Christian Sunday Observance Did NOT Originate in Ancient Pagan Practice!

In the The Good News (April 1957, Volume 6, Number 4), Herman Hoeh declared that: "Sunday observance came from sun worship." This statement, however, is NOT consistent with the history of the calendar which was in use during the First Century of the Common Era. In short, the narrative promulgated by many Sabbatarian Christians (including Herbert Armstrong and his disciples) that Christians borrowed Sunday observance from the pagans sometime in the Third Century (and made mandatory in the Fourth) is disproven by what we know about the history of the seven-day week.

As we all know, the Roman Empire ruled over Judea and the surrounding territories at the time of Christ's birth. And, although the Jews had observed the seven-day week for several hundreds of years by that time (the extent of that antiquity is debated by scholars), the seven-day week had only been introduced to the Romans a little over forty years before Christ was born. In other words, this way of measuring time was still brand new to the Roman world, and the old way of measuring time was still predominant among the pagan Romans.

Under the original Roman calendar, the solar year was divided into lunar months, and the individual days within each month were governed by the position of three important markers based on the phases of the moon. They were the: Calends (first appearance of the New Moon), Ides (Full Moon), and Nones (Quarter Moon or nine days before Ides). As far as a "weekly" cycle is concerned, the Romans had an EIGHT-day cycle (Nine days according to the inclusive way that Romans counted). In other words, the "nundines" constituted the traditional Roman day of rest. Of course, this system of reckoning time did NOT immediately disappear when Julius Caesar instituted his famous reforms of the Roman calendar.

Now, the old Roman calendar was so inefficient that it was completely out of sync with the solar year by the time that Julius Caesar assumed control of the Republic. As a consequence, Caesar consulted with the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes to formulate a calendar that would keep up with the solar year. As part of this three hundred sixty-five-and 1/4-day year calendar of twelve months, the Babylonian/Jewish seven-day week was incorporated into the new system. Moreover, in keeping with the astronomy of the time, the seven classical "planets" (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) were each assigned a day of the week to rule over (i.e., the day of the sun or Sunday).

The Catholic Encyclopedia article on Sunday informs us that: "the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology. The seven planets, known to us as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day (see CALENDAR). During the first and second century the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. The Teutonic nations seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag). Sunday was the first day of the week according to the Jewish method of reckoning, but for Christians it began to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath in Apostolic times as the day set apart for the public and solemn worship of God. The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is indicated in Acts, xx 7; I Cor., xvi, 2; in Apoc., i, 10, it is called the Lord's day. In the Didache (xiv) the injunction is given: 'On the Lord's Day come together and break bread. And give thanks (offer the Eucharist), after confessing your sins that your sacrifice may be pure'. St. Ignatius (Ep. ad Magnes. ix) speaks of Christians as 'no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also Our Life rose again'. In the Epistle of Barnabas (xv) we read: 'Wherefore, also, we keep the eight day (i.e., the first of the week) with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead'." The article goes on to say that the writings of Justin Martyr (mid Second Century) include the first recorded mention of "Sunday" by a Christian.

In his article, Origins of the days of the week, Coolman wrote: "The seven-day week originates from the calendar of the Babylonians, which in turn is based on a Sumerian calendar dated to 21st-century B.C. Seven days corresponds to the time it takes for a moon to transition between each phase: full, waning half, new and waxing half. Because the moon cycle is 29.53 days long, the Babylonians would insert one or two days into the final week of each month." Coolman went on to assert that some scholars have even speculated that the Hebrews inherited their seven-day week from the Babylonians. He also corroborated the notion that the Romans did not begin using the seven-day week until Julius Caesar instituted the Julian Calendar.

Thus, from this history, we can see that the notion that Christians inherited the observance of Sunday from the Romans is absurd. Indeed, this chronology clearly suggests that the importance of Sunday or Saturday as a Christian day of worship and/or fellowship belongs wholly to the Christian era. In short, there wasn't any special connotation attached to the "venerable day of the Sun" prior to the Christians appropriation of the day for their own purposes. And, as we have suggested elsewhere, that association had to have begun in the First Century, not later (see other posts here dealing with that history). 

Sources:

Medium, Lessons from History, The Fascinating History Behind the Seven-Day Week, Published 20 February 2022

Baker, Nick and Watson, Joey, News, Where does the seven-day week come from and why does it govern our lives?, Published 4 January 2022

UNRV Roman History, The Roman Calendar, Accessed 19 August 2023

Britannica, Julian Calendar, Accessed 19 August 2023

Bikos, Konstantin and Hocken, Vigdis, timeanddate, The Roman Calendar, Accessed 19 August 2023

Catholic Encyclopedia Online, Sunday, Accessed 19 August 2023

Coolman, Robert, Live Science, Origins of the days of the week, Published 7 May 2014