Does 1 Corinthians 16:2 Teach the Observance of Sunday Worship?
As part of what Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers is this verse of the Bible: “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” (1 Cor. 16:2 KJV).
The most popular teaching is that after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead on the first day of the week (Sunday), the first century Christians began celebrating his resurrection on the first day of the week (Sunday). The teaching goes that the first century Christians became the ones who changed the day of worship from the Sabbath day (Saturday) to Sunday. Some Bible passages cited as proof of this claim include 1 Cor. 16:2, Acts 20:7, and Rev. 1:10. In this article, I want to shed some light on 1 Cor. 16:2 to enable my readers see if Apostle Paul meant Sunday in the verse. The other passages will subsequently be examined.
To have a better understanding of what Paul talked about in 1 Cor. 16:2, a look at the first four verses of the chapter is necessary.
“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me. (1 Cor. 16:1-4 KJV, emphases added by me).
Here, Paul was writing about collecting freewill donations, majorly food items, from the believers in Corinth and carrying them to Jerusalem and Judea as relief materials for the poor believers there who were most affected by the famine that plagued the region at that time. Paul was neither talking about Sunday worship nor the collection of tithes and offerings during worship service as is done in many churches nowadays. As at that time, there was famine which affected many lands. Judea was perhaps worst hit. This caused Paul to write to the churches in Macedonia (in the northern part of Greece) and Achaia (southern part), Corinth being the principal city, to gather relief items for the suffering believers in Jerusalem and Judea. It should be noted that Agabus prophesied about the famine in Antioch as told by Luke:
“Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples [inAntioch, on hearing the prophecy of Agabus], as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders [in Jerusalem] by Barnabas and Saul. (Acts 11:25-30 NIVUK, bold emphases and words in square brackets added by me).
In two letters which Paul wrote subsequent to 1 Corinthians, he did not forget to touch on the same subject. See 2 Cor. 8:1-9:5 and Rom. 15:23-29. It is amply clear from these passages that Paul never meant the collection of tithes and offerings at Sunday worship services.
Did Paul Have Sunday In Mind In 1 Corinthians 16:2?
We know that the New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek; it was not written in English. In the original text, the words translated “day” and “God” (1 Cor. 16:2, KJV), and “your” (verse 3), were not used. They were inserted by the translators for purposes of clarification according to how they understood the Greek texts. Such words are usually written in italics by the translators to let the reader know that they are interpolations. These insertions are italicised in standard editions of the KJV and NKJV. So, the words “day” and “God” were not used by Paul in verse 2. There are also some Greek texts which render “week” in the plural. If we should remove “day” from the verse and insert “s” in “week,” we will have the phrase, “the first of the weeks” or “the first of the sabbaths.” This did not make sense to the translators and it made them add “day” thus mistakenly changing the phrase to “first day of the week” (Sunday). But there was a system of counting seven weeks or sabbaths from the second day after Passover (from the 15th of Nisan) to arrive at the Pentecost on the 50th day after Nisan 14. The first of the seven weeks is “the first of the weeks.” Notice that the word “week” is translated from the Greek “sabbaton” which means sabbath or week (Strong’s Greek Lexicon #4521).
In Lev. 23:15-16 the counting, known as “the counting of the omer” is given: “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count seven full weeks. Count fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. (Lev. 23:15-16 NIVUK, emphasis added).
It is interesting to observe that many modern versions of the English Bible like the NIV, NLT, ESV, NASB, GNT, NRSV, et cetera, do not have the words “God” and “your” in verses 2 and 3 of 1 Cor. 16. This is, understandably, due to the fact that they are not found in the original Greek text. I believe these translators knew that the word “day” is also not in the Greek texts. The question is why did they not omit “day” just like they did with the other two inserted words?
The Gatherings Or Collections Were Done At Home
The words “lay by him in store” (KJV), “set aside…saving it up” (NIV), “put something aside and store it up” (ESV), “lay something aside, storing up” (NKJV), among others, clearly suggest that the storing up were to be done by the believers in their private homes. Whatever they have stored up in their homes will be brought out and put at Paul’s disposal on his arrival. The idea of making offertory at public worship service on Sunday cannot be correctly inferred from the verse. For the avoidance of doubt, some translations are quoted below.
“On [the] first of [the] week let each of you put by at home, laying up [in] whatever [degree] he may have prospered, that there may be no collections when I come.” (Darby Bible Translation).
“Vpon some sondaye let every one of you put a syde at home and laye vp what soever he thinketh mete that ther be no gaderinges when I come.” (Tyndale Bible of 1526).
“Upon some Sabboth daye, let euery one of you put asyde by hym selfe, and laye vp as God hath prospered hym, that then there be no gatherynges when I come.” (Bishop’s Bible of 1568).
“Vpon some Sabbath daye let euery one of you put aside by him selfe, and laye vp what so euer he thinketh mete, that the colleccion be not to gather whan I come.” (Coverdale Bible of 1535).
“On the first day of every week let each of you put on one side and store up at his home whatever gain has been granted to him; so that whenever I come, there may then be no collections going on.” (Weymouth New Testament).
“On every Sunday, let each person of you lay aside in house and keep that which he can, so that when I come there will be no collections.” (Aramaic Bible in Plain English).
“Upon the first day of every week, let each of you put aside and keep in his house whatever he can afford, so that there may be no collections when I come.” (Lamsa Bible).
Why First of the Weeks?
The first of the weeks is the earliest week following the harvest of all the produce of the land (Lev. 23:39). This means it was the best time for the Corinthian believers to set aside part of whatever they were able to harvest from their land as donations to the suffering believers in Judea. It should be borne in mind that the predominant occupation of the world in the first century CE was agriculture. Paul knew that the first of the weeks, immediately following the harvest of the crops, was the best time for the Corinthians, who were less affected by the famine, to set aside part of their farm produce to help the believers in Judea.
Conclusion
Apostle Paul did not use the word “day” in 1 Cor. 16:2. The phrase “first day of the week” (Sunday) came from the interpolation of “day” into the writing of Paul by English translators of the Bible. What Paul wrote was “first of the weeks,” the first of the seven weeks between Passover and Pentecost. This was the earliest week after the harvest of crops. It was therefore the best time for the Corinthian believers to set aside part of their harvest as donation to the famine-ravaged believers in Judea. Paul neither wrote on Sunday worship nor on the collection of tithes and offerings in 1 Cor. 16:2.
