Acts 20:7 — Was the Early Church Meeting on Sunday? truthsum.org

Many Christians point to Acts 20:7 as evidence that the early church held Sunday worship services. But a closer look at the passage — and how the first century understood time — tells a different story.
In Scripture, a new day begins at sunset, not midnight. This means the “first day of the week” began on Saturday evening using modern vernacular, right after the Sabbath ended. With this in mind, Luke’s narrative details fall into place naturally.
Acts 20 describes believers gathering after sundown while Paul was still in Troas. The room was filled with many lamps, signaling an evening meeting. As they shared a meal and broke bread together, Paul kept teaching long into the night. The story of Eutychus falling asleep in a third-story window only makes sense in a late-night setting. Luke then adds that Paul departed “the next day,” meaning the next morning—Sunday at daybreak.
By contrast, interpreting the passage as a Sunday-morning meeting creates problems. It forces the timeline into an unrealistic shape: Paul speaking all day Sunday, all night Sunday, and leaving Monday morning. It also ignores the clear nighttime markers Luke deliberately includes.
When the text is read through the lens of biblical timekeeping, Acts 20:7 describes not a Sunday worship service, but a Saturday-night gathering—a meal, fellowship, and extended teaching as Paul prepared to leave the next morning.
This reading doesn’t rely on assumptions. It simply follows the flow of the story as Luke wrote it.

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