The Sabbath: Which Day, and Is It Still Required?
Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.Colossians 2:16-17 · World English Bible
Original Language & Text
Hebrew שַׁבָּת (shabbat, “sabbath, rest”) comes from the verb שָׁבַת (shavat, “to cease, to rest”), first used in the Bible not for a weekly day at all but for God’s own ceasing from creative work on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). The two versions of the Sabbath commandment give different grounds entirely: Exodus 20:11 roots it in creation (“for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth… and rested the seventh day”), while Deuteronomy 5:15 roots the same command in the exodus from Egypt (“remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out from there”) — a genuine difference in rationale within the Torah’s own two tellings of the Ten Commandments. In the New Testament, Greek σαββατισμός (sabbatismos, Hebrews 4:9) is a rare word, not attested anywhere in surviving Greek literature before this verse, that most translations render “Sabbath rest” or “Sabbath-keeping” — a translation choice with real stakes, since it is the New Testament’s only use of this specific term for an ongoing rest available to believers, rather than the ordinary word for the weekly day itself.
Key Terms in the Original Language
“sabbath, rest”
The noun form used for the weekly day itself; derived from the verb shavat, “to cease, to rest.”
“to cease, to rest”
The underlying verb, first used in Genesis 2:2-3 for God's own ceasing from creative work on the seventh day — before any weekly commandment is given.
“sabbath rest” / “sabbath-keeping” (Heb. 4:9)
A rare word not attested elsewhere in Greek literature before this verse; the New Testament's only use of this specific term, applied to an ongoing rest for God's people rather than the ordinary word for the weekly day.
“the Lord's day” (Rev. 1:10)
The earliest attested New Testament designation for the first-day gathering, already used as a recognizable term by the time Revelation was written.
History & Authorship
For at least a century after the resurrection, Christian practice around the Sabbath developed unevenly across different regions rather than changing all at once by decree. The New Testament itself already shows movement toward gathering on “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2), and Revelation 1:10 refers to “the Lord’s day” as an already-recognized designation by the end of the first century. Justin Martyr’s First Apology (c. 155 CE) explicitly describes weekly Sunday assembly, tying it to both creation (“the first day on which God… made the world”) and resurrection (“Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead”). Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Magnesians (early 2nd century) is often cited as contrasting Sabbath-keeping with “the Lord’s Day,” though this is genuinely disputed among textual scholars: the earliest, most reliably authentic form of the letter may originally have read “living according to the Lord’s life” rather than “the Lord’s day,” with the clearer “Lord’s Day” wording appearing only in a later, expanded recension — a real textual uncertainty, not a settled fact either side of the debate can claim outright. By the Council of Laodicea (mid-to-late 4th century), canon 29 explicitly forbade Christians from “Judaizing” by resting on the Saturday Sabbath, showing Sunday observance was by then the established norm being actively enforced against holdouts rather than newly introduced. Roman Emperor Constantine’s civil decree of 321 CE made Sunday a legally recognized day of rest across the empire; it followed, rather than created, this already-widespread Christian practice, though it undeniably cemented Sunday’s civil and social status going forward.
How This Debate Developed
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Mosaic setting (traditionally 2nd millennium BCE)
Two rationales given in the Torah
Exodus 20:8-11 grounds the Sabbath in God's rest after creation; Deuteronomy 5:12-15 grounds the same command in Israel's deliverance from Egypt.
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Mid-to-late 1st century CE
Early Christian first-day gathering
Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, and Revelation 1:10 show Christian gathering on “the first day” / “the Lord's day” already underway.
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c. 155 CE
Justin Martyr's First Apology
Explicitly describes weekly Sunday Christian assembly, tied to both creation and the resurrection.
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4th century CE
Council of Laodicea, Canon 29
Forbids Christians from “Judaizing” by resting on the Saturday Sabbath, evidence Sunday observance was already the enforced norm.
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321 CE
Constantine's civil decree
Recognizes Sunday as the Roman Empire's legal day of rest, following rather than originating existing Christian practice.
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1844-1863
Sabbatarian Adventism organizes
The Millerite movement's “Great Disappointment” (1844) gives rise to Sabbatarian Adventism, formally organized as the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863.
The Popular / Mainstream View
Most Christian traditions today hold that the Sabbath commandment’s requirement of a specific day was fulfilled or set aside in Christ, while its underlying principle of one day devoted to rest and worship continues, now observed on Sunday in honor of the resurrection — a view reflected in the common term “the Lord’s Day.” This is the dominant practice across Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, though how binding this Sunday observance actually is (a strict command versus a valuable but voluntary custom) varies considerably even among traditions that agree on the day itself.
Minority & Alternative Views
Seventh-day Sabbatarianism
Seventh-day Adventists, Seventh Day Baptists (whose English congregations date to the 1650s, predating Adventism by two centuries), and several smaller groups hold that the Sabbath commandment specifies Saturday, the seventh day, as a perpetual moral obligation the New Testament never revokes, and that the shift to Sunday worship reflects later church tradition and, eventually, Constantine’s civil decree, rather than apostolic practice. The Seventh-day Adventist Church formally organized in 1863 out of the Millerite movement, after the 1844 “Great Disappointment” left a group of believers who retained the Millerite prophetic framework while adopting seventh-day Sabbath-keeping, championed especially by Joseph Bates and Ellen G. White.
No specific day required (Colossians/Romans reading)
Drawing especially on Colossians 2:16-17 (“let no one judge you… with respect to… a Sabbath day, which are a shadow of the things to come”) and Romans 14:5-6 (“one man esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike”), some traditions hold that no specific day is required of Christians at all. On this reading, Sabbath observance belonged to the Old Covenant’s shadow, now fulfilled in Christ, and the choice of any day for corporate worship is a matter of Christian liberty and practical convenience rather than binding law.
Genuine disagreement within Reformation confessions
Even the major Reformation confessions do not agree with each other on this point. The Augsburg Confession (1530) states plainly that Scripture itself abrogated the Sabbath and that the church merely designated Sunday for practical convenience rather than binding necessity, adding that those who think the Lord’s Day was ordained by church authority as something “necessary” greatly err. The Westminster Confession (1646), by contrast, calls Sunday observance a “positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages” — treating the fourth commandment’s obligation as continuing in force, merely transferred to a new day. This is a genuine, longstanding disagreement between major Protestant confessional traditions, not a minor wording difference.
What Scholars Say
The presumed continuity between the Old Testament weekly Sabbath and the New Testament “Lord’s Day” is less airtight in the earliest sources than popular retellings sometimes suggest. Ignatius’s Magnesians 9, frequently cited as the earliest post-apostolic evidence for a Sabbath-to-Sunday transition, sits inside a genuine textual dispute over whether its authentic form actually names “the Lord’s day” at all, or only “the Lord’s life” — a single Greek word’s difference with substantial consequences for how early the explicit contrast was actually drawn. It’s also worth noting that Hebrews 4:9’s sabbatismos is applied there to an ongoing rest “for the people of God,” not explicitly to a weekly day of corporate worship, so using it as direct evidence for or against any specific weekly practice requires an interpretive step the text itself doesn’t spell out. See the Textual and Historical Criticism topics for related discussion of how early Christian practice and later doctrinal claims about that practice can diverge.
What the Confessions Say
Lutheran — Augsburg Confession (1530), Article XXVIII
“Scripture has abrogated the Sabbath-day... those who judge that by the authority of the Church the observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as a thing necessary, do greatly err.”
Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII (“Of Ecclesiastical Power”)
Reformed — Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Q&A 103
“That, especially on the day of rest, I diligently attend church, to learn the Word of God... and that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, allow the Lord to work in me by his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the everlasting Sabbath.”
Heidelberg Catechism, Question & Answer 103
Presbyterian — Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), Chapter XXI
“He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath... which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.”
Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XXI, Section 7
Sources & Further Reading
- Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 67 (c. 155 CE)
- Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Magnesians (early 2nd century CE)
- Council of Laodicea, Canon 29 (4th century CE)
- Augsburg Confession (1530), Article XXVIII
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), Chapter XXI
- Fritz Guy, “‘The Lord’s Day’ in the Letter of Ignatius to the Magnesians,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 2/1 (1964)
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Study & Discussion Questions
- Exodus 20:11 grounds the Sabbath commandment in God's rest after creation, while Deuteronomy 5:15 grounds the same commandment in Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. What difference might it make whether the Sabbath is primarily about imitating God's rest or remembering liberation?
- Colossians 2:16-17 tells believers not to let anyone judge them regarding a Sabbath day, calling such observances a “shadow of the things to come.” How do sabbatarian and non-sabbatarian Christians typically read this passage differently?
- The historical shift from Saturday to Sunday worship appears to have been gradual and theologically motivated, tied to the resurrection, well before Constantine's 321 CE decree. Does knowing this history change how you weigh arguments that the change was a later corruption versus an early, organic development?
- The Augsburg Confession and the Westminster Confession disagree about whether Sunday observance is a binding “moral and perpetual commandment” or a matter of church convenience and Christian liberty. Which view better fits how you understand the relationship between Old Testament law and New Testament freedom?
- Hebrews 4:9 promises a “sabbath rest” for the people of God, but scholars disagree about whether this refers to a future spiritual rest, an ongoing present reality, or an implicit endorsement of a literal weekly practice. How would each reading change the way you'd apply this verse today?
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