Now, we must not forget that the Council of Jerusalem had decided that Gentiles were NOT obligated to observe the tenets of Torah or become Torah-observant Jews to be Christians. We must also remember that Gentiles did not have any experience keeping a weekly Sabbath. Indeed, in the First Century, the Roman world was in the very early stages of abandoning its "nundinal" week with a market day on every eighth day and adopting the Babylonian/Jewish seven-day week. (See The Roman Transition: From 8 Days to 7)
Hence, other than the Jewish Sabbath, there wasn't any extant religious tradition relative to a “weekly” day of worship. Sure, like the Babylonians before them, the Romans named the days of the weeks after the seven brightest celestial objects in the night sky: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. (See The Invention of the Seven-Day Week) In other words, there wasn't any pagan tradition of worshipping the Sun on Sunday or the Moon on Monday.
As we have already discussed, the Jews had their weekly sign of the covenant between them and God, the Sabbath. Likewise, we have already discussed the fact that Paul, the other Apostles, and Jewish Christians continued to observe the Sabbath. It was a part of their identity as a people.
Nevertheless, these same Jews were the original witnesses of Christ's resurrection and the founding of the Church in Jerusalem, and both of those events had occurred on the first day of the week, the day we call Sunday. In the Jewish tradition, the days of the week were numbered, and only the seventh day had any special designation or "name." However, the first day of the week came to be regarded as a memorial of Christ's resurrection and the founding of the Church. Rember, the apostles placed special emphasis on Christ's resurrection in their evangelical messaging (Acts 1:22, 2:31, 4:2, 33, 17:18, 32, Romans 1:4, I Corinthians 15, Hebrews 6:2, I Peter 1:3). Eventually, the first day of the week came to be known as the "Lord's Day" (Revelation 1:10, Didache 14, Epistle of Barnabas 15).
After the Council of Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch and remained there for some time encouraging the Church there and preaching the good news about Jesus (Acts 15:30-35. Eventually, however, Paul suggested that the two revisit the congregations which they had established on their first missionary journey (Acts 15:36). Unfortunately, the two missionaries disagreed about who would accompany them on their journey and decided to go their separate ways (Acts 15:37-41).
Paul and Silas traveled to Derbe and Lystra where they were joined by a young man named Timothy, who was part Gentile and part Jewish (Acts 16:1-2). In addition to strengthening the congregations, Paul and Silas shared the decision of the Jerusalem Council with these Gentile congregations that they didn't have any obligation to observe the tenets of God's covenant with the Jews (Acts 16:4-5).
From there, they traveled in Phrygia and Galatia and on to Troas (Acts 16:6-8). While there, a man appeared to Paul in a vision beckoning him to come to Macedonia and help the people there (Acts 16:0-10). As a consequence, Paul and his companions sailed to Macedonia. They remained in the city of Philippi for several days and preached to some of the women of that place by the river one Sabbath (Acts 16:11-13).
While there, Paul cast a demon out of a slave whose owners had used as a fortune teller. When the owners complained to the authorities, Paul and Silas were arrested for ruining their business, and they were brought before the magistrates. (Acts 16:16-19) However, instead of that charge, they decided to accuse the apostles of disturbing the peace of the city and advocating Jewish customs. As a consequence, the missionaries were publicly beaten and imprisoned. (Acts 16:20-24) Even so, before they were released from prison, the missionaries had converted their jailors and elicited an apology from the magistrates! (Acts 16:25-40)
Next, Paul and Silas traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came at last to Thessalonica. Paul spoke at the synagogue there for three Sabbaths in a row, and many Jews and Greeks accepted his message about Christ. Some of the Jews, however, were jealous of his success and began stirring up the populace of that city against Paul and Silas.
As a consequence, the believers in Thessalonica sent them on to Berea. Now, although their message was received there with even more enthusiasm than it had been at Thessalonica, troublemakers from that city showed up in Berea and began stirring up resistance to the missionaries' message. (Acts 17:1-13) Indeed, this formula of initial success followed by persecution seemed to repeat itself over and over again.
Now, when the situation in Berea became dangerous, the believers there sent Paul onto Athens by himself. And, while he was waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, he noticed that the city was full of superstition and idolatry. As a consequence, Paul didn't confine himself to the local synagogue - he also preached every day in the local marketplace. Finally, Paul spoke to the people gathered at the Areopagus and proclaimed the one, true God to them and also preached about Christ's resurrection. Moreover, his remarks generated enough interest that he was invited to speak to them again on the matter! (Acts 17:14-34)
Nevertheless, Paul went on to the city of Corinth. There he met a Jewish couple who befriended him. Aquila and Priscilla, like Paul, were tent makers; and they all decided to work together at their trade. Moreover, the couple believed in Christ and supported their new friend in his proclamation of the gospel message. (Acts 18:1-4) In fact, by the time that Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, the trio had provoked so much opposition to their messaging among the Jews that Paul had decided to abandon his evangelical efforts among them and carry his message exclusively to the Gentiles. As a consequence, a large number of Gentiles were converted in the city, and Paul ended up remaining there for a year and a half! (Acts 18:5-11)
Now, when his mission was finished at Corinth, Paul sailed for Syria with Aquila and Priscilla accompanying him. However, when they came to Ephesus, Priscilla and Acquila decided to remain there, and Paul returned to Antioch. While in Ephesus, the couple met a young Alexandrian Jew named Apollos who was inspired to preach about Jesus. Even so, as a relatively new convert to Christianity, there were still many things that he had not yet learned, and Aquila and Priscilla happily filled in the gaps in his knowledge. In the meantime, Paul traveled on to Galatia and Phrygia and strengthened the new Christians in those regions. (Acts 18:18-28)
As these missionary efforts among Gentile regions continued, great numbers of Gentiles were converted to the new religion and came into the Church. At the same time, resistance to the Christian message increased within the Jewish communities in these areas. Hence, over time, the number of Jewish Christians compared to Gentile Christians began to shrink. In other words, more and more, the Church was becoming a Gentile community and growing away from its Jewish roots. Over the years that followed, this phenomenon only accelerated, and the number of Christians who observed the Sabbath, Holy Days, and other Jewish traditions became a smaller and smaller part of the whole.
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