The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 146

not lawful to do on the aabbath day11 It Jesus intended to draw from the exalllple would seem thnt those Plu,risees oome from of the great hero-kiug and the high priest J l'rusnlem, And were no doubt privAtely WM that no cercmonio.l law we.a to overrid~ cornmissionC'<l to w·nt<lh nArrowly the acts the general principle of providing for the 0f the new Teacher who we.e beginning to necessities of tho Lody, St. Matthew adds attract euoh genoral attention, an<! who here a very fol'oiblo so.ying of the Lord's already was openly Bl'tting at nought the spoken on this occasion, wllioh goes to the 1111,nberless additions which the Jewisll root of the whole matter, "Dut if ye had srhnols hnd added to Lhe Law. Round the known who.t this mca.neth, I will have orif;inal " eahbatb iu IV " of Moses thirty- nwrcy, and not sacrifice, ye would not ho.ve nine prollibitions had been laid down in the condemned tile guiltless." These la.we, as ornl law; round these "thirty-nine" a vast God origino.lly i:-ave them, were never in- number of smaller rules had grouped them- tended to be a burden, re.tiler they were H'l l"es. Amongst th,•se grcnter and lesser meant to be a blessing for mau. After ver. 5, sahba.th restrictioru; werP prohibitions against Codex D--a very ancient authority, written " reaping and threshing." Now, pli,cl,ing in the fifth century, now in the University rnr.s of corn was define<! to be a. kind of Library at Cambl'idge, but oue which con- " reap'ing," and n,bbiug the ears in the hand,;i tains mitny passages not found in any other a kind of " threshiug." "See," cried some of trustworthy manuscript or version-adds the these spying Pharisees, "do thy disciples following strange no.:rrative: "The same pul,liciy break the sabbath, and dost thou day, Jesus seeing a man who was working not rebuke them?" The Lord's reply does on tlie sabbo.tll, saith to I,im, 0 mo.n, if thou not a.Ltempt to discuss what wa.s and what knowe8t what thou art doing, blessed a.rt was. not lawful on the sabhath, but iu broll.d thou; but if thou know est not, thou art terme he expounds the great doct,ine re- accursed, and a transgressor of the Law." specting the significance, limits, and purpose As no other ancient authority of weight of every Jaw relating to outward aets, even C'.Ontains this remarkable addition to the in the event of the.t law having been given recital of our Lord's teaching respecting the by God, which was not the case in the pre- observe.nee of the sabbatb, it must be pro- sent alleged tran•grcssion. How rigidly nounced an interpolation. It belongs most the stricter Jews some fourteen or fifteen likely to the very early de.ye of the Chris- centuries later still kept these strained aud tian story, and we.a probably founded on e::i.aggern.ted t1·a.ditio11e.l sabbath-day restric- some tradition current in the primitive tions, is shown in a curious anecdote of the Church. The framework of the anecdote in famous A.uarba.nel, "whe11, in 1492, the Jews its present form, too, shows a. state of things were expelled from Spain, and were for- simply impossible at this time. Any Jew bidden to enter the city of Fez, lest they who, in the days of Jesus Christ's earthly should ci,,use a famine, they lived on grass; ministry, openly, like the man of the story, yet even iu this state • religiously avoided broke the sa.bbath in the <la.ring way related, the viu/,,t;on of their sabbath by plucl<ing the would have been liable to be arrested and grass with their hand8.' To avoid this they condemned to death by stoning. took the much more la.borious method of Ver. 5.-And he said unto them, That the gro1·elling on their knees, and cropping it Bon of man is Lord also of thQ sn.bbath. The with 1.heir tec:th I" llfaster clc,sed his reply to Lhe Pharisee in• Vera. 3, i.-And J'es11B answering them quirers with one of those sl1ort 11ssertions Ila.id, He.ve ye not read so much as this, what of his awful greatness which puzzled and David did, when himself was e.n hungred, alarmed his jealous foes. Who, then, was and they which were with him; how he he, this poor unknown Carpenter of despised went into the house of God, and did take and ignorant Nazareth? He was either a a.id eat tb.e shewilread, and gave also to blasphemer too wicked to be allowed to live, faem that were with him ; whlch it is not or--. The alternative must have been a l.awfo.l to eat but for the priests a.lone 1 very awful thought to some of the nobler Their own lov"d David, said the new Teacher spirits among those Jerusalem leHrned men. t.o his jealous accusers, scrup'ed not, when Across their mind~ mu•t have flitted not J,e "we.a an hungred," to set at nought the once or twice in the.t eventful period some twnfold ordinance of sacrilege aud of sab- anxious q uebtioningo as to who antl what WAS LaLh-hreakiug. (The reference is to I Sam. the •trange and powerful Beiug who had xxi. 5. David's visit to the sanctuary at appeared in their midst. Koh took place evidently on the sa.bbath, as Ver. 6.-And it came to pass e.110 on the fresh ~upply of shewbread had been another aabbath, that he entered into the e.vpe.reutly jW!t laid out; he must, too, have eyua.gogue and taught : and there was a viulat.ecl another rule by his jouxney on that man whose right hand was withered. 'l'his day. Sbe Stier,' Words of the Lord Jesus,' was the second part of his sa.bho.th tea.eh ing. ,,u Matt xii. 3, 4.) The le11son which The first had taken ple.ce lll the open en, vt, 1-4!1.) THE .OOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. 111