Biblical Archaeology Review

For a list of patristic testimonies treating the two feasts as being basically the same, see From Sabbath to Sunday, 204–205.

The Didascalia Apostolorum (ca. A.D. 250) enjoins Christians to fast on Easter-Friday and Saturday “on account of the disobedience of our brethren [i.e., the Jews] … because thereon the people killed themselves in crucifying our Savior” (14, 19, trans. H. Connolly [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929], 190); cf. Apostolic Constitutions 5, 18.

The connection between the two is clearly established by several Fathers, see Tertullian, On Fasting 14; Augustine, Epistle to Casulanus 36, 34; cf. Rordorf, Sunday, 143.

Victorinus (ca. A.D. 304), De fabrica mundi 5, CSEL 49, 5.

S. R. E. Humbert, Adversus Graecorum calumnias 6, PL 143, 933.

Pope Innocent I (A.D. 402–417) in his famous decretal established that on the Sabbath “one should not absolutely celebrate the sacraments” (Ad Decentium, Epist. 25, 4, 7, PL 20, 550); Sozomen (ca. A.D. 440) reports that no religious assemblies were held on the Sabbath in Rome or at Alexandria (Historia ecclesiastica 7, 19); cf. Socrates, Historia ecclesiastica 5, 22.

Dialogue with Trypho 23, 3; cf. 29, 3; 16, 1; 21, 1.

cf. Romans 1:13–15. The predominance of Gentile members and their conflict with the Jews, resulted, as well stated by Leonard Goppelt, in “a chasm between the Church and the Synagogue … unknown in the Eastern churches” (Les Origines de l’Eglise [Paris: Payot, 1961] 203).

For the second century nothing is known of the Jerusalem Church with the exception of a few uncertain names of bishops, cf. Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica 5, 12.

An excellent survey of the Christian anti-Jewish literature of the second century is provided by F. Blanchetiere, “Aux sources de l’anti-judaisme chretien,” Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuse 53 (1973) 353–398.