Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary
The Renewed Covenant by Daniel Gregg
"Revelation 1:10 I came into the Spirit on the LORD's day, and I heard in back of me a great voice like a trumpet" (DLT: torahtimes.org).
LORD's day : κυριακη ημερα. Sabbath observers generally have regarded this phrase as referring to the Sabbath day or to the eschatological day of the LORD. The latter opinion is unlikely since the usual phrase for day of the LORD is ημερα του κυριου = יום יהוה. YHWH calls the Sabbath day "my holy day", יום קדשי, in Isaiah 58:13. This of course presumes the phrase was in usage ca. AD 90 when John wrote the book of Revelation.
comment1: the usage of LORD's day was first motivated by the resurrection of Yeshua on the Sabbath (cf. Mat. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, μια των σαββατων). For that day became extra special on account his resurrection just before dawn (cf. Hosea 6:3, לדעת את־יהוה כשחר נכון מוצאו). I believe that it was not just any Sabbath, but that it referred to the resurrection Sabbath, which was the first of the Sabbaths after Passover.
comment2: How then did "Lord's Day" get changed into the meaning of Sunday? To a Greek or a Roman, the sabbath day (ημερα των σαββατων, die sabbati) always meant the seventh day of the week, and was clearly connected with the Torah and the Jews. A large number of Gentiles in Rome and Alexandria had become Christians in a relatively lax Jewish atmosphere. Jew's in these two cities were commercially minded and much more compromised in their practices, and much more discrete about their Judaism. Their Rabbis provided commercially motivated excuses for the laxity so that it was a sort of "reformed" Judaism that was practiced, and even theological excuses for Gentiles attached to the synagogue to be even more lax. This still did not keep the Jews always in favor in Rome. The Jews were expelled from Rome by Claudius for a time. At other times their influence or meetings were restricted. If can therefore be no doubt that often Jews, Jews Christians, or the Gentiles joined with them did not want to refer to the Sabbath day directly. As the number of Gentiles who believed in Yeshua grew, this problem became more acute as many of them were involved in the public affairs of Rome. It is therefore quite likely that the term "Lord's Day" which was being used for the resurrection day came to be extended to all Sabbaths a way of speaking ambiguously in public. Further, in the second century, the cult of Mithra was making headway among the Romans. The special day of Mithraism was Sunday. Therefore a Roman Christian or Greek Christian might be able to continue to use the term "Lord's Day" for the Sabbath without causing an upset.
comment3: The political evolution of the usage, however, was not just due to human conflict. The otherworld had its goals also. After the Second Jewish Revolt, Hadrian banned the practice of circumcision and Sabbath observance. After that, anyone who said so much as they were going to a Sabbath meeting was a dead man. Those truly faithful to the covenant had to flee the cities and live in obscurity. Those who were left were the compromisers who came up with the new theology and the new apologetic to Rome. Justin Martyr is the epitome of this compromise. His writings are clearly anti-Semitic, his philosophy platonic and pagan, and his interpretations of Torah all motivated to make the Jews look like evil pariah's. The otherworld was interested in its own version of Christianity, and therefore influenced people like Justin, who were apostates, to redefine the faith. It was not hard for them to redefine "Lord's day" to refer to the first day of the week since the expansion of its usage had been due to the need for secrecy and ambiguity. No doubt this satisfied many Romans, but not all, because even Justin's apologetic was apparently not enough. He was put to death by the Romans.
comment4: There is evidence in the Didache that the usage of "Lord's day" was even extended to other annual Sabbaths like Yom Kippur. Tidwell makes a convincing argument that κατα Κυριακην δε Κυριου is really a gloss for a Jewish Christian Yom Kippur, a substitution for "Sabbath of Sabbaths", שבת שבתון, Lev. 23:32; (Neville L.A. Tidwell, "DIDACHE XIV: 1 (ΚΑΤΑ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗΝ ΔΕ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ) REVISTED", Vigiliae Christianae , Vol. 53, No. 2. May, 1999), pp. 197-207). This makes sense of the theory that "Lord's Day" originally meant just one Sabbath, namely the resurrection day: μια των σαββατων, and then later was extended to usage of other holy days. Yom Kippur makes a perfect candidate because of its typological connections with Yeshua death and the two goats.
comment5: The inability of the Church to open their eyes to the evidence of the change from Sabbath to Sunday is due to an entrenched orthodoxy in a majority position with a variety of tools at their disposal for enforcement of the status quo, and in my opinion a lot of help from the otherworld. God has plans to defeat it at the right time. Most of these Christians are nominal unbelievers who think they have the truth but who really believe in a false gospel and another Jesus. People tend to go through several stages. First there are pagans who realize that they don't have the truth, and who are seeking it. There are those of us who have found it, and then there are those deceived into thinking they have found it or that they have it. Those who have learned an apologetic for a lie, of course, are in the worst position of all, and the best lies are always told when the majority of the underlying structure is truth or half truth and not a total lie. (DLC: torahtimes.org)
Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/rev0110.html)
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