(continued)
155 AD JUSTIN "[W]e too would observe the fleshly circumcision & the Sabbaths & in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what reason they were enjoined [on] you--namely, on account of your transgressions & the hardness of your heart. . . . [H]ow is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us--I speak of fleshly circumcision & Sabbaths & feasts?...God enjoined you [Jews] to keep the Sabbath & impose on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness & that of your fathers" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 18, 21).
180AD ACTS OF PETER: Paul had often contended with the Jewish teachers & had confuted them, saying 'it is Christ on whom your fathers laid hands. He abolished their Sabbath & fasts & festivals & circumcision.' (Acts of Peter 1:1-2)
180AD GOSPEL OF PETER: Early in the morning when the Sabbath dawned, a multitude from Jerusalem & the surrounding country came to see the scaled tomb. In the night in which the 'Lord's day' dawned, while the soldiers in pairs for each watch were keeping guard, a great voice came from heaven...Early in the morning of the Lord's day Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord …. came to the tomb. (Gospel of Peter 9:34f.; 12:50f.)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: (in commenting on each of the Ten Commandments & their Christian meaning
The seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest, preparing by abstention from evil for the Primal day, our true rest. (Miscellanies VII. xvi. 138.1)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: He does the commandment according to the Gospel & keeps the Lord's day, whenever he puts away an evil mind . . . glorifying the Lord's resurrection in himself. (Miscellanies VII.xii.76.4)
190AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Plato prophetically speaks of the Lord's day in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: 'And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they must go on." (Miscellanies V.xiv.106.2)
200AD BARDESANES: Wherever we are, we are all called after the one name of Christ Christians. On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together (On Fate, 5)
200AD TERTULLIAN: "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath" (Tertullian's Apology, Ch 16)
200AD TERTULLIAN: It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision & of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary. (An Answer to the Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 155)
200AD TERTULLIAN: Let him who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed a balm of salvation & circumcision on the 8th day because of threat of death, teach us that in earliest times righteous men kept Sabbath or practiced circumcision & so were made friends of God. .. ...Therefore, since God originated Adam uncircumcised & inobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his offspring also, Abel, offering Him sacrifices, was by Him commended... Noah also - God freed from the deluge. Enoch, too, most righteous man, He translated from this world... Melchizedek also, "the priest of most high God," uncircumcised & inobservant of the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God. (An Answer to the Jews 2:10; 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 153)
200AD TERTULLIAN: Others . . . suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is well-known that we regard Sunday as a day of joy. (To the Nations 1: 133)
200AD TERTULLIAN: To us Sabbaths are foreign. (On Idolatry, 14:6)4
220AD ORIGEN: "On Sunday none of the world's actions should be done. Abstain from works of this world & keep yourselves free for spiritual things, go to church, listen to the readings & divine homilies, meditate on heavenly things. (Homil. 23 in Numeros 4, PG 12:749)
220 AD ORIGEN: "Hence it is not possible that the [day of] rest after the sabbath should have come into existence from the 7th [day] of our God. On the contrary, it is our Savior who, after the pattern of his own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of his death, & hence also of his resurrection" (Commentary on John 2:28).
225 AD THE DIDASCALIA: "The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service & the reading of the Holy Scriptures & the oblation. Because on the 1st day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead & on the 1st day of the week he arose upon the world & on the 1st day of the week he ascended up to heaven & on the 1st day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven" (Didascalia 2).
250AD CYPRIAN: The eight day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath & the Lord's Day." (Epistle 58, Sec 4)
300 AD VICTORINUS: "The 6th day [Friday] is called
parasceve, that is to say, the preparation of the kingdom. . . . On this day also, on account of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God or a fast. On the 7th day he rested from all his works & blessed it & sanctified it. On the former day we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the
parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews . . . which Sabbath he [Christ] in his body abolished" (The Creation of the World).
300AD EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: "They did not, therefore, regard circumcision nor observe the Sabbath neither do we; … because such things as these do not belong to Christians" (Ecc. Hist., Book 1, Ch. 4)
300AD EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: [The Ebionites] were accustomed to observe the Sabbath & other Jewish customs but on the Lord's days to celebrate the same practices as we in remembrance of the resurrection of the Savior. (Church History Ill.xxvii.5)
300AD Eusebius of Caesarea: "They [the early saints of the Old Testament] did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we [Christians]. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did not avoid certain kinds of food, neither did they regard the other distinctions which Moses first delivered to their posterity to be observed as symbols; nor do Christians of the present day do such things" (Church History 1:4:8).
300AD EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: "The day of his [Christ's] light . . . was the day of his resurrection from the dead, which they say, as being the one & only truly holy day & the Lord's day, is better than any number of days as we ordinarily understand them & better than the days set apart by the Mosaic Law for feasts, new moons & Sabbaths, which the Apostle [Paul] teaches are the shadow of days & not days in reality" (Proof of the Gospel 4:16:186).
345AD ATHANASIUS: "The sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord's day was the beginning of the 2nd, in which he renewed & restored the old in the same way as he prescribed that they should formerly observe the sabbath as a memorial of the end of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the memorial of the new creation" (On Sabbath & Circumcision 3).
350AD CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: "Fall not away either into the Samaritan's sect or into Judaism, for Jesus has henceforth ransomed you. Stand aloof from all observance of Sabbaths & from calling any indifferent meats common/unclean" (Catechetical Lectures 4:37).
360AD COUNCIL OF LAODICEA: "Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord's day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians" (canon 29).
387AD JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: "You have put on Christ, you have become a member of the Lord and been enrolled in the heavenly city, and you still grovel in the Law [of Moses]? How is it possible for you to obtain the kingdom? Listen to Paul's words, that the observance of the Law overthrows the gospel, and learn, if you will, how this comes to pass & tremble & shun this pitfall. Why do you keep the Sabbath & fast with the Jews?" (Homilies on Gal 2:17).
387AD JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: "The rite of circumcision was venerable in the Jews' account, forasmuch as the Law itself gave way thereto & the Sabbath was less esteemed than circumcision. For that circumcision might be performed, the Sabbath was broken; but that the Sabbath might be kept, circumcision was never broken & mark, I pray, the dispensation of God. This is found to be even more solemn that the Sabbath, as not being omitted at certain times. When then it is done away, much more is the Sabbath" (Homilies on Philippians 10).
400AD THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS: "And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent him to us, and condescended to let him suffer, and raised him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day . . . in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food" (Apostolic Constitutions 2:7:60).
Civil laws REQUIRING (FORCING) the observance of Sunday date back at least to Emperor Constantine the Great, who designated Sunday as a legal day of rest & worship in 321,
when he decreed that all work should cease on Sunday, except that farmers could work if necessary. This Roman empire law, however was not specifically Christian, since Sunday was the day of the sun-god for pagans as well as the Lord's day for Christians. He as the emperor was trying to appease both, in order to establish peace.