Something Greater Than the Temple

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In Jesus' statement about the Temple he did not speak of himself, he spoke of the needs and value of his disciples.

One of the difficult sayings of Jesus is his justification of the disciples’ plucking and/or rubbing heads of grain on the Sabbath. Fortunately, research in recent years among Jewish scholars in Jerusalem has shed new light on what the questionable action might have been.

Whereas Matthew 12:1 records that the disciples “plucked the grains,” Luke 6:1 says “they plucked…rubbing them in their hands.” The late professor, Shlomo Pines, of the Hebrew University discovered an Arabic version of the event preserved in the testimony of early Jewish Christians with a description that the disciples only “rubbed the grains” with no mention of plucking. This characterization of the events accords with other ancient versions of the Gospel narrative.

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Dr. Notley’s discussion of this Sabbath incident is continued in his article, “The Sabbath Was Made for Man.”

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  • R. Steven Notley

    R. Steven Notley

    R. Steven Notley is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the New York City campus of Nyack College. A member and past director of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, Notley earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Religions at the Hebrew University (1993).…
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