On March 7, 321 AD, seventeen centuries ago today, Roman Emperor Constantine issued the first Sunday law:
“On the venerable Day of the sun, let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits: because it often happens that another Day is not so suitable for grain sowing or for vine planting: lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.”
It is important to recognize what this was and what it was not. First, it was not an attempt to make Sunday the Sabbath.
It does not say that the solemnity of the Sabbath is being transferred to Sunday.
It does not say that because of the Resurrection of Christ on Sunday morning, henceforth Christians are to observe Sunday.
It does not say that there is a biblical reason for Christians to keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath.
It does not say that the apostles kept Sunday in the place of the Sabbath, or argued that the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday.
It does not say that the Church Fathers up to 321 AD argued that the solemnity or sacredness of the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday.
Second, it is important to notice that this day of rest is urban only, and does not apply to agricultural work. By contrast, the Fourth Commandment applies specifically to agricultural work, by mentioning domesticated animals:
“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.”
So what was Constantine doing? He was doing exactly what he purported to be doing: issuing an order for a day of rest in honor of “the Venerable Day of the Sun,” i.e., a day off for sun-worshipers in honor of Sol Invictus, the unconquered Sun.
Sol Invictus was the official Sun god of the later Roman Empire. On December 25, AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official religion, alongside traditional Roman cults. The god was favored by Roman soldiers, and by several of the emperors after Aurelian, who stamped the inscription Sol Invictus on their coins. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the Fifth Century AD (the 400s) that Augustine preached against them.
Constantine was himself a worshiper of the Unconquered Sun until his conversion to Christianity in 312 AD (and, arguably, continuing thereafter). Constantine issue coins with the Latin inscription “SOLI INVICTO COMITI,” essentially claiming the Unconquered Sun was a comrade or companion to the Emperor. Constantine's official coinage continues to bear images of Sol Invictus until 326 AD.
A coin with Constantine’s name and image on one side, the reverse having the image of Unconquerable Sun and bearing the inscription, “Soli Invicto Comiti”
Statues or bas relief images of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three places on the Arch of Constantine.
Arch of Constantine, detail of reliefs on east side: tondo of the Sun (Sol Invictus) rising from the Ocean in his chariot, his torchbearer Lucifer before him
The Arch itself was carefully positioned to align with a colossal statue of the sun god which stood adjacent to the Colosseum. The sun god statue could be seen through the central arch from the vantage point of the main approach. (The 100 foot tall statue was erected by Nero to represent himself, but after his death in 68 AD, Emperor Vespasian added a sun-ray crown and renamed it Colossus Solis, after the sun god.)
The approach to the Arch of Constantine places the colossal statue of the sun god behind the main arch.
A solidus of Constantine, as well as a gold medallion from his reign, depict the Emperor's bust in profile twinned with Sol Invictus, with the legend “INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS.”
Medallion with twin busts of Constantine and Sol Invictus, the Sun god, with legend “INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS
Clearly, Constantine was closely associated with the sun god. Given this background, it is the most natural thing in the world that Constantine should issue a decree calling for a day of rest on the venerable day of the sun.
Whatever one thinks of Constantine’s “conversion” to Christianity, and there is a good argument to be made that it was mostly political, he did not thereby cease to be the Roman emperor. Among the emperor’s offices was that of Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman religion. He could easily have seen it as his duty to accommodate the religious needs of his sun-worshiping citizens, who at that time probably still outnumbered the Christians, by setting aside Sunday as a religious festival. The Christians had the Sabbath, and had already adopted Sunday as a lesser festival.
What we are seeing is more likely Christianity influencing paganism than the other way around. Christians had a weekly day of rest, the Sabbath. But although sun worship in various guises had existed in the ancient world, and the Roman Empire, for millennia, there was no rest day for sun worship comparable to the Christian Sabbath. Constantine remedied that problem by making the “venerable day of the sun” a day of rest, at least in urban settings where Christianity was growing fastest.
For a period of several centuries, the Sabbath and Sunday were both observed by Christians within the Roman Empire. Even beginning in the Second Century, long before Constantine, some Christians had begun to celebrate Sunday as a Christian festival commemorating the first day of creation and Jesus’ Resurrection. And Christians would continue to observe the seventh-day Sabbath long after Constantine’s edict of 321.
Constantine cannot be blamed for the apostasy of the Christian Church. Ellen White makes clear that the church itself chose to make Sunday the more attractive day. The bishops wanted to dissociate Christianity from Judaism, and they believed that it would be easier to bring the pagans into the church if both Christians and pagans observed the same day:
The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven’s authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2:2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as “the venerable day of the sun.” This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ. Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.
To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had led the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution. While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of sadness and gloom. {GC 52.2}
In the early part of the fourth century the emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman Empire. The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was honored by Christians; it was the emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church. But while many God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment. GC 53.
Eventually the apostate church chose Sunday over the Sabbath.