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was brought to martyrdom from Antioch to Rome speaks of his Jewish converts 'as no longer observing Sabbaths, but living in accordance with the Lord's day, on which also our life rose through him and his death.' The so-called Epistle of Barnabas ends a long and fantastic disquisition about Sabbaths (to which I shall recur) by saying 'that for this reason' (1.e. that which he has just mentioned) 'we observe the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus rose from the dead and, after manifesting Himself, ascended to heaven.'[1] The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles bids the Church meet on the 'Lord's day of the Lord' to break bread or hold the Eucharist[2]. I need not go into the date of these documents further than to say that probably everyone would reckon them as earlier than Justin. His statement, which is by far the clearest, I have already quoted. We cannot in fact doubt for a moment that the Church from a very early date adopted the practice of meeting on what to the Jews was the first day of the week, to the general public the Sun's day, and to the Christians themselves the Lord's day; and it is hardly less clear that the predominant reason they assigned for this at any rate in the second century was that it commemorated the Resurrection.
