Objection:
There is no way Biblically or historically to prove that the Lord’s Day isn’t Sunday.
Answer:
[This is a common argument so we will reprint an article by W. E. Howell in the Review and Herald of May 9, 1940 to give an answer.]
This phrase, “the Lord’s day;” occurs but once in the Bible, in Revelation 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” One sees it nowadays in the public press and in the name of one or more organizations. In this use it is usually intended to mean Sunday. In the French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese translations of the Scriptures, it is for the most part, though not in all, rendered Sunday. Advocates of Sunday observance often employ this scripture in attempted support of the keeping of the first day of the week as the Sabbath. What is the true meaning of “the Lord’s day” as used by the prophet John?
Though we may not know why John chose to use this phrase instead of one more specific, a little study of the phrase itself and of one or two kindred ones elsewhere will throw light on the question.
The word “Lord’s” is a translation of an adjective used in the Greek phrase kuriakee heemera. The adjective kuriakee is derived from the regular New Testament word for Lord, kurios, with a suffix added to its stem. In English we have no suitable adjective form of Lord, since the only one we have, lordly, has come by usage to have a meaning not adaptable to this phrase. The nearest we can come to a proper equivalent is to say “day of the Lord,” or as in the text, “Lord’s day,” meaning a day belonging to the Lord or set apart by the Lord.
There is an interesting parallel in the use of kuriakos in the phrase kuriakon deipnon, “Lord’s supper,” in 1 Corinthians 11:20. As all know, this is the supper presided over by Jesus just before His betrayal and crucifixion, and ordained by Him to be observed by His followers “till he come.” The adjective qualifying “supper” is exactly the same one as used to qualify “day” in Revelation 1:10, and it is not used elsewhere in the New Testament.
In the case of the supper, it was instituted by the Lord’s setting the example of how to observe it, and saying to His disciples, “This do in remembrance of me.” “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.” In the case of the day, God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the seventh day.” This is the only day God ever set apart by resting upon it Himself, and commanding us to remember to keep it holy. Numerous times after that event as recorded in the Bible, the day is called “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” In other words, it is supremely “the Lord’s day,” as really as the supper was and is “the Lord’s supper.”
Again, “the Lord’s day” cannot refer to the day of His resurrection, or to a memorial of that day, for the resurrection is commemorated and symbolized baptism, that is, baptism by immersion.
There is also another aspect of the interpretation of the phrase “the Lord’s day” that should be noted. Since the discovery of Greek writing in fragmentary papyrus documents and in inscriptions in Egypt and other dry countries, it has been found that the words kurios and kuriakos were in common use among the people at the time the New Testament was writing. The word kurios, in fact, was then, and still is among the modern Greeks, used as equivalent to our title Mr. But by extension also to head of the house or a business concern or our common use of the word lord as applied to an estate or social status or even to a king or emperor.
When Jesus came in the flesh, it was the most natural and normal thing for His followers to call Him Lord, for so He was, as He Himself declared. Ever since He has been called the Lord without anyone’s doubting who is meant. To the heathen of Christ’s day, lord naturally applied in its highest sense to the emperor. Hence it was all the more fitting for Christians to call Jesus Lord, as He was indeed Lord of all, including kings and emperors.
Now kuriakos was in common use as the adjective form of kurios, whether applied to the head of a house or a business concern, or the emperor. So was it equally fitting for Christians to apply it to the paschal supper and to the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” especially since Jesus Himself declared that He was “Lord of the Sabbath.” How consistent, then, for the apostle John to write kuriakee heemera, “Lord’s Day” as a designation of the Sabbath of the Lord. How inconsistent And incomparable it would seem for him to say he was in a high state of spititual exaltation on “the emperor’s day”!
Hence without denying that kurios and kuriakos were in common use in the speech of the day. Perhaps no one has better expressed the exaltation of kurios from meaning Caesar to signifying Jesus the King of all kings, than has the eminent Greek scholar, Dr. A. T. Robertson, in his Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, in which he says, on pages 115, 116:
“The fact that these and other terms were used in the popular language of the day gives sharper point to the new turn in the gospel message. The deification of the emperor made Christians sensitive about the words [kurios, kuriakos, and seven others mentioned]. . . . The Christians did not shrink from using these words in spite of the debased ideas due to the emperor cult, Mithraism, or other popular superstitions. Indeed Paul often took the very words of Gnostic or Mithra cult and filled them with the riches of Christ . . . . . The mass of the New Testament vocabulary has been transfigured . . . . The new message glorified the current koinee [common speech], took the words from the street, and made them bear a new content, linked heaven with earth in a new sense.”
Meecham, also, in his book Light From Ancient Letters, pages 118, 119, quoting in part from Kennedy, says of kurios:
“‘It was constantly used of characteristically Oriental deities, such as the Egyptian Isis, Osiris, and Serapis. In the first century it was quickly taking its place as the designation of the deified emperor, and thus becoming the central term of the imperial cult.’ What Paul did, therefore, was to adopt this current title, and invest it with a deeper and more spiritual meaning. . . . Its ascription to the deified Roman ruler was anathema. There was but ‘one Lord, Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 8:6). To the writers of the New Testament the risen Christ is, above all else ‘Lord.'”
In conclusion, we may say that although the people of the day might properly say kurios Caesar, the Christians might most appropriately say kurios Jesus. Though the people might say kuriakos logos for Caesar’s treasury, the Christians would as logically say kuriakon deipnon for Lord’s supper, and kurinkee heemera for Lord’s day the only day He ever claimed as exclusively His own, “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
