The Lord's day and the Sabbath in the early church

Didache 14.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · On the Lord's day, gather to break bread and give thanks after confessing your sins.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.2Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · If they keep the Sabbath, God will show mercy.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.6Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · No one can now keep the Sabbath truly holy.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.7Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · We will keep the true Sabbath when all things are made new.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.8Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · God rejects the present sabbaths; the eighth day begins a new world.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.9Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Christians celebrate the eighth day, the day of the resurrection.
To the Magnesians 9.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Christians keep the Lord's day, when our life rose through Christ's death, rather than the Sabbath.
To Diognetus 4.3Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · God does not forbid doing good on the Sabbath.
First Apology 67Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Greek A) 2Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the original; Greek A is later) · At five, Jesus makes pools of water clean by his word and forms twelve clay sparrows on the sabbath; rebuked by Joseph, he claps his hands and the sparrows fly away.
Dialogue with Trypho 12.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The true Sabbath is a life of repentance; the true circumcision is of the heart.
Dialogue with Trypho 18.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Circumcision and the Sabbath were imposed on Israel because of its hardness of heart.
Dialogue with Trypho 19.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The righteous before Moses pleased God without the Sabbath; the law came after the golden calf.
Dialogue with Trypho 21.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Ezekiel shows that the Sabbath was given as a sign because of Israel's sins.
Dialogue with Trypho 27.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho objects that Justin ignores Isaiah's command to keep the Sabbath.
Dialogue with Trypho 27.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Priests sacrifice and infants are circumcised on the Sabbath; so the Sabbath is not absolute.
Dialogue with Trypho 29.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · God governs the world on the Sabbath too, and priests offered sacrifice on it.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Circumcision on the eighth day prefigured Christ's resurrection on Sunday, the “eighth day.”
Diatessaron, section 7Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 22Tatian · ca. 160-180
Against Heresies 4.8.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ’s healing on the sabbath fulfilled the law, which forbade servile work and greed, not works of mercy.
Against Heresies 4.8.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The disciples plucking grain on the sabbath acted lawfully as priests, for all the righteous are priests and the apostles have the Levites’ portion.
Against Heresies 4.16.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Circumcision and the sabbath were given as signs pointing to the circumcision of the heart, constant service of God, and the rest of the kingdom.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 96Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Excerpts from Theodotus 49.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · His blessing of the Sabbath shows that he labored unwillingly.
Miscellanies 6.16.138Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Sabbath rest prepares for the first day, the day of light, when the Spirit gives true knowledge and freedom from passion; wisdom existed before creation, and the eighth day is the true Sabbath, while the seventh is a working day.
Book of the Laws of Countries 44Anonymous · ca. 196–235
On Idolatry 14Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · The fear that refusing pagan customs will bring blasphemy on Christ's name is no excuse; Christians may live among pagans but not share their festivals, since they have their own Lord's day and Pentecost.
Apology 16Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian refutes the slanders that Christians worship an ass's head, the cross, or the sun, and mocks a caricature of the Christian god displayed in Carthage.
Against the Jews 4Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The sabbath too was temporary: the patriarchs did not keep it, Scripture distinguishes a human sabbath from God's eternal one, and Joshua at Jericho and the Maccabees worked and fought on the sabbath.
Against the Jews 6Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Since the prophets foretold a new law, circumcision, sacrifice, and sabbath, the question is whether the one who was to bring them has already come.
To the Nations 1.13Tertullian · 197 · Christians are thought to worship the sun because they pray eastward and keep Sunday, but pagans themselves honor the sun and have even borrowed Jewish sabbath customs.
Didascalia 2.60 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The faithful must not scatter Christ's body by staying away, but put everything aside on the Lord's day to come to church.
Didascalia 5.20Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.18 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Commentary on Daniel 4.20Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Such errors come from preferring dreams, fables and human traditions to Scripture; some even impose fasts on the Sabbath and the Lord's day, which Christ did not appoint.
Against Marcion 2.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Carrying the ark around Jericho on the sabbath did not contradict the sabbath law, which forbids ordinary human work, not sacred work commanded by God.
Against Marcion 4.12Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In the sabbath controversies Christ did not destroy the Creator's sabbath but fulfilled it, allowing the relief of hunger as David did and doing God's work of saving life, as Elisha had done.
Against Marcion 4.30Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's defense of healing on the sabbath, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, and the shut door of judgment all belong to the Creator, who both rules the kingdom and judges.
Eclogae on Exodus-Judges, column 289Origen · ca. 220-254 · God tests for good, the devil to destroy; the Sabbath read of the righteous man's rest from sin; Christ the rock; Exod 20:5 troubles Jews, Samaritans, and heretics alike.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.16.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Wait until the moon leaves the evil stars before baptizing; and keep the Sabbath.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.25.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They keep the Sabbath more strictly than all other Jews, not even moving a vessel.
Fragment 63 on John 9:16Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 9:16: priests who ‘profane’ the sabbath are from God, so sabbath-breaking proves nothing; ‘such signs’ distinguishes Christ's true and great signs from the lying wonders of the lawless one; Samson's deeds are not called sins.
Commentary on John 10.75Origen · ca. 230–248 · When God institutes the sabbath, it is called “to the Lord.”
On Prayer 27.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · The feasts, sabbaths, and jubilees of the law may be shadows of the ordering of whole ages, known fully only to God.
Homily on Isaiah 5Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen calls Christ the living righteousness of Isa 41:2, then returns to Isaiah's vision, urging his hearers to let the “Uzziah” of sin die within them, as the reign of Pharaoh had to end before Israel could cry to God.
Homilies on Exodus 7.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Since the manna began on the first day and ceased on the Sabbath, the Lord's Day was already preferred to the Sabbath; the manna is the word of God, minute and spiritual, and the double portion of the sixth day is the good works we store up in this life for the age to come.
Homilies on Numbers 23.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Christian keeps the Sabbath by ceasing from worldly works and giving himself to spiritual ones, carrying no burden of sin and remaining in Christ; the true Sabbath, when God rests from his works, is the age to come.
Against Celsus 4.31Origen · ca. 248 · Against Celsus's claim that the Jews were insignificant runaways, Origen praises ancient Israel as a shadow of heavenly life: worshiping one God, banning images, prostitutes, and effeminacy, with just judges and Sabbaths devoted to hearing God's law.
Against Celsus 5.59Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus notes that the 'great church' shares the Jews' God and Genesis; Origen agrees, corrects Celsus's reading of God's 'rest' on the seventh day, and notes his silence about the plagues of Egypt.
Against Celsus 6.61Origen · ca. 248 · God's “rest” on the seventh day does not mean he was tired; it points to the eternal sabbath of the blessed, and God's “hands” and “commands” are figurative expressions.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 45Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The true sabbath is rest from evil works while doing good; one without good works is easily overcome by false doctrine, the greatest tribulation, and God “shortens the days” by cutting away false additions to Scripture.
On the Making of the World 5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Christians fast on Saturday, not keeping the Jewish Sabbath, which Christ dissolved; Moses' raised hands prefigured the cross.
On the Making of the World 6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Joshua, Mattathias, and the prophets set aside the Sabbath; the true Sabbath is the seventh millennium, when Christ will reign with his elect.
Church History 3.27.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · They kept the sabbath and Jewish customs, but also Sunday rites in memory of the resurrection.
Church History 7.22.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote more festal letters, and letters on the sabbath and on exercise.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 35Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus explains "the curse of the law" by the sabbath and the law's strict penalties, which Christ relieved by forgiveness, and "the power of sin" by the golden calf.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 44Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Diodorus writes to Archelaus that Manes is teaching that the law of Moses comes from the evil prince, and lists the contrasts Manes draws between the law and the Gospel.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 48Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus argues that Christ, Lord of the sabbath, did not destroy it, and that he fulfilled circumcision by circumcision of the heart, which alone saves, while not condemning the fleshly rite.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 2Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus the presbyter, his children, and dozens of other Christians are arrested at Abitina while celebrating the Lord's service in the house of Octavius Felix.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 8Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · The torture stops over the false charge about Victoria, but when Dativus confesses that he joined the Lord's service, he is tortured again, still praying not to be put to shame.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 9Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus the presbyter is brought forward and declares that the Lord's service cannot be left off; Dativus, still on the rack, prays and confesses he is a Christian, and is sent to prison.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 13Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Ampelius, Rogatianus, Quintus, Maximianus, and Felix the younger each confess the assembly and the Lord's service and are sent to prison.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Jewish Sabbath observance everywhere shows law, not nativity, governs conduct.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: the Jews keep every seventh day without transgression.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: the Sabbath is for learning the law, not mere discipline.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · On the Sabbath the people assemble to hear the law.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A priest or elder reads and expounds the law until evening.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.12.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Aristobulus: God gave the seventh day as rest; it is also the first day, the birth of light.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.12.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The six days show the order of creation; the Sabbath is a sign of reason, our seventh faculty.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.12.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The cosmos moves in sevens; Hesiod calls the seventh day holy.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement: Plato’s eighth day in the Myth of Er prefigures the Lord’s day.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement: Greek poets too honor the seventh day.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Job, who lived before Moses, was righteous without sabbath or law.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The psalmists long to see Christ’s face and the day of his resurrection, the one true Lord’s day, better than all the Mosaic feasts.
Canon 20Anonymous · 325 · No one is to kneel for prayer on Sundays or during the fifty days of Easter; prayers then are said standing.
On the Paschal Feast 6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius contrasts the yearly Jewish Passover with the Christian Pascha celebrated every Lord's day, when believers partake of the body of the true Lamb and keep a spiritual circumcision and unleavened bread.
Theophany 3.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Book 2, lines 548–574Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus thanks the Father, invites the weary, and defends the disciples plucking grain on the sabbath by David's example.
Book 2, lines 575–598Juvencus · ca. 330 · Priests break the sabbath in the temple; mercy over sacrifice; the Son of man rules the sabbath; the withered hand healed.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.10Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine taught his soldiers to pray with raised hands and to keep Sunday as the day of prayer.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.14Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Christ established the weekly Lord's day assembly for the nourishment of souls, and though constantly attacked, has led his people to glory.
Demonstration 2.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · A thousand years are as a day to God; the world will last six thousand years, followed by God's sabbath rest.
Demonstration 13.1Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat introduces the sabbath commandment and his reply to Jewish pride in keeping it.
Demonstration 13.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · The sabbath was given for rest, not for justification: beasts keep it too, yet they gain no righteousness and are not bound by the law's moral commands.
Demonstration 13.3Aphrahat · 337-345 · Only labouring humans and beasts rest on the sabbath; the rest of creation works on, so the sabbath is for rest, not righteousness.
Demonstration 13.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · If the sabbath brought righteousness it would have been given to Adam; but Adam received labour only after his sin, and so had no need of a sabbath.
Demonstration 13.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were justified by faith and uprightness, not by the sabbath.
Demonstration 13.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · The sabbath was decreed for the rest of servants, strangers, and animals, out of God's care for all his creatures, as many Scriptures show.
Demonstration 13.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Joshua fought on the sabbath, the Maccabees chose to fight on it, and the priests worked on it in the temple without sin, so the Jews boast in vain of keeping it.
Demonstration 13.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · The sabbath pleasing to God is giving rest to the weary and keeping one's hands from evil; Christians keep God's sabbath by doing his will and look to the eternal sabbath rest.
Demonstration 15.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat closes his three demonstrations on circumcision, sabbath, and food laws, the chief boasts of the Jews of his day.
Life of Constantine 4.18.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Sunday was set apart for prayer, and the palace guards observed it too.
Life of Constantine 4.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine made Sunday a public day of rest and also honored Fridays.
Life of Constantine 4.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christian soldiers were free to attend church on Sunday.
Life of Constantine 4.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Non-Christian soldiers were to assemble on Sundays to recite a set prayer to the one God.
Canon 18Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who fasts on Sunday on ascetic grounds is anathematized.
Canon 29Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Christians are not to keep the Jewish Sabbath rest but are to honor Sunday; judaizers are anathematized.
Long recension, Magnesians 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius teaches that the prophets awaited Christ and urges the Magnesians to keep the Sabbath spiritually rather than in the Jewish manner.
Commentary on Matthew 12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · The grain fields, David’s loaves, the withered hand, Isaiah’s servant, the Beelzebub charge, blasphemy against the Spirit, the good and bad tree, the returning unclean spirit, and Jesus’ true family are expounded as figures of the apostles’ mission, Christ’s divinity, and Israel’s unbelief.
On the Trinity 9.44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5:16–19 Christ answers the charge of sabbath-breaking and of making himself equal to God: the Father works in the Son's work.
On the Trinity 9.45Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Cannot do of himself" in John 5:19 refers to the Father's authority working in the Son, not weakness; the Son does all the Father does and shares his honour.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Fifty is seven sevens completed by the eighth day; during the fifty days after Easter, and on Sundays, the apostles forbade kneeling and fasting.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The law’s observances, including the Sabbath, were shadows that profited by faith in Christ to come; Hilary will explain the meaning of the Sabbath.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm says nothing of weekly rest; the rest God swore the impious would not enter cannot be the Sabbath day, which they keep.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Lord himself broke the Sabbath; God works constantly in sustaining creation, yet without labor or weariness.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary recounts the Sabbath healing of the paralytic at the pool and Christ’s reply, “My Father works until now, and I work.”
Tractates on the Psalms 91.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God works on the Sabbath, sustaining all creation through the Son; no day of God is without work.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The true Sabbath is eternal rest, prepared for now by prayer, reading, fasting, humility, good works, chastity, and patience, as the Jews prepare on the eve of the Sabbath.
Commentary on Galatians 2.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul went up to Jerusalem by revelation and set out his gospel privately to the leading apostles, who agreed with it, showing that nothing may be added to it, for if circumcision or sabbath were needed, salvation would not be by Christ’s grace.
Commentary on Galatians 4.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul lists sabbaths, new moons, years, and seasons such as the fast and Passover, which the Judaizing Galatians had begun to observe.
Oration 44.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Through the devil's envy death entered, and God became man to restore us; the Sunday after Easter is the birthday of the new creation, the eighth day pointing to the life to come.
Hexaemeron 2.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Day and night first came from the primal light; Moses says "one day," not "first day," to fix the measure of a day and to point to the one eternal day, the Lord's day of the resurrection.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 16:1–2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A weekly Lord's day collection for the persecuted saints in Jerusalem was to be laid aside little by little.
Commentary on Colossians 2:16–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Food laws, feasts, new moons, and the sabbath were shadows whose authority ceased with Christ, as an emperor's image loses authority when he is present.
Commentary on Galatians 4:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Drawn into the law's sabbaths and new moons, the Galatians slid back into pagan observances and risked leaving Christ entirely.
Commentary on Romans 9:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Israel failed by seeking justification through ceremonial works given for their hardness of heart; the new covenant of forgiveness through Christ replaces that burden.
Question 44, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God promised a new covenant removing the heavy and figurative precepts, such as sabbath and circumcision; the nations and the faithful remnant receive it, while the faithless Jews forfeit both covenants.
Question 61, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Jesus answered the charge of sabbath-breaking with examples from the law: Joshua at Jericho, the Maccabees, the priests in the temple, and David eating the consecrated bread.
Question 61, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ritual laws such as the sabbath and fasts yield to necessity, while what is criminal is never lawful; Jesus refuted his accusers from the law’s own past rather than from its fulfillment.
Question 69, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Circumcision and sabbath were temporary, ceasing with the law of faith as Daniel foretold; God, who is spirit, is now served in spirit, and the law is not abolished but succeeded.
Question 95, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Pentecost always falls on the Lord’s day, the first day, on which the world was made and renewed, and the law given at Sinai fifty days after the Passover prefigured the gift of the Spirit fifty days after Easter.
Question 95, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster calculates from the quails, the manna, and the Sabbath in Exodus 16 that both the first Passover and the giving of the law fell on the fourth day of the week.
Question 107, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The day always takes precedence over the night, and the Jewish practice of beginning the Sabbath at evening is only a practical arrangement; Roman reckoning also runs from morning to morning.
Question 112, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Psalm 51 (50 in the Greek and Latin) is placed fiftieth not by date but because fifty is the number of remission in the law, from Pentecost to the year of jubilee.
Letter 120.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reconciles the times given by Matthew and John for Mary Magdalene's visits to the tomb and discusses the several Marys of the Gospels.
Letter 121.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome paraphrases Col 2:16-23, explains Paul's Cilician idioms, and reads the passage as a warning against Jewish-Christian observance of food laws, festivals, and traditions.
Letter 149.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer argues from the prophets, Paul and the Gospels that the Jewish feasts and sacrifices are not to be kept according to the letter.
Letter 149.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer interprets the sabbath as rest from sin and Pentecost as the offering of our works, made acceptable through Christ the high priest.
Book of Rules 5Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s fifth rule: numbers and times in Scripture are often figurative, by synecdoche (part for whole) or by “legitimate” numbers such as seven, ten, and twelve, which signify perfection or the whole time from Christ’s passion to the end; he applies this to the sojourn in Egypt, the three days of the burial, the Sabbath, and the flood.
On the Holy Spirit 27.66Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Much that the church holds comes from unwritten apostolic tradition—the sign of the cross, facing east, the words of the epiclesis, the blessings and threefold immersion of baptism, standing to pray on Sunday and at Pentecost—kept in silence to guard the mysteries.
Ancoratus 116.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The true sabbath and the heavenly circumcision.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 8.6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sabbath foreshadowed rest in Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 13.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Dositheans keep circumcision, sabbath, fasts, and avoid touching others.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 18.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Nasaraeans keep circumcision, sabbath, and festivals.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus' saying about priests profaning the sabbath refutes them.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Temple sacrifice on the sabbath shows sacrifice was legitimate.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ healed on the sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Healings on the sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The disciples plucked grain on the sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The law had several kinds of sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Feast days counted as sabbaths.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The “second-first” sabbath followed the day of unleavened bread.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Noah and sabbath both mean rest.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The weekly sabbath prefigured Christ, the eternal rest.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Temple service and circumcision already broke the sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.32.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Either way, the law is broken.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion fasts on the sabbath to avoid honouring the creator's day of rest.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.31.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Luke's 'second-first sabbath' distinguishes the weekly sabbath from the Passover sabbath.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.31.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Passover day is a 'second sabbath'.
Apostolic Canon 64Anonymous · ca. 380 · Fasting on Sunday or Saturday, except one Saturday, is forbidden.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.36.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Creation came through Christ; the sabbath is for meditation on the law, not idleness.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Attendance is especially required on the sabbath and on Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday is the day of prayers, readings, the Gospel and the Eucharist, which no one should miss.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.20.19Anonymous · ca. 380 · No one may fast on Sundays, at Pentecost or on the Lord's feasts.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.23.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ obeyed his parents and turned the Sabbath rest into daily thanksgiving.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.23.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Sabbath and Sunday are feasts of creation and resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.30.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful assemble every Sunday to give thanks.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God appointed the Sabbath and the feasts as memorials of creation and of Wisdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Sabbath is the rest and completion of creation and a day of grateful praise.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday surpasses all feasts, for it shows forth Christ and calls for thanksgiving.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.33.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Slaves rest on Saturday and Sunday to attend church.
Homily 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–394 · On Eccl 3:5–7 Gregory reads the stones thrown and gathered as scriptural words used against evil reasonings (rejecting a literal reading of the Sabbath-breaker’s stoning), the embracing of Zion and wisdom, seeking God throughout life and losing vices, keeping what is found, tearing from evil and sewing on to God and the church, and silence about God’s essence but speech about his works.
Book of Heresies 141.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The eighth festival signifies the Lord's day and resurrection.
Book of Heresies 141.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The eighth day points to the resurrection glory.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 25.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Sunday the presbyters and bishop preach in Constantine's great church.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Lenten Sundays follow the usual Sunday order.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The Sunday morning and evening services in Lent.
Altercatio, chapter 3, speech 1Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon’s last objection: Christians neglect the Sabbath and the food laws.
Altercatio, chapter 3, speech 2Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus answers that the Sabbath was a figure, broken at Jericho and by the Maccabees and rejected by Isaiah, that the food laws forbid sinful deeds rather than foods, and he turns the charge of unclean wine against the Jews.
On the Life of Moses 369Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The equal portions of manna teach contentment with daily need; hoarded manna breeding worms is the undying worm of greed; the double portion kept for the Sabbath is the treasure laid up in this life, the “preparation,” for the rest of the life to come.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.10.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The law with its festivals, new moons, and sabbaths is the shadow of Christ in which the church rested.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.11.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The jubilee, the Passover feasts, Pentecost, and the sabbath are all shadows.
Letter 36.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers that fasting on Saturday is not unlawful in itself, but that where Scripture is silent the custom of the church is to be followed without contention.
Letter 36.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that the Roman writer's tract, by equating not fasting with drunkenness, insults the whole church and even the Romans on the days they do not fast.
Letter 36.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine objects that the tract calls all Eastern and most Western Christians, who eat on Saturday, carnal, Judaizing and enslaved to the belly.
Letter 36.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the Sabbath signified rest and joy, that the law said nothing about eating or fasting on it, and that Christ's words on fasting do not concern the Sabbath.
Letter 36.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows that the tract's demand for fasting six days a week condemns even the Roman church, where few fast so often.
Letter 36.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the tract's reasoning would make Saturday holier than the Lord's day.
Letter 36.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that the Lord's day is above the Sabbath because of the resurrection, and that eating or fasting is good or bad according to the faith of the one who does it.
Letter 36.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers the argument from Moses's forty-day fast by noting that it included Sundays as well as Saturdays, as did Christ's.
Letter 36.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine dismisses the tract's examples of Elijah, Daniel and the three young men as irrelevant to fasting on Saturday.
Letter 36.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers the tract's appeal to Tobit and to the 'sacrifice of praise' by noting that praise is offered every day, especially in the fifty days after Easter when no one fasts.
Letter 36.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the tract's 'woe to those who call good evil' condemns the whole church, and that Paul forbids those who fast and those who eat to judge one another.
Letter 36.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers the claim that Peter taught Saturday fasting at Rome after defeating Simon Magus, citing the story as an uncertain opinion and urging harmony between the customs.
Letter 36.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine corrects the tract's contrast between old and new worship, arguing that each old sign gave way to its spiritual counterpart, and so the carnal Sabbath to the spiritual.
Letter 36.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine gives his own view: fasting is commanded in the New Testament, but no days are fixed, and relaxing the fast on Saturday better signifies eternal rest.
Letter 36.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says fasting on Sunday is a scandal, especially because the Manichaeans made it their fast day, except within a long continuous fast.
Letter 36.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Paul's all-night discourse at Troas on the first day of the week was a special necessity, not evidence that the apostles fasted on Sundays, as the Priscillianists claim.
Letter 36.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Saturday, the day Christ rested in the tomb, is kept by some with fasting and by others with relaxation, but all fast on Holy Saturday.
Letter 55.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christians, unlike Jews, require a sabbath within the Easter celebration, because a sabbath lay between Christ's death and resurrection.
Letter 55.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains the sabbath as a figure of eternal rest, which is active and untroubled, and the Lord's day, the eighth and first, as the restored, eternal life.
Letter 55.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the sabbath figures rest in the Holy Spirit, and that souls, like weights, strive for the rest found only in delighting in God.
Letter 55.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that God's rest on the seventh day signifies the rest he will give us, as our good works are his work in us.
Letter 55.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that of the Ten Commandments only the sabbath is to be kept figuratively, as spiritual rest, while the others are kept literally.
Letter 55.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the Lord's day, the eighth and first, was revealed by Christ's resurrection and signifies the glorified activity of the risen body.
Letter 55.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains the scriptural basis and number symbolism of the forty days of Lent and the fifty days of Easter, when fasting is relaxed and prayer is made standing.
Letter 149.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains Colossians 2:16–18: no one should judge Christians over food or festivals, mere shadows, nor impose a false humility and worship of angels; 'wishing in humility' means affecting humility.
Homilies on Matthew 39.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ defends his hungry disciples who plucked grain on the sabbath by the example of David eating the loaves of the presentation, which the priest gave him.
Homilies on Matthew 39.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ’s second answer, that the priests in the temple profane the sabbath and are guiltless, shows that the law itself sets the sabbath aside, so that what the disciples did is no sin at all.
Homilies on Matthew 39.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The priests are guiltless by law, and Christ, Lord of the temple and of the sabbath, is greater; the sabbath trained Israel for a time, but Christians keep a spiritual feast continually and should strive beyond what is commanded.
Homilies on Matthew 40.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ heals the withered hand on the sabbath, answering the Pharisees’ hostile question with the example of the sheep in the pit; Chrysostom reviews how he defended each breach of the sabbath, while the Pharisees only grow worse.
Homilies on Matthew 76.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The flight from Judea and the unequaled tribulation refer to the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which Josephus, a Jew and no believer, describes as surpassing every calamity, a wrath Chrysostom ascribes to the crime of the cross; the days were cut short lest all the Jews perish.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The sabbath means rest, laying down the burden of sins.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Lay down sins now, to reach the rest of the future sabbath.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.1.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “second day of the week” is the Lord’s day, the eighth and first day, sanctified by the resurrection.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.1.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The gospel’s “second-first sabbath” shows the Lord’s day replacing the sabbath as the true rest.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.2.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · True rest is in the resurrection; Christians call Sunday “the first of the sabbath”, as the gospel does.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.2.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The gospels call the day after the resurrection “the first of the sabbath”.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.2.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David, under the law, spoke cautiously of the Lord’s day as “the second of the sabbath”, keeping the order of numbers yet revealing the mystery.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine answers the mockery of God's rest on the seventh day: by a common figure of speech God is said to rest because he will give rest to us after our good works, which are themselves his gift.
Sermon 4.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Old Testament's land, Jerusalem, circumcision, sabbath and sacrifices were temporal promises with spiritual meanings; those who take them only carnally belong to Esau.
Sermon 8.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The third commandment, the sabbath, is the quiet of a good conscience; its opposite is the third plague, restless gnats, like the empty fancies of contentious people.
Sermon 9.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The adversary with whom we must agree is God's word, which contradicts our sins against each commandment: superstition, belittling Christ, a carnal sabbath, dishonoring parents, hatred, and especially husbands' adultery.
Sermon 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine plays the "ten-stringed psaltery" of the Decalogue instead of frivolous songs: three strings belong to God, the third being the sabbath, the everlasting rest promised in the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 33.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three commandments of the first tablet correspond to the Trinity: one God (the Father), not taking the Lord’s name “to vanity” (the Son is no creature), and the Sabbath (the Holy Spirit’s gift of rest), kept spiritually by avoiding sin.
Sermon 125.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jews took God’s sabbath rest literally, as if he had tired, but he who created by a word does not labor; his rest signifies the future rest of the saints after the six ages of the world, and he still works by governing creation without effort.
Sermon 136.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Healing by a word was no breach of the Sabbath, but making clay was work: the Lord set aside the Sabbath, a shadow of things to come, because he himself, the Light, had come; the Jews who kept it carnally remained blind.
Sermon 251.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Seventeen, root of 153, is the ten of the Law and the seven of the Spirit; sanctification first appears on the seventh day, when God, who was not tired, rested and sanctified our rest.
Sermon 270.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit is signified by seven: sanctification first appears on the seventh day, God’s rest signifying our rest after good works, which the true sabbath keeps by not sinning; and Isaiah names seven gifts of the Spirit.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers the claim that God's rest in Genesis 2 contradicts John 5:17: God ceased from creating but not from governing, and the Sabbath is kept spiritually by Christians.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers Adimantus's use of Matt 23:15, 1 Cor 7:19 and Gal 4:10 against the Sabbath and circumcision: these were shadows rightly imposed and now understood spiritually, and Christ condemned the Pharisees' conduct, not the law.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers the contrast between the Sabbath-breaker stoned in Numbers and Christ's Sabbath healing, and turns the Manichaeans' belief in plant souls against them with the withered fig tree.
Confessions 13.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The seventh day has no evening; God's rest foretells our rest in him in the sabbath of eternal life.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 6.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends the sabbath as a figure of eternal rest and ridicules the Manichaean elect, who refuse to pick fruit yet cut, cook, and chew it, and whose fasting halts the supposed freeing of divine light.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Christ's teaching on the Sabbath, circumcision and clean foods contradicts Moses, so that Jews who believed Moses could not believe Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that the Sabbath, circumcision and food laws were figures for their time, and that Christ called his hungry disciples innocent, while Manichaean teaching counts plucking grain as murder and gives their god no rest.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads Christ's Sabbath rest in the tomb and his rising on the eighth day as fulfilling the Sabbath and circumcision, which signifies the stripping off of mortality, and explains the woe on the proselyte as about imitating the Pharisees.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 18.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers the taunt of “Saturn's chains”: pagan names of days and months imply no worship, as the Manichaeans keep their Bema in March without worshipping Mars, and the Sabbath, meaning rest, was a shadow of things to come.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus turns the objection back on catholics, who also neglect sabbath, circumcision, sacrifices, and food laws, and so must either deny the text or reinterpret it.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that Christians do not practise circumcision or sabbath rest because Christ fulfilled what they prefigured: circumcision in his resurrection and baptism, the sabbath in the rest he gives.
Tractates 10Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On the 'first day' and 'seventh day' of the Passover law: God's rest does not end his working; Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath while his soul freed the saints below, made the first day holy by his resurrection, and points to the seventh millennium as the saints' final rest.
Tractates 11Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On John 7:21 ('I have done one work'): healing the paralytic on the Sabbath fulfilled the Law, which permits work 'done for every soul' as circumcision does; 'judge a just judgment' forbids flattering the rich, admiring outward beauty, and judging Christ only as a man.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.81Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The plucking of grain on the Sabbath is told consistently; Matthew's 'at that time' may keep the order of events, or refer broadly to that period.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.82Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The healing of the withered hand was on another Sabbath; the Pharisees' question, Christ's counter-question, and the comparison of the sheep fit in one sequence.
On the Work of Monks 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Not all monks can teach, and those who can should do so in turn; Paul himself, as Acts shows, kept set times for preaching and worked at others.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 114–116Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: God's being creator in potentiality before creating implies no lack, since his power acts by will, not natural necessity; Christians do not kneel on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost, as a sign of the resurrection, a custom Irenaeus traces to the apostles; and the risen Christ either created his clothing or took it from elsewhere.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine opens his treatment of the seventh day by asking whether the six days passed away or remain in the created things themselves, and turns to the perfection of the number six.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine sets God's rest on the seventh day beside Christ's words “My Father is working until now,” and reads the Sabbath as a shadow fulfilled in Christ's rest in the tomb.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The Sabbath, kept carnally by the Jews, is removed in the time of grace; the believer keeps a perpetual Sabbath, resting from former works through baptism.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · God sanctified only the day of his rest, not any day of work, which suggests that rest counts for more than work, as with Mary and Martha.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · By sanctifying the day of his rest God showed that he did not need his works nor gain blessedness from them; he who is always at rest showed his rest to us on the seventh day.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · God's rest is that he needs no good besides himself, not even the good things he made; it is set forth on the seventh day, after the perfection of six, so that we may long to rest in him.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine asks what the seventh day is, since God created nothing on it, and proposes that it is the seventh repetition of the one day God created when he made light.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 4.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine concludes Book 4: the first day is the angelic creation, present to all God's works in an order of knowledge, and the seventh day means that God, before his angels, rests in himself, needing none of his works.
Letter 25, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Saturday must be a fast day each week, like Friday, because the apostles mourned on both days before the joy of the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The same commandments are given to Christians as to Israel, the Sabbath to be kept spiritually by abstaining from sin, but the old promises were earthly because a carnal people, quick to turn to idols, could grasp only visible things.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews objected not to the healing but to the man's carrying his bed on the Sabbath, and he answered that he obeyed the one who had healed him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Jesus answers that the Sabbath was a sign given for a time and fulfilled in him: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Both that God rested on the seventh day and that he is working until now are true; how God works at rest and rests in working is beyond words and must be seen by those who advance.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God's rest on the seventh day signified Christ, who completed his work on the cross on the sixth day and rested in the tomb on the Sabbath; through him, the Word, the Father both made and rules the world.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 20.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ healed on the sabbath because God never labors or ceases from work; Christians keep the sabbath spiritually by resting from sin, in hope of rest after good works.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The “greater works” are greater than the healing of the man sick for thirty-eight years, namely raising the dead; yet the Son did not need to learn this.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 30.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · If the Jews circumcise on the sabbath for the sake of a sign of salvation, they should not be angry that Christ made a whole man well on the sabbath.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 30.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ asks them to judge between him and Moses by the truth, not by persons: healing on the sabbath is no servile work.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Pharisees who accused Jesus of breaking the sabbath kept it only carnally; the spiritual sabbath is to be without sin.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 120.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Mary Magdalene finds the tomb open on the first day of the week, now called the Lord's day, and tells Peter and the beloved disciple.
On the Spirit and the Letter 23Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The law that cannot justify includes the Decalogue, which Christians keep except for the literal Sabbath, since it contains “You shall not covet.”
On the Spirit and the Letter 24Augustine of Hippo · 412 · In 2 Cor 3 the letter that kills is the whole Decalogue engraved on stone, not merely the Sabbath command.
On the Spirit and the Letter 27Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The Sabbath, the only figurative command of the Decalogue, signified the hidden grace of sanctification later revealed in Christ.
City of God 6.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports Seneca's scorn for the Jewish sabbath and his grudging admission that the Jews knew the reasons for their rites, and defers the question of the Jewish rites to another place.
City of God 11.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God's rest on the seventh day signifies the rest of those who rest in him, promised to the faithful and prefigured by the sabbath.
City of God 11.31Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The seventh day's rest, which has no evening, signifies fullness; seven stands for the whole and for the Holy Spirit, and rest belongs to perfect knowledge, as the angels enjoy it.
City of God 22.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine concludes the work with the eternal happiness of the city of God: the praise of God who is all in all, a freedom that can no longer sin, and the final seventh-day Sabbath and eternal eighth day of rest, vision, love, and praise.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.81Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome gives the whole sabbath oracle and expounds it spiritually: keeping the sabbath means laying down the burdens of sin and sanctifying all of life; those who reject this figurative reading must either become Jews or fault Christ.
The Institutes 3.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The Saturday vigil commemorates the disciples' watch after the crucifixion; in the East the fast is relaxed on Saturday as well as Sunday.
The Institutes 3.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · On Sunday a single office with Communion replaces the third and sixth hours, marking the day of the resurrection as a festival.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that the ritual laws of the Old Testament were signs now fulfilled, but its moral precepts, above all the Ten Commandments apart from the literal Sabbath, bind Christians.
The Conferences 21.20John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas explains that the ten days between Ascension and Pentecost complete the fifty days foreshadowed by the Feast of Weeks, and that like Sundays they exclude fasting and kneeling as signs of mourning.
Instructions 2.8Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The meanings of the feasts and holy days: jubilee, Pascha, Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, Epiphany, new moon, Preparation, Sabbath.