Did Jesus Violate the Sabbath?

January 18 2021 - 5 Shevat 5781

Introduction

An interesting story is related in the Christian Scriptures in which Jesus and his disciples are walking through the field on the Sabbath and are approached by the Pharisees. The short dialogue between the Pharisees and Jesus is intended to convey a few important things. The first important thing it intends to convey is that the Pharisees were looking for a way to get Jesus in trouble. The second thing is that the Pharisees were legalistic and unsympathetic, and the third thing is that Jesus was superior to the Law and was sent to fulfill it.

Below is the text describing this interaction:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath." 

He answered, "Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread — which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-8)

Is The Sabbath Biblical or Rabbinic?

Let us examine the above from a Biblical perspective with our focus only on the Sabbath. When God speaks about the Sabbath in the Tanakh, He speaks about it in very clear terms as something of utmost holiness and importance. It would be hard to reason that the Pharisees were overly legalistic in Matthew given the very serious words that God has to say about the Sabbath. To the contrary, it may be said that the Jews had finally learned their lesson about taking God's commandments seriously, something that should be taken to their credit. Further, the Torah does not present Sabbath-observance as a matter of pedantic legalism, but simply as a matter of obedience to God.

The first demonstration of this is in Exodus:

So he said to them, That is what the Lord spoke, Tomorrow is a rest day, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake whatever you wish to bake, and cook whatever you wish to cook, and all the rest leave over to keep until morning. So they left it over until morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not become putrid, and not a worm was in it. And Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day [which is the] Sabbath on it there will be none."

It came about that on the seventh day, [some] of the people went out to gather [manna], but they did not find [any]. The Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to observe My commandments and My teachings? See that the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, He gives you bread for two days. Let each man remain in his place; let no man leave his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 15:23-30)

Notice a few things from the passages above:

1. The Sabbath is a Sabbath to the Lord - this indicates that observing it is in accordance with God's Will.


2. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day [which is the] Sabbath on it there will be none - this indicates that one is to refrain from his concerns on the Sabbath, not merely as a suggestion, but as a commandment.


3. Therefore, on the sixth day, He gives you bread for two days - a reiteration to maintain confidence in God that He will provide one's needs, as well as a somewhat forceful reiteration generated by some Jews who disobeyed and gathered.

Notice that they also responded by resting on the Sabbath day, and listened to what God said.

According to the section of text above, the prohibition against gathering on the Sabbath is not a Rabbinic invention, but a Divine commandment, which Jesus and his disciples violated by going through the grainfields and picking heads of grain. In fact, when Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," (Mark 2:27) he seemed to be agreeing that the Sabbath was of Divine origin, while believing that the rabbis' nevertheless invented additional restrictions.

It's difficult to determine just from this passage whether he meant that the 39 categories prohibited on the Sabbath are rabbinic inventions, whether he's referring to Rabbinic enactments to prevent transgression, or whether he's referring to some other undefined aspect. Generally speaking it seems that today's Christians don't know how to accurately differentiate between the Divinely revealed and Rabbinic aspects of the Sabbath, leading to their confusion about how to understand Jesus' intention.

Nevertheless, according to several passages in the Tanakh, the 39 categories of prohibited labor on the Sabbath, and the Oral Law in general, are assumed by Jews to be of Divine origin and not rabbinic inventions, as shown below in Nechemiah 13:15-22.

The Sabbath In the Writing (Nach)

In fact, the transgression of the Sabbath committed by Jesus and his disciples is essentially no different than Nechemiah's Sabbath-violating interlocutors within the walls of Jerusalem around 500 years prior. It seems that some Jews were indeed slow in learning from the mistakes of their ancestors. In the verses below, the holy prophet Nechemiah witnessed Jews violating the Sabbath in his day and implemented measures to keep the Jews and the Sabbath holy:

In those days, I saw in Judea [people] treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing stacks [of grain] and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all types of loads and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, and I warned them on the day they sold provisions. 

And the Tyrians [who] sojourned there were bringing fish and all [types of] merchandise and selling on the Sabbath to the people of Judea and in Jerusalem.

And I quarreled with the dignitaries of Judea, and I said to them, "What is this bad thing that you are doing-profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your ancestors do this, and our God brought upon us all this calamity, and upon this city, and you are increasing the wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath?"

Now it came to pass when the gates of Jerusalem cast shadows before the Sabbath, that I commanded, and the doors were closed, and I said that they should not open them until after the Sabbath, and I stationed some of my youths over the gates so that no load should enter on the Sabbath day. So the traffickers and the vendors of all types of merchandise lodged outside Jerusalem once and twice. And I warned them and said to them, "Why are you lodging opposite the wall? If you repeat [this], I shall lay a hand on you." Since that time, they did not come on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that the watchers of the walls should purify themselves and come to hallow the Sabbath day. This too remember for me, my God, and have pity on me according to Your abundant loving-kindness. (Nechemiah 13:15-22)

Are any of the prohibitions above mentioned anywhere in the Torah as explicitly forbidden Sabbath activities? And if not, would Jesus have responded to Nechemiah the way that he responded to the Pharisees?

It's clear from the verses above that the prophet Nechemiah was acting in accordance with God's Will to safeguard parts of the Law that apparently many Jews had begun to forsake. Nechemiah says nothing about safeguarding Rabbinic enactments and inventions, but of safeguarding Divine commandments. If so, it's difficult to understand why Jesus was so resistant to the Pharisees.

Conclusion

To conclude, the violation of Jesus' disciples of the Sabbath was technically subject to capital punishment. As expected in accordance with Jewish Law, a Sabbath violator can only be put to death if two valid witnesses observe him committing the violation, warn him twice, and both times the transgressor continues. A plain reading of Matthew shows that the Pharisees only warned Jesus once, which can be taken as their deliberate attempt to prevent the death penalty of being applicable to him (which in any case required a Sanhedrin, which was defunct during this era).