Bible Commentaries

Matthew 12:1. On the sabbath-day— See the note on Luk 6:1 where the Evangelist points out the sabbath and day whereon this happened, Through the corn means through the paths that were in the corn. The word σταχυας may indifferently signify ears of any kind of grain; but it most probably was barley, which was ripe at that time in Judaea.

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Matthew 12:2. When the Pharisees saw it, they said, &c.— The Jews were allowed by the law, when they came into the standing corn of their neighbours, to pluck some ears, and eat them, Deuteronomy 23:25. But as they were by the same law forbid to reap on the sabbath-day, the Pharisees, perversely enough, accounted this action of the disciples to be a kind of reaping. They looked also upon the rubbing the ears of corn in their hands as a breach of the law, because they were not allowed by it to dress their victual on the sabbath-day. See Beausobre and Lenfant, Introduction, p. 159.

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Matthew 12:5. Or have ye not read in the law, &c.— He did not mean that these words were to be found in the law, but that they might read in the law, that the priests were obliged on the sabbath-day to perform such servile work in the temple, as, considered separately from the end of it, was a profanation of the sabbath; and yet were guiltless, because it was necessary to the public worship, on account of which the sabbath was instituted. From Num 28:9 it appears, that, besides the continual burnt-offerings, the priests were obliged on the sabbaths to sacrifice two lambs extraordinary, by which their servile work was that day double of what it was on the other days of the week. This, though really no profanation of the sabbath, might, according to the common notion of the Jews, be so termed; and therefore, in speaking of it, our Lord calls it so. See Macknight and Calmet.

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Matthew 12:6. But I say unto you, that in this place, &c.— "If you reply, that the priests were not culpable in those actions, because they were undertaken for the temple service, I acknowledge it; but at the same time it should be observed, that if the temple, with its service, be of such importance as to demand a particular dispensation from the law of the sabbath; I who am the Lord of the temple, and of whom the temple is but the type, may, with equal reason, take the same liberty in a case of the like necessity." Every prophet was in some sense greater than the temple; and hence Elijah sacrificed out of the temple on an extraordinary occasion: but our blessed Lord was infinitely greater than any prophet. It should also be observed, that Christ and his apostles were so taken up in the discharge of their duty, that they had not leisure to prepare food for the sabbath; they were therefore under a necessity either to intermit their prophetic office, or to act contrary to the literal sense of the law. Now, as the Jews did not intermit the office of the priesthood on account of the law concerning the sabbath; so neither should the prophetic office be intermitted on that account, especially as it was superior in its dignity, and more extensive in its benefits. According to this interpretation the reading μειζον, a greater work, instead of μειζων, a greater person, which is authorised by a number of manuscripts, will have a peculiar elegance. "There is here a much more noble work carrying on than the temple-service." Or the common reading may be retained thus: "If the servile work done in the temple on a sabbath is not reckoned an offence, because it is undertaken on account of the temple-worship, the rubbing of the ears of corn, for which you blamemy disciples, cannot be any; seeing they do it in order to support life, while they are employed in the service of one who is infinitely greater than the temple." For the Human Nature of Jesus was an infinitely more august temple, in respect of the essential habitation of the Divinity, than that of Jerusalem. See Grotius, Hammond, Wetstein, and Mill.

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Matthew 12:7. I will have mercy, &c.— I delight in mercy (so θελειν signifies, ch. Matthew 27:43.), more than sacrifice; for this is the Hebrew form of comparison. See the note on ch. Matthew 9:13. Works of mercy, acts of kindness and beneficence, are essential duties, and preferable to all the ceremonial law, named here (from its principal act) sacrifice, when that comes in competition with them. As the sense of so many important scriptures depends upon it, it may be proper to observe, that, according to the genius of the Hebrew language, one thing seems to be forbidden, and another commanded, when the meaning only is, that the latter is greatly to be preferred to the former. The text before us is a remarkable instance; as likewise John 6:27. And it is evident, that Genesis 45:8. Joh 7:19 and many more passages, are to be expounded in the same comparative sense. See Doddridge, Heylin, and Beausobre and Lenfant.

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Matthew 12:8. For the Son of man is Lord, &c.— See on Mark 2:27-28. The expression even of the sabbath-day, και του σαββατου, certainly implies, that the sabbath was an institution of great and distinguished importance. It may perhaps also refer to that signal act of authority which Christ afterwards, by the ministry of his apostles, exerted over it in changing it from the seventh to the first day of the week.

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Matthew 12:9. When he was departed thence— There can be no doubt as to the connection of this history with the preceding, in which all the Evangelists agree; and indeed, had not St. Luke told us, that it was on another sabbath, the words of St. Matthew would have led us to imagine it had been the same day. Perhaps our Lord might spend most of the week in the town, to which the fields above mentioned belonged. See Doddridge and Chemnitz.

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Matthew 12:10. And they asked him, &c.— That is, the Pharisees, Mat 12:14 who, when they saw Jesus going to perform the cure, put this question to him, Is it lawful, &c.? by which they declared in the strongest terms their opinion of its unlawfulness: but in so doing they had no intention to prevent the action which they knew he was resolved upon, but to render him odious to the common people; expecting that he would openly declare such things lawful, in opposition to the definitions of the doctors, who had all determined that to perform cures upon the sabbath was a violation of the Holy rest: or, if he should give no answer to their question, as it implied an affirmation of the unlawfulness of what he was about to attempt, they thought it would render him inexcusable, and give the better colour to their accusation. The word θεραπευειν, rendered to heal, is very extensive, and properly includes all the care, labour, and attendance, which the case of any distempered or wounded person can require; as I apprehend our English word cure also does, though through the poverty of our language we are forced to apply it so those miraculous effects, which were so instantaneously produced by the healing word of our blessed Redeemer. What Syriac word the Pharisees might use, we know not: but it is plain that the question is put in verygeneral terms, which best favoured their base purpose of founding an accusation on our Lord's answer. See Doddridge and Macknight.

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