Matthew 12:2

When the Pharisees saw it.

The Pharisees were ever around, watching for some error or mistake on the part of Jesus. Matthew, in his " began to pluck," shows how eagerly and instantly the Pharisees clutched at the chance of finding fault. We must picture then, to ourselves, the Savior going along through the corn-fields. His disciples are with him, and. group of others, inclusive of. band of disputatious and censorious Pharisees. They are on their way to or from some adjoining synagogue. Conversation and lively disputation go on all along the way.

Thy disciples do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day.

Now, there was no harm whatever in plucking the ears; that was not only sanctioned by custom, but even distinctly permitted by the Mosaic law. But the heinous fact was that this should be done on. Sabbath! -- Farrar. The law and practice of Palestine continue to be this day what they were so many thousand years ago (Deuteronomy 23:25). The law allowed them to pluck the grain to appease hunger, but not to apply the sickle to another man's standing grain. "So, also,. have often seen my muleteers, as we passed along the wheat-fields, pluck off ears, rub them in their hands, and eat the grains unroasted, just as the apostles are said to have done."-- Dr. Thomson. The point was this: Since the Law had said that the Jews were "to do no manner of work" on the Sabbath, the Oral Law had laid down thirty-nine principal prohibitions, which were assigned to the authority of the Great Synagogue, and which were called abhoth, "fathers," or chief rules. From these were deduced. vast multitude of toldoth, "descendants," or derivative rules. Now, "reaping" and "threshing" on the Sabbath day were forbidden by the abhoth, and by the toldoth, it was asserted that plucking corn-ears was a kind of reaping, and rubbing them a kind of threshing. The vitality of these artificial notions among the Jews is extraordinary. Abarbanel relates that when, in 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain, and were forbidden to enter the city of Fez lest they should cause. famine, they lived on grass; yet even in this state " religiously avoided the violation of their Sabbath by plucking the grass with their hands. " To avoid this they took the much more laborious method of grovelling on their knees, and cropping it with their teeth.-- Cambridge Bible for Schools. To break the Sabbath, rather than suffer hunger for. few hours, was guilt worthy of stoning. Was it not their boast that Jews were known, over the world, by their readiness to die, rather than break the holy day? Every one had stories of grand fidelity to it. The Jewish sailor had refused, even when threatened with death, to touch the helm. moment after the sun had set on Friday, though. storm was raging; and had not thousands let themselves be butchered rather than touch. weapon in self-defence on the Sabbath? The "new doctrine" of Jesus would turn the world upside down if not stopped!-- Geikie. The act of the disciples, strictly and technically speaking, rendered them liable to death by stoning.-- Farrar.