Luke uses the following language:—
“And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.”
John bears the following testimony:—
“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher.... Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”[307]
In these texts the foundation of the “Christian Sabbath” must be sought—if indeed such an institution actually exists—for there are no other records of the first day which relate to the time when it is supposed to have become sacred. These texts are supposed to prove that at the resurrection of the Saviour, the first day absorbed the sacredness of the seventh, elevating itself from the rank of a secular to that of a sacred day, and abasing the Sabbath of the Lord to the rank of “the six working days.”[308] Yet the following facts must be regarded as very extraordinary indeed if this supposed change of the Sabbath here took place:—
1. That these texts should contain no mention of this change of the Sabbath. 2. That they should carefully discriminate between the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and the first day of the week. 3. That they should apply no sacred title to that day; particularly that they should omit the title of Christian Sabbath. 4. That they should not mention the fact that Christ rested upon that day; an act essential to its becoming his Sabbath.[309] 5. That they do not relate the act of taking the blessing of God from the seventh day, and placing it upon the first; and indeed that they do not mention any act whatever of blessing and hallowing the day. 6. That they omit to mention anything that Christ did to the first day; and that they even neglect to inform us that Christ so much as took up the first day of the week into his lips! 7. That they give no precept in support of first-day observance, nor do they contain a hint of the manner in which the first day of the week can be enforced by the authority of the fourth commandment.
Should it be asserted, however, from the words of John, that the disciples were on this occasion convened for the purpose of honoring the day of the resurrection, and that Jesus sanctioned this act by meeting with them, thus accomplishing the change of the Sabbath, it is sufficient to cite in reply the words of Mark in which the same interview is narrated:—
“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.”[310]
This testimony of Mark shows that the inference so often drawn from the words of John is utterly unfounded. 1. The disciples were assembled for the purpose of eating supper. 2. Jesus came into their midst and upbraided them for their unbelief respecting his resurrection.