When was Sunday first called the Sabbath?
score:5
The first writer to clearly make this connection appears to be Petrus Alphonsi in the 12th century. This is argued by 17th century historian Peter Heylyn, who writes:
The first who ever used [the word Sabbath], to denote the Lords day, (the first that I have met with in all this search) is one Petrus Alfonsus, he lived about the times that Rupertus did; who calls the Lords day by the name of the Christian Sabbath. (The History of the Sabbath, II, 158)
Heylyn is not controverted by more recent authors, such as James Augustus Hessy (Sunday, 119), nor Kenneth Parker (The English Sabbath, 19). Heylyn quotes Alfonsi's Latin text, Dialogi contra Iudaeos, which does not seem to be available online in full. But the key sentence is:
Dies Dominica, dies, viz. resurrectionis, quae suae salvationis causa exstitit, Christianorum Sabbatum est.
Translated:
The Lord's day, that is, the day of resurrection, which happened for the sake of their salvation, is the Christians' Sabbath.
Technically the translation of the last phrase as "the Christian Sabbath" is not possible; Christianorum is genitive (indicating posession) and not an adjective. But "the Christians' Sabbath" is so similar that Heylyn considered the phrases essentially equivalent, and we might as well.
Granted, Haylyn is quick to argue that Alfonsi's phrase was meant only analogically, in the sense that Easter is the Christian Passover. But Kenneth Parker relates several other pre-Reformation authors who connected the Sabbath and Sunday (though not with the phrase "Christian Sabbath"), such as a 6th century homilist (18), the author of Dives and Pauper, and Archbishop Arundal (21).
These last comments serve only to provide a bit of context – the first use of a phrase like that requested comes from the 12th century, in the writings of Petrus Alphonsi.
Upvote:-2
The idea of Sunday as rest, like Sabbath, traces back to the first centuries of Christianity.
Eusebius, writing circa 330 CE, "joins" the day of Sunday (aka at that time as the Lord's Day) with its rest, as opposed to the Sabbath.
Accordingly he [Constantine] enjoined on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord’s day, as a day of rest, and also to honor the day which precedes the Sabbath; in memory, I suppose, of what the Saviour of mankind is recorded to have achieved on that day. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iv.vi.iv.xviii.html
Synod of Laodicea 29th Canon held in 364 CE determined this also ties the idea of Sabbath rest to Sunday rest.
Canon XXIX. Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.
Notes [to same]. Ancient Epitome of Canon XXIX. A Christian shall not stop work on the Sabbath, but on the Lord’s Day. Balsamon. Here the Fathers order that no one of the faithful shall stop work on the Sabbath as do the Jews, but that they should honour the Lord’s Day, on account of the Lord’s resurrection, and that on that day they should abstain from manual labour and go to church. But thus abstaining from work on Sunday they do not lay down as a necessity, but they add, “if they can.” For if through need or any other necessity any one worked on the Lord’s day this was not reckoned against him. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.viii.vii.iii.xxxiv.html
Upvote:1
When was Sunday first called the Sabbath?
TL;DR: Never, except incorrectly or figuratively or by Protestants.
Any references to Sunday (the fist day of the week) as being "the Sabbath" (the seventh day of the week) are either mistaken or figurative or by Protestants.
Jews have always known Friday sunset to Saturday sunset as the Sabbath day.
The Catholic Church uses the term "Lord's Day" to refer to Sunday (midnight to midnight), and has always recognized that Saturday (sunset to sunset) is correctly known as the Sabbath.
In Italian for instance Saturday is called "Sabato", and in Spanish and Portuguese it is called "Sábado", which clearly mean Sabbath.
This is what the Catholic Encyclopedia has to say:
Sabbath
The seventh day of the week among the Hebrews, the day being counted from sunset to sunset, that is, from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
…
The sabbath in the New Testament
Christ, while observing the Sabbath, set himself in word and act against this absurd rigorism which made man a slave of the day. He reproved the scribes and Pharisees for putting an intolerable burden on men's shoulders (Matthew 23:4), and proclaimed the principle that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). He cured on the Sabbath, and defended His disciples for plucking ears of corn on that day. In His arguments with the Pharisees on this account He showed that the Sabbath is not broken in cases of necessity or by acts of charity (Matthew 12:3 sqq.; Mark 2:25 sqq.; Luke 6:3 sqq.; 14:5). St. Paul enumerates the Sabbath among the Jewish observances which are not obligatory on Christians (Colossians 2:16; Galatians 4:9-10; Romans 14:5). The gentile converts held their religious meetings on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and with the disappearance of the Jewish Christian churches this day was exclusively observed as the Lord's Day. (See SUNDAY.)
Nathaniel's answer suggests that Peter Heylyn's The History of the Sabbath mentions that Sunday was first compared with the Sabbath by Petrus Alfonsus in the early 12th century.
The first who ever used it to denote the Lord’s day (the first that I have met with in all this search), is one Petrus Alfonsus (he lived about the times that Rupertus did:), who calls the Lord’s day by the name of the Christian Sabbath.
Dies Dominica, dies viz. Resurrectionis, quae suae salvationis causa extitit, Christianorum Sabbatum est.
But this no otherwise to be construed than by Analogy and resemblance; no otherwise than the Feast of Easter is called the Christian Passover; and Whitsontide, the Christian Pentecost.
But, Alfonsus did not refer to Sunday as "the Sabbath", but as "the Christian Sabbath". He was making an analogy, as is explained where the expression is compared to referring to Easter as "the Christian Passover".
The other two items cited in the question are from The Westminster Confession of 1647 and by John Owen in 1671.
Since neither Jews nor Catholics have ever done so, the idea of using the term Sabbath to explicitly and inappropriately refer to Sunday is a development of the Protestant Reformation.
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