Does Acts 20:7 Prove Sunday Worship In The Bible?
One of the Bible verses which Sunday-keeping apologists use to support their teaching of the observance of Sunday worship is Acts 20:7. The verse says, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” (Acts 20:7 NKJV, bold emphases added by me).
At first sight, the verse appears to support the idea that there were indeed the observance of Sunday worship in the days of the apostles in the first century CE. But an examination of original Greek texts have shown that this was not the case. What led to this false idea was the mistranslation of the verse in some English versions of the Bible, perhaps due to some theological bias.
An examination of Acts 20:7 shows that the words “first day” were not written in the original Greek text but were added by some English translators. The Greek text copied from the SBL Greek New Testament is as follows:
“Ἐν δὲ τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων συνηγμένων ἡμῶν κλάσαι ἄρτον ὁ Παῦλος διελέγετο αὐτοῖς, μέλλων ἐξιέναι τῇ ἐπαύριον, παρέτεινέν τε τὸν λόγον μέχρι μεσονυκτίου”
An analysis of the verse, with the pronunciation and the translation in brackets, gives something like this;
εν (en; in) δε (de; but, then) τη (te; the) μια (mia; one) των (ton; of the) σαββατων (sabbaton; Sabbaths or Sabbath days) συνηγμενων (synegmenon; gathered) των (ton; the) μαθητων (mathiton; disciples) κλασαι (klasai; to break) ἄρτον (arton; bread) ὁ (ho, -) Παῦλος (Paulus, Paul) διελέγετο (dielegeto, talked) αὐτοῖς (autois, to them) μέλλων (mellōn, to depart) τῇ (tē, on the) ἐπαύριον (epaurion, next day) παρέτεινέν (pareteinen, he continued) τε (te, then) τὸν (ton, the) λόγον (logon, talk) μέχρι (mechri, until) μεσονυκτίου (mesonyktiou, midnight).
It should be noted that the words πρῶτος (prótos, first) and ἡμέρα (hémera, day) are not in the Greek text. What is contained therein are μια των σαββατων (mia ton sabbaton) which translates to one of the Sabbaths or one of the Sabbath days. It can be plainly seen that the translators gave us a completely different day from what Luke wrote.
Even before the King James Bible was published in 1611, some English versions had been published with the correct translation of the Greek. Two of them are quoted here:
“Vpon one of the Sabbathes, whan the disciples came together to breake bred, Paul preached vnto them, wyllinge to departe on the morow, and contynued the preachinge vnto mydnight.” (Coverdale Bible of 1535).
“And vpon one of the Sabboth dayes, when the disciples came together for to breake bread, Paul reasoned with the, redy to depart on the morowe, and continued the worde vnto mydnyght.” (Bishop’s Bible of 1568).
The Context of Acts 20
Looking at the context of Acts 20, one can see that Paul and his companions were observing the Jewish feasts. They observed the feast of Unleavened Bread in Philippi (Acts 20:6). The feast starts on the 15th of Abib or Nisan, the day after the Pesach (Passover) which is celebrated on the 14th of Abib or Nisan. The week of the feast of Unleavened Bread is the first of the seven sabbaths (or seven sabbath days) that is counted from the Passover to arrive at the Shavu’ot (Pentecost) on the 50th day. Acts 20:16 says, “For Sha’ul [Saul] had decided to bypass Ephesus on his voyage, in order to avoid losing time in the province of Asia, because he was hurrying to get to Yerushalayim [Jerusalem], if possible in time to celebrate Shavu‘ot [Pentecost]. (Acts 20:16 CJB, emphasis and words in square brackets added).
The Jewish feasts of Passover and Pentecost were brought into the context in verses 6 and 16. In between them are the seven sabbaths (or seven sabbath days) which must be counted to arrive at the day of Pentecost on the 50th day (Lev. 23:15-21). By writing “one of the sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days” in verse 7, Luke was evidently referring to one of the seven sabbaths or sabbath days that are between Passover (verse 6) and Pentecost (verse 16), the first of which was observed while Paul and his team were in Philippi. Therefore, the Sabbath day on which they gathered to break bread in Troas was one of the seven sabbath days between the Pesach (Passover) and Shavu’ot (Pentecost). Paul chose to speak to the disciples on the sabbath day because it was the only day during which the believers could gather to listen to Paul’s message to them before leaving Troas. That was the only day when the disciples would cease from working in their fields or places of commerce, as commanded in Exod.20:8-11.
Luke’s use of σάββατον (sabbaton, sabbath) in the Bible
Doctor Luke used the word σάββατον (sabbaton) 20 times in the gospel of Luke and 10 times in the Acts of the Apostles. Except in one place where it is translated as “week” (Luke 18:12) and in two places where it is translated as “first day of the week” (Luke 24:1; Acts 20:7), it is translated as sabbath(s) or sabbath day(s) in all the other 27 places.
In Acts, the nine times it is translated as sabbath(s), all quotes from NIVUK are:
“Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.” (Acts 1:12).
“From Perga, they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath, they entered the synagogue and sat down.” (Acts 13:14).
The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognise Jesus, yet in condemning him, they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. (Acts 13:27).
“As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.” (Acts 13:42).
“On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” (Acts 13:44).
“For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (Acts 15:21).
“On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.” (Acts 16:13).
*”As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and [ἐπὶ σάββατα τρία (epi sabbata tria = for three Sabbath days), he reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2).
The word σάββατα (sabbata, meaning sabbaths or sabbath days) is the plural of σάββατον (sabbaton, meaning sabbath or sabbath day).
“Every Sabbath he [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. (Acts 18:4).
We see in all these places, in Acts, that the word
σάββατον (sabbaton) is translated as sabbath or sabbath day by the English translators. Only in Luke 24:1 and Acts 20:7 was it translated as “first day of the week.” It is instructive to note that the words πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, first day) are not found in the verse in any of the extant Greek texts. What was written by Luke was μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn, which literally means one of the sabbaths, or one of the Sabbath days). This literal interpretation of the three words is biblically consistent with the Jewish counting of seven sabbaths or sabbath days between the Pesach (Passover) and the Shavu’ot (Pentecost). It was in one of these sabbath days that the believers in Troas had a farewell dinner with Paul and his companions before their departure the next day.
Another thing that should be observed in Acts 20;7 is that the word σαββάτων (sabbatōn) is a plural noun. (Strong’s Greek Lexicon #4521 refers.) Therefore, the only correct interpretation of Luke’s μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) cannot be anything else than “one of the Sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days.” The singular noun “week” does not match the plural noun σαββάτων (sabbatōn) written by Luke.
It cannot be overemphasised that Luke was talking about the seven sabbath days that must be counted from the day after the Pesach (Passover) to arrive at the Shavu’ot (Pentecost) on the 50th day (Lev. 23:15-21). This is called the Counting of the Omer (Hebrew: סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר, Sefirat HaOmer). In Acts 20:6, Luke wrote that they observed the days of Unleavened Bread in Philippi. The first of these days is the Pesach (Passover). He also wrote, “Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.” (Acts 20:16 NIVUK).
What Luke wrote in verse 7 was one of the seven Sabbath days between the Passover and the Pentecost. The interpretation of Luke’s μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “first day of the week,” meaning Sunday, is glaringly erroneous and false.
All the people who teach that Sunday worship was observed in the Bible should stop mentioning Acts 20:7 because the verse does not support their assumption. While many New Testament verses can be cited for Sabbath day observance, none is seen in support of Sunday keeping.
What Does “Break Bread” Mean?
As seen right from the Book of Genesis and all through the Bible, bread has been part of the staple food of the Jews. Hence the word “bread” (Hebrew: lechem; Greek: artos) is used 296 times in the Hebrew Bible and 97 times in the Christian New Testament. The bread was usually brittle and therefore divided by being broken with the hands instead of being sliced with knife. In every meal where bread was eaten, the head of the home, after giving thanks to God, shared it to the family by breaking it. This custom of breaking bread continued to the time of Christ and the first century church which we now read about from the Christian New Testament. The bread broken at the first Lord’s Supper was one of the many instances in which bread was broken in the Bible. It is a gross error to assume that whenever bread was broken, it was the Lord’s Supper. There are some instances in which bread was broken but it was not the Lord’s Supper. Examples include:
- the miraculous feeding of 5000 and 4000 people by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 14:19; 15:36):
- the bread Jesus broke and gave to two of his disciples at Emmaus (Luke 24:29-30);
- the bread Paul and 275 other travellers broke and ate to sustain their lives in the ship after they had spent fourteen days without food (Acts 27:33-38).
The Bread Broken In Acts 20:7 Was Not The Lord’s Supper
Some people teach that the expression “break bread” in Acts 20:7 refers to the Lord’s Supper or Communion and that the verse means that the first century believers observed worship service on the first day of the week (Sunday). This conclusion is not borne out of a sound knowledge of the Bible.
The contexts in which the term “break bread” was used by Luke in Acts 2:42 & 46, 20:7, and 27:35 do not in any way suggest that the Lord’s Supper was eaten. Neither do the passages suggest that they were observing Sunday worship. In Acts 2, we read, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47 NIVUK, emphasis added).
Here, the loaves of bread they were breaking in their homes were in the course of their normal meals. It should be noted that they were having daily fellowship or communion meetings in the temple courts, not in their individual homes. The bread Luke said they were breaking “from house to house” simply means they were sharing their food with whoever was visiting them at the time they ate their meals. The bread they were breaking from house to house were not Passover/Lord’s Supper. The same is true of the bread Paul broke and ate in Acts 27:35. It was meant to sustain his life having spent many days without food for fourteen days due to anxiety caused by the life-threatening storm which raged for many days (Acts 27:33-34). See also verses 36-38.
The breaking of bread in Acts 20:7 was a kind of farewell dinner arranged by the brethren in Troas for Paul and his co-missionaries since they would be departing Troas the following day. Paul simply used the occasion to discuss with the brethren all he had in mind before leaving.
It should be noted that Paul and his team left Philippi for Troas after the Passover (Acts 20:6). This means the Lord’s Supper would have been eaten before they left Philippi. There is no known biblical evidence that the Passover/Lord’s Supper was eaten at any other time than on the 14th day of Abib (or Nisan), after sunset. Neither our Lord Jesus Christ nor Apostle Paul changed the time set by God for its observance. It is a grave error when people misinterpret what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 11:26 to mean that each church group is at liberty to eat the Lord’s Supper many times in a year at their own discretion. A grave error was equally committed when men changed the day of worship from Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday with the wrong assumption that they were/are celebrating the resurrection of the Lord on the first day of the week (Sunday). And it is irreverence when men twist the Bible, by their mistranslation of it, to make it say what was originally not in it.
Conclusively, a farewell dinner was arranged by the believers in Troas in honour of Paul and his companions. The farewell dinner must have started before sunset on a Sabbath day and extended into the night because Paul prolonged his message. This made the meeting spill over into the next day which starts at sunset. The dinner was fixed for that evening because Paul and his fellow missionaries intended to leave Troas the following morning. Acts 20:7 does not support the teaching that Sunday worship was observed in the days of the apostles. Neither should anyone erroneously take the “breaking of bread” in this place for a celebration of the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist. They celebrated the feast of the Passover/Lord’s Supper a few days earlier at Philippi. The Passover/Lord’s Supper was and properly remains an annual feast. Therefore, it couldn’t be the one they were celebrating in Troas. Neither Jesus Christ nor Paul changed the day for the celebration of the Passover/Lord’s Supper from the 14th day of Abib or Nisan, which falls between late March and early April of every year.
First day of the week cannot be a true translation
The translation of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “the first day of the week” cannot be a true one. The translation is flawed by the following reasons:
First, in all the eight places where the phrase “the first day of the week” is used (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), the word “day” (Greek: ἡμέρᾳ, hēmera) was not used in any of the Greek texts. What the translators of various English versions did was to translate the word μιᾷ (mia) as “first” and then added the word “day.”
It has been noted that the word “one” is an adjective which is used about 345 times in the original Greek texts. It has three genders – masculine (εἷς, heis), feminine (μιᾷ, mia), and neuter (ἓν hen). (There are case variations, the main cases being the nominative, accusative, or genitive. But we should not bog ourselves down with these grammatical details.) In all the 345 times the Greek words were used, they were translated as “one” except in the eight places where μία (mia, one) was translated as “first day” by the English translators. Why they chose to translate μία as “first day” is unknown to me. But I believe that the translators were influenced by some factor(s) other than the achievement of a faithful translation of the Greek texts into English.
We need to bear in mind that Luke was not ignorant of the Greek words for “first” or “day” or “first day.” He used the words when he meant to use them. He used the word “first” (Greek: πρώτη (prōtē, feminine singular), πρώτων. (prōtōn, neuter plural), πρῶτος (prōtos, masculine singular), πρῶτοι prōtoi, masculine plural)) a total of 10 times in the gospel of Luke and 12 times in the Acts of the Apostles. He also used the word “day” (Greek: ἡμέρᾳ, hēmera, day, (feminine singular) and ἡμέραις, hēmerais, days, (feminine plural) a total of 83 times in the gospel of Luke and 94 times in the Acts of the Apostles. These usage include the following:
ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ (hēmera tē ogdoē = day the eighth, or the eighth day). (Luke 1:59).
τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ (tē tritē hēmera = on the third day). (Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7; 24:21; 24:46; Acts 10:40).
πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras = the first day) (Acts 20:18).
τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαββάτων (tē hēmera tōn sabbatōn = on the day of the Sabbath, or on the Sabbath day). (Acts 13:14).
It can be seen that Luke specifically wrote πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, which means the first day in Acts 20:18. Therefore, the interpretation given to his “μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων” (“mia tōn sabbatōn”) in Acts 20:7 as “first day of the week” is glaringly false. Unarguably, the interpretation should be “one of the Sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days.”
The New Testament writers were quite conversant with the Greek words “πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ” (prōtē hēmera, first day). Mark used it in Mark 14:12 and Paul used it in Phil. 1:5. In these two places and in Luke 20:18 where Luke used it, the English translators were not at a loss in translating the words as “first day.” While I have no reason not to believe that the translators could be experts in Greek grammar, there is every reason to see them as being biased in favour of Sunday worship by falsely translating μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “the first day of the week” (Sunday).
Secondly, the words πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, first day) are not found in Acts 20:7 in any of the Greek texts. Therefore, the “first day of the week” used by many English versions appears to have been influenced by some other motive than the desire to achieve translational fidelity.
Thirdly, the context of Acts 20, bearing in mind verses 6 and 16, has given strong support for the view that “one of the sabbaths” mentioned in verse 7 means it is one of the seven sabbath days that must be counted from the Passover to arrive at the Pentecost which is the 50th day after the Passover (Lev. 23;15-21).
Fourthly, an examination of the Greek text in the ten places where σαββάτων is used in the Book of Acts reveals that it is a noun with the same case (genitive case) and number (plural) in Acts 13:14; 16:13; 20:7. One is left to wonder why it is translated as Sabbath or Sabbath day in Acts 13:14 and 16:13 but translated as “first day of the week” in Acts 20:7. It seems to me that this is a case of a deliberate mistranslation by the translators in order to force the Bible to fit into some of their beliefs that were not based on the Bible. I make bold to say that in spite of this subtle mistranslation, the verse still does not say that Sunday worship was observed by the first century believers.
Conclusion
The words πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, first day) are not in the Greek texts of the eight passages where the English translators dubiously translated μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) as “first day of the week.” This is an unfortunate mistranslation. The correct translation of μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (mia tōn sabbatōn) should have been “one of the Sabbaths” or “one of the Sabbath days.” Evidently, this means one of the seven Sabbath days which are between the Passover and the Pentecost which takes place on the 50th day after the Passover. Contextually, verses 6 and 16 of Acts 20 serve as undeniable proof that the Sabbath day mentioned by Luke in verse 7 is no other than one of the seven Sabbath days that lie between the Passover (observed in verse 6) and the Pentecost (mentioned in verse 16 as yet to be observed). Moreover, Luke wrote πρώτης ἡμέρας (prōtēs hēmeras, the first day) in verse 18. This means that if he had intended to write “the first day” in verse 7, he would have used these same words.
If, as claimed by some people, Christian worship on Sunday predated the decree of Emperor Constantine I in 321 CE, there is no evidence of such a practice found in the Bible. Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor. 16:2 are two of the eight verses that have been misinterpreted by English Bible translators and falsely said to support the teaching that the first century believers changed the day of worship from the Sabbath day (Saturday) to Sunday because it was on that day that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But these verses of the Bible do not support that teaching.
Conclusively, Acts 20:7 can not, and should not be used as a text that says Sunday worship was observed by the first century believers. There is no part of the original Greek texts that supports the argument that the first century believers observed Sunday worship. The phrase “μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων” (mia tōn sabbatōn) doubtlessly means “one of the Sabbath days” in Acts 20:7.
