The Council of Trent, the Bible, and Tradition

The Council [of Trent] agreed fully with Ambrosius Pelargus, that under no condition should the Protestants be allowed to triumph by saying that the council had condemned the doctrine of the ancient church. But this practice caused untold difficulty without being able to guarantee certainty. For this business, indeed, ‘well-nigh divine prudence’ was requisite—which the Spanish ambassador acknowledged as belonging to the council on the sixteenth of March, 1562. Indeed, thus far they had not been able to orient themselves to the interchanging, crisscrossing, labyrinthine, twisting passages of an older and newer concept of tradition. But even in this they were to succeed. Finally, at the last opening [see editors’ note] on the eighteenth of January, 1562, all hesitation was set aside: [Gaspar de Fosso] the Archbishop of Reggio made a speech [see No. 1443] in which he openly declared that tradition stood above Scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed circumcision into baptism, Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority. With this, to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared that tradition does not signify antiquity, but continual inspiration.

[Editors’ note: This "last opening" of the Council of Trent was not the last day, but the opening of the 17th session, the first meeting of the last series of sessions that was opened, after a lapse of time, under a new pope. The council was in session for longer or shorter periods over a series of years.]

Neufeld, Don F. and Julia Neuffer, eds., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Student’s Source Book, Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1962, p. 888, no. 1444.
(Source: Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Kanon und Tradition ("Canon and Tradition"), Ludwigsburg: Druck und Verlag von Ferd. Riehm, 1859, p. 263. German.)

Holtzmann, Heinrich Julius, Kanon und Tradition, Ludwigsburg: Druck und Verlag von Ferd. Riehm, 1859, p. 263.

Saint Patrick, a Sabbath Keeper

Her parents, having taken advice given to them by God, heard of Patrick as a man who was visited by the everlasting God every seventh day; [...]

Muirchu maccu Machtheni and Saint Patrick, St. Patrick, his writings and life, ed. and tr. Newport John Davis White, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, Macmillan, 1920, p. 99.

The angel was wont to come to him on every seventh day of the week; and, as one man talks with another, so Patrick enjoyed the angel's conversation.

Muirchu maccu Machtheni and Saint Patrick, St. Patrick, his writings and life, ed. and tr. Newport John Davis White, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York, Macmillan, 1920, p. 109.

The Celtic Church and Sabbath

The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday.

Flick, Alexander Clarence, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church and its influence on the civilisation of western Europe from the first to the thirteenth century, New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909, p. 237.

The Sabbath in Seventh Century Scotland

They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner.

Lang, Andrew, A History of Scotland, 4 vols., London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900, vol. 1, p. 96.

The Sabbath Early Kept in Scotland and Ireland

It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor [...]. In that case they obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week [...].

Moffat, James Clement, The Church in Scotland: a history of its antecedents, its conflicts and its advocates, from the earliest recorded times to the first assembly of the Reformed Church, Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1882, p. 140.

Roman Opinion Concerning the Jews and the Sabbath: Petronius (c. 27-66 AD)

The Jew may worship his pig-god and clamour in the ears of high heaven, but unless he also cuts back his foreskin with the knife, he shall go forth from the holy city cast forth from the people, and transgress the sabbath by breaking the law of fasting.

Arbiter, Gaius Petronius, Poem 24.
(Arbiter, Gaius Petronius and Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Petronius; Seneca - Apocolocyntosis, tr. Michael Heseltine and William Henry Denham Rouse, London: William Heinemann; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925, p. 357.)

Iudaeus licet et porcinum numen adoret et caeli summas advocet auriculas,

ni tamen et ferro succiderit inguinis oram et nisi nodatum solverit arte caput,

exemptus populo sacra1 migrabit ab urbe et non ieiuna sabbata lege premet.

Arbiter, Gaius Petronius, Poem 24 (97 P.L.M.).
(Arbiter, Gaius Petronius and Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Petronius; Seneca - Apocolocyntosis, tr. Michael Heseltine and William Henry Denham Rouse, London: William Heinemann; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925, p. 356.)

Roman Opinion Concerning the Jews and the Sabbath: Persius (34-62 AD)

[...] and turn pale at the circumcised sabbath.

Flaccus, Aulus Persius, Satire V, 184.
(Flaccus, Aulus Persius, The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, tr. Conington, 1872, p. 113.)

And dread the sabbaths of the circumcised!

Flaccus, Aulus Persius, Satire V.
(Walsh, Robert, ed., Works of the British Poets, 1822, vol. 5 - Aristophanes, Terence, Persius, p. 481.)

[...] recutitaque sabbata palles.

Flaccus, Aulus Persius, Satire V, 184.
(Flaccus, Aulus Persius, The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, tr. Conington, 1872, p. 112.)

"the set times and the laws" of Daniel 7:25

Fifth, this power attempted to do something with God's law. The prediction was that he will "try to change the set times and the laws" (vs. 25). There are two words for time in this verse. One is iddan, used to describe the duration of the little horn's persecution of the saints; it would last three and a half times ("a time, [two] times and half a time"). The word iddan means a span of time. The other word for time used in this verse is zeman (plural, zimmin). "He will . . . try to change the set times and the laws." This Aramaic word has more of a function of a point in time, but it is in the plural form indicating repeated points of time. These are connected with God's law (the word for "law" is singular in the original language). The feature of God's law that best fits this description is the fourth commandment where the recurring seventh day is featured as a point of time, or as regularly occurring points of time.

Shea, William H., Daniel, 2 vols., Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1996, vol. 2, p. 139.

Sabbath and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

At this time, Hung prohibited the use of opium, and even tobacco, and all intoxicating drinks, and the Sabbath was religiously observed.

Lindley, Augustus F., Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, London: Day & Son, 1866, v. 1, p. 48.

The seventh day is most religiously and strictly observed. The Ti-ping sabbath is kept upon our Saturday [...]

Lindley, Augustus F., Ti-ping Tien-kwoh, London: Day & Son, 1866, v. 1, p. 319.

Armenians of the Hindostan and the Sabbath (19th century)

The Armenians in Hindostan are our own subjects. [...] They have preserved the Bible in its purity; and their doctrines are, as far as the Author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship, throughout our Empire, on the seventh day [...]

Buchanan, Claudius, Christian Researches in Asia, Cambridge : J. Deighton ; London : Cadell & Davies, 1811, p. 233.

Sabbath and the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

But the question naturally arises: How came they [the Taipings] to adopt the seventh day of the week instead of the first, as their Sabbath, since all their instruction from Christians was by those who taught that the first day is the Sabbath? This was a mystery to all who learned of that fact. But when they took Nan-King [Nanjing], and Europeans had opportunity to visit them, they were told that it was first, because the Bible taught it, and second, because their ancestors observed it as a day of worship. 

Lewis, Abram Herbert, A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church, Alfred Centre, N. Y.: The American Sabbath Tract Society, 1886, p. 247.

Pope Sylvester I Transfered the Sabbath to Sunday

Pope Sylvester first among the Romans ordered that the names of the days [of the week], which they previously called after the name of their gods, that is, [the day] of the Sun, [the day] of the Moon, [the day] of Mars, [the day] of Mercury, [the day] of Jupiter, [the day] of Venus, [the day] of Saturn, they should call feriae thereafter, that is the first feria, the second feria, the third feria, the fourth feria, the fifth feria, the sixth feria, because that in the beginning of Genesis it is written that God said concerning each day: on the first, "Let there be light:; on the second, "Let there be a firmament"; on the third, "Let the earth bring forth verdure"; etc. But he [Sylvester] ordered [them] to call the Sabbath by the ancient term of the law, [to call] the first feria the "Lord's day," because on it the Lord rose [from the dead], Moreover, the same pope decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday], in order that on that day we should rest from worldly works for the praise of God.

Odom, Robert L., Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1977, pp. 247-248.

Roman Opinion Concerning the Jews and the Sabbath: Seneca (4 BC-65 AD)

Seneca included among the other reprehensible superstitions of political theology the sacred institutions of the Hebrews, especially their Sabbaths. The Jews, he said, served no good purpose by resting every seventh day, since they lost nearly a seventh part of their whole lives and must neglect many matters calling for immediate attention.

Augustine, Saint, The City of God, bk. 6, ch. 11.
(Augustine, Saint, The City of God, Books I-VII, Writings of Saint Augustine, vol. 6, The Fathers of the Church, A New Translation, vol. 8, trans. Demetrius B. Zema and Gerald G. Walsh, Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1962, p. 335.)

Seneca, among the other superstitions of civil theology, also found fault with the sacred things of the Jews, and especially the sabbaths, affirming that they act uselessly in keeping those seventh days, whereby they lose through idleness about the seventh part of their life, and also many things which demand immediate attention are damaged.

Augustine, Saint, The City of God, bk. 6, ch. 11.
(Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, The Works of Aurelius Augustine: a new translation, ed. Marcus Dods, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1871, vol. 1, The City of God - Volume 1, pp. 255-256.)

Hic inter alias civilis theologiae superstitiones reprehendit etiam sacramenta Iudaeorum et maxime sabbata, inutiliter eos facere adsirmans, quod per illos singulos septem interpositos dies septimam fere partem aetatis suae perdant vacando et multa in tempore urgentia non agendo laedantur.

Augustine, Saint, The City of God, bk. 6, ch. 11.
(Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, De Civitate Dei, Libri XXII, ed. Bernhard Dombart, Lipsiae: In aedibus B.G. Teubneri, 1877, vol. 1 - Lib. I-XIII, p. 270.)

Eusebius on the Transference of Sabbath to Sunday

... and all things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has precedence, and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath.

Eusebius' Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 91 (92), A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day, vss. 2, 3.

(Migne's Patrologia Graeca, 1857, vol. 23, col. 1171 & 1172.)

John's Vision of Christ

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. ...

Revelation 1:10-17

The "Full Weeks" of Daniel 10:2,3

There are some clues in these verses [Daniel 10:2-4] that may make it possible for us to estimate rather precisely when this appearance of God came to Daniel. He says that he had been mourning and fasting for three “full” weeks and that then God appeared to him on the twenty-fourth day of the first month–Nisan (10:4). Given the close proximity of these statements, the implication is that the twenty-fourth day of the first month took place immediately at the end of the three weeks of fasting. The original language uses an idiom here to indicate that the weeks were “full.” Full weeks come to an end after seven days; they end on Sabbath, the seventh day. Since this vision appeared to Daniel at the end of three full weeks, it must also have come to him on a Sabbath day. That means that this final prophecy of the book of Daniel was most likely given on a Sabbath. This is the only vision in the book that we can date with such precision.

Shea, William H., Daniel, 2 vols., Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1996, vol. 2, p. 172.

Daniel's Vision of the Mysterious Being of Daniel 10

2 In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. 3 I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. 4 And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; 5 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: 6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. 7 And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. 9 Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. 10 And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. 11 And he [Gabriel, cmp ch. 9:21-23] said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. 12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes [or rulers], came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

Daniel 10:2-13

The Sabbath Fast in Rome: John Cassian (ca. 360-ca. 430 A.D.)

How it was brought about that they fast on the Sabbath in the city.

BUT some people in some countries of the West, and especially in the city [Rome], not knowing the reason of this indulgence, think that a dispensation from fasting ought certainly not to be allowed on the Sabbath, because they say that on this day the Apostle Peter fasted before his encounter with Simon [Magus].

The Institutes of John Cassian, bk. 3, ch. 10

(Schaff, Philip, & Wace, Henry (Eds.), A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1894, vol. 11, p. 218).

Assembling on the Sabbath: The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen (c. 425 A.D.)

The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.

The ecclesiastical history of Sozomen, comprising a history of the church from A.D. 323 to A.D. 425, bk. 7, ch. 19

(Schaff, Philip, & Wace, Henry (Eds.), A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1890, vol. 2, p. 390).

The Sabbath and the Lord's Supper: The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus (c. 400 A.D.)

For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.

The ecclesiastical history of Socrates Scholasticus, bk. 5, ch. 22

(Schaff, Philip, & Wace, Henry (Eds.), A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1890, vol. 2, p. 132).