Lord's Day

Lord's Day is the name given in Revelation 1:10 to the day on which John received his vision on Patmos: I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. This is the only New Testament occurrence of the Greek phrase he kyriake hemera, which early Christian writers consistently used to designate Sunday—the first day of the week, the day of Christ's resurrection. The designation Lord's Day appears in early post-apostolic literature (Didache, Ignatius's Epistle to the Magnesians) as the established Christian day of communal worship, distinguished from the Jewish Sabbath.

The shift from the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week for Christian corporate worship reflects the resurrection's eschatological significance: the community gathers on the day of the new creation, commemorating Christ's victory over death. The New Testament evidence for Sunday worship includes Acts 20:7 (breaking bread on the first day of the week), 1 Corinthians 16:2 (collecting offerings on the first day), and the multiple accounts of resurrection appearances on Sunday. The phrase Lord's Day thus encapsulates the early church's understanding of weekly worship as an ongoing celebration of the resurrection.