Matthew 12:7

Context

Matthew 12:1–8 recounts a controversy over the Sabbath. As Jesus and his disciples passed through the grain fields on the Sabbath, the hungry disciples plucked ears of grain and ate them. The Pharisees then objected that they were doing what was not lawful on the Sabbath. The Law itself permits plucking ears of grain by hand in a neighbor's field (Deuteronomy 23:25); the point at issue was that this was done on the Sabbath. The Mishnah, a later rabbinic text, likewise lists reaping among the kinds of work forbidden on the Sabbath.

Jesus responds in three ways:

• He cites the occasion when David ate the showbread, the bread set out in the sanctuary.
• He points out that the priests work in the temple even on the Sabbath.
• He declares that "in this place is one greater than the temple" (v. 6).

In this verse he then quotes Hosea 6:6, and in verse 8 he concludes that "the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." The parallel accounts of the same incident in Mark and Luke do not contain this quotation; it appears only in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew also cites the same saying in Matthew 9:13, in the account of Jesus eating with tax collectors.

Interpretation

• As a comparative expression: Many commentators regard the form "I desire A and not B" as a Hebrew idiom of comparison, meaning "I desire A more than B." The second half of Hosea 6:6, which speaks of "the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings," is cited in support. Read this way, the saying does not call for the abolition of sacrifice but clarifies what takes priority.
• The meaning of "mercy": The word in the Hebrew text of Hosea is hesed, which denotes faithful covenant love. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) rendered it as eleos ("mercy"). For this reason the New Korean Revised Version translates the same saying as "steadfast love" (inae) in Hosea but as "mercy" (jabi) in Matthew.
• A Christ-centered reading: This reading takes verses 6 and 8 together and locates the heart of the passage in the authority of Jesus. On this view, the disciples were "guiltless" because they were with the Lord of the Sabbath.

Debates and Issues

• The Sabbath and the Lord's Day: Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Shorter Catechism teach that "works of necessity and mercy" may be done on the Lord's Day, and the Presbyterian tradition cites this passage as one of the grounds for that teaching. The Seventh-day Adventist Church reads the passage as showing that Jesus did not abolish the seventh-day Sabbath but corrected mistaken ways of keeping it. Some evangelicals who do not regard the Lord's Day as a continuation of the Sabbath commandment understand verse 8 to mean that the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ. For further discussion, see The Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
• Quotation out of context: The verse is sometimes cited to suggest that worship or ritual is unnecessary. In response, some argue that what Hosea criticized was sacrifice offered without steadfast love. In addition, "sacrifice" here refers to the sacrificial offerings of the temple and is distinct from Korean ancestral rites, for which the same Korean word (jesa) is used (see Ancestral Rites and Memorial Services).
• Portrayal of the Pharisees: In response to sermons that portray the Pharisees merely as formalists, some note that it should also be recognized that the Pharisees sought to keep the Sabbath commandment faithfully.

Related Passages

• Hosea 6:6
• Matthew 9:13
• Mark 2:27–28
• Micah 6:6–8
• Matthew 23:23