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C.S. Mosna said that W. Rordorf gave "the rise of Sunday festivity a too-Christian origin, neglecting other userful elements and detatching it from its Jewish context." (Storia della domenica, pp. 41 and 5). - Jewish context of the Sabbath |
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From Sabbath To Sunday
A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity
by Samuele Bacchiocchi
Book reviews
Key Role Future Research
"For its clarity of thought and argument, its scholarly command of a wide spectrum of sources, and its significant thesis, Bacchiocchi's From Sabbath to Sunday will play a key role in the future research on the origin of the Christian Sunday.... Since, as this study shows, the hermeneutic endeavor is majorly influenced by presuppositions, both confessional and traditional, can the hermeneutic task be complete without scholarly contribution from the smaller communions which hold positions of dissent in given areas of Christian thought and practice?"
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Remarkable Book
It is a remarkable book... In my view, this book should cast serious doubts on the assumptions that underly our Sunday observance.... The plain fact is that Sunday is not the Sabbath, and the resolution of our uncertainties must start at that point... If we are to retain the traditional evangelical view of the Decalogue as a perpetual and universal code, then the "Sabbath question" must be firmly on the agenda, and we had better start talking to the Adventists, which might be a good thing anyway."
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A Wealth of Information
"Carefully researched, meticulously documented, and logically organized, Dr. Bacchiocchi's work provides a wealth of information and critical insights into the origin and early development of Sunday as a day of worship. The historical analysis is worth the cost of the book; the comprehensive list of primary and secondary sources is an adde bonus. Dr. Bacchiocchi is to be commended for his scholarly achievement."
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Impressive Scholarship
"From Sabbath To Sunday is impressive scholarship done in an irenic spirit. It reminds us that even our most treasured religious traditions ought never be exempt from 'the Protestant Principle' --- tha tnothing relative should be absolutized. Further, the book should humble this society's religious majority into a new ecumenical openness, a better Jewish-Christian understanding, and a fresh approach to certain church-state issues."
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Superb Theological Interpretation
"Dr. Bacchiocchi has written a richly suggestive book in which he combines considerable theological passion with careful and perceptive historical method. He offers a superb theological interpretationo of the Sabbath, understanding it both as a liberation event and a eschatological practice of what is yet to come. Implications for the contemporary life of the Church abound in this perception and bold exposition."
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Much Needed Perspective
"The warning has gone out, Sunday is in trouble. Gradually, the character of Sunday is losing ground... In order to gain a much needed perspective on the issue, a practical and worthwhile reading of From Sabbath To Sunday is needed. The author, Samuele Bacchiocchi, presents a consideration of the biblical and historical development of the Sabbath-Sunday. This genesis helps the reader discover the attitudes, approaches, cultural and political background against which the change came from Sabbath to Sunday."
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Probing Questioning...
"Professor Bacchiocchi provides a thorough analysis of the evidence concerning the shift from the Jewish to the Christian Sabbath as well as probing questioning of long prevailing assumptions relating to the substitution of the first day for the seventh day as the proper time of rest and worship."
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Thought Provoking...
"From Sabbath to Sunday by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi is a work of extensive schope, deep research, careful documentation, vast horizon, and rich content. Every subsequent consideration of the origins of the Christian Sunday, whether historical, liturgical, or theological, will have to reckon with the early developments as he traces them. His carefully-stated but charitable and eirenic conclusions, are not only thought-provoking from a scholarly viewpoint but also challenging from an ecumenical perspective."
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Careful Scholarship...
"From Sabbath To Sunday is to be commended for its careful scholarship. It is a thought-provoking study of a by no means peripheral theme. Not least I appreciate it as a powerful summons to all Christians to enjoy the blessings of God's holy day, whether as the Lord's day or the Sabbath."
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Deserves to Be Read By Every Jew and Christian Too...
"In an easy to read but full of immense and rich research, the book From Sabbath to Sunday reveals how and what the elders of the Church did to displace Saturday for Sunday. IT is an amazing work by a scholar who deserves to be better known. His instructive digging has turned up a work that deserves to be read by every Jew and every Christian too."
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Significant Contribution...
"Well-written, based on wide reading and careful research, and closely reasoned, this monograph is a significant contribution to the Sabbath-Lord's Day question. It is especially helpful on the way Christ restored to the Sabbath its original joyous and wholesome character. This treatise is crucially important in an era when all the days of the week are used for secular concerns by many professing disciples of Christ. The author concludes from his research that Sunday observance originated basically in Gentile Christendom (often anti-Semitic), especially in Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome - the capital of the Empire: although it is a complex a difficult problem. Reverence for the Day of the Sun in the Roman Empire may also have played a role in the adoption of Sunday. The author's scholarly objectivity is especially laudable."
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Excellent Study...
"We are indebted to Dr. Bacchiocchi for a number of contributions. He has presented an excellent study of the historical developments that led to the observance of Sunday as the almost universal practice of the Christian church. I know of no better compilation in as concise a manner as he has given. In terms of scholarship and in terms of the practice of piety, we are indebted to him for a renewal of emphasis on the principle of the Sabbath. It is refreshing to be reminded of the importance of the respite and renewal which God has provided for man, especially man in the covenant."
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Sounds The Alarm...
"I have not seen another modern work which has sought to earnestly to identify the problem, search out its sources and sound the alarm than that which is to be found in Bacchiocchi's From Sabbath to Sunday. The option proposed is to return to the faithful abservance of a seventh day Sabbath in the face of the contrary social pressures of our time and in the light of considerable evidence that the move away from such practice in the earliest centuries of the church's life was caused primarily by factors external to the faith itself. One can react to this book by deciding that it is going to great length to make a mountain out of a very minor issue. However, the issue of a unique and prophetic and distinctly biblical lifestyle for the Christian is a major issue indeed. At least the Sabbath question is one convenient vehicle through which this issue can be addressed helpfully."
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Valuable, Challenging...
"From ?Sabbath to Sunday is cogently written. The range of material with which the author deals is impressive. He knows early church literature, Roman Catholic and Protestant materials, liberal and evangelical, continental and American. The tone is irenic but the arguments are carefully presented. The book is valuable for its exposition of the biblical texts and for the information about the developments on this subject in the early church. The book presents a challenge to stereotype arguments - a challenge which may well call into question some traditional conclusions."
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A Classic...
"Preparation for the writing of Sabbath to Sunday must be described as not only extensive but meticulous. This erudite discussion of the transition from "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy" to worship on Sunday is a classic which will be among the basic scholarly sources for investigation into this religious phenomena by future generations. The book, with its historical facts and persuassive logic will cause the Sunday observer to evaluate anew the ground for Sunday worship."
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Much Needed Light...
"I take great pleasure in recommending the reading of From Sabbath To Sunday to both the student and the layman. The study is written without the usual insinuations that "my thinking is the only viewpoint on this issue". I found the book a spiritual blessing as well as an eyeopener. Dr. Bacchiocchi deftly opens the historical background and sheds much needed light on the present day stance of the Sabbath - Sunday question."
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A Fine Study...
"Dr. Bacchioccchi has provided a fine study for professional students of liturgy... One frequently has the impression that the reader is not allowed to escape one shred of evidence discovered by the writer in his many years of research... He helps us clarify our understanding of the origin of Sunday and its theological thematics."
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Thorough, Kind, Irenic...
"I appreciated reading From Sabbath To Sunday. Dr. Bacchiocchi has done his research in a very thorough way with a kind, irenic, Christlike spirit. It was good to benefit from such a research on the early church Fathers as it applies to the Sabbath-Sunday question."
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Impressive Research...
"Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi has produced a major work of serious scholarship marked by impressive research and an irenic mood. While he argues for his case strongly, he does so on the basis of evidence and logic, never on issues of personality or bias. Two major contributions of the book that impressed me on the first reading should be mentioned. One if the splendid presentation of Jesus' relationship to the question of Sabbath - particularly as seen against the legalism of the first century Jewish community. A second thrust of the book that calls for further strudy is the massive documentation of the anti-Semitism expressed by many in the early Church. Bacchiocchi kindly treats this malady under the rubric: 'Anti-Judaism of differentiation'."
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A Model of Foundation Thinking...
"Bacchiocchi calls us to review what the post-modern church has been for some time implicitly questioning through its practice - namely, the nature and meaning of the Christian Sunday. Among other things, this work provides us with a paradigm for scholarly investigation into theological issues. It brings into its purview the crucial biblical, historical and theological data pertaining to the origin of Sunday as a day of rest and worship; yet it is not merely an historical treatise, but one which attempts to address a contemporary crisis. As a work on historical origins, it establishes a convincing scholarly basis on which to challenge traditional theological assumptions regarding the Christian Sunday and on which to continue fruitful discussion. Thus both in methodology and content the book provides us with a model of foundation thinking that is so necessary also in other areas of equal theological significance in the church today."