# Sunday is the Sabbath
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 17, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959 "2006-02-17T16:49:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/1 "2006-02-17T16:49:34Z")
Who decided that Sunday would be the Christian sabbath? Also when was this decided and why Sunday? Was it just to avoid picking the same day of rest as Judaism? I’ve tried googling this without much luck. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/2 "2006-02-17T17:31:23Z")
I don’t know all the details but Seventh Day Adventists believe devoutly that Saturday is the proper sabbath. In my travels I have cause to frequently drive past a billboard sponsored by a 7DA church which proclaims, I shit you not:
“Sunday Sabbath = Mark of the Beast.”
Yes, that’s right, going to church on sunday is the same as worshipping Satan.
I am Jewish, by the way, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. Its just something I have observed a small sect of Christianity to be all riled up about.
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### Author:  [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/3 "2006-02-17T18:06:11Z")
From [this site](http://www.religioustolerance.org/sabbath.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> In 321 CE, while a Pagan sun-worshiper, the Emperor Constantine declared that Sunday was to be a day of rest throughout the Roman Empire:
>
> _“On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for gain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.”_
>
> The Church Council of Laodicea circa 364 CE ordered that religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday, not Saturday. Sunday became the new Sabbath. They ruled: _“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day.”_
Seems like the same sort of reason Christians celebrate Christmas in December and Easter in the spring…the pagans were doing it, so why not follow suit? I haven’t done any research on the topic, but it seems like this could also be the source of the Seventh Day Adventists’ belief, noted by **Hello Again** , that going to church on Sunday, and thus ignoring the “proper” day of worship, is so bad. If it stemmed from pagan tradition, then some Christians might view it as satanic.\*
-Mosquito
\*FWIW, I don’t agree with pagan beliefs=satanic beliefs
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### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/4 "2006-02-17T18:21:18Z")
Oh no. Great. I’m no longer a Seventh Day Adventist, and they’re hemmoraging members, so they really don’t need to be putting up signs like that. Hell, they don’t need to be putting up signs like that even if they were flush with members. Boneheads. Sorry you have to put up with that intolerance, **Hello Again**.
AFAIK, the basis for Seventh Day Adventists worshipping Saturday as the true Sabbath is the 10 Commandments - “Remember the 7th day and keep it holy.” Indeed, there’s their name. And everyone knows that the week begins with Sunday, it’s right there on the calendar. :rolleyes:
My guess is that **MissMossie** is right - Adventists know that the day was changed from the Jewish practice by the early Church. Interesting that the early Catholics changed it to Sunday to “not Judaize and be idle,” since, if you ask me, Adventists (in true Protestant form) changed it back to Saturday so they would be different from Catholics, which some still view as evil idolators (again, in true Protestant form).
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/5 "2006-02-17T20:02:01Z")
The Master speaks: [Why do Christians worship on Sunday when the Bible says the Sabbath is on Saturday?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_140.html)
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### Author:  [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/6 "2006-02-17T20:39:11Z")
> [@MissMossie](#):
>
> From [this site](http://www.religioustolerance.org/sabbath.htm):
>
> Seems like the same sort of reason Christians celebrate … Easter in the spring…the pagans were doing it, so why not follow suit?
Knitpick: Easter is celebrated in the Spring because that’s when Passover is. In the Gospel, it says that they took Jesus’ body down as sundown and the Passover holiday approached. Changes in the Christian calendar have led to the two holidays drifting apart slightly.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/7 "2006-02-17T21:38:58Z")
> [@Snickers](#):
>
> Oh no. Great. I’m no longer a Seventh Day Adventist, and they’re hemmoraging members, so they really don’t need to be putting up signs like that.
Yes. It would be a shame to lose the religion that was responsible for the creation of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
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### Author:  [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/8 "2006-02-18T15:56:59Z")
> [@saoirse](#):
>
> Knitpick: Easter is celebrated in the Spring because that’s when Passover is.
OK - Why is passover celebrated in the spring then?
See [http://www.holidays.net/easter/story.htm](http://www.holidays.net/easter/story.htm) and [Easter - The Facts, History and Traditions - Wilstar.com](http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm)
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/9 "2006-02-18T16:54:52Z")
> [@Hello Again](#):
>
> I don’t know all the details but Seventh Day Adventists believe devoutly that Saturday is the proper sabbath. In my travels I have cause to frequently drive past a billboard sponsored by a 7DA church which proclaims, I shit you not:
> “Sunday Sabbath = Mark of the Beast.”
>
> Yes, that’s right, going to church on sunday is the same as worshipping Satan.
Not north Atlanta by any chance?
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/10 "2006-02-18T17:24:18Z")
> [@Canadjun](#):
>
> OK - Why is passover celebrated in the spring then?
Passover (or _Pesach_) always begins on the 15th of Nissan (on the evening of the 14th)–a month in the Jewish calendar, not a car. The Jewish calendar is a hybrid lunar/solar calendar,\* so the date varies from the Gregorian calendar each year.
- The Gregorian calendar used by the Christian lands is a solar calendar, with a fixed number of days occurring at the same time, each year. The vagaries of terran rotation and solar revolution impose some slight fluctuations in tying specific dates to specific events (_e.g._, the solstices and equinoxes wander around from the 20th to the 22d of June, December, March, and September), and we need to make the leap year adjustment to keep the calendar from shifting too far, but the apparent progression of the sun is linked to the overall calendar.
The Muslim calendar is lunar, so that the months shift, each year, following the movements of the moon (which is not synchronized with the sun). Thus, Ramadan appears earlier each year (when viewed from the perspective of someone using the Gregorian calendar).
The Jewish calendar is based on lunar calculations to determine months, but the effort to keep it tied to the solar (not Gregorian) year results in the use of a leap month when the “short” (29 or 30 day) lunar months result in a need for 13 months in a year. The last month of the Jewish religious calendar\*\* is Adar, occurring around February or March. Nissan, when passover occurs, is the first month of the religious calendar. If Nissan were in “danger” of occurring in February, a leap month, named Adar II is inserted.
\*\*The Jewish civil calendar begins in (Gregorian) September or October with Rosh Hashanah that begins the month of Tishri.
And I am certain that I have either misrepresented or confused some of the details of the Jewish calendars, but I am not an expert and the Orthodox posters will not be by to correct me until tomorrow.
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### Author:  [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/11 "2006-02-18T18:44:34Z")
> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> Passover (or _Pesach_) always begins on the 15th of Nissan (on the evening of the 14th)–a month in the Jewish calendar, not a car. The Jewish calendar is a hybrid lunar/solar calendar,\* so the date varies from the Gregorian calendar each year.
You missed my point. A previous respondent said Easter is when it is (i.e. Spring) because it relates to Passover, which is also in the spring. My poorly communicated point is that that just pushes the question down a level - instead of asking “Why is Easter celebrated in the Spring?”, I can ask “Why is Passover celebrated in the Spring?”. i.e. is there evidence that the original incident leading to the Passover festival truly occured then or did it just morph from a spring festival like Easter seems to have?
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/12 "2006-02-18T19:29:46Z")
Ahh. Sorry.
Well, until the issue of the “reality” of the Exodus (or whatever event inspired it as a story) gets resolved, we’ll probably have to rely on Exodus 12:
> [@](#):
>
> 1And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,
>
> 2This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
>
> 3Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
>
> 4And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
>
> 5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
>
> 6And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Given that the early days of the Hebrew society are pretty well shrouded, this may not ever be an event that can be decided with accuracy.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/13 "2006-02-18T19:39:06Z")
On second thought, unless I have (again) misunderstood your point regarding
> [@](#):
>
> or did it just morph from a spring festival like Easter seems to have?
I would disagree with this characterization. Easter did not simply spring from a Spring festival. Easter developed as a specific feast within the Christian church to celebrate a specific event. (In that way, it mimics at least the _tradition_ of the founding of Passover.) The fact that numerous peoples had Spring feasts (celebrating new plantings or whatever) that may have had rituals borrowed by the Christians is separate from the actual establishment of Easter. Claims that Valentine’s Day, All Saints Day, or the celebration of Christmas were “borrowed” from earlier pagan practices have some support (sometimes contested) in history, but the celebration of Easter did not develop from or convert any earlier practice.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunday-is-the-sabbath/344959/14 "2006-02-18T20:44:53Z")
According to the Bible, Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week,” i.e., _Dies Solis_ on the Roman calendar and Sunday on the modern one.
The early Christian church gathered to commemorate this on a weekly basis on “the Lord’s Day” i.e., Sunday. The Jewish members among them continued to observe the Sabbath, i.e., sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.
The general consensus of Christian belief, Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists to one side, is that the command to “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” is fulfilled by the setting aside of Sunday as the Lord’s Day, and that the Jewish Sabbath-day restrictions on behavior are not among those that apply to Christians.
It’s worth noting that Saturday and Sunday in Spanish preserve that distinction: Saturday is _Sabado_, the Sabbath; Sunday is _Domingo_, the Lord’s Day.