Sun Worship in Rome - The planetary week played a very important part in the worship of the Invincible Sun (Sol Invictus), the Romanized cult of Mithraism. During the early centuries of the Christian Era, Mithraism was the great pagan rival of Christianity, when Augustus Caesar became ruler of the Roman world, Mithraism (a system of Babylonian and Persian religious beliefs) was already spreading westward from Asia to become popular in Europe. “As the Mithras worship was such a rival of the early Christian worship,” writes Camden M. Cobern, “it may be added that in 1915 there was opened under the church of St. Clement at Rome, and made accessible to visitors, the foundations of a temple of Mithras built during the reign of Augustus. The sacred font was found, also a part of the altar and the remains of ancient sacrifices which proved to be wild boars.” (See C. R, Acad. Inscri., 1915, pp.203-311.)” The New Archaeological Discoveries, 9th edition, p.506.
By the middle of the 2nd century Mithraic sun worship was popular among the Romans. The emperor Antoninus Pius (AD138-161) erected a temple to Mithra at Ostia, the seaport city a few miles below the Roman capital. In his First Apology (chap. 66) to this pagan emperor and his subjects, Justin Martyr referred to the Mithraic mysteries as things which his readers either knew by personal experience or could easily learn by inquiry. In his Dialogue with Trypho (chaps. 70 & 78) he twice mentions Mithraism. The name of Antoninus Pius, it is said, can still be seen inscribed on the base of the famous temple of the Sun at Baalbek (Heliopolis) in Syria.
The worship of the Invincible Sun steadily increased in popularity with the Roman rulers and their subjects. Aurelian (AD270-275), whose mother was a priestess of the Sun, made this solar cult the official religion of the empire. His biographer, Flavius Vopiscus, says of him: “He set the priesthoods in order, he constructed the Temple of the Sun, and he founded its college of pontiffs; and he also allotted funds for making repairs and paying attendants.” - The Deified Aurelian, Chap. 35.
The Sun Called ‘Lord’ - That emperor officially declared that solar deity to be “Sol Dominus Imperil Romani” (The Sun, the Lord of the Roman Empire). This title appears repeatedly on his coinage. (H. Mattingly and E. A. Sydenham, Roman Imperial Coinage, vol. 5, part 1, pp. 264, 312; S.W. Stevenson, C.R. Smith, and F.W. Madden, A Dictionary of Roman Coins, p.753, art. ‘Sol’; The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 12, pp.193,309,719. In The Cambridge Ancient History, volume 5 of Plates, pp.238,239, is shown a photographic reproduction of coins minted by Aurelian. The Latin inscription on the pieces of money clearly shows the titles Sol Dominus Imperii Romani and Sol Invicto.
Sun worship continued to be the official religion of the Roman empire until Constantine I defeated Licinius in AD323, after which it was supplanted by Romanized Christianity. Julian the Apostate (AD361-363) vainly attempted to restore the worship of the Sun to its former place as the official religion of the Roman empire.
Sunday Sacred to the Sun - It was natural, that in the worship of the Sun, the DAY of the Sun (Sunday) would be regarded as a very sacred festival by the heathen. In the first civil law enforcing the observance of Sunday as a day of rest among the Roman people, the emperor Constantine, who issued the edict in AD321, speaks of it as ‘the venerable day of the Sun.’ - Code of Justinian,bk.3,title 12,law 3.
Likewise in another law, issued a few months later by the same emperor, he spoke of it as ‘the day of the Sun, noted for its veneration.’ - Code of Theodosius, bk. 16, title 10, law 1.
Heathen Sunday Observance – Though there is little information that has been preserved to show how the heathen observed Sunday, there is a statement concerning Sunday-keeping by Tertullian (about AD200) who made this charge against the Sunday keepers: “You certainly are the ones who also received the Sun into the register of the 7 days, and from among the days preferred it, on which day you leave off the bath, or you may defer it until the evening, or you may devote it [Sunday] to idleness and eating.” - Apology, chap.16. (Translated from the Latin text in J. P. Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol.1, cols,369-372, which reads as follows: “Vos certe estis, qui etiam in laterculum septem dierum Solem recipistis, et ex diebus ipsum praelegistis, quo die lavacrum subtrahatis, aut in vesperam, differatis, aut otium et prandium curetis.”)
Sunday Among Christians - Near the middle of the 2nd century, Sunday observance was introduced into the Christian community at Rome as a church festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus, who rose from the sepulchre on the 1st day of the week. Polycarp, a prominent bishop of the churches in Asia Minor and said to have been ordained to the ministry by apostolic hands, went to Rome to protest to Bishop Anicetus against this innovation. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 5, chap. 24.) The Roman bishop refused to yield. A terrible war had been waged between the Romans and the Jews during the years 131 to 135, and hatred on the part of the Romans toward anything that savoured of Judaism was intense. Hadrian, the emperor of Rome at that time, issued an edict strictly prohibiting the observance of the Sabbath (the 7th day). This doubtless was a strong incentive to the bishop of Rome to make Sunday a weekly religious festival for his followers to keep, because Judaism was as unpopular in Rome in AD135 as * was in 1939-45.
Not long after Polycarp’s visit to Rome, Justin Martyr notified the emperor Antoninus Pius (AD138-161), that his followers held meetings on Sunday - “On that called the day of the Sun,” he wrote, “an assembly is had of all those dwelling in the cities and rural districts … And on the day of the Sun we make an assembling of all together, because it is the first day, on which God, having changed the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead on the same day.” - First Apology, chap.67. (Trans. from Greek text in J. P. Migne’s Patrologia Graeca, vol.6, cols.429-432.)
About the year 185AD Clement of Alexandria, a professed Christian steeped in pagan philosophy, first speaks of Sunday as ‘the Lord’s day’ (Miscellanies, bk. 5, chap. 14.) This was an ambiguous title to use at that time, for the ‘Invincible Sun’, the planetary god of the pagan Sunday was also referred to as ‘Dominus’ (Lord) by the heathen. Indeed, an ancient sepulchral inscription found by archaeologists in Sicily contains this epitaph of a child: “He was born, O Lord of good things, on the 15th day before the Kalends of November, on the day of Saturn; he lived 10 months; (and) he died on the 10th day before the Kalends of September, on the Lord’s day of the Sun.” - G. Kaibel, Inscriptions Graecae, vol.14, Inscriptiones Italiae et Siciliae, p.129, no.525; A. Kirchhoff, Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, vol.4, p.506, no.9475.
Tertullian, writing early in the 3rd century, says that the well-informed pagans mistook the Sunday-keeping Christians for sun worshipers - “Others, certainly more cultured, think that the Sun is the god of the Christians, because it is known that we pray toward the east [the sunrising] and make a festivity on the day of the Sun. Do you do less?” - Apology, chap. 16.
Sunday Observance by Force - On the 7th of March, AD321, Constantine 1st issued the first law ever promulgated by a civil government to enforce Sunday observance universally. - “Let all judges and townspeople and all occupations of trade rest on the venerable day of the Sun; nevertheless, let those who are situated in the rural districts freely and with full liberty attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other day may be so * for the planting of grain and setting out of vineyards, lest at the time the commodities conceded by the provision of Heaven be lost. Given on the Nones [the 7th] of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls, each of them for the 2nd time.” – Code of Justinian, bk.3, title 12, law 3.
Constantine issued at least 6 Sunday laws. In addition to the one already quoted, he promulgated another in June of AD321 to make it lawful to grant emancipation and manumission to slaves on Sunday (Code of Theodosius, bk.2, title 8, law 1.) He also issued a decree that permitted Christian soldiers observing Sunday, to attend church on that day. In another edict he commanded that the heathen troops be marched out on the drill field on Sunday to recite a prayer, composed by the emperor himself, which might be addressed to any deity adored by men (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, bk.4, chaps.18-20.) An inscription found in a Slavonian bath, rebuilt by Constantine, reads: “Also by the provision of his [Constantine’s] piety, he ordained that markets (nundinae) be held on the day of the Sun perpetually throughout the year.”- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1863 ed.), vol.3, part 1, p.523, no.4121.
When the Council of Nicaea, in AD325, voted that the Easter festival of the resurrection of Jesus should be celebrated on Sunday every year, instead of on whatever day of the week the 16th day of the first lunar month (Nisan) should happen to fall, Constantine issued an imperial edict in the form of a letter ordering all Christians to obey the decree of the council (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, bk.3, chaps.5,6,17-20.)
In the meantime, the Sabbath, the 7th day, was still observed by most Christians as God’s sacred day of rest; but Sunday was until then considered by the majority as a merry ecclesiastical holiday in honour of the Saviour’s resurrection, until the Council of Laodicea, which was held later in the 4th century, and then the keeping of the Sabbath by resting from labour was strictly forbidden. “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday,” says the canon 29, “but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day [Sunday] they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.” - C. J. Hefele, A History of the Church Councils, vol.2. p.316. In the original text, the Greek word for Saturday is “Sabbath.”
Now a Roman Catholic catechism calls attention to this eclipse of the Sabbath by Sunday:
“Q. Which is the Sabbath day? “A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Q- Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the [Roman] Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” - Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, edition of 1957, p.50.
From the 4th century onward, church leaders and civil magistrates continually forced Sunday observance upon the people of Christendom by means of laws and penalties. Centuries later, the Protestant Reformers, finding Sunday keeping already rooted and grounded by custom, were reluctant to abandon it and return to the observance of the true Lord’s day, which is the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”; Mark 2:28 “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath”; Luke 6:5 “Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”; Revelation 1:10.)
In section 249 of his encyclical letter Mater et Magistra, dated May 15, 1961, Pope John 23rd referred to the Sabbath commandment in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:8-11). But disregarding the fact that God says: “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God,” the pope declared in section 251: “The [Roman] Catholic Church has decreed for many centuries that Christians observe this day of rest on Sunday.”
James Cardinal Gibbon, in his popular book The Faith of Our Fathers, says in chapter 8 (The Church and the Bible): “Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”
Every believer in Christ who would live in obedience to the Holy Scriptures ought to keep the 7th day and this is true for Seventh-day Adventists, who number 23 million world-wide with 1.4 million baptised last year - are people who have turned from Roman Catholicism and various denominations of Protestantism, as well as other religious faiths, and are foremost in taking a consistent position respecting the law of God. Of them it can be truly said, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
How Did Sunday Get Its Name?
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