Healing and Saving Life from Starvation, Mark 2:23–26, 28, Luke 6:1–5 & Matthew 12:1–8

Abstract

This article summarizes a lengthy discussion on the story of Jesus, his disciples and the Pharisees who met together in the Galilean fields ( Collins 2014 : 27–107), exploring its historicity, rather than its source. The discussion will show that that the climax of the story, when Jesus replied to the Pharisees, is almost certainly based on an ingenious Greek translation of an existing Jewish argument, originally composed in Hebrew. This Hebrew argument justified “work” that was performed on the Sabbath in order to save life from starvation, although Sabbath “work” was (and is) otherwise forbidden by Jewish law. (According to Jewish law, any act of “healing” and/or “saving life” is regarded as “work.”) The subsequent dramatization of the argument, probably by Mark, resulted in the present fictional tale. This understanding of the story shows that the Galilean incident is not “a controversy tale” in which the historical Jesus was criticized, even vilified, by the Pharisees, as is often alleged. Instead, the author of the tale aimed to promote Jesus as the arbiter of Sabbath law, and to elevate him as an equal of the Pharisees when discussing Jewish law.