Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him; how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?”
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Luke 6:3-4 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him; how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?” He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Parallel Translations
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Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him;
how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?”
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And Iesus answered them and sayde: Have ye not redde what David dyd when he him sylfe was anhungred and they which were with him:
how he went into the housse of God and toke and ate the loves of halowed breed and gave also to them which were with him: which was not laufull to eate but for the prestes only.
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Then Iesus answered them, and said, Haue ye not read this, that Dauid did when he himselfe was an hungred, and they which were with him,
Howe he went into the house of God, and tooke, and ate the shewbread, and gaue also to them which were with him, which was not lawful to eate, but for the Priests onely?
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (9)
- 1 Samuel 21:3-6 (v3) Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.” The priest answered…
- Mark 2:25-26 (v3) He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? How he entered into…
- Matthew 12:3-5 (v3) But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him; how he entered into God’s house,…
- Matthew 21:16 (v3) and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing…
- Leviticus 24:5-9 (v4) “You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. You shall set them in two rows, six…
Show all 9 cross-references
- Mark 12:10 (v3) Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner.
- Matthew 22:31 (v3) But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
- Mark 12:26 (v3) But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the…
- Matthew 19:4 (v3) He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–4 3 And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not…
3 And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;
Ver. 3. Have ye not read] Yes, over and over, but either understood not, or, through malice, dissembled it. Quilibet nostrum de lege interrogatus facilius quam nomini suo respondet, saith Josephus. The Jews were all very well versed in the Scriptures.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On v3 And Jesus answering them, said,.... For they brought the…
And Jesus answering them, said,.... For they brought the charge against the disciples to him, being desirous to know what he would say, and that they might have something to accuse him of; and who, at once, took up the cause of his disciples, and vindicated them, by observing what David did, when he, and his men were an hungry; how that he went into the tabernacle, and took the showbread, and ate of it, and gave it to his men, who also ate of it; which, according to the law, was only allowed to priests; and by taking notice of another instance, which this evangelist does not relate; namely, how on the sabbath days the priests, by doing various servile works, profaned the sabbath day, and yet were not charged with any blame; See Gill on Mat 12:3. See Gill on Mat 12:4. See Gill on Mat 12:5.
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Luke 6:5
luk 6:5
luk 6:5
luk 6:5And he said unto them,.... He adds this at the close of the instances he gave, at the end of his vindication of his disciples, and discourse with the Pharisees, as a full answer to their cavils;
that the son of man is Lord also of the sabbath; and may do what he will, and suffer his disciples to do whatever he pleases on that day; See Gill on Mat 12:8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v4 1 Sam. xxi, 6.
1 Sam. xxi, 6.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–4 Verse 3. What David did] See on Luke 2:26;…
Verse 3. What David did] See on Luke 2:26; Luke 2:27.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v4 4. How—After this verse two or three ancient manuscripts…
4. How—After this verse two or three ancient manuscripts have a remarkable addition in the following words: “On the same day, seeing one working on the Sabbath, He said unto him, Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou dost, blessed art thou; but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed and a transgressor of the law.”
By this anecdote Jesus is made to assume that under his dispensation the Sabbath is abolished. If the man does not know this abolishment, and so is purposing to violate the Sabbath, he is, in heart and will, a transgressor. If, however, he knows what he is doing, namely, working under a dispensation without a sabbath, he is then a Christian, and works in accordance with conscience, right, and law. But as no such assumption of the abolition of the Sabbath is founded on any thing that Jesus ever taught, we hold the passage as not containing a genuine saying of Jesus.
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(1.) We have said in our introduction to this volume, p. 6, that very few traces exist of our Lord’s sayings outside of our canonical gospels. Mr. Westcott, in his Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 445-453, has made a collection of all such sayings and doings to be found either in the canonical epistles or in the early Christian writers. The entire number, including those that appear to be variations of gospel passages, is thirty two. Very few of these could be accepted as genuine. The only one incontestably genuine is found in Act_20:35.
(2.) In regard to this present passage we fully agree with Grotius (against Van Oosterzee) that it was “interpolated by some Marcionite.”
Marcion was a so-called heretic, living near the close of the apostolic day. He was an anti-Judaic ultraist, who not only, with St. Paul, rejected the necessity of keeping the Mosaic law for salvation, but even contemned not only the Mosaic law, but the God of the Old Testament, as an evil being. The Ebionites and Marcionites were opposite extremes. (See note on Luk_6:20.)
Marcion accepted the Gospel of Luke, (being the most Gentile of the four,) but mutilated it to suit his own purposes. (See note on Mat_5:17.) Now the assumption that the Sabbath is abrogated under the New Testament is not only unsustainable and false, but; as being a repudiation of the law, even during the life of Jesus, and by Jesus, is truly Marcionite in its character. And being an interpolation, we believe Grotius was right in saying, “I think it was inserted by some Marcionite.”
But the passage, though spurious, strikingly illustrates how rectitude depends upon the interior motive, view, or purpose. If the man knew not the sabbath law to have been abolished, it was his purpose to break the law; and of that intentional transgression he was guilty. The law existed for him. Whatever is not of faith is sin.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–4 3. Have ye not read so much as this]…
3. Have ye not read so much as this] Rather, Did ye not even read this? He answers them in one of their own formulae, but with a touch of irony at their ignorance, which we trace also in the “Did ye never read?” of St Mark;—never though ye are Scribes and devote all your time to the Scriptures? Perhaps the reproving question may have derived an additional sting from the fact that the very passage which our Lord quoted (1Sa_21:1-6) had been read on that Sabbath as the Haphtarah of the day. The service for the day must have been over, because no meal was eaten till then. This fact does not however help us to determine which was the second-first Sabbath, because the present Jewish lectionary is of later date.
and they which were with him] That the day on which this occurred was a Sabbath results from the fact that it was only on the Sabbath that the new shewbread was placed on the table, Lev_24:8-9.
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3. The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath] Rather, ‘Lord even of the Sabbath,’ though you regard the Sabbath as the most important command of the whole Law. In St Mark we have further, “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
This was one of no less than six great occasions on which the fury of the Pharisees had been excited by the open manner in which our Lord set aside as frivolous and unauthoritative the burdens which the Oral Law had attached to the Sabbath. The other instances are the healing of the cripple at Bethesda (Joh_5:1-16); the healing of the withered hand (Luk_6:1-11); of the blind man at Siloam (Joh_9:1-41); of the paralytic woman (Luk_13:14-17); and of the man with the dropsy (Luk_14:1-6). In laying His axe at the root of a proud and ignorant Sabbatarianism, He was laying His axe at the root of all that “miserable micrology” which they had been accustomed to take for religious life. They had turned the Sabbath from a holy delight into a revolting bondage. The Apocryphal Gospels are following a true tradition in the prominence which they give to Sabbath healing, as a charge against Him on His trial before the Sanhedrin.
In the famous Cambridge Manuscript (D), the Codex Bezae, there is here added the following passage: “On the same day, seeing one working on the Sabbath, He said to him, O man, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed: but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed, and a transgressor of the Law.” This very remarkable addition cannot be accepted as genuine on the authority of a single MS., and can only be regarded as one of the agrapha dogmata, or ‘unrecorded
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v3 Vers. 3, 4. And Jesus answering them said, Have…
Vers. 3, 4. And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was a hungred, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? Their own loved David, said the new Teacher to his jealous accusers, scrupled not, when he "was an hungred," to set at nought the twofold ordinance of sacrilege and of sabbath-breaking. (The reference is to 1Sa_21:5. David"s visit to the sanctuary at Nob took place evidently on the sabbath, as the fresh supply of shewbread had been apparently just laid out; he must, too, have violated another rule by his journey on that day. See Stier, "Words of the Lord Jesus," on Mat_12:3, Mat_12:4) The lesson which Jesus intended to draw from the example of the great hero-king and the high priest was that no ceremonial law was to override. the general principle of providing for the necessities of the body. St. Matthew adds here a very forcible saying of the Lord"s spoken on this occasion, which goes to the root of the whole matter, "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." These laws, as God originally gave them, were never intended to be a burden, rather they were meant to be a blessing for man. After ver. 5, Codex I) a very ancient authority, written in the fifth century, now in the University Library at Cambridge, but one which contains many passages not found in any other trustworthy manuscript or version adds the following strange narrative: "The same day, Jesus seeing a man who was working on the sabbath, saith to him, O man, if thou knowest what thou art doing, blessed art thou; but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed, and a transgressor of the Law." As no other ancient authority of weight contains this remarkable addition to the recital of our Lord"s teaching respecting the observance of the sabbath, it must be pronounced an interpolation. It belongs most likely to the very early days of the Christian story, and was probably founded on some tradition current in the primitive Church. The framework of the anecdote in its present form, too, shows a state of things simply impossible at this time. Any Jew who, in the days of Jesus Christ"s earthly ministry, openly, like the man of the story, broke the sabbath in the daring way related, would have been liable to be arrested and condemned to death by stoning.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 (See Scofield "Exo 25:30").
shewbread
(See Scofield "Exo 25:30").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 Have you not even read ... him?
Have you not even read ... him?
Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for not learning from the scriptures. This can be written as a statement. AT: "You should learn from what you have read ... him!" or "Certainly you have read ... him!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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the bread of the presence
"the holy bread" or "the bread that was offered to God"
Son of Man
Jesus was referring to himself. This can be stated: AT: "I, the Son of Man"
is Lord of the Sabbath
The title "Lord" here emphasizes his authority over the Sabbath. AT: "has the authority to determine what is right for people to do on the Sabbath!"
translationWords
David
house of God
bread
lawful
priest
Son of Man
lord
Sabbath
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 6:3 While fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 21), David…
6:3 While fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 21), David . . . and his companions took refuge at the sanctuary of Nob. The priest Ahimelech gave them the consecrated Bread of the Presence that only priests were lawfully allowed to eat (Exod 25:30; Lev 24:9). Jesus’ point was that a technical violation of the law is superseded by the higher law of meeting human needs. There might also be a comparison between David and Jesus as God’s chosen and anointed kings of Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.