Lord's Day

John’s unique use in the New Testament (1:10) of the dative expression, in the Lord ’s Day (ἐν τῃ̂ κυριακῃ̂ ἡμέρᾳ), appears to be influenced by the repeated use of the similar dative expression in that day (ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῃ̂ ἡμέρᾳ) in the Septuagint (LXX), to designate the day of the Lord (Zech 12-14, etc.). This observation seems to have been overlooked by those who insist that John’s use of Lord's day refers to Sunday (Thomas, Osborne). John likely would have been quite familiar with the dative construction of in that day from the Septuagint (Zech 12:8 ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῃ̂ ἡμέρᾳ) and could have quite easiliy penned the dative Lord's day instead of that day, with the same intended eschatological meaning. John had just finished quoting Zechariah 12:10 (Rev 1:7) where we find a passage (Zech 12-14) with repeated used of in that day (LXX) referring to the day when the Lord comes. [The above I believe to be the simplest and most plausable explanation for the presence of ἐν τῃ̂ κυριακῃ̂ ἡμέρᾳ in Rev. 1:10.]

The context of Chapter One: (1:1) "revelation of Jesus Christ...", (1:7) "Behold He is coming with the clouds...", (1:8) "the One who is to come...", point to "Lord's day" as John's choice of words to describe the eschatological day of the Lord. To propose, as some do, that John would believe it necessary to reveal what day of the week he received the Revelation, and leave out the time frame for the events, is nothing short of unbelievable, and without precedent among God's prophets. Another way of stating this is that the prophets of God always gave the time frame surrounding the events of their prophecy, but never found it necessary to give us the day of the week they received the prophetic word from God.

[It is noteworthy that, just as the coming of Christ is announced with a trumpet (1 Thess. 4:16; Matt.24:31), so is all that John reveals to us here (Rev. 1:10).]

The Lord's Day expression is never used in the Bible to designate Sunday, the Sabbath, or a day of the week meant for worship (unless, as Mounce, p. 76, and others argue, this is the meaning here). Thomas (vol. 1, p. 91) suggests that this is possibly "the first use of this name for Sunday." But all the writers of the New Testament who made any reference to Sunday, including Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul, designated Sunday exclusively with the phrase "first day of the week" (cf. Mt. 28:1, Mk. 16:2, 9; Lk. 24:1, John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2).

Thomas (ibid.) says the Lord's Day is used "a short time after the writing of the Apocalypse" to designate Sunday. But, a check of his sources raises questions about this conclusion. The Didache (14:1) has the word for Lord, but does not have the word day, the expression under discussion does not appear. Ignatius' Epistle to the Magnesians, in a similar style, simply has the word Lord, but not day. The Gospel of Peter (Evangelia Petri) likewise makes no mention of day. Melito of Sardis (165-175 AD) is claimed by Eusebius to have written a paper entitled, The Lord's Day, but again the word for day does not actually appear in the title, and the contents of the book have not survived for our examination. And the time when Melito wrote, between 165-175 AD, is certainly not "a short time" after John wrote the book of Revelation, especially if the early dating of Revelation proves to be true.

[Note: "Etymology is not particularly helpful as a guide to the meaning of a term in any given context. Semantic context is the more reliable guide." Reference Manual for New Testament Interpretation (© various). This document reflects the latest edition of a variety of sources prepared or employed by various professors who have taught New Testament exegesis at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary over many years.]

Later in church history (as in our day) Christians would refer to Sunday, or the day set aside for worship, as "the Lord's day." However, "the day of the Lord," "that day," and "the day" are used throughout the Bible to designate the eschatological day of the Lord, the event when the Lord Jesus comes again. John is saying that the Revelation he received pertained to the time concerning the events surrounding the coming of the Lord Jesus. The observation (Thomas, op. cit.) that John uses the dative of Lord (adjectival, "Lord's day") contributes nothing to his argument that the meaning is Sunday. The genitive is the customary case for adjectives; the dative for adverbs (Wallace, p.76). Peter, using the genitive as John uses the dative, writes (2 Peter 3:12), "God's Day," της του θεου ἡμέρας an adjectival use of God in the genitive with the noun day. This is especially noteworthy in that Peter uses this construction as a synonymous way of stating "the day of the Lord," which he had referenced in the same passage (ἡμέρα κυρίου 2 Peter 3:10). Walvoord says, "The adjectival form can be explained on the ground that in the Old Testament there was no adjectival form for "Lord," and therefore the noun had to be used" (p.42). Nothing from history, or from the way John uses the Greek language, compels us to conclude that by "Lord's day," he meant anything different than "day of the Lord." Kittel observes, "A genitive του κυρίου might have been used instead of the adjective." [Gerhard Kittel, Editor. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, 1976), p.1096] The attempts to import the later future meaning of this phrase, "Sunday," into the present context is an example of the exegetical fallacy (Carson, p. 32) described as "semantic anachronism." The reader should refer to Carson's discussion of μάρτυς (Rev. 2:13).

If John wished to communicate to his readers the day of the week on which he received the Revelation, we would not expect him to select a term which was virtually unheard of as a designation for a day of the week. It still remains a fact that no historical document establishes "Lord's Day" as a designation for any day of the week up to the time of the writing of the Revelation.
It still remains a fact that no historical document establishes "Lord's Day" as a designation for any day of the week up to the time of the writing of the Revelation.
It is especially critical to note that at the outset John is giving us the time frame of the events and revelation he is about to show his readers. All that follows is to be found in the Lord's Day. Compromising this point has resulted in the mess we are in today with all the different suggestions for other time frames for the events portrayed in the Revelation given us by John. Please prayerfully consider re-thinking and changing your position if yours is different. Remember the warning at the end of the book.
Isn't it ironic to see the warnings at the end of Revelation 22, look at the mess our evangelical teachers have made of the book of Revelation, and then raise our eyes to the horizon where we see the coming means of the plagues warned of for those who would tamper with this book.

*Sorry the Greek accents did not come through correctly in every word. As a result I had to edit the above discussion from my book, Total Eclipse: Christ Returns. I will also try next to include the footnotes. If you send me email I will fax you a hard copy of the original page with Greek copy and footnotes from my book.
samyster62@expressright.com or samy@christev.org