What is "lord's day"

Sabbath \Sab"bath\, n. [OE. sabat, sabbat, F. sabbat, L. sabbatum, Gr. sa`bbaton, fr. Heb. shabb[=a]th, fr. sh[=a]bath to rest from labor. Cf. Sabbat.]

1. A season or day of rest; one day in seven appointed for rest or worship, the observance of which was enjoined upon the Jews in the Decalogue, and has been continued by the Christian church with a transference of the day observed from the last to the first day of the week, which is called also Lord's Day.

   Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
   --Ex. xx. 8.

2. The seventh year, observed among the Israelites as one of rest and festival.
   --Lev. xxv. 4.

3. Fig.: A time of rest or repose; intermission of pain, effort, sorrow, or the like.

   Peaceful sleep out the sabbath of the tomb.
   --Pope.

   Sabbath breaker, one who violates the law of the Sabbath.

   Sabbath breaking, the violation of the law of the Sabbath.

   Sabbath-day's journey, a distance of about a mile, which, under Rabbinical law, the Jews were allowed to travel on the Sabbath.

   Syn: Sabbath, Sunday.

   Usage: Sabbath is not strictly synonymous with Sunday. Sabbath denotes the institution; Sunday is the name of the first day of the week. The Sabbath of the Jews is on Saturday, and the Sabbath of most Christians on Sunday. In New England, the first day of the week has been called ``the Sabbath,'' to mark it as holy time; Sunday is the word more commonly used, at present, in all parts of the United States, as it is in England. ``So if we will be the children of our heavenly Father, we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath day, which is the Sunday.''
   --Homilies.

The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed alive from the dead early on the first day of the week. The phrase appears in .

According to some sources, Christians held corporate worship on Sunday in the 1st century. The earliest Biblical example of Christians meeting together on a Sunday for the purpose of "breaking bread" and preaching is cited in the New Testament book The Acts of the Apostles chapter 20 and verse 7 . 2nd-century writers such as Justin Martyr attest to the widespread practice of Sunday worship ( First Apology, chapter 67), and by 361 AD it had become a mandated weekly occurrence. During the Middle Ages, Sunday worship became associated with Sabbatarian (rest) practices. Some Protestants today (particularly those theologically descended from the Puritans) regard Sunday as Christian Sabbath, a practice known as first-day Sabbatarianism. (Some Christian groups hold that the term "Lord's Day" can only properly refer to seventh-day Sabbath or Saturday.)

Sunday was also known in patristic writings as the eighth day.