# Is the Sabbath Saturday or Sunday? Must Christians keep it? > The Sabbath in Exodus is the seventh day, Saturday. The apostles also met on the first day of the week, and Colossians 2 calls sabbath days a shadow. Christians are not bound to keep Saturday. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/judaism/is-the-sabbath-saturday-or-sunday - Religions: Judaism, Christianity - Denominations: none - Beliefs: Other - Tags: sabbath, judaism, seventh-day-adventist - Updated: 2026-10-09 - Author: [Paul Ambrose](https://apologetics.wiki/author/hi-its-paul) ([GitHub](https://github.com/hi-its-paul)) The Sabbath in the Ten Commandments is the seventh day, Saturday. Jews keep that day. Christians are not required to keep it as the church’s holy day. The New Testament records the first day of the week for the church’s meeting, and it calls the sabbath days a shadow whose substance is Christ. ## Key points - [Genesis 2:2–3](/bible/genesis/2) says God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it. [Exodus 20:8–10](/bible/exodus/20) says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,” and “the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God.” [(1)](#ref-1) [(2)](#ref-2) - [Exodus 31:16](/bible/exodus/31/16) gives that sign to “the children of Israel” as “a perpetual covenant.” [(1)](#ref-1) - Mishnah Shabbat 7:2, William Davidson Edition, says the primary categories of labor prohibited on Shabbat “number forty-less-one,” including “one who kindles a fire” and “one who carries out an object from domain to domain.” [(3)](#ref-3) - Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief 20 says the fourth commandment “requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath” for all people. [(4)](#ref-4) What else they teach is [What do Seventh-day Adventists believe?](/what-do-seventh-day-adventists-believe). - [Luke 4:16](/bible/luke/4/16) says the synagogue on the Sabbath was Jesus’ custom. [Acts 20:7](/bible/acts/20/7) and [1 Corinthians 16:2](/bible/1-corinthians/16/2) name the first day of the week. [Revelation 1:10](/bible/revelation/1/10) says “the Lord’s day.” [(5)](#ref-5) [(7)](#ref-7) [(8)](#ref-8) [(9)](#ref-9) - [Colossians 2:16–17](/bible/colossians/2) says let no one judge you in sabbath days, “which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” [(10)](#ref-10) - Justin Martyr, in the *First Apology* 67, says Christians hold their common assembly on Sunday because it is the day Jesus rose, and he says Jesus was crucified on the day before Saturn, Saturday. [(13)](#ref-13) ## The seventh day in the Torah [Genesis 2:2–3](/bible/genesis/2), King James Version: [(2)](#ref-2) > And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. [Exodus 20:8–11](/bible/exodus/20): [(1)](#ref-1) > Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. > But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: > For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. The seventh day of that week is Saturday. The commandment does not name Sunday. [Exodus 31:13](/bible/exodus/31/13) and [Exodus 31:16](/bible/exodus/31/16): > Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. > Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. The sign is named for the children of Israel, throughout their generations. ## Shabbat, Shabbos, and the thirty-nine labors Shabbat is that Sabbath. Shabbos is the same Hebrew word in Ashkenazi pronunciation. Mishnah Shabbat 7:2, William Davidson Edition on Sefaria: [(3)](#ref-3) > This fundamental mishna enumerates those who perform the primary categories of labor prohibited on Shabbat, which number forty-less-one. The same paragraph includes “One who extinguishes a fire, and one who kindles a fire,” and “one who carries out an object from domain to domain,” and it closes, “All these are primary categories of labor, and they number forty-less-one.” The Mishnah’s own count is forty-less-one. Kindling a fire and carrying from one domain to another are two of those categories, which is why observant Jews walk on Shabbat rather than drive: a car’s ignition is a fire, and the trip carries people and things from domain to domain. [Luke 23:54](/bible/luke/23/54) says the day of the crucifixion “was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.” [Luke 23:56](/bible/luke/23/56) says the women “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” The Gospel keeps the seventh day as the commandment Israel was under. ## What Seventh-day Adventists require Fundamental Belief 20, as the North American Division prints it: [(4)](#ref-4) > The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. > Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God’s creative and redemptive acts. They are right that the commandment names the seventh day, and that Jesus kept it. [Luke 4:16](/bible/luke/4/16): “as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day.” [Matthew 12:8](/bible/matthew/12/8): “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.” [(5)](#ref-5) [(6)](#ref-6) Lord of the day is a claim about Jesus, which [Is Jesus God?](/christianity/is-jesus-god) follows. It is also the sentence in which he refuses to let the day rule the mercy he is doing. The further claim, that the fourth commandment still obligates every Christian to Saturday, is Belief 20’s “for all people” and “unchangeable law.” The rest of the New Testament is the test of that sentence. ## The first day and the Lord’s day [John 20:1](/bible/john/20/1): “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” [Acts 20:7](/bible/acts/20/7): “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” [(7)](#ref-7) [1 Corinthians 16:2](/bible/1-corinthians/16/2): “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” [(8)](#ref-8) [Revelation 1:10](/bible/revelation/1/10): “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” [(9)](#ref-9) The Didache, chapter 14, in the text at New Advent: [(14)](#ref-14) > But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. Justin Martyr, *First Apology* 67: [(13)](#ref-13) > And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. > But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday). Justin writes in the middle of the second century. He already explains Sunday by the resurrection, and he already knows Saturday as the day before, the day of Saturn, the day of the crucifixion. A later emperor is not required to explain an assembly he is already describing. [Acts 15:28–29](/bible/acts/15/28) is the Jerusalem council’s burden on Gentile believers: “no greater burden than these necessary things,” then food offered to idols, blood, things strangled, and fornication. The Sabbath is not in that list. [(7)](#ref-7) ## Shadow, and the rest that remains [Colossians 2:16–17](/bible/colossians/2), King James Version: [(10)](#ref-10) > Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. [Romans 14:5](/bible/romans/14/5): “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” [(11)](#ref-11) [Hebrews 4:9–10](/bible/hebrews/4): “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” [(12)](#ref-12) Hebrews uses the seventh-day rest as the pattern of a rest a person enters by ceasing from his own works. The chapter does not reissue Saturday as the church’s commandment. A Christian may rest on Saturday, as Israel was commanded and as Jesus observed. The apostles’ meeting, the collection, and Justin’s assembly are on the first day, and Colossians forbids turning the sabbath days into a judgment on the church. ## Frequently asked questions ### What day is the Sabbath? [Exodus 20:10](/bible/exodus/20/10) says the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD. In the week that runs toward Sunday, that day is Saturday. Jews keep it from evening to evening. Seventh-day Adventist Belief 20 says the same span, sunset to sunset. [(1)](#ref-1) [(4)](#ref-4) ### What are the labors forbidden on Shabbat? Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 says the primary categories “number forty-less-one,” and the paragraph lists them from sowing through carrying from domain to domain. [(3)](#ref-3) ### Why do Jews walk on the Sabbath? The same mishnah names kindling a fire and carrying an object from domain to domain. A car’s ignition is a fire, and the drive carries people from one domain to another, so observant Jews walk. [(3)](#ref-3) ### What is Shabbos? Shabbos is the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Shabbat, the Sabbath of [Exodus 20:10](/bible/exodus/20/10). ### Must Christians keep Saturday? Belief 20 says yes. [Colossians 2:16–17](/bible/colossians/2), [Romans 14:5](/bible/romans/14/5), [Acts 20:7](/bible/acts/20/7), and Justin’s *First Apology* 67 say the church is not judged by that day, and that Christians were already assembling on Sunday because Jesus rose that day. [(4)](#ref-4) [(10)](#ref-10) [(13)](#ref-13) ## Keep reading - [What do Seventh-day Adventists believe?](/what-do-seventh-day-adventists-believe) - [What do Jews believe?](/judaism/what-do-jews-believe) - [What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity?](/judaism/what-is-the-difference-between-judaism-and-christianity) - [The resurrection of Jesus](/christianity/resurrection-of-jesus) - [Is Jesus God?](/christianity/is-jesus-god) ## Passages quoted on this page ### Exodus 20:8–10 King James Version. > [20:8] Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [20:9] Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: [20:10] But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ### Luke 4:16 King James Version. > And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. ### Acts 20:7 King James Version. > And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. ### 1 Corinthians 16:2 King James Version. > Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. ### Revelation 1:10 King James Version. > I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, ### Exodus 20:8–11 King James Version. > [20:8] Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [20:9] Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: [20:10] But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: [20:11] For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. ### Luke 23:54 King James Version. > And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. ### Luke 23:56 King James Version. > And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. ### Acts 15:28 King James Version. > For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Exodus, 20:8–11; 31:13–16](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/exodus/20). King James Version 2. [Genesis, 2:2–3](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/genesis/2). King James Version 3. [Mishnah Shabbat, 7:2](https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Shabbat.7.2?lang=en) (William Davidson Edition. The primary categories of labor, forty-less-one.) 4. [Fundamental Belief 20, The Sabbath, North American Division](https://www.nadadventist.org/beliefs/the-sabbath/) (Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Beliefs. The seventh day required of all people.) 5. [Gospel of Luke, 4:16; 23:54–56](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/luke/4/16). King James Version 6. [Gospel of Matthew, 12:8](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/matthew/12/8). King James Version 7. [Acts of the Apostles, 20:7; 15:28–29](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/acts/20/7). King James Version 8. [First Letter to the Corinthians, 16:2](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/1-corinthians/16/2). King James Version 9. [Book of Revelation, 1:10](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/revelation/1/10). King James Version 10. [Letter to the Colossians, 2:16–17](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/colossians/2). King James Version 11. [Letter to the Romans, 14:5](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/romans/14/5). King James Version 12. [Letter to the Hebrews, 4:9–10](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/hebrews/4). King James Version 13. [Justin Martyr, First Apology, 67](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm) (Sunday as the day of the common assembly, because it is the day Jesus rose.) 14. [Didache, 14](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm) (Assembly on the Lord’s day to break bread.) ## See also - [What do Seventh-day Adventists believe?](https://apologetics.wiki/what-do-seventh-day-adventists-believe) — Seventh-day Adventists confess one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and Jesus as truly God and truly man. They also teach a binding Saturday Sabbath, an investigative judgment from 1844, unconscious death, and Ellen G. White’s prophetic gift. - [What does Messiah mean?](https://apologetics.wiki/christianity/what-does-messiah-mean) — Messiah means anointed one. The King James Version uses that word in Daniel and “anointed” for the same idea elsewhere. Christians confess that Jesus is this Messiah and that he is God the Son. - [What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity?](https://apologetics.wiki/judaism/what-is-the-difference-between-judaism-and-christianity) — Jews and Christians share the God of Israel, the Shema, and the Hebrew Scriptures. Christians confess that Jesus is the Messiah and is God the Son, and that his death and resurrection are salvation. - [Why don’t Jews believe Jesus is the Messiah?](https://apologetics.wiki/judaism/why-dont-jews-believe-jesus-is-the-messiah) — Maimonides says the Messiah is a Davidic king who keeps the Torah, rebuilds the Temple, and gathers Israel, and that a king who was killed is not that redeemer. Christians say Jesus is that son of David, cut off and raised, and that he is God the Son. - [What do Jews believe?](https://apologetics.wiki/judaism/what-do-jews-believe) — Jews confess the God of Israel, one and not a body, the Torah from heaven, a Messiah from the house of David who is still to finish his work, and the revival of the dead. That is Maimonides’ confession, read beside the Shema. ## History [View history on GitHub](https://github.com/Apologetics-Wiki/apologetics-wiki/commits/main/src/content/articles/is-the-sabbath-saturday-or-sunday.md)