The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew12:9–14

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

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Matthew 12:9–14 — Jesus Heals on the Sabbath. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

9

Moving on from there, Jesus entered their synagogue,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai metabas ekeithen ēlthen eis autōn tēn synagōgēn

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μεταβὰςmetabasMoving onG3327
√ μεταβαίνω — to change placeVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
metabainō: to change place An aorist participle of relocation, not of strolling. Pulpit reads it as movement "from one town to another," which is why Matthew gives no date: the words that once introduced this narrative are not preserved. Poole draws the moral instead: Jesus enters the synagogue "neither ashamed of what he had delivered, nor afraid to own it in the face of his adversaries."
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom thereG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
ἦλθενēlthen[Jesus] enteredG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
erchomai: to come or go A bare third person verb; the subject is inherited, not stated.
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
autos: the reflexive pronoun self The whole harmonization problem sits in this one genitive plural. If "their" means the Pharisees of vv. 1 to 8, the scene follows at once (Ellicott, and the impression Matthew and Mark give). If it means the local Jews generally, the Lukan "another sabbath" is untroubled. Ellicott grants that Luke "as if he had made more careful inquiry, states definitely that it was on another."
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
συναγωγὴνsynagōgēnsynagogueG4864
√ συναγωγή — an assemblage of personsNounAccusative Feminine Singular
synagōgē: an assemblage of persons The word means the gathered people, and the trial that follows is held in the gathering, on the Sabbath, over the Sabbath. Geneva's marginal heading states the issue the scene will settle: the ceremonies of the law are not set against the love of neighbour.
10

and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai anthrōpos echōn xēran cheira idou hina katēgorēsōsin autou kai epērōtēsan auton legontes Ei exestin therapeusai tois sabbasin

Word by word18 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposa manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man, human being The word that will be weighed against a sheep in v. 12 is planted here, unemphatic and anonymous. Matthew names no name; the man is simply a human being, which is the whole of his case.
ἔχωνechōnwithG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ξηράνxērana witheredG3584
√ ξηρός — aridAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
xēros: arid, dry A rare adjective (8 verses). The hand is not injured but desiccated, drained of use. Luke adds that it was the right hand, and Poole observes that this "made his affliction greater." Gill, citing the Talmud and Jerome's report of the Nazarene gospel, notes the tradition that the man was a tradesman who worked with his hands, so that the loss was his livelihood as well as his body.
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἰδοὺidou[was there]G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: lo!, behold An imperative, not a copula. Matthew's narrative hand is visible here: the opportunity is put before us as a spectacle, because the Pharisees are about to treat a suffering man as an exhibit.
ἵναhinaIn order toG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
κατηγορήσωσινkatēgorēsōsinaccuseG2723
√ κατηγορέω — to be a plaintiff, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
katēgoreō: to be a plaintiff The legal verb. Ellicott identifies the venue as "the local tribunal, the “judgment” of Matthew 5:21," the same court named in the Sermon on the Mount. The trap is built with a purpose clause (ἵνα), so the question in their mouths is already evidence in their hands.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπηρώτησανepērōtēsanthey askedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτὸνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΕἰEivvvG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
ἔξεστινexestinIs it lawfulG1832
√ ἔξεστι — so also neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 (εἰμί) expressed)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exesti: it is permitted, lawful The hinge word of the whole unit: it is asked here and answered in v. 12 with the same verb. Their question presumes that permission is the only category; Jesus will answer in the category of doing good. Ellicott records the rabbinic frame precisely: healing was allowed on the Sabbath in cases of life and death, and "the “withered hand,” a permanent infirmity, obviously did not come under that category."
θεραπεῦσαιtherapeusaito healG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
therapeuō: to wait upon, to heal Strong's root sense is menial service, to wait upon; the healing sense grows out of attendance. Even the verb they choose for their accusation describes serving a needy person.
τοῖςtoison theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
σάββασινsabbasinSabbathG4521
√ σάββατον — the Sabbath (iNounDative Neuter Plural
sabbaton: the Sabbath Dative plural, the ordinary Greek idiom for "on the Sabbath." The plural form is not a plurality of days; it echoes the Aramaic and appears throughout the unit (vv. 10, 11, 12).
11

He replied, “If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho eipen autois ean Tis anthrōpos estai ex hymōn hos hexei hen probaton kai touto empesē eis bothynon tois sabbasin ouchi kratēsei auto kai egerei

Word by word26 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
εἶπενeipenHe repliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautois. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἐὰνeanIfG1437
√ ἐάν — a conditional particleConjunction
ean: conditional particle Introduces a real, ordinary case, not a far fetched one.
ΤίςTisvvvG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposoneG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἔσταιestaiG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbFuture Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ἐξexofG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ὃςhosG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἕξειhexeihasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἕνhenaG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
heis: one Benson insists the stress is misplaced if we read it as a poor man's only sheep: "The stress of the question does not lie on supposing a man to have only one sheep, but on one only falling into a pit." Pulpit reads it the other way, with Meyer: "One only, and therefore so much the dearer." Both readings are in the public record; the Greek numeral will carry either.
πρόβατονprobatonsheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
probaton: something that walks forward, a sheep The animal of the argument from lesser to greater, and the animal of Israel's own self description before God. In v. 12 it becomes the measure against which a man is weighed.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοῦτοtoutoitG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐμπέσῃempesēfallsG1706
√ ἐμπίπτω — to fall on, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
empiptō: to fall into A rare verb (7 verses). Elsewhere it names falling into temptation and a snare (1 Timothy 6:9), falling among robbers (Luke 10:36), and falling into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Here it is a sheep in a hole, and the ordinariness is the point of the argument.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
βόθυνονbothynona pitG999
√ βόθυνος — a hole (in the ground)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
bothynos: a hole in the ground Rare, three verses only. Gill supplies the rabbinic rule as it later stood: "if a beast fall into a ditch, or a pool of water, if food can be given it, where it is, they feed it till the going out of the sabbath." He judges that this ruling "seems to have been made since the times of Christ, and in opposition to this observation of his," which, if true, means the later halakhah is itself a witness that the argument landed.
τοῖςtoison theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
σάββασινsabbasinSabbathG4521
√ σάββατον — the Sabbath (iNounDative Neuter Plural
οὐχὶouchivvvG3780
√ οὐχί — not indeedIntPrtcl
ouchi: not indeed The interrogative particle that demands the answer yes. Ellicott: the Talmud "discusses the question, but does not decide it," and some casuists compromised by feeding the sheep until the Sabbath ended.
κρατήσειkratēseiwill he not take hold ofG2902
√ κρατέω — to use strength, iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
krateō: to use strength Seizing, gripping, force applied. The verb quietly admits the labour they were prepared to spend on livestock.
αὐτὸautoitG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγερεῖegereilift [it] outG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
egeirō: to waken, to raise The resurrection verb, used of hauling a sheep out of a hole. ⚙ We do not claim Matthew intends a resurrection here; we do note that the raising word is the one on which the Sabbath argument turns, and that the man's restored hand and the plot of v. 14 stand on either side of it.
12

How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

oun posō diapherei anthrōpos probatou hōste exestin poiein kalōs tois sabbasin

Word by word11 · parsed
οὖνounG3767
√ οὖν — (adverbially) certainly, or (conjunctionally) accordinglyConjunction
πόσῳposōHow muchG4214
√ πόσος — interrogative pronoun (of amount) how much (large, long or (plural) many)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounDative Neuter Singular
posos: how much Dative of measure: by how much. The form is the form of an argument from lesser to greater.
διαφέρειdiaphereimore valuable isG1308
√ διαφέρω — to bear through, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
diapherō: to bear through, to differ, to surpass The verb of difference used as the verb of worth. JFB hears the Old Testament behind it: "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" (Proverbs 12:10), "and would instinctively rescue it from death or suffering on the sabbath day; how much more his nobler fellow man!" Cambridge sets it beside Matthew 10:31, "ye are of more value than many sparrows," where Matthew uses the same comparative move about the same Father's care.
ἄνθρωποςanthrōposa manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounNominative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man, human being Not the Greek word for a male or for an Israelite, but for a human being as such. The permission Jesus states is therefore not a concession to this one patient; it covers anyone with a body.
προβάτουprobatouthan a sheepG4263
√ πρόβατον — something that walks forward (a quadruped), iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ὥστεhōsteThereforeG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
hōste: so that, therefore Result, drawn from their own practice, not legislation imposed from outside.
ἔξεστινexestinit is lawfulG1832
√ ἔξεστι — so also neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 (εἰμί) expressed)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exesti: it is permitted, lawful The word of their question (v. 10) returned as answer. Barnes notes that the premise was never in dispute: "This was universally allowed by the Jews in the abstract; and Jesus only showed them that the principle on which they acted in other things applied with more force to the case before him."
ποιεῖνpoieinto doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
καλῶςkalōsgoodG2573
√ καλῶς — well (usually morally)Adverb
kalōs: well, usually morally The adverb makes the Sabbath rule positive rather than negative. Pulpit: doing good "is to be one test by which the duty of resting or of working on the sabbath is to be determined." JFB presses the converse, which Mark and Luke record as Jesus' own question: not to do good, when you can, is to do evil.
τοῖςtoison theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Plural
σάββασινsabbasinSabbathG4521
√ σάββατον — the Sabbath (iNounDative Neuter Plural
13

Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored to full use, just like the other.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote legei tō anthrōpō Ekteinon sou tēn cheira kai exeteinen kai apekatestathē hygiēs hōs hē allē

Word by word16 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
λέγειlegei[Jesus] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
legō: to lay forth, to say Present tense in a past narrative: the historic present puts the reader in the room at the moment of the word.
τῷtōtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπῳanthrōpō[the] manG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounDative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man, human being The same noun that carried the argument in v. 12 is now the man addressed. What was a premise is a person.
ἜκτεινόνEkteinonStretch outG1614
√ ἐκτείνω — to extendVerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ekteinō: to extend The command asks the one thing a dried up hand cannot do. Barnes: "The man might have said that he had no strength - that it was a thing which he could not do. Yet, "being commanded," it was his duty to obey." Barnes then adds a caution rare in his period against pressing the case into a proof text about human ability.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξέτεινενexeteinenhe stretched [it] outG1614
√ ἐκτείνω — to extendVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ekteinō: to extend Command and obedience share one verb. Nothing intervenes between them in the Greek except a καί.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπεκατεστάθηapekatestathēit was restoredG600
√ ἀποκαθίστημι — to reconstitute (in health, home or organization)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
apokathistēmi: to reconstitute, restore Aorist passive, agent unnamed: the hand is restored, by no hand. Ellicott reads the tense as coincident with the act: "as the tense implies, in the act of stretching the hand forth." Poole notices what is absent: "Christ sometimes used the ceremony of laying on his hand; here he doth not, to let us know that that was but a sign of what was done by his power." Barnes reads it as the demonstration of the claim made in v. 8, that he is Lord of the Sabbath.
ὑγιὴςhygiēsto full useG5199
√ ὑγιής — healthy, iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
hygiēs: healthy, sound Wholeness, not merely function. Pulpit's observation about its density in John 5 is exact and worth keeping: the word belongs with Sabbath healings that provoked the same charge.
ὡςhōsjust likeG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
ἡhētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Singular
ἄλληallēotherG243
√ ἄλλος — "else," iAdjectiveNominative Feminine Singular
allos: other (of the same kind) ἄλλη, not ἕτερα: another of the same kind, not a different kind. The restored hand matches the sound one exactly. The measure of the miracle is the man's own other hand, the ordinary creation restored, not improved upon.
14

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hoi Pharisaioi exelthontes elabon symboulion kat’ autou hopōs apolesōsin auton

Word by word11 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
Pharisaios: a separatist Strong's root gloss is the party's own self definition. Mark 3:6 adds that they took counsel with the Herodians, a party they despised. Poole draws out the irony: "all agree them and the Pharisees to have been steady enemies one to another, but Herod and Pilate can agree when Christ is to be crucified."
ἐξελθόντεςexelthonteswent out [and]G1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
exerchomai: to issue, to go out Emphatic by position (Pulpit), and probably before the service was over. They leave the synagogue rather than stay with the healing.
ἔλαβονelabonplottedG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
lambanō: to take, receive With συμβούλιον it forms the idiom "to take counsel."
συμβούλιονsymboulion. . .G4824
√ συμβούλιον — advisementNounAccusative Neuter Singular
symboulion: advisement, council A rare noun (8 verses) and a Matthean marker: the same phrase recurs when the Pharisees take counsel to entangle him in his words (Matthew 22:15), and Mark reports this very council at Mark 3:6. Benson registers the significance of the moment: "This, it must be observed, is the first time that mention is made of a design on our Saviour’s life."
κατ’kat’G2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ὅπωςhopōshowG3704
√ ὅπως — what(-ever) how, iConjunction
ἀπολέσωσινapolesōsinthey might killG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
apollymi: to destroy fully, to perish, to lose Total ruin, not simply homicide. Set against v. 12: it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath. Gill notes the self condemnation in the timing: they consult "though on the sabbath day, and about the taking away of the life of an innocent person." JFB is careful about what is and is not decided here: "But their doubt was not, whether to get rid of Him, but how to compass it."
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The assembly, the dry hand, and the question that is already an indictment — 12:9-10

Matthew joins the scene with a participle and a bare verb: μεταβὰς ἐκεῖθεν ἦλθεν, "having changed place from there, he came." Pulpit insists the participle carries more weight than a walk across a field, "removal from one town to another," and concedes that when it happened "we have absolutely no means of knowing." Ellicott locates it at Capernaum and grants in the same paragraph that Luke, "as if he had made more careful inquiry, states definitely that it was on another" Sabbath; Gill takes the same route, harmonizing by reading Luke 6:6 into Matthew's seam. Poole declines the chronology altogether and reads the motive: he entered "neither ashamed of what he had delivered, nor afraid to own it in the face of his adversaries." ⚙ The three positions are all in our sources and none of them is text; the honest report is that Matthew has left the date out.

The man is introduced by an imperative. There is no verb of being in v. 10; there is ἰδοὺ, "look." His hand is ξηράν, dry, a rare word (8 verses) whose root gloss in Strong's is simply "arid." Gill: "the juices were dried up, the nerves and sinews contracted, so that it was of no manner of use to him"; Cambridge, more clinically, "paralysed or affected by atrophy"; Luke, both note, specifies the right hand. Then the question, and Matthew tells us its purpose before he tells us its words: ἵνα κατηγορήσωσιν, a purpose clause built on the courtroom verb Strong's glosses "to be a plaintiff." Ellicott names the venue, "the local tribunal, the “judgment” of Matthew 5:21." Poole names the penalty: "the violation of the sabbath was, amongst the Jews, a capital crime." Benson names the hypocrisy, that men "seeking an opportunity to murder one who had never done them any harm" should cross examine a healer about rest. Ellicott supplies the legal frame that makes the trap work: the rabbis allowed healing on the Sabbath in danger of death, and "the “withered hand,” a permanent infirmity, obviously did not come under that category."

ii. One sheep, one pit, and an argument the scribes had already conceded — 12:11-12

He answers a question about law with a question about livestock. οὐχὶ κρατήσει αὐτὸ καὶ ἐγερεῖ: "will he not lay hold of it and raise it?" The particle οὐχὶ forecloses the answer, and Ellicott explains why it can: "As the reasoning takes the form of an argumentum ad hominem, it is clear that the act was regarded as a lawful one, even by the more rigid scribes. The Talmud discusses the question, but does not decide it." Gill prints the later ruling in full, that the beast is to be fed in the ditch until the Sabbath ends, and argues that this stricter rule "seems to have been made since the times of Christ, and in opposition to this observation of his." ⚙ That is Gill's inference and cannot be dated from Maimonides; but Ellicott independently records the same compromise, fodder in the pit rather than rescue from it, so the practice he describes is at least attested in the tradition.

Benson and Pulpit divide over the numeral ἕν. Benson: "The stress of the question does not lie on supposing a man to have only one sheep, but on one only falling into a pit." Pulpit, following Meyer: "One only, and therefore so much the dearer." The Greek permits both. What neither disputes is the shape of the conclusion, which Cambridge describes precisely: "Our Lord’s answer is thrown into the form of a syllogism," with the minor premiss and conclusion left to be inferred in Luke's version.

Then the weighing: πόσῳ οὖν διαφέρει ἄνθρωπος προβάτου. Diapherō means to differ, and with the genitive, to differ for the better. JFB hears Proverbs 12:10 under it, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast," and turns it: "how much more his nobler fellow man!" Cambridge sets it beside Matthew 10:31, "ye are of more value than many sparrows." Barnes notes that nothing new is being conceded: "This was universally allowed by the Jews in the abstract." And then the answer, in their own word: ἔξεστιν, it is permitted, καλῶς ποιεῖν, to do well. Pulpit makes the shift plain, that doing good becomes "one test by which the duty of resting or of working on the sabbath is to be determined," and notes that Mark and Luke record the sharper compounds. JFB gives the converse in the Lukan form, and it is the hardest sentence in the unit: "Not to do good, when it is in the power of our hand to do it, is to do evil; not to save life, when we can, is to kill."

iii. The word that restores, and the counsel that destroys — 12:13-14

The command asks for the one act the man cannot perform. Barnes sees it: "The man might have said that he had no strength - that it was a thing which he could not do. Yet, "being commanded," it was his duty to obey." Pulpit puts it in a sentence: "He is bid use his strength before he is told that it is given." The obedience is the command's own verb returned, Ἔκτεινόν then ἐξέτεινεν, and then a passive with no agent named, ἀπεκατεστάθη ὑγιὴς ὡς ἡ ἄλλη. Ellicott dates the restoring to the motion itself, "in the act of stretching the hand forth." Poole marks what is missing: "Christ sometimes used the ceremony of laying on his hand; here he doth not." Not a finger is lifted, and by the letter of their own complaint nothing whatever was done: "What was here of servile labour on the sabbath day?" Barnes reads the miracle as the proof of the claim already made, that he is Lord of the Sabbath. Henry reads the hand: "By nature our hands are withered, and we are unable of ourselves to do any thing that is good." Gill says the same, and Barnes, on the same verse, warns explicitly against pressing the figure into a doctrine of inability. ⚙ We keep both, and note that Henry's figure is an application he marks as such, not a claim about Matthew's intention.

Then v. 14, and the sentence turns. ἐξελθόντες stands first, emphatic (Pulpit), probably before the service was over; συμβούλιον ἔλαβον κατ’ αὐτοῦ, they took counsel against him; ὅπως ἀπολέσωσιν αὐτόν, that they might destroy him. Benson: "This, it must be observed, is the first time that mention is made of a design on our Saviour’s life." JFB: "their doubt was not, whether to get rid of Him, but how to compass it." Mark adds the Herodians, and both Ellicott and Barnes explain who they were; Poole draws the moral: "Herod and Pilate can agree when Christ is to be crucified." Gill notes the date of their deliberation, "though on the sabbath day, and about the taking away of the life of an innocent person." Pulpit observes that the opposition has now changed target: "the opposition of the Pharisees is turned directly against our Lord himself," and that "It was his kindness to another that brought about the determination to kill him."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text. The unit is built on one verb pair that the English translations dissolve. In v. 11 the rescue of the sheep is ἐγερεῖ, he will raise it, the ordinary verb for waking and for raising the dead; in v. 14 the counsel is ἀπολέσωσιν, that they might destroy him, the verb of total ruin and of being lost. Between them stands a passive with no agent: the hand ἀπεκατεστάθη, was restored. So the Sabbath question is answered three times in three different grammatical registers. It is answered in the future indicative, by what every one of them would do for an animal. It is answered in the passive, by what is done to a man when Jesus speaks and no hand is laid on him. And it is answered, against their will, in the subjunctive of their own plotting: on the day made for rescue, the men who would not permit a raising have resolved on a destroying. Poole and JFB both draw out the alternative Mark and Luke preserve, that not to save life when you can is to kill, and the narrative then puts that sentence into the Pharisees' hands as a fact rather than a hypothesis. ⚙ We do not claim that Matthew wrote ἐγερεῖ in v. 11 with the resurrection in view; that would be more than the text will bear, and no commentator in our sources says it. We claim only what the words do say: that the Sabbath in this chapter is the day on which what is fallen gets raised, and that the first recorded plan to kill Jesus was formed by men who had just watched a raising and called it work.

Not Scripture, a fallible reading offered for testing: on the day made for lifting things out of pits, they took counsel how to put a man in one.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The pit that holds the sheep, and the pit that swallows the guides verbal / quotation: confirmed

The noun βόθυνος (G999, Strong's: "a hole in the ground") occurs in only three verses of the New Testament, and all three are on Jesus' lips. Here a sheep falls into one and is hauled out on the Sabbath. In Matthew 15:14 and Luke 6:39 blind guides lead the blind and "both shall fall into the ditch." Luke 6:39 shares the rare verb of falling as well, ἐμπίπτω (G1706, 7 verses), and stands in the same Lukan chapter as the parallel to this very healing. ⚙ The irony is not asserted by any of our commentators: the men interrogating him about a sheep in a pit are, in his other use of the word, the ones headed into it.

Matthew 15:14 · Luke 6:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G999 βόθυνος (in 3 vv, rare), plus G1706 ἐμπίπτω (in 7 vv) and G3780 οὐχί shared with Luke 6:39. Greek to Greek within the Gospels; a genuine verbal link in a single speaker's vocabulary, not a quotation of one passage by another.

The same hand stretched out in three Gospels verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 3:1-6 and Luke 6:6-11 report this scene, and the Verifier confirms the verbal overlap: ξηρός (G3584, 8 verses) for the dry hand, χείρ (G5495) and ἐκτείνω (G1614, 14 verses) for the command and the obedience, συναγωγή (G4864) for the setting. Our commentators lean on the parallels constantly and say so: Luke supplies "another sabbath" (Ellicott, Gill) and the right hand (Cambridge, Poole, JFB); Mark supplies the look of anger and the grief at hardness of heart (Ellicott, Poole, Gill, JFB); Mark and Luke both supply the sharper question, is it lawful to save life or to destroy it, which Matthew does not record (Poole, Cambridge, JFB).

Mark 3:5 · Luke 6:10 · Luke 6:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1614 ἐκτείνω (in 14 vv) with G5495 χείρ at Mark 3:5 and Luke 6:10; G3584 ξηρός (in 8 vv) with G4864 συναγωγή at Luke 6:6. Greek to Greek, synoptic parallels of one pericope; verbal in the strict sense, though the direction of dependence is not claimed here.

"Took counsel against him": Matthew's formula for the road to the cross verbal / quotation: confirmed

συμβούλιον (G4824, Strong's: "advisement") is a rare noun, in eight verses, and Matthew uses it at the hinges. Here the Pharisees take counsel ὅπως ἀπολέσωσιν αὐτόν; at Matthew 22:15 they take counsel ὅπως they might entangle him in his talk, with the same rare noun and the same conjunction; Mark 3:6 records this council and adds the Herodians, whom Ellicott, Barnes and JFB all identify as a political party otherwise hostile to the Pharisees. Benson marks the point in the narrative: this is the first mention of a design on his life. Poole marks the pattern: "Herod and Pilate can agree when Christ is to be crucified."

Mark 3:6 · Matthew 22:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4824 συμβούλιον (in 8 vv, rare) and G3704 ὅπως at both Mark 3:6 and Matthew 22:15; G1831 ἐξέρχομαι also shared at Mark 3:6, G5119 τότε at Matthew 22:15. Greek to Greek, New Testament only; a recurring narrative formula, not a quotation.

"Is it lawful?": the Sabbath question asked four times structural / thematic: confirmed

The question of v. 10 recurs across the Gospels with the same three words: ἔξεστι (G1832), σάββατον (G4521), θεραπεύω (G2323). At Luke 14:3 Jesus asks it himself before healing the man with dropsy, and both Ellicott and Pulpit note that Luke 14:5 carries this very sheep-in-a-pit argument in another setting (Pulpit: "In vers. 10, 11 there are reminiscences of a narrative … essentially preserved in Luke 14:2-5"). At Luke 6:9 it is reframed as save or destroy. At John 7:23 Jesus argues from circumcision on the Sabbath to healing a whole man, an argument from lesser to greater of exactly the shape used here. ⚙ We tier this thematic rather than verbal: the shared words are common (σάββατον in 62 verses, ἔξεστι in 29, θεραπεύω in 42), and what binds the passages is a repeated pattern of argument, not a borrowed phrase.

Luke 14:3 · Luke 6:9 · John 7:23

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2323 θεραπεύω (in 42 vv), G1832 ἔξεστι (in 29 vv), G4521 σάββατον (in 62 vv) at Luke 14:3; G1905 ἐπερωτάω, G1832, G4521 at Luke 6:9; G4521 σάββατον at John 7:23. All are common lexemes, so the recorded link is a shared pattern of argument rather than a quotation.

Falling in: a rare verb that runs from a sheep to the hands of God structural / thematic: confirmed

ἐμπίπτω (G1706, "to fall on, to fall into") occurs in only seven verses. Here a sheep falls into a hole and a man with a grip strong enough (κρατέω, "to use strength") pulls it out. At Luke 10:36 a man falls among robbers and is rescued by the one who had no legal obligation to him. At 1 Timothy 6:9 the rich fall into temptation and a snare. At Hebrews 10:31, in a verse that also carries χείρ, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. ⚙ The link is lexical and thematic, not a quotation, and the senses differ sharply; we record it because the Verifier confirms the rare shared verb and because the motif of the fallen creature that can only be lifted by another runs through all four. The reader should weigh whether Hebrews 10:31 belongs in the same field at all, since there falling into hands is the judgment, not the rescue.

Luke 10:36 · 1 Timothy 6:9 · Hebrews 10:31

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1706 ἐμπίπτω (in 7 vv, rare) at Luke 10:36, 1 Timothy 6:9 and Hebrews 10:31, with G5495 χείρ also shared at Hebrews 10:31. Rare enough to be a real verbal contact, but the sense differs in each context, so we under-claim and tier it thematic.

The other withered hand: Jeroboam at the altar typological

JFB glosses the condition here as "disabled by paralysis (as in 1Ki 13:4)." At Bethel, Jeroboam stretches out his hand against the man of God and it dries up so that he cannot draw it back to himself; it is restored when the prophet prays. ⚙ The comparison is worth holding at arm's length as well as drawing close. There a hand is withered as judgment for being stretched out against God's word and restored by intercession; here a hand already withered is restored by the word itself, and the men who witness it stretch out against him instead. The structural inversion is our own reading, not JFB's, who cites the verse only for the medical parallel.

1 Kings 13:4

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier can be claimed. The link is recorded in our sources only as a medical comparison (JFB on Matthew 12:10, citing 1 Kings 13:4); the figural reading of withering and restoration around a spoken word is our own and is offered as novel, not as a received typology.

Does the sheep in the pit belong to this scene at all? flagged: verify source

Neither Mark nor Luke gives this illustration in their account of the withered hand; Luke has it instead at Luke 14:5, in the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, with "a son or an ox" rather than a sheep. Ellicott states the fact plainly: in Mark and Luke "the question is given in another form, and without the illustration, which we find in St Luke, in another connection, in Luke 14:5." Pulpit goes further and takes a source-critical position, that in vv. 10 and 11 "there are reminiscences of a narrative, presumably belonging to the Framework, which is essentially preserved in Luke 14:2-5 (cf. Weiss)." ⚙ We flag this rather than resolve it. That a saying appears in two settings is not evidence that it was spoken only once; Pulpit's "Framework" is a nineteenth century critical hypothesis, offered as such by him, and Weiss's reconstruction is not a source we can verify. The Verifier does not list Luke 14:5 among the candidates for this unit at all, so nothing here is computed.

Luke 14:5

basis: Not a Verifier-computed link: Luke 14:5 does not appear in the thread candidates for this unit (only Luke 14:3, on the common Sabbath lexemes G2323, G1832, G4521). The connection is asserted by our commentators, and the stronger form of the claim, that Matthew 12:11 has been drawn here from the setting preserved at Luke 14:2-5, is a contested source-critical hypothesis (Pulpit, citing Weiss) that we cannot check.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The withered hand and the command that carries its own strength ancient/widely-held

Henry reads the miracle as a figure and says plainly that it is one: "This, like other cures which Christ wrought, had a spiritual meaning. By nature our hands are withered, and we are unable of ourselves to do any thing that is good. Christ only, by the power of his grace, cures us; he heals the withered hand by putting life into the dead soul, works in us both to will and to do," which is Philippians 2:13 in Henry's mouth. Gill reads it the same way: the man "was an emblem of the inability of men to do anything that is spiritually good, and of the power and efficacy of divine grace." Pulpit compresses it: "He is bid use his strength before he is told that it is given. … Power is linked to obedience." ⚙ The grammar supports the shape of the reading even where it does not compel the doctrine: the command is an aorist imperative the man cannot obey, and the healing is an aorist passive with no agent named, so that between the order and the obedience something is done to him that he did not do. Barnes, working the same verse, enters a caution we keep: the passage "may be used to prove that man should instantly obey the commands of God" but it is not a proof text about the extent of human inability. The figure is ancient and widely held among our sources; the doctrinal weight placed on it varies, and we say so.

Matthew 12:13 · Philippians 2:13

Lord of the Sabbath, proved by a Sabbath ancient/widely-held

The unit stands immediately after the claim of Matthew 12:8, and Barnes ties the knot: "Christ had before claimed divine authority and power Matthew 12:6-9, he now showed that he possessed it. By his "own power" he healed him, thus evincing by a miracle that his claim of being Lord of the Sabbath was well founded." ⚙ Note how the proof is given. He touches nothing. Poole observes that here, unusually, he does not lay on his hand, "to let us know that that was but a sign of what was done by his power," and so by the letter of the Pharisees' own complaint no work is performed at all. The lordship is demonstrated not by suspending the Sabbath but by fulfilling what the day was for, and Geneva's heading over v. 9 states the principle the miracle enacts: "The ceremonies of the law are not against the love of our neighbour."

Matthew 12:8 · Mark 3:4

He who raises the fallen is the one they resolve to destroy novel

In v. 11 the Sabbath argument turns on ἐγερεῖ, he will raise it. In v. 14 the answer of the assembly is ἀπολέσωσιν, that they might destroy him. JFB, expounding the form of the question Mark and Luke preserve, states the ethic that convicts them: "not to save life, when we can, is to kill." Benson records that this is the first design on his life; Gill notes the day it was formed on; Pulpit puts the cause exactly: "It was his kindness to another that brought about the determination to kill him." ⚙ Our own reading goes one step further and is offered as novel rather than received: Matthew has placed a raising verb and a destroying verb on either side of a restoration, and the destroying they resolve on is the one that will, in this Gospel, be undone by a raising. No commentator in our sources draws that line from ἐγερεῖ in v. 11, and the reader should test it against the text rather than accept it from us.

Matthew 12:11 · Matthew 12:14 · Mark 3:6

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible (CC0); the interlinear data, Strong's numbers and parsings are the Berean apparatus supplied in our brief. In Matthew 12:9 and 12:10 that interlinear lists the Greek words in the order of the English rendering (αὐτῶν before τὴν συναγωγήν in v. 9; the purpose clause before the question in v. 10); our literal restores the ordinary Greek clause order while using only the words the apparatus supplies. No variant readings were available to us for this unit; Pulpit notes that in v. 10 Westcott and Hort read "and behold a man having a withered hand," which is a difference of rendering rather than of text in the data we hold.

Chronology. Matthew joins this scene to the grainfield dispute with a participle and no date. Luke 6:6 places it on another Sabbath. Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit all harmonize, and all three admit the harmonization is inference. We have recorded the disagreement rather than resolved it. The antecedent of "their" in v. 9 is genuinely undetermined; Pulpit's "Whose?" is the honest state of the question.

Sources used with care. Gill's rabbinic citations (Maimonides, Hilchot Sabbat; b. Yoma; the Jerusalem Talmud) are the richest material in this unit and the most chronologically slippery: they are compiled centuries after the scene, and his claim that the stricter rule about the beast in the ditch was framed "in opposition to this observation" of Christ cannot be dated from what he cites. Ellicott independently attests the compromise practice of feeding the animal in the pit, which is why we let the detail stand while flagging the dating. Gill and Pulpit both relay Jerome's report that in the gospel used by the Nazarenes and Ebionites the man calls himself a mason; that is an extracanonical tradition at second hand, and we have kept it out of the exposition and named it here.

What our machine layer claims. Every lexical gloss above is the brief's Strong's root gloss, which is sometimes terse to the point of opacity (G444 and G4864, for instance, arrive truncated); where we have extended a gloss we have marked the sense we are taking. The reading of ἐγερεῖ in v. 11 as resonating with resurrection is our synthesis alone, is marked ⚙ and novel everywhere it appears, and is not supported by any commentator in our sources. The 1 Kings 13:4 thread is tiered typological because no Greek to Hebrew link can be verified by shared Strong's numbers; JFB cites the verse for the medical parallel only, and the figural inversion we draw from it is ours. The Luke 14:5 thread is flagged rather than confirmed: it rests on our commentators' cross references and, in Pulpit's stronger form, on a source-critical hypothesis (Weiss) we have no means of testing, and the Verifier returned no candidate for that verse. Where Henry and Gill read the withered hand as an emblem of spiritual inability and Barnes cautions against that use, we have printed both rather than choosing.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)