Verse 7
7. First day of the week This Church was founded the year before by Paul, and it seems by the phrase, when the disciples came together to, etc., that the practice of Sunday meetings was already established under Paul’s authority. The Roman philosopher Pliny, in a letter to the Emperor Trajan, from the near province of Bithynia, about fifty years after this period, well illustrates this fact in the following words: “They (the Christians) are accustomed to meet together on a stated day ( stato die) before it is light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as God, and bind themselves by an oath ( sacramento) not to the commission of any wickedness, but, on the contrary, not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them; and, when these things were ended, it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again to a meal, which they ate in common, without any disorder.”
It was, doubtless, at this second or evening meeting of Sunday night that Paul here preached, expecting to embark on Monday morning.
To break bread Either the Lord’s supper, or the lovefeast, or both.
Speech Rather, converse; implying an interchange of discourse.
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