Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

When did Christians start meeting on a Sunday?

Published by

Matt Stone

2020-04-02

When did Christians start meeting on a Sunday? Many assume that it’s a tradition that arose centuries after the apostles. And yet evidence survives within the Bible itself that churches began meeting on the first day of the week soon after the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.

For instance, in Acts 29:7 we are told, “On the FIRST DAY of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.”

And Paul himself writes, in 1 Corinthians 16:2, that “On the FIRST of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come.”

So gathering, breaking bread, talks, and taking up collections, all things which we practice on a Sunday today, were practiced by the earliest churches on that same day.

Tags Church, Worship

3 responses to “When did Christians start meeting on a Sunday?”

Elliementalist

2020-04-06

That’s really fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

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Isabella

2020-04-11

Bauckham states that there is no record of any early Christian group which did not observe Sunday, with the exception of a single extreme group of Ebionites mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea ; and that there is no evidence that Sunday was observed as substitute Sabbath worship in the early centuries. Some Protestant scholars have argued that Christian Sunday worship traces back even further, to the resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in the Gospel narratives where Jesus would appear to his disciples on the first day of the week.

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winta251

2020-05-30

Yoooo. What a lovely title ‘curious Christian’ is. I just found you

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