The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 25 – Section 26
SECTION XXV.
| LUKE Chap. VI. from the beginning to Ver. 12. | MARK Chap. II. from Ver. 23, to the end: and Chap. III. from the beginning to Ver. 7. | MARK Chap. XII. from the beginning to Ver. 15. |
The Disciples plucking ears of Corn. A withered hand healed on the Sabbath.
THe words foreign which Luke hath used ver. 1. being rightly understood, will help to cleer the order of this Section, and to confirm the order of the preceding.
The Law enjoyned that the next morrow after the eating of the Passeover, should be kept holy like a Sabbath, Exod. 12.16. and accordingly it is called a Sabbath, Lev. 23.7, 11. And there the Law also enjoyns, that the next day after that Sabbaticall day, they shall offer the sheaf of first-fruits to the Lord: and from that day they should count seaven Sabbaths to Pentecost, which was their solemn festivall, and thanksgiving for that half harvest, viz. Barley harvest which they had then inned, Lev. 23.15, 16, 17. That day therefore that they offered their first Barley sheaf, and from which they were to count the seaven Sabbaths or weeks forward, being the second day in the Passeover week, the Sabbaths that followed, did carry a memoriall of that day in their name till the seaven were run out: as the first was called foreign, the first second-day Sabbath; The next foreign, the second second-day Sabbath: the next foreign, the third second-day Sabbath, and so the rest all the seaven through. Now let it be observed, 1. That no Corn, no not ears of Corn might be eaten till the first-fruits sheaf was offered and waved before the Lord, Lev. 23.14. 2. That it was waved the second day of the Passeover week. 3. That this was the first Sabbath after that second day, when the Disciples pluckt the ears of Corn, and it will plainly evince that we must look for a Passeover before this story, and so it will shew the warranty and justnesse of taking in the fifth of Iohn next before it.
But the order of Matthew may breed some scruple, and that the rather, because that though he hath placed this story after divers occurrences that are yet to come, yet he hath prefaced it with this circumstance, At that time: Now this expression doth not alwayes center stories in the same point of time, but sometimes it hath made a transition betwixt two stories, whose times were at a good distance asunder: as Gen. 38.1. Deut. 10.8. and so likewise the phrase, In these dayes, Mat. 3.1.
The latter story about healing the man with the withered hand, is so unanimously ordered by all the three, after the other, that there is no doubt of the method of it.
It was a speciall part of religion which the Jews used on the Sabbath, to eat good meat, and better then they did on the week dayes: yea they thought themselves bound to eat three meals on that day [as was said before,] and for this they alledge, Isa. 58.13. Nid. Kimch. ibid. & Tamh. fol. 1. Talm. & Maym. in Shab, &c. compare Phil. 3.19.
Observe how farre the Disciples are from such an observance, and from such provision, when a few ears of Barley [for that was the Corn plucked] must make a dinner.
The plucking of ears of Corn on the Sabbath was forbidden by their Canons verbatim. Talm. in Shab. par. 7. & Maymon. Shab. par. 7, & 8. He that reapeth Corn on the Sabbath, to the quantity of a fig, is guilty. And plucking Corn is as reaping: And whosoever plucketh up any thing from it growing, is guilty, under the notion of reaping.
Christ before his healing the withered hand, is questioned by them; Is it lawfull to heal on the Sabbath day? Their decretals allowed it in some cases. Tanch. fol. 9. col. 2. our Doctors teach the danger of life dispenseth with the Sabbath. And so doth Circumcision and the healing of that. But this is rule saith Rabbi Akibah, that that which may be done on the eve of the Sabbath, dispenseth not with the Sabbath. Talm. in Shabb. par. 19. Such was this case. Compare Luk. 13.14. They accounted that this might have been done any other day.
SECTION XXVI. MARK Chap. III. from Ver. 7, to Ver. 13. MATTH. Chap XII. from Ver. 15, to Ver. 22. Great multitudes follow Christ: who healeth all that come to him.
THe connexion that both these Evangelists have at this story, doth abundantly assert the order. The Pharisees took counsell to destroy him, but when Iesus knew it, he departed, &c. The Herodians joyn with them in their plotting, which seem to have been these learned and great men of the Nation who had gone into the service of Herod the Great, and now of his sonne mentioned before.