Z")
This is a guess but what the hell. It seems likely that Christians celebrate on Sunday, because that is the day the Jesus arose from the dead. Probably also to disassociate themselves from the Jews.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/8 "2001-10-08T22:11:20Z")
and you go grab **Muslim Guy** yourself.
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### Author:  [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/9 "2001-10-08T22:21:54Z")
Very well,
“ **HEY! MUSLIM GUY! GET OVER HERE AND ENLIGHTEN US!** ”
There.
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### Author:  [@MHand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MHand)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/10 "2001-10-08T22:45:35Z")
As was said, the Jewish day of rest is Saturday, but no one actually answered the “why” yet, so I’ll give it a shot.
G-d created the world in 6 days and finished on the seventh and ceased from all ‘work’. G-d commanded us to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy and to refrain from ‘work’. With this rest, we are testifying that g-d created the world.
Man was created on the sixth day (Friday), and we’ve been counting sunrises modulo 7 ever since.
Jews pray 3 times every day.
I think Muslims pray 5 times every day (correct me if I’m wrong here).
The Xtians and Muslims changed the Sabbath. Perhaps one of them can explain why.
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/11 "2001-10-09T01:25:38Z")
IANAChristian (nor was I reaised as one), but I remember reading somewhere that a pope changed the Christian Sabbath back in teh day t commemorate the day of Christ’s Resurrection.
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@deb2world](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb2world)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/12 "2001-10-09T01:36:43Z")
I am a Seventh Day Adventist, but I don’t have time to answer right now since this is not a short paragraph answer. So, if I get the time tomorrow evening I will try to address why we worship on Sabbath as well as the history of Sunday worship.
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### Author:  [@king\_of\_spain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_of_spain)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/13 "2001-10-09T01:40:25Z")
IIRC, the early Christians celebrated both the Sabbath on Saturday and the Lord’s Day, the commemoration of the Resurrection, on Sunday, back-to-back. The two eventually got put together for some reason.
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### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/14 "2001-10-09T01:48:42Z")
I am a Christian, and a pretty devout, if open-minded one. Here’s my main-line, low-church Episcopal take on how things transpired so that Sunday wound up the Christian sabbath. I am open to corrections.
On Friday, on the eve of Passover, Jesus was crucified, dying at around 3 in the afternoon (see Mark, Chapter 15 verse 38 for those of you keeping score at home). His body was taken down before the Sabbath began at sundown. Because the Sabbath was reserved for man to rest, nothing could be done until sundown Saturday at the earliest, and, in point of fact, it was Sunday morning when some women, including Mary Magdalen went to the tomb where he was laid, found it empty the later saw Jesus. Because it was a Sunday when the resurrection took place and the resurrection is the center of our religion, Sunday became the Christian Sabbath, although I’m sure there was quite a it of wrangling over it in the early days of the Church.
As I understand it, Saturday, the 7th day of the week became the Jewish Sabbath because it was on the 7th day that God rested after creating the universe and, in the commandments he gave Moses, it was ordered that man should do likewise. This, by the way, was a remarkably liberal idea at the time, especially since it applied to slaves, servants, and non-Jews as well.
Thanks for listening, folks,
CJ
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/15 "2001-10-09T02:06:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> although I’m sure there was quite a it of wrangling over it in the early days of the Church.
Actually, I haven’t seen much evidence for a lot of wrangling. By the end of the first century, Christianity had moved out from being a Jewish heresy and become, pretty much, a Gentile religion. While the notion of a Lord’s day, on which people rested, carried over from Judaism, there was no cultural assocation with the Sabbath among the Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Egyptians, Syrians, etc. They were quite happy to celebrate the Lord’s day, but they tended to celebrate it on the weekly recurrence of the day of the Resurrection–Sunday.
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/16 "2001-10-09T02:48:42Z")
I think that the Islamic seventh day begins at sunset on fridays,I.e., our sixth day of the week at the 18th hour (more or less)is the first hour of their seventh and, if i’m not mistaken, the jews do this also. I am a Christian, and the evangelical viewpoint, (and I think that this is representative) places no emphasis on which day to gather together, but recognizes that Sunday is a convenient tradition, being the day upon which Christ arose.
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### Author:  [@king\_of\_spain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_of_spain)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2001, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-worship-question/86175/17 "2001-10-09T03:45:51Z")
Ha. Knew I heard that from someplace important.
[Why do Christians on Sunday when the Bible says the Sabbath is on Saturday?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_140.html)