Matthew 12

Matthew 12:1-8 . PLUCKING CORN EARS ON THE SABBATH DAY. ( = 2:23-28 Luke 6:1-5 ).

The season of the year when this occurred is determined by the event itself. Ripe corn ears are found in the fields only just before harvest. The barley harvest seems clearly intended here, at the close of our March and beginning of our April. It coincided with the Passover season, as the wheat harvest with Pentecost. But in Luke ( Luke 6:1 ) we have a still more definite note of time, if we could be certain of the meaning of the peculiar term which he employs to express it "It came to pass (he says) on the sabbath, which was the first-second," for that is the proper rendering of the word, and not "the second sabbath after the first," as in our version. Of the various conjectures what this may mean, that of SCALIGER is the most approved, and, as we think, the freest from difficulty, namely, the first sabbath after the second day of the Passover; that is, the first of the seven sabbaths which were to be reckoned from the second day of the Passover, which was itself a sabbath, until the next feast, the feast of Pentecost ( Leviticus 23:15 Leviticus 23:16 , Deuteronomy 16:9 Deuteronomy 16:10 ) In this case, the day meant by the Evangelist is the first of those seven sabbaths intervening between Passover and Pentecost. And if we are right in regarding the "feast" mentioned in John 5:1 as a Passover, and consequently the second during our Lord's public ministry plucking of the ears of corn must have occurred immediately after the scene and the discourse recorded in John 5:19-47 , which, doubtless, would induce our Lord to hasten His departure for the north, to avoid the wrath of the Pharisees, which He had kindled at Jerusalem. Here, accordingly, we find Him in the fields--on His way probably to Galilee.

1. At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn--"the cornfields" ( 2:23 , Luke 6:1 ).
and his disciples were an hungered--not as one may be before his regular meals; but evidently from shortness of provisions: for Jesus defends their plucking the corn-ears and eating them on the plea of necessity.
and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat--"rubbing them in their hands" ( Luke 6:1 ).

2. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day--The act itself was expressly permitted ( Deuteronomy 23:25 ). But as being "servile work," which was prohibited on the sabbath day, it was regarded as sinful.

3. But he said unto them, Have ye not read--or, as Mark ( Mark 2:25 ) has it, "Have ye never read."
what David did when he was an hungered, and they that were with him--( 1 Samuel 21:1-6 )

4. How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?--No example could be more apposite than this. The man after God's own heart, of whom the Jews ever boasted, when suffering in God's cause and straitened for provisions, asked and obtained from the high priest what, according to the law, it was illegal for anyone save the priests to touch. Mark ( Mark 2:26 ) says this occurred "in the days of Abiathar the high priest." But this means not during his high priesthood--for it was under that of his father Ahimelech--but simply, in his time. Ahimelech was soon succeeded by Abiathar, whose connection with David, and prominence during his reign, may account for his name, rather than his father's, being here introduced. Yet there is not a little confusion in what is said of these priests in different parts of the Old Testament. Thus he is called both the son of the father of Ahimelech ( 1 Samuel 22:20 , 2 Samuel 8:17 ); and Ahimelech is called Ahiah ( 1 Samuel 14:3 ), and Abimelech ( 1 Chronicles 18:16 ).