Historical Sources and Quotes from the Catholic Church on the Introduction of Sunday

This website has presented the basic Greek text and hundreds of translations in several languages that speak of Jesus' resurrection on a Sabbath. But there are still inaccurate translations that mention the alleged resurrection Sunday, because this theory is the only reason why Christians have adopted Sunday. Almost all churches only quote historical texts that mention their Sunday in the churches of the first centuries after the death of Jesus, but at the same time they conceal sources that prove the resurrection of the Lord on a Sabbath. It is interesting to look at some historical sources and Catholic quotations. In them it becomes very clear that the Catholic Church itself admits that the introduction of Sunday sanctification has nothing to do with the Bible and is based only on the teachings of men, or on the authority of the Pope.

This chapter must be added because there are some theologians who spread the terrible false doctrine (you can call it a lie) that the church fathers supposedly only reported the Sunday resurrection and that the first Christians supposedly all celebrated Sunday. No, it is exactly the other way around, the first Christians knew God's calendar and they knew that their Lord was resurrected on His day (Sabbath). This is also stated in the New Testament (NT), not only in the basic Greek text, but also in many correct translations worldwide.

The so-called "Church Fathers" in the literature who speak in favor of Sunday are mostly Catholics who wanted to defend and enforce their theological teachings. These texts are of little importance to us, because we only refer to the Holy Scripture with its 49 scrolls and our Church Fathers are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter and Paul. Only their teachings in the 27 writings of the NT are binding for us, because the Bible warns against all those who spread new teachings and a different gospel that contradicts the Bible. This also includes the new gospel of the alleged Sunday resurrection of Jesus:

Gal 1:6-9: „I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.“

With regard to the historical sources, the churches have no interest at all in reporting the resurrection of Jesus „on a Sabbath“ and documenting the associated references. This includes the Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Free Churches, Pentecostal Churches, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. even (what is even worse) the Sabbath churches, such as the Adventists and the Church of God. No one wants the resurrection Sabbath, so they selectively choose historical quotes that speak in favor of Sunday, regardless of whether they themselves keep the Sabbath or not. Therefore, Adventists cannot be expected to publish documentation of ancient literary sources showing that Jesus was resurrected „on a Sabbath“. They mostly refer to the King James Bible, which has been mistranslated in some places, but not to the basic Greek text or the many correct Bible translations worldwide. There are many extra-biblical examples which show that even as late as 400-500 AD there were numerous Christians who wanted nothing to do with the Sunday commandment, but kept the Sabbath. Many also continued to believe in the crucifixion of Jesus „on a Wednesday“ and the resurrection of the Lord „on a Sabbath“. 

Important: Jesus is often called "Lord" [κύριοϛ, Kyrios] in the historical texts and his day is referred to as "Lord's Day" (Κυριακή, Kyriaki) or "Day of the Lord" (ημέρα του Κυρίου, hemera tou Kyríou). But this is where the interpretation begins, because for some it means the Sabbath, for others Sunday, because in modern Greek the Lord's Day was equated with Sunday by the Catholic Church. But the biblical facts are: Jesus always referred to himself as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Lk 6:5; Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28), but never as "Lord of the Sunday" or "Lord of the first day of the week". The only biblical "Lord's Day" (Day of the Lord) is therefore only the Sabbath, while the theological and ecclesiastical "Lord's Day" (Day of the Lord) is Sunday. So when historical sources refer to the Lord's Day (Day of the Lord), this can refer to both the Sabbath and Sunday. For some Christians (who followed the Bible) it meant the Sabbath, for others (who followed the theologians) it meant Sunday. Some ancient texts are also deliberately mistranslated because they literally mean "Lord's Day" (Day of the Lord) in Greek, but theologians make it "Sunday", forcing readers to draw the wrong conclusion.

And it gets even more complicated, because the Romans referred to their sun god Sol Invictus (the invincible sun god) as their Lord, and their Lord's Day was Sunday. Just as there are two lords (Jesus and the sun god), there are also two Lord's Days. Since the terms were not uniformly defined (which was also the intention), a chaos of understanding arose, whereby there is only one spirit that is happy about this, namely the one that wants to enforce Sunday.

Even in the early days of the Christian church, the Sabbath was fiercely attacked because Sunday (the first day of the week) was the official Roman holiday in honor of the sun god. As there should not be two competing days of rest and holidays in the Roman Empire, pressure was exerted to abolish the Sabbath and replace it with Sunday. This meant that pagans and Christians could rest on the same days. Official opinion was only ever to emphasize Sunday and, of course, the Roman calendar, while all pagans and Christians together were to distance themselves from the unpopular "Jewish festivals". It was increasingly forbidden to speak positively about the Sabbath and the resurrection on the Sabbath and to observe God's calendar. Many of these sources were classified as "heretical" and burned. This must always be kept in mind when searching for historical quotations, as a large part of the literature reporting on the Sabbath resurrection of Jesus had to be destroyed. Nevertheless, some sources have survived. The following text deals with three topics:

1. The basic text and many translations speak of the Sabbath

2. Jewish sources confirm the Sabbath

3. The Catholic Church confirms its unbiblical postponement of the day of resurrection and celebration

4. Many extra-biblical sources confirm the crucifixion on a Wednesday

When theologians say that there are supposedly no sources that report that Jesus was resurrected „on a Sabbath“ (but only „on a Sunday“), then they are deeply embarrassing themselves, because this is written in the Bible itself. Could it be that they are looking for extra-biblical sources for their theory of the Sunday resurrection of Jesus because they cannot find them in the Bible, but only the Sabbath? It is clear that these Christians know neither the basic Greek text nor the Latin Vulgate translation, because the most important texts in the Bible do not speak of Sunday, but of the Sabbath morning. This is also the content of the Gothic Bible by Bishop Wulfila and many correct translations that have been produced worldwide throughout the centuries. This is documented in detail in the chapter "Old Bibles". All these important translations of the Bible are simply ignored by many theologians, who instead focus on ecclesiastical literature sources that have nothing to do with the Bible.

One example is the best-known gospel harmony of antiquity; the Diatessaron (Greek for "out of four") was written in Greek by Tatian (Tatianus; †170) around 160-170 AD. He was a disciple of Justin Martyr (*around 100, †165 in Rome), who converted him to Christianity. Because of other writings by Tatian that the church considered heretical, the Syrian bishop Theodoret had all copies of the Diatessaron confiscated and destroyed around 400 AD. However, some translations into other languages have survived. Around 544, it was published in a Latin edition by Victor of Capua, which was heavily altered. This in turn was translated into Old High German in the monastery of Fulda around 830 and was therefore called the "Old High German Tatian" (see German manuscripts and facsimiles). This is the oldest German gospel harmony and is therefore of particular national importance. The aim of this precious book was to support the missionary intentions of the Christian rulers of the West. It is predominantly a word-for-word translation. On the left is the Latin text, on the right the Old High German translation in the same sequence of lines and words.

The content of the book, which has been in the monastery of St. Gall since the 10th century, is sensational. In Latin and Old German, it does NOT tell of the resurrection of Jesus „on a Sunday (Latin: dies solis; Old German: sunnun tag)“, but rather „on a Saturday“ (Old High German: sambaztac, sambaztag; Latin: sabbati), namely the „first Sabbath“ of the 7 Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost. Question: So when did „the Savior (ther heilant)" come to the disciples? Answer: „of the same day, a Saturday (thes gleichen tages, eines sambaztages)“. Every German child understands this. By the way, this is also how Martin Luther translated in his September Testament in 1522, his first complete Bible in 1534 and in the "last handwriting" edition of 1545 (see Bible passages and facsimiles), which has been reprinted millions of times over 500 years to this day. However, Luther did not mention Saturday, but the Sabbath. 

The Diatessaron (including the Latin and German translations) is also one of many pieces of evidence that clearly shows that people have always been able to differentiate between the words „one/first“ and Saturday, week and Sunday in Latin and German texts from as early as 1,200 years ago. They knew what was in the Bible and what was not. Nonsensical phrases such as „on the first day of the week“ or „on a Sunday“ were not used in the NT. Even Luke 18:12 has been translated excellently. The following are the original Latin and Old German texts of the Gospel harmony with the translation in modern German below: 

It's really hard to understand why so many pastors obsessively search for extra-biblical sources to back up their Easter Sunday theory, but don't look into the Word of God? Isn't God's Word worth more than the opinions of men (rulers, theologians, the Pope)? Are they afraid of losing their jobs and friends if they take the Bible literally and defend the Word of God against extra-biblical sources? Is that why they only read inaccurate translations such as the King James Bible (KJV) 1611 or the revised Luther Bible of 1912, so as not to get into conflicts of conscience? Because the hard truth is that for about 1500 years until the Reformation, there was almost no Bible that mentioned the „first day of the week“ or "Sunday", because almost all Bibles only reported the resurrection of Jesus „on a Sabbath“ or even „on a Saturday“. This is proven in detail in the chapter "Old Bibles". 

Isn't the Bible worth much more than the controversial writings of the mostly Catholic "church fathers"? Many theologians look outside the Bible for what they cannot find in it, or even worse, they declare the word of the Bible invalid with the help of foreign writings. And when pastors again spread the false doctrine that the sign of the Messiah („3 days and 3 nights“) is only symbolic and that there was a turbo-resurrection instead, and when they say that the ancient Greek "Sabbath" in the singular (σαβββατου) and plural (σαβββατων) supposedly also means "week" (εβδομάδα) or "Sunday" (ἡμέρα Ήλίου), although there have always been separate words for this in Greek and in all languages, they should first translate these formulations from English into Ancient Greek, then their deception will soon be exposed: 

1.  „(on) the one of the Sabbaths“ (plural genitive) 

2.  „(on) the one of the Sundays“ (plural genitive)

3.  „(on) the first of the Sabbaths“ (plural genitive) 

4.  „(on) the first of the Sundays“ (plural genitive)

5.  „early (on) the first Sabbath“ (singular genitive)

6.  „early (on) the first Sunday“ (singular genitive) 

7.  „early (on) the first day of the week“ (singular genitive) 

Since we are Christians, we must research the original Bible first for all questions, then the many translations, because the Word of God is the most precious thing we have here on earth. Biblically, there cannot be three resurrection days (Sabbath, Saturday, Sunday) where each Christian can pick and choose whichever one they would like depending on which translation they use. Other sources of information may be useful, but we know that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14) and wants to reinterpret or change the Word of God. Many follow him out of convenience, because the way of God is narrow:

Mt 7:13-14: „Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.“

The Israelites refer to Shabbat ha-Gadol (Hebrew for ‚the Great Sabbath‘) as the weekly Sabbath before the Passover, which begins on the preparation day on the 14th of Nisan (the day of the killing of the lamb). However, the actual Feast of Unleavened Bread always begins on the 15th of Nisan, the first annual Sabbath. A clear distinction must therefore be made here between the weekly „great Sabbath (Shabbat ha-Gadol)“ on the 10th Nisan and the first annual „High Sabbath (feast day)" on the 15th of Nisan (see High Sabbath). The Bible only recognizes 7 annual High Sabbaths (feast days) as days of assembly with God. However, there is also one small weekly Sabbath per year, which is also called the „great Sabbath“ or „High Sabbath“, because the Hebrews always assumed that the first Passover lamb was set apart on a weekly Sabbath on the 10th of Nisan at the time of the Exodus. This inevitably means that the 14th of Nisan (preparation day) must have fallen on a Wednesday this year, the 15th of Nisan (feast day) on a Thursday and the „first Sabbath“ on the 17th of Nisan.

Isn't it amazing that for thousands of years the Hebrews themselves have indirectly confirmed in their literature that our Lord Jesus Christ was set apart on a Sabbath (the Christians inaccurately call it "Palm Sabbath") and crucified after the 4 prescribed days on a Wednesday (14th Nisan, Preparation Day) to fulfill the symbolism in a perfect way?

However, as the 10th of Nisan only falls on a Sabbath about every third year according to God's astronomical calendar, but otherwise on other days of the week, the Sabbath before Passover is also referred to as Shabbat ha-Gadol (The Great Sabbath) in these years, even if it does not fall on the 10th of Nisan. This means that the Jews commemorate the separation of the lamb every year on the Great Sabbath, the 10th of Nisan in the year of the Exodus from Egypt. This teaching is also confirmed in the Talmud, which dates the 15th of Nisan (and therefore the Exodus) to a Thursday, which means that the 10th of Nisan must have fallen on a Sabbath:

„As for Nisan, on which the Israelites came out of Egypt, on the 14th day they slaughtered their Passover sacrifices, on the 15th they came out, and on the evening [of the 15th] the firstborn were slain.... And that day was a Thursday“ (Shabbat 87b).

This is a perfect confirmation of what we want to make clear to all Christians, namely that Hebrews itself believes that in the year of the Exodus, the first Passover lamb was sacrificed in the middle of the week, on 14 Nisan (Wednesday) at 3pm. Jesus thus fulfilled the law in an absolutely perfect way; it could not be more precise. He was also set apart together with the lambs on the 10th of Nisan (Sabbath, Saturday), died at the same time on the 14th of Nisan (Wednesday) at 3 pm and was then raised from the dead after His predicted „3 days and 3 nights" „early on the first Sabbath" (17th of Nisan, Mark 16:9). He thus made any further slaughter of animals superfluous and has now become our Sabbath rest.

The Jewish Lexicon, published in 1927, notes that the Shabbat immediately before Passover is called Shabbat hagadol because „the 10th of Nissan, on which the Passover sacrifice was once prepared before the night of liberation in Egypt (Exodus 12:3), is said to have fallen on the Sabbath“ (see b. Sabb. 87b).

There is no „great Sunday“ or „great first day of the week“ in the Bible or in Judaism, only the „great Sabbath“ on the 10th of Nisan is known. Please take a look at a biblical or Jewish calendar yourself. There is no Sunday nonsense there, but every little weekly Sabbath before Passover is called the „great Sabbath“ every year to commemorate the separation of the lambs on the great Sabbath (10th Nisan) in the year of the Exodus. We are not spreading sectarian doctrine here, but absolute basic knowledge that can be found not only in Jewish literature, but also in Christian encyclopaedias and on Wikipedia. Unfortunately, however, most Christians prefer to follow the Roman and Catholic calendars, where they do not find any of these important biblical facts.

See the chapters Shabbat ha-Gadol on the 10th of Nisan and Palm Sabbath.

Approximately every third year, the 10th of Nisan (the day of the separation of the lamb) falls on a Sabbath (Saturday), rarely on a Sunday. The 14th of Nisan (the day of the sacrifice of the Lamb) is then in the middle of the week (Wednesday), the High Sabbath on the 15th Nisan (Thursday) and the „first Sabbath“ (Mark 16:9) in the count of the 7 weekly Sabbaths until Pentecost is on the 17th of Nisan. This was also the year in which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected after „3 days and 3 nights“, thus fulfilling the sign of the Messiah.

In the years 2020 and 2023, God's exact astronomical calendar (see Leviticus 23) and the imprecise mathematical Jewish calendar (from the 4th century AD) fell on the same days. This means that every biblical calendar (e.g. TorahCalendar) and Jewish online calendar can confirm the Palm Sabbath (Shabbat Ha-Gadol = the Great Sabbath) and show the count of the 50 days to Pentecost with the same Gregorian date:

As has become clear from the first two points, it is not only the basic Greek text of the NT and the many Bible translations that confirm that the 14th of Nisan in the year of Jesus' crucifixion was a Wednesday, but also Jewish literature. It proves that in the year of the Exodus, the 10th of Nisan fell on a Sabbath (Shabbat ha-Gadal), the 14th of Nisan on a Wednesday and the 15th of Nisan (High Sabbath) on a Thursday. This means that Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly and died on the same day of the week and at the same time as the first Passover lamb at the time of Moses.

There are many Catholic and scientific citations that prove that Sunday sanctification is not biblical and that it is merely a church doctrine. The theory of the alleged resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday is the only thing that would speak in favor of Sunday. Without this assumption, no Christian would adhere to the pagan Sunday. If a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes the truth for many. Nevertheless, there were always Catholics who got to the point and spoke of the Sabbath. There have been three phases in church history:

1. First there was the Sabbath as a weekly feast day and as the day of Christ's resurrection,

2. then 2 weekly days of rest side by side with one or two different resurrection days (Sabbath or Sunday) and

3. finally the Sabbath was abolished and even forbidden and only Sunday remained.

The following are some examples:

The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (*ca. 285; †337), who himself worshipped the sun god Sol Invictus („the invincible sun god“), determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD with the participation of over 300 bishops that the biblical 14th Nisan (day of preparation) and 15th Nisan (feast Sabbath) should no longer be celebrated, but instead the new Easter according to the new Roman church calendar. It was determined that the new Easter must be celebrated on the same day in all churches, namely on a Sunday after the Jewish Passover. Many Christians who rejected this and preferred to observe the biblical feast of Israel were cruelly tortured or killed. As a result, knowledge of the biblical calendar was increasingly suppressed from the consciousness of Christians. The pagan emperor Constantine thus almost achieved his goal - to suppress God's calendar - because today there are only a few Christians who still know God's calendar and can therefore understand the statements of the evangelists in the resurrection chapter. Many Christians (e.g. Amir Tsarfati) are not even aware that when they speak of the „first Sunday after Passover“ (the alleged First Fruits Sunday), they are following the will, theology and calendar of Emperor Constantine, who had the true followers of Jesus Christ killed.

Sunday was initially equated with the Sabbath by the Church Fathers, but later it was placed above the Sabbath, so that Sabbath rest was forbidden:

„Bishop Nicholas of Constantinople replied to the question: 'whether standing prayers should also be offered on the Sabbath'. That the Sabbath had been equated with Sunday by the Holy Fathers. The Synod of Nicaea had decreed on May 20 [in the year 325]: 'prayers should be said standing on Sundays...' Theophilus of Alexandria, on the other hand, said: 'just as Christ overcame death, so Sunday has overcome the Sabbath'. And the Laodicean Synod [343-381] had decreed on Jan. 29 that Christians should not imitate the Jews and be idle on the Sabbath, but should work.“

[Source: SCHÖNE: Geschichtsforschungen über die kirchlichen Gebräuche und Einrichtungen der Christen, Berlin 1822, p. 251].

Socrates Scholasticus (Latin: Socrates Scholasticus; *380; †440) was a late antique church historian who published a seven-volume church history (Historia ecclesiastica) written in ancient Greek. This covers the church period 305-439. Socrates makes an astonishing remark in this edition published in 439 AD:

„All the churches on the face of the earth hold their assemblies every week on the Sabbath and celebrate the mysteries; only the Alexandrians and Romans, according to an ancient tradition, refuse to do so. The Egyptians and the inhabitants of Thebais do hold their assemblies on the Sabbath, but without celebrating the mysteries...“

[Source: Sokrates V, 21-22 in: SCHÖNE: Geschichtsforschungen über die kirchlichen Gebräuche und Einrichtungen der Christen, Band 3, Berlin 1822, S. 253, translated].

The important indication that Sabbath-keeping was still so widespread proves that the teaching of Jesus' Sunday resurrection was only slowly gaining acceptance because many still knew God's calendar and oriented themselves to the biblical feast days. 

Gregory of Tours (French: Grégoire de Tours; Latin: Gregorii Turonici; *538; †594) came from a noble Gallo-Roman family and was Bishop of Tours in Gaul and also a historian. His most important work was the Ten Books of Histories (Decem libri historiarum), written in Latin in the years 574-593, which are also called „Historiarum Francorum Libri Decem“ (History of the Franks in 10 books) or Histories for short. In it, the bishop describes the events in the church of his time. Although Gregory knew the Vulgate, he mainly used non-biblical writings and church opinions for his book. The first book (ch. 23) deals with the day of the Lord's resurrection (De die resurrectiones dominicae). Although he defends the church doctrine on Sunday, he writes something very interesting:

„However, the Lord's resurrection took place on the first day, as we believe, not on the seventh day, as so many think.“

[Original quote: Dominicam vero resurrectionem die prima facta credimus, non septimam, sicut multi putant].

Here he makes it clear that not a few, but even MANY still thought in the 6th century AD that Jesus was resurrected „on a Sabbath“ (the seventh day of the week). But this is not at all surprising, since all the Bibles of that time, i.e. both the basic Greek texts and the official Latin translation (Vulgate), clearly reported that the women came to the tomb „on a Sabbath“. 

Another example are the books by Alfred Schöne („Historical research on the ecclesiastical customs and institutions of Christians“, Berlin 1822), in which he points out several times that the Sabbath was held in high esteem by Christians for long periods of time alongside Sunday (p. 250). According to SCHÖNE, there were initially two weekly holidays side by side. And in some areas, the Passover was practiced by Christians at exactly the same time as by the Jews. Even centuries after the death of Jesus, many Christians still oriented themselves according to the biblical and not the Roman calendar (p. 268ff). Consequently, Christians had no problem at all with a biblical resurrection of Jesus „on a Sabbath“, as they had all experienced exactly the same sequence of feast days as in the year of Jesus' death several times from an early age. SCHÖNE writes:

„Apart from the Lord's Day, the Sabbath was still held in great esteem by Christians, and in some regions it was celebrated in almost the same way; some church teachers wanted it abolished because it was too reminiscent of Judaism, but it seemed difficult to get through with this proposal. Athanasius tried to deflect the accusation that his congregation was imitating Judaism by explaining that they gathered on the Sabbath, not because they were sick of Judaism, but in order to worship Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath. Epiphanus also mentions in his writings that meetings were held in several places on the Sabbath“ (p. 250).

[Source: Alfred Schöne: Geschichtsforschungen über die kirchlichen Gebräuche und Einrichtungen der Christen“, Band 3, Berlin 1822].

So even centuries after Christ's death, it was still clear to MANY Christians that the Sabbath was still Jesus' Lord's Day.

There are numerous historical sources that refer to the Pope as the "Vicar of Christ", who supposedly had the right to introduce new feast days in the name of God. It is therefore not surprising that Pope Leo XIII (*1810; †1903) presumed to take the place of God:

„We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty“

[Source: Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter of June 20, 1894].

With this justification, the Catholic Church took the right to abolish the Sabbath and introduce Sunday. It was not always about the alleged resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday, but about the authority of the church to change times and feast days instead of God.

Some Catholic organs and magazines such as "The Catholic National" even go so far as to equate the Pope with Jesus:

„The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh“

[Source: The Catholic National, July 1895].

It is unbelievable how far self-assessment deviates from reality. This lack of humility is precisely the reason why the Church has presumed to replace the Resurrection Sabbath with Resurrection Sunday. If the Pope is equated with Jesus, then it is no wonder that the Church has designated the ancient pagan Roman „Lord's Day of the Lord Sol“ (Sunday) as the new „Lord's Day of the Lord Jesus“. Christians then invoke not the Bible, but the authority of the Pope, who then also has the right to change the content of some biblical passages because the Holy Spirit has supposedly guided him to do so. Those who describe the King James Bible (KJV) of 1611 as supposedly „inspired by God“ and thus reject the Greek basic text because God supposedly showed the king and his many theologians how the Bible should be understood argue in a similar way. No, see the chapter: „The KJV was not inspired by God“. As Alfred Schöne has already proven, the first Christians regarded Jesus as „the Lord of the Sabbath, not as „the Lord of the Sunday“. 

Cardinal Gibbon (*1834; †1921) was the head of the Catholic Church in America for many years. He said the following very important and often quoted words:

„You may read 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.”

[Source: Cardinal Gibbons: The Faith of Our Fathers (92d ed., rev.; Baltimore: John Murphy Company), page 89].

Cardinal Gibbon tells the uncomfortable truth, there is not a single passage in the entire Bible that justifies Sunday observance, because it always speaks only of the Sabbath, especially in the resurrection chapter of the Gospels!

In the Catholic Mirror, the official magazine of the Catholic Church in the USA, Cardinal Gibbon wrote:

„Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.“

[Source: The Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893].

So he writes that it was common practice among Protestants to keep the Sabbath holy. In a reply to Cardinal Gibbon, C.F. Thomas wrote in 1898:

„If Protestants observe the first day of the week are they in that act recognizing the authority of the Catholic Church?... It looks that way, since the custom they observe is of the Church and from the Church.“

[Source: C.F. Thomas, February 8, 1898].

The Catholic Press from Australia also made it clear that it was not God or Jesus, but the Church that postponed the weekly holiday:

„Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles... From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.“
[Source: The Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August, 1900].

That's right, Sunday is a Catholic invention that many evangelicals, free churches, Jehovah's Witnesses and even Adventists follow, because although they don't keep Sunday, they teach the alleged resurrection of the Lord „on a Sunday“. They all valorize the first day of the week and devalue the importance of the Sabbath. The Holy Spirit certainly could not have led them to do this, but Sunday is, as many sources confirm, a Catholic institution. It is an ancient Catholic doctrine, but not a biblical one. The statement of the alleged „God-ordained postponement of the day of resurrection and the weekly holiday to Sunday by the authority of the Catholic Church“ has become so entrenched in the minds of Christians over the centuries that they have translated the Bible accordingly so that the Sabbath has become the desired Sunday. This makes it all the more difficult to convince these Christians of the true wording of the Bible.

The CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA (1907-1912) offers several explanations that prove that the postponement of the weekly holiday was not commanded by God, but only has a church tradition, as Gentile Christians adopted their old festival customs. Under the keyword Sabbath it says:

„Sabbath (Hebrew shabbath, cessation, rest; Greek Sabbaton; Latin Sabbatum). The seventh day of the week among the Hebrews, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening… The Sabbath was a day of rest 'sanctified to the Lord' (Exodus 16:23; 31:15 ; Deuteronomy 5:14)... The gentile converts held their religious meetings on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and with the disappearance of the Jewish Christian churches this day was exclusively observed as the Lord's Day.“

This statement is interesting, because on the one hand it is said that the Sabbath was the day that was „sanctified by the Lord“ (Sunday was and is therefore the day NOT sanctified by the Lord); but on the other hand, another day is said to be the Lord's Day, namely the first day of the week that is not sanctified, Sunday, on which the Gentile Christians (but not the Christians originating from the Jews) are said to have gathered, although the original Greek text and also all the first Catholic translations of the Bible into other languages only report a church meeting on Sabbaths, as can be easily demonstrated in the following chapters. The keyword Sunday is used:

„Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology...“

According to this Catholic definition, Sunday is the "day of the sun" (i.e. the sun god Sol), which was derived from Egyptian astrology. That doesn't sound very Christian, does it? This holiday was not named in honor of Jesus Christ, but in honor of the sun and the associated sun god of the pagans. We are not spreading conspiracy theories here, please read it for yourself in this Catholic encyclopedia. This holiday was not named in honor of Jesus Christ, but in honor of the sun and the associated sun god of the pagans (Egyptians, Greeks, Romans). The keyword about the Ten Commandments even says:

„…The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day...“].

All in all, these are highly astonishing statements in the official Catholic Encyclopedia, because while it is admitted that the Lord has sanctified the Sabbath day, the Catholic Church has changed the day of rest and declared a new day, namely Sunday, to be holy. So it was not God, but the Church that made Sunday holy as the Lord's Day. Furthermore, it has dared to simply erase the second commandment (Ex 20:4-6), so that it refers to the Sabbath commandment as the "third" and not the "fourth", as it should be.  

Vincent Kelly makes it clear in the Catholic university press that Sunday is not justified by its biblical, but by its ecclesiastical institution: 

„Some theologians have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the day of worship in the NEW LAW, that he himself has explicitly substituted Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave His church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as holy days. The church chose Sunday, the first day of the week, and in the course of time added other days as holy days.“

[Source: Vincent J. Kelly: Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations, Washington, DC, Catholic University of America Press, Studies in Sacred Theology, No. 70.,1943, p. 2.].

His very interesting quote proves that the Catholic Church could have chosen a different day if it had wanted to, but it chose (contrary to the biblical word) Sunday and other days (Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, Advent Sundays). It is therefore understandable why the Catholic Church often translates the 4th commandment as „remember the feast day“ and not „remember the Sabbath“. This is also how Evangelicals, Protestants and some free churches translate it; they do not want the Bible to speak of the hated and so-called "Jewish" Sabbaths.

The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1946, p. 50) goes even further:

„We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea, (AD 336) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday… The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her!“

[Source: The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1946, p. 50, Rev. Peter Geiermann].

It says quite clearly here that the Catholic Church - and not Jesus or God or the Bible - reintroduced Sunday. And that is correct, because neither God nor Jesus ever spoke of a postponement of the weekly day of rest and certainly not of a postponement of holiness. Again, this is not about a resurrection day legitimizing this change, but again it is about the authority of the church.

One of the most interesting quotes was published in the Catholic newspaper SENTINEL:

„Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. 'The Day of the Lord' (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church's sense of its own power. The day of resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.“

[Source: SENTINEL, Pastor's page, Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995].

This quote takes one's breath away. If we said that, Christians would get upset and accuse us of maligning others and wanting to teach false doctrines. No, most Christians are ill-informed and live in a Sunday illusion; please read it for yourself: That the Sabbath was moved to Sunday in the first century was „not from any directions noted in the Scriptures“ (Bible) and „the day of resurrection..., came on the first day of the week.“ Here it is clearly admitted that already in the first century AD the holiday was postponed by men (not by God or Jesus). 

If anyone claims that there was supposedly no Catholic Church in the first century, it is not what this church itself teaches, because it refers to church foundations since 30-33 AD, as is also explained on Wikipedia. Although the first Christians still believed in the Sabbath resurrection and the Sabbath commandment, over the centuries the Roman days were increasingly adopted, which were then declared to be the new so-called „Christian festivals“. So if a Christian today were to say that the introduction of Sunday observance is unbiblical, he is not proclaiming anything false. It is a fact taught by the Catholic Church, as the Roman Catholic Cardinal Gibbon (see above) openly admitted. Furthermore, it is confirmed that this „revolutionary change“ was not brought about by Jesus or the apostles, but by the Catholic Church. It could not be stated more clearly. This also applies to the day of Jesus' resurrection, which „came on the first day of the week“. 

There are many similar official quotes and articles in many languages around the world. The earlier generations had much more to say on this subject and had a deeper knowledge than many Christians today who have never heard of the resurrection of Jesus „on a Sabbath“.

Now if the Catholic Vulgate says Sabbath resurrection (una sabbati = on a Sabbath) and if even Catholic cardinals (e.g. Gibbon) are allowed to say that the Bible teaches the observance of Saturday (Sabbath) and does NOT command Sunday observance, since it is a purely Catholic institution, why shouldn't we ordinary Christians be allowed to say the same?

We agree with these Catholic and Protestant theologians and say it very clearly: according to the Bible, Sunday is neither Jesus' Lord's Day nor a holy day, nor is it the day of Jesus' resurrection! It was only through the authority of the Catholic Church that the unbiblical doctrine of Sunday became binding for Christians. So there is a clear difference between Bible and church doctrine and the churches themselves admit it in many quotations. But the Sabbath is an uncomfortable subject for many pastors, which is why they run away from the truth and from the basic Greek text and from the many correct translations.

The Roman leaders said to the Christians: 

„Either you celebrate your Jesus, his birth and his resurrection on our weekly and annual holidays or you must lose your families and your possessions and die.“

Most Christians gave in and celebrated the birth and resurrection of Jesus on the feast days of the sun god (Sunday, Christmas) and the fertility goddess (Easter).

The main motive of the falsification of the statements in the resurrection chapter of the NT was therefore nothing other than the justification for the continued retention of the old Babylonian, Egyptian and Roman Lord's Day. The alleged resurrection of Jesus on a Sunday was only a part of this, because the church insisted on its authority to change the biblical feast days of God with new Catholic feasts that follow a Roman Catholic calendar.

Thus, many Christians were very slowly forced in a clever way to keep the weekly and annual holidays of those who crucified Jesus and killed many Christians. Their days are still observed in the world today, while the Sabbath has been degraded to a day of preparation for Sunday and God's calendar with its 7 feast days has been completely abolished. Now there are supposed to be only holy great Sundays, preceded by the small Sabbath preparation days?  

1. weekly Sunday,

2. Palm Sunday,

3. Easter Sunday,

4. Pentecost Sunday,

5. Advent Sundays.

All (!) Sabbaths have been abolished and degraded to small preparation days for Sunday, on which the car is washed, the house is cleaned and the shopping is done. A biblical day of rest "Sabbath" (from Hebrew: "to cease" or "to rest") and all 7 High biblical Sabbaths (feasts, rest days) have been turned into new working days. And this is really supposed to be the will of God and Jesus, to introduce the holidays of the Romans and the Pope? Really? So we are supposed to keep the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman holidays of those who killed our Lord, then call these festivals "Christian" or "biblical" (Leviticus 23) and remain silent about them?

And with regard to the day of Jesus' resurrection, are we to overshadow the Word of God or reinterpret it in such a way that the biblical „first Sabbath“ (singular and plural) after Passover becomes a pagan „first Sunday“ after Passover? And from „3 days and 3 nights“ (sign of the Messiah) a turbo resurrection is to be created in order to achieve this Sunday goal?

Are these Christians really not aware of the damage they are doing to Christianity and how they are destroying unity in the faith? What kind of other gospel is this?

The Wednesday crucifixion may be new and in some ways shocking for many Christians today. But for earlier generations it was something absolutely normal. On the contrary, if someone had told the first Christians that the Last Supper and Jesus' betrayal/crucifixion were supposedly „on a Friday“, this would have been new and illogical for them.

According to historical sources, the first Christian community believed that Jesus was taken prisoner in the middle of the week (on a Wednesday) and not at the weekend. Wednesday was therefore soon declared a day of fasting in the early church. For many Christians, this idea of Jesus' crucifixion on a Wednesday is only strange because hardly any Christians in their congregation have learned the biblical order of feast days with the 3 days of preparation and the 3 Sabbaths in Passover week. However, every Christian in the early church knew these exactly, because for decades the basis of the New Testament church was initially only the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint, LXX) and the previous biblical feast days, which also applied in Israel.

Most churches today place a lot of emphasis on praise and singing „Hallelujah, praise the Lord...“, but neglect the complete Word of God and are not familiar with the symbolism of the Old Testament (OT), the calendar of God or the prophetic word. They do not even know how the Bible is structured. They regard the OT as worthless. So something is completely new to them that should actually be a well-known basis and a matter of course. Only those who know God's calendar know that the 14th of Nisan very often falls on a Wednesday. This was also the case in 2020 and 2023, which is why the first Christians had no problem whatsoever with Jesus being crucified on a Wednesday and the women coming „on a Sabbath“ or „on the first Sabbath“ (Mark 16:9). 

However, as mentioned, most Christians today have a poor knowledge of the Bible (they listen almost exclusively to sermons) and think that a preparation day for the Sabbath must always be a Friday. However, since there are not just one or two, but three different types of Sabbaths in God's calendar according to Leviticus 23 (see High Sabbath), there must therefore also be three different preparation days before the Sabbaths (see Pre-Sabbath). And a Sabbath does not only fall on Saturday, as many Christians think, but the High Sabbaths fall on all days of the week from year to year. It is therefore completely normal for the first High Sabbath (15th Nisan, Passover) of the year to fall on a Thursday about every third year. This means that the preparation day (14th of Nisan) before it MUST fall on a Wednesday, not a Friday. Only rarely does the preparation day (14 Nisan) for the High Sabbath (15 Nisan) fall on a Friday. 

The first Christians knew all this, but which pastor knows it today? We only find a few in the world. So all these pastors cannot understand the statements in the NT, impossible. So they can't pass this knowledge on to the congregation and want to persuade us instead (quote):

„it is not important on which day Jesus rose from the dead, it only matters that He rose from the dead“. 

WRONG. it's only not important to these pastors because they don't know and want Sunday for convenience, but to God, Jesus and the first Christians this issue was EXTREMELY important. That's why God named "SABBATH" 7 times as the resurrection day with his name "SABBATH", so that we would in no way think that the Lord's resurrection was supposedly „on the first day of the week (Sunday)“, the weekly feast day of those who crucified our Lord.

And also in the year of Jesus' crucifixion, the preparation day (14th Nisan) must have fallen on a Wednesday, as is evident not only indirectly from the NT, but also from numerous other sources.

Examples: 

Many early Christian historical sources and writings mention Wednesday (14th of Nisan) as the day on which Judas betrayed his Lord Jesus. This is a fact. An astonishing number of early Christian historical sources prove that the betrayal by Judas and the capture of Jesus did not take place on a Friday, but on a Wednesday. These are mostly very old Catholic writings that are now discussed in various modern theological journals. This actually brings us into the realm of the „3 days and 3 nights“ that Jesus mentioned in the Catholic writings themselves! But it is not quite as simple as that, because although it is admitted that several sources state the Last Supper on a Tuesday evening and that the betrayal by Judas and the arrest of Jesus took place „on Wednesday“, but since Catholics want Jesus' resurrection to take place on a Sunday, they interpret it to mean that Jesus was betrayed on a Wednesday but not crucified until Friday. However, other sources report the betrayal and capture on the same day, a Wednesday. Thus two fast days developed, namely Wednesday (to commemorate Jesus' betrayal by Judas) and Friday (to commemorate Jesus' crucifixion).

The Bible does not recognize such a large gap between capture and crucifixion, as every Christian can easily and quickly verify in the NT. It is biblically incomprehensible why there should be two days between betrayal and crucifixion; the Bible speaks of a smooth transition on the same day or in the same night.

When was Jesus betrayed? Jesus was betrayed on the same night that He was arrested. Jesus therefore already announced this betrayal by Judas at the Last Supper (Mt 26:20-25). The sign of betrayal was the kiss (Mt 26:47-56) and then Jesus was to be arrested. Even decades after Jesus' death, Paul describes the Last Supper and the betrayal on the same night:

1Cor 11:23: „For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread... 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood...“ 

So the Lord's Supper clearly took place on the same night that Jesus was betrayed and not before or after. And according to the Bible, this must have been on 14 Nisan, i.e. before the High feast Sabbath (Nisan 15). According to several non-biblical Catholic sources, this betrayal took place on a Wednesday and not on a Friday.

The theory of the betrayal and arrest of Jesus „on a Wednesday“ and the crucifixion after two days „on a Friday“ is not biblical, because all four evangelists speak of an event on the same day, which, like every other day, began at night and ended at sunset. This opinion is also supported by very early Christian writings, which were written around the time of the Didache.

James Walther (1958) notes that for centuries numerous Catholic writers held that Jesus began the Lord's Supper on Tuesday evening and was arrested the following Wednesday night. He writes:

„It is curious that until this new approach came to light scant attention was given to some patristic evidence for a similar dating of the Last Supper. References in the Didascalia, in Epiphanius, in Victorinus of Pettau, and in the Book of Adam and Eve support the Tuesday Passover dating and the subsequent arrest of Jesus in the morning hours of Wednesday.“

[In: James A. Walther: The Chronology of Passion Week, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Jun. 1958), S. 116-122].

Here we see the clear contradiction that the Church itself has created. For it quite rightly reports that Jesus was betrayed and taken prisoner on a Wednesday. But then it postpones the crucifixion by two days to a Friday so that it can enhance the value of the pagan Sunday. So what is Jesus supposed to have done during these two days and why does the Bible say otherwise? 

The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge writes in the article on fasting about the ancient Christian history of the Wednesday fast:

„... For the observance of Wednesday it was not so easy to find such motive; and the various artificial derivations of the usage from the history of the Passion, designating it as the day on which Jesus was betrayed, or on which the Sanhedrin decides to kill him…”

Fasting on a Wednesday to commemorate the betrayal of Jesus was a Catholic practice and widespread among many Christians. It is also interesting to note that the start of Lent until Easter was always on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the day of fasting.

Justin Martyr (*110; †165) correctly emphasizes that Jesus was crucified on the same day that He held the Last Supper. There were therefore not two days between His capture and crucifixion:

„For the passover [at the Exodus from Egypt] was Christ sacrificed later, as Isaias also said, 'Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter.' It is written that you seized him on Easter Day and crucified him on Easter. But just as the blood of the Passover saved those in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will save from death those who believe.”
[Source: Dialogus cum Tryphone].

According to Justin, the capture and crucifixion therefore clearly took place on the same Passover day, the 14th of Nisan.

In his book on fasting (De ieiunio adversus psychicos), Tertullian (*after 150; †220) points out that fasting was practiced on Wednesdays and Fridays. However, not all Christians wanted to observe these Catholic commandments. The Catholic bishop of Cyprus Epiphanius of Salamis (*315; †403), for example, criticized a Christian in a letter and wrote with harsh and unkind words:

„Aerius comes from Pontus and lives to this day to the detriment of the world... Since Aerius did not become bishop in the place of Eustathius, he began to speak out against the Catholic Church in many doctrinal pieces... He rejected sacrifices for the dead, forbade fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays and during the quadragesimal period, and did not celebrate Pascha [meaning the new Easter]. He preaches unconditional renunciation, but allows the consumption of meat and sumptuous meals unabashedly. If one of his disciples wants to fast, he should not do so on certain fixed days, but when it suits him”

[Anakephalaiosis, excerpt from the Panarion, 3rd book, 1st section).

The bishop thus regrets that Aerius is still alive, which suggests how bitterly the battle for doctrinal opinions was waged even on such minor issues. On the other hand, however, it is clear that Bible-believing Christians fasted on any day and rejected the Catholic Wednesday and Friday fasts, which were introduced as an obligation.

The so-called „Gospel of Peter” is an apocryphal (i.e. not part of the Bible) writing from the 2nd century, which states that Jesus was resurrected „on the Lord's Day” (verse 50), but it is extremely interesting that it speaks of several Sabbaths in one week. Even the order of the days is correct:

[4-5] „And Pilate, having sent to Herod, requested his [Jesus] body. 5 „And Herod said: 'Brother Pilate, even if no one had requested him, we would have buried him, since indeed Sabbath is dawning. For in the Law it has been written: The sun is not to set on one put to death.' And he gave him over to the people before the first day of their feast of the Unleavened Bread.” 

The handing over and crucifixion therefore clearly took place on the 14th of Nisan, the day before the High Feast Sabbath (always the 15th of Nisan). After the burial, the disciples fasted „night and day until the Sabbath”. Which Sabbath could this be referring to? Only the 17th of Nisan, of course, because there must be a working day between the High Sabbath and the Low Sabbath. It says literally from verse 24: 

[24-27]: „And having taken the Lord, he [Joseph] washed and tied him with a linen cloth and brought him into his own sepulcher, called the Garden of Joseph. 25 Then the Jews and the elders and the priests, having come to know how much wrong they had done themselves, began to beat themselves and say: 'Woe to our sins. The judgment has approached and the end of Jerusalem.' 26 But I with the companions was sorrowful; and having been wounded in spirit, we were in hiding, for we were sought after by them as wrongdoers and as wishing to set fire to the sanctuary. 27 In addition to all these things we were fasting; and we were sitting mourning and weeping night and day until the Sabbath.”

Literally: νυκτὸϛ [night] καὶ [and] ἡμέραϛ [day] ἕωϛ ["until", not "on"] τοῦ [the] σαββάτου [Sabbath]. Note: some translations say „day and night” because it sounds more logical to the translator, but in the Greek text the night is mentioned first, then the day.

After Jesus was buried shortly before sunset on the preparation day (14th Nisan), the High Sabbath (feast Sabbath, 15th Nisan) immediately followed, on which fasting was not permitted. The disciples were in their homes mourning and weeping for fear of the Jews. Then they mention that they fasted night (12 hours) and day (12 hours) „until the [following] Sabbath”. This cannot have been a whole week „until the Sabbath”. This means that we are not talking about a double Sabbath (Saturday) or two following Sabbaths, but that there must be exactly one whole working day between these two Sabbaths (see intermediate day). Jesus must therefore have been crucified on a Wednesday and raised from the dead on the weekly Sabbath (17th of Nisan), because „until the Sabbath" cannot possibly mean until the 15th Nisan (High Sabbath) and not even a week later. This apocryphal scripture therefore indirectly proves the crucifixion of Jesus on a Wednesday and the resurrection on a Sabbath. The sign of the Messiah was completely fulfilled: „3 days and 3 nights”. Even in this apocryphal writing there is no other gospel of a turbo-resurrection, but the information in the NT is fully confirmed.

However, this Gospel of Peter describes that Jesus was resurrected on the Lord's Day(κυριακή, kyriakí; verses 35, 50):

[35]: „But in the night in which the Lord's day  [κυριακή, kyriakí] dawned, when the soldiers were safeguarding it two by two in every watch, there was a loud voice in heaven”

[50]: „Now at the dawn of the Lord's Day [κυρίου, Kyriou] Mary Magdalene, a female disciple of the Lord (who, afraid because of the Jews since they were inflamed with anger, had not done at the tomb of the Lord what women were accustomed to do for the dead beloved by them)”

If the Lord's Day meant the weekly Sabbath (Jesus referred to himself as „Lord of the Sabbath": Lk 6:5; Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28), then the information would be correct and perfect. The tomb should be viewed early on the Sabbath, but Jesus was resurrected during the night, which is also correct. However, if Sunday was meant by the Lord's Day, then there is a clear error here, because then Jesus would not have been dead for 3 days, but 4 days. Then it would not be „3 days and 3 nights" between Wednesday and Sunday morning, but „4 days and 4 nights”. This confirms that the Lord's Day (κυριακή) refers to the Sabbath, but not to Sunday as it is interpreted in modern Greek. There is not a single reference in the entire Bible to Sunday ever being the "Lord's Day"; this is pure theological wishful thinking and a completely new definition that God does not accept. If you disagree, please show us your biblical evidence. That is why it is a falsification when some Christians translate the Gospel of Peter in such a way that they use the word "Sunday" instead of "Lord's Day".

This apocryphal gospel is a forgery, which is generally confirmed by experts. Various contents are stolen from the NT and then altered or even falsified. For example, Jesus is said to have uttered the following, almost humorous words on the cross:

 [19]: „And the Lord screamed out, saying: 'My power, O power, you have forsaken me.' And having said this, he was taken up.”

But there is no such nonsense in the Bible, because Jesus calls his Father instead and asks:

Mt 27:26: „And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

This dramatic question on the cross should make us think about why God had to abandon a sinless man, namely for the sake of our sins, to pay for our guilt.

Nevertheless, the Gospel of Peter is an interesting scripture in one respect because it is further evidence that people knew that Jesus was betrayed/imprisoned on a Wednesday and that there were two Sabbaths (15th and 17th Nisan) with a working day (16th of Nisan) in between during that Passover week. See the chapter "Resurrection on Sabbath".

It is by no means the case that all early Christian churches wanted to observe to the new Catholic Easter customs. In Asia in particular, the biblical calendar was initially retained for a long time, with communion always being celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, regardless of which day of the week it fell on. In his church history (Historica Ecclesiastica, 337 AD), Eusebius of Caesarea (†340) reports on the bitter dispute at the time about the new Easter customs, as many churches rejected Easter Sunday and wanted to continue to hold communion on the evening of the 14th of Nisan, which often fell on a Wednesday according to God's calendar. The following is a quotation from chapters 23-24:

„At that time a not insignificant dispute had arisen. For while the churches of all Asia, on the basis of very ancient tradition, believed that the 14th day of the moon [i.e. the 14th of Nisan], on which the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be celebrated as the Salvation Pascha [Lord's Supper] and in any case on that day, no matter what day of the week it might be, the fast should be ended, it was not customary for the churches in the rest of the world to observe it in this way.... Polycrates was at the head of the Asian bishops who maintained that the custom handed down to them from time immemorial should be adhered to. In the letter he wrote to Victor and the Roman Church, he said of the tradition that had come down to him: 'We celebrate the day unadulterated; we do nothing to it and nothing away'... [He further named] the bishop and martyr Polycarp of Smyrna and the bishop and martyr Thraseas of Eumenea, ... the bishop and martyr Sagaris.... All these celebrated the Pascha on the 14th day [14th Nisan] according to the Gospel; they did not go their own way, but followed the direction indicated by faith. I too, Polycrates, the least among you all, follow the tradition of my relatives, some of whom were also my predecessors. Seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth. And my relatives have always celebrated the day on which the people removed the leaven [that is, the 14th of Nisan]. Now I, brethren, who am 65 years old in the Lord, and have consorted with the brethren of the whole world, and have read the whole Scripture, I will not be terrified by threats. For greater men than I have said, 'We must obey God rather than men'... In response, Victor, the bishop of the Roman Church, attempted to exclude the congregations of the whole of Asia and the neighboring churches as a whole from communion and unity as heretical, and publicly rebuked them in a letter in which he declared all the brethren there to be outside the church communion. However, not all bishops liked Victor's actions.”

If these Christians in Asia (remember that the Revelation of John was addressed to the 7 churches in Asia in the area of today's Turkey) continued to hold the memorial meal on the 14th of Nisan according to the biblical calendar (i.e. on different days of the week and not on Friday) for centuries after Christ's death, they knew very well that there are very often years in which the 14th of Nisan fell on a Wednesday and consequently there was exactly the same sequence of days as in the year in which Jesus was crucified. They were therefore able to understand exactly the phrase „on the one/first of the Sabbaths” and „early on the first Sabbath” (Mark 16:9) found in the Gospels, in contrast to many Christians and pastors today. These Christians in Asia adhered to the traditional customs of the Jews and their Christian ancestors and rejected the Easter innovations of the Catholic Church, which therefore excluded them.

George Carlow said as early as 1847:

„Christ was crucified and died… on the fourth day of the week, i.e. Wednesday, at the end of which day our blessed Jesus was buried, from which time to the end of the seventh-day Sabbath was three days and three nights, the term of time that our Lord foretold he should lie in the grave. Matt. 12:40. So that there were two days between the day of Jesus’ death and the seventh-day Sabbath, and one day between that high Sabbath and the seventh-day Sabbath.“
[In: George Carlow: Truth Defended (fist published in 1724), published as: A Defense of the Sabbath, 1847 Chapter 6, p 109].

According to research by Annie Jaubert („La date de la Cène“, Paris 1957), Jesus' Last Supper took place on Tuesday evening and extended into Wednesday. However, she continues to assume that the crucifixion took place on Friday. She is not alone in this assumption, because since most modern Bible translations state that Jesus was resurrected „on a Sunday morning“ and not „on the one/first of the Sabbath days“, she argues that Wednesday cannot be considered the day of the crucifixion, because otherwise Jesus would have been dead for four days until he was resurrected on Sunday morning. This example shows how seriously mistranslations in modern Bibles have affected our thinking.

In the English-speaking world, the COMPANION BIBLE published by Dr. E. W. Bullinger from 1909 onwards was one of the best study Bibles. The text is based on the King James Bible, which is why the resurrection is given on a „first day of the week", but the crucifixion and burial of the 14th of Nisan does not take place on a Friday but on a Wednesday in the appendix (Appendix 156). This teaching was later adopted by Herbert W. Armstrong, because the idea of the alleged resurrection of Jesus on a Sabbath evening was not Armstrong's idea, as many think. Literally it says:

„Therefore Wednesday, Nisan 14th (commencing on the Tuesday at sunset), was ‚the preparation day,’ on which the crucifixion took place: for all four Gospels definitely say that this was the day on which the Lord was buried (before our Wednesday sunset), ‚because it was the preparation (day)’ the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, ‚for that sabbath day was a high day,’ and, therefore, not the ordinary seventh day, or weekly sabbath. See John 19:31... It follows, therefore, that the Lord was crucified on our Wednesday; was buried on that day before sunset; and remained ‚three days and three nights’ in the tomb, as foretold by Him in Matt. 12:40; rising from the dead on ‚the third day,’ ‚the first day of the week’].

However, Jesus did not rise on the Sabbath evening, but on the Sabbath morning (Mk 16:9):

Herbert W. Armstrong (*31.07.1892; †16.01. 1986), the founder of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), from which numerous mostly Sabbath-keeping churches emerged, in his booklets „The Crucifixion Was Not on Friday“ (1974/1985) and „The Resurrection Was Not on Sunday“ (1952/1973/1985) pointed out that, according to biblical and extra-biblical sources, the celebration of the Last Supper clearly had to have been on a Tuesday evening and Jesus' crucifixion „on a Wednesday“. Jesus would therefore have died at the 9th hour (3 pm) and was then buried. So far, this is completely correct and very well researched.

However, since he was not sufficiently familiar with the basic Greek text of the NT and mainly used the English-language Bible translations (KJV) that spoke of the coming of the women „on the first day of the week“, a mistake in his thinking was inevitable, because he wanted to make a compromise between Wednesday and Sunday.

He does not count from the 14th of Nisan, but only from the 15th of Nisan (from Wednesday evening after sunset) and assumes that the resurrection must have taken place after exactly 72 hours, so that Jesus did not rise „on a Sabbath morning“, but „on a Sabbath evening“ shortly before sunset and only appeared to the women „on a Sunday“. Although this 72-hour resurrection theory comes fairly close to reality, it cannot possibly be true because God emphasizes seven times in the basic Greek text that the women came to the tomb „on a Sabbath“ and not „on the day after the Sabbath.“ The number 7 is the number of perfection and if God mentions the word "Sabbath" seven times in the resurrection chapter, then people should pay even more attention to it. However, Jesus did not rise from the dead at the end of the Sabbath (Saturday evening), but in the early morning shortly before sunrise (Mark 16:9), which is a big difference. More on this in the chapter Church Opinions. The King James Bible has many translation errors (examples), which most Christians have accepted without checking.

Several of the Sabbath churches of the many splinter groups of the Church of God, e.g. the United Church of God, as well as Fred R. Coulter (own Bible translation HBIOO 2004), Milburn Cockrell (Three days and three nights at www.BibleStudy.org) and Lon Martin (ToY, GABRIEL Bible) argue similarly to Armstrong. They all speak of a crucifixion on Wednesday and a resurrection at the end of the Sabbath (Saturday evening). In a study sheet Martin writes:

„In truth, the Testimony of Yeshua (or 'New Testament') says absolutely nothing about a 'first day of the week'! The really 'inconvenient truth' is that the Bible repeatedly mentions 'the first of the Sabbaths' with Pentecost in mind. It was never intended to mean Sunday.“

[Source: „The First Day of The Week: The Countdown to Pentecost!") 

R. A. Torrey (1907), whose text can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet (Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the Bible, 1907, pp. 104-109) makes a clear statement. He emphasizes that in the week in which Jesus was crucified, the 15th of Nisan fell on a Thursday and goes on to note:

„The first fact to be noticed in the proper solution is that the Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. It is said that Jesus was crucified on 'the day before the sabbath' (Mark 15:42). As the Jewish weekly Sabbath came on Saturday, beginning at Sunset the evening before, the conclusion is naturally drawn that as Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath He must have been crucified on Friday. But it is a well-known fact, to which the Bible bears abundant testimony, that the Jews had other Sabbaths beside the weekly Sabbath which fell on Saturday. The first day of Passover week, no matter upon what day of the week it came, was always a Sabbath (Exodus 12:16; Leviticus 23:7; Numbers 28:16–18). The question therefore arises whether the Sabbath that followed Christ’s crucifixion was the weekly Sabbath (Saturday) or the Passover Sabbath, falling on the 15th of Nisan, which came that year on Thursday. Now the Bible does not leave us to speculate in regard to which Sabbath is meant in this instance, for John tells us in so many words, in John 19:14, that the day on which Jesus was tried and crucified was 'the preparation of the Passover' (RV), that is, it was not the day before the weekly Sabbath (Friday) but it was the day before the Passover Sabbath, which came that year on Thursday. That is to say, the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified was Wednesday. John makes this as clear as day... But when we accept exactly what the Bible says, namely, that Jesus was not crucified on the Passover day but on 'the preparation of the Passover,' and that He was to be three days and three nights in the grave, and as 'the preparation of the Passover' that year would be Wednesday… this allows exactly three days and three nights in the grave. To sum it all up, Jesus died about sunset on Wednesday… There is absolutely nothing in favor of Friday crucifixion, but everything in the Scripture is perfectly harmonized by Wednesday crucifixion…”].

Torrey's insights are very old, yet unfortunately only a few Christians today deal with this topic, instead they are in a spiritual sleep, because the distractions of the world have become much more interesting to them.

In 1922, A.T. Robertson also assumed that Jesus was resurrected on a Saturday, because if Jesus had been crucified on Good Friday, he could never have been in the grave for 72 hours to appear to the women on a Sunday. Since he did not study the basic Greek text and followed the statements of the King James Bible (KJV, which speaks of the „first day of the week“, he had to accept the Sabbath evening as the resurrection day. He wrote:

„Quite an effort is made in some quarters to show that Jesus remained in the tomb seventy-two hours, three full day and nights.“ [In: A.T. Robertson: A Harmony of the Gospels, 1922; p. 289].

Werner Papke (*1944;  †2019) was also influenced by the incorrect translation of the resurrection chapter in modern Bibles, which states that the women came to the tomb „on a Sunday“. According to biblical and extra-biblical sources, it was clear to him that the Last Supper should only have been on a Tuesday evening and the crucifixion only on a Wednesday (Nisan 14) afternoon. On pages 47-48 (The Sign of Jonah; Das Zeichen des Jona 1997) he also refers to historical scriptural finds:

„By the way, even the early Christian writers testify that Jesus was impaled on a Wednesday, especially Epiphanius, Lactanz and Victorinus of Pettau. According to the so-called Didascalia Apostolorum, Jesus' Last Supper also took place on Tuesday evening.“

This was followed by the High Sabbath (15th Nisan) on Thursday, Friday (16th Nisan) and the weekly Sabbath (17th Nisan). In an attempt to reconcile his findings with the Sunday appearance of Jesus in his incorrect translation of the Bible, Papke also assumed (just like Armstrong before him) that Jesus was in the tomb for exactly 72 hours. He also only starts counting from the 15th of Nisan and completely ignores the 14th of Nisan. According to Papke, the resurrection did not take place on the Sabbath morning, but on the Sabbath evening shortly before sunset. Jesus would therefore have been alive all night (12 hours) before finally appearing to the women on the following Sunday morning. This is not logical and it is not known what Jesus should have been doing all night, especially as John mentions that Mary was not allowed to touch Him at the first appearance of Jesus until he had ascended to the Father (John 20:17). Only afterwards was He touched by several women and disciples. If Papke had researched the original Greek text, the Latin Vulgate, the pre-Lutheran Bibles and the Luther Bible itself, he would certainly have come to a different conclusion, namely that Jesus' resurrection took place on Saturday morning or on Sabbath morning, i.e. in the middle of the Sabbath and not at the end of it.

Josef Blinzler (1958) describes recent research findings:

„As can be seen from the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch, the Damascus script and some Qumran texts from the first cave, and as the calendar fragments recently found in the fourth cave of Qumran definitively prove, at the time of Jesus in Palestine there was a solar year calendar in addition to the official lunar year calendar, which was followed by the Qumranic circles and in which the Passover fell on a Wednesday every year.“

[Source: Josef Blinzler. - Qumran-Kalender und Passionschronologie, für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche, Volume 49, de Gruyter – Jan 1, 1958].

This example shows that even in Judaism it was quite common for some groups not only sometimes, but even every year, not to slaughter the Passover lamb on a Friday. Jesus certainly did not adhere to this calendar, but to the official, biblical sun-moon calendar, but in the year He was crucified, the time on which He held the Last Supper (Tuesday evening) fell at the same time as the Passover meal of the Qumran community. Some therefore assume that Jesus ate the Passover lamb on Tuesday evening (Qumran calendar) and that He was then slaughtered as the spiritual Lamb of God on Wednesday (preparation day of the official calendar) and buried before the High Sabbath (Thursday, 15th of Nisan). Most Christians, however, do not think that Jesus ate the Passover lamb the evening before, as he himself was the Passover lamb and died at the same time as the lambs were slaughtered. The fact that the day of preparation, the 14th of Nisan, falls on a Wednesday is not uncommon even in the official Jewish calendar, as any Jew or Christian who is familiar with God's calendar can confirm.

As this small selection and examples have shown, the doctrine of the Wednesday crucifixion of Jesus is by no means a sectarian idea, but an early Christian doctrine that was held not only by historians but also by Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical church teachers. In particular, 7-day Adventists and other Sabbath-keeping churches publish many quotes that speak in favor of observing the Sabbath, but most of them have not understood the resurrection either and either speak of Jesus' resurrection at the end of a Sabbath or they even teach the Sunday resurrection of Jesus. In doing so, they are following the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Even decades after the death of Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote nothing about a Sunday resurrection of Jesus. Nor did he ever speak of a special sanctification of the first day of the week, but only referred to the clear words of the Bible:

1Cor 15:1-4: „Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.“

See the chapter: The sign of the Messias: 3 Days and 3 Nights

„Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil“

(1Thess 5:21-22; KJV)

„Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them“

(Eph 5:11, ESV)