Luke 14:3

14:3 So ¹  Jesus asked ²  the experts in religious law ³  and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath ⁴  or not?”

Matthew 12:12-13

12:12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 12:13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, ⁵  as healthy as the other.

Mark 3:4

3:4 Then ⁶  he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent.

John 7:19-23

7:19 Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps ⁷  the law! Why do you want ⁸  to kill me?”

7:20 The crowd ⁹  answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! ¹⁰  Who is trying to kill you?” ¹¹  7:21 Jesus replied, ¹²  “I performed one miracle ¹³  and you are all amazed. ¹⁴  7:22 However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision ¹⁵  (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child ¹⁶  on the Sabbath. 7:23 But if a male child ¹⁷  is circumcised ¹⁸  on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, ¹⁹  why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well ²⁰  on the Sabbath?

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the sequence of events (Jesus’ question was prompted by the man’s appearance).

² tn Grk “Jesus, answering, said.” This is redundant in contemporary English. In addition, since the context does not describe a previous question to Jesus (although one may well be implied), the phrase has been translated here as “Jesus asked.”

³ tn That is, experts in the interpretation of the Mosaic law (traditionally, “lawyers”).

⁴ sn “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” Will the Pharisees and experts in religious law defend tradition and speak out against doing good on the Sabbath? Has anything at all been learned since Luke 13:10-17? Has repentance come (13:6-9)?

⁵ sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

⁶ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁷ tn Or “accomplishes”; Grk “does.”

⁸ tn Grk “seek.”

⁹ tn Or “The common people” (as opposed to the religious authorities mentioned in 7:15).

¹⁰ tn Grk “You have a demon!”

¹¹ tn Grk “Who is seeking to kill you?”

¹² tn Grk “Jesus answered and said to them.”

¹³ tn Grk “I did one deed.”

¹⁴ sn The “one miracle” that caused them all to be amazed was the last previous public miracle in Jerusalem recorded by the author, the healing of the paralyzed man in John 5:1-9 on the Sabbath. (The synoptic gospels record other Sabbath healings, but John does not mention them.)

¹⁵ tn Grk “gave you circumcision.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “a man.” While the text literally reads “circumcise a man” in actual fact the practice of circumcising male infants on the eighth day after birth (see Phil 3:5) is primarily what is in view here.

¹⁷ tn Grk “a man.” See the note on “male child” in the previous verse.

¹⁸ tn Grk “receives circumcision.”

¹⁹ sn If a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken. The Rabbis counted 248 parts to a man’s body. In the Talmud (b. Yoma 85b) R. Eleazar ben Azariah (ca. a.d. 100) states: “If circumcision, which attaches to one only of the 248 members of the human body, suspends the Sabbath, how much more shall the saving of the whole body suspend the Sabbath?” So absolutely binding did rabbinic Judaism regard the command of Lev 12:3 to circumcise on the eighth day, that in the Mishnah m. Shabbat 18.3; 19.1, 2; and m. Nedarim 3.11 all hold that the command to circumcise overrides the command to observe the Sabbath.

²⁰ tn Or “made an entire man well.”