Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §14.4
garded as strong that Jesus did indeed treat the Sabbath more freely than a more
rigorous halakhah approved in at least two incidents, which left a deep impression
on his disciples' memories. 108 Sanders caricatures the scenes thus narrated, 109 but
the tradition is clearly pre-Markan, and thus pre-70, and so demonstrates that pre-
70 Pharisees already had a reputation for scrupulous Sabbath observance. It can
also be demonstrated that such levels of scrupulosity were current at the time of Jesus.
110 And the likelihood of some Pharisees, down from Jerusalem to gain a firsthand
impression of the teacher from Nazareth, expressing criticism of his and his
disciples' lack of respect for the Sabbath is entirely plausible. 111
The point which these remembered episodes enshrine is twofold. (1) First,
that Jesus had a high regard for the Sabbath as a gift from God. To be noted is
that neither episode even suggests the abolition or abandonment of the Sabbath.
The question under debate is not whether the Sabbath should be observed, 112 but
108. See particularly Pesch, Markusevangelium 1.183, 195-96. There is something
strange in an argument which accepts that Jesus said something like Mark 2.27 and that he
'sometimes deliberately transgressed the sabbath commandment', but denies that the only explicit
examples of him so acting in regard to the Sabbath ever took place during Jesus' mission
(Funk, Five Gospels 49-50, 350; Acts of Jesus 68; Lüdemann, Jesus 19-21). Casey argues that
2.23-3.6 is a literal translation of an Aramaic source (Aramaic Sources 138-92).
109. 'Pharisees did not organize themselves into groups to spend their Sabbaths in Galilean
cornfields in the hope of catching someone transgressing' (Jesus 265-66; not much softened
in Historical Figure 214; followed by Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ 106).
110. Jub. 2.17-33; 50.8-12; CD 10.14-11.18. E.g., Jub. 2 includes the instructions: 'that
they should not prepare thereon anything which will be eaten or drunk, which they have not
prepared for themselves on the sixth day' nor 'draw water or bring in or take out any work
within their dwellings . . .'. CD 11.12-17 include the rulings: 'No one should help an animal
give birth on the sabbath. And if [it falls] into a cistern or a pit, he should not take it out on the
sabbath. . . . And any living man who falls into a place of water or into a [reservoir?], no one
should take him out with a ladder or a rope or a utensil' (similarly 4Q265 frag. 7 1.5-9). If Luke
14.1-6 is a variant version of Mark 3.1-5 pars. (NB Matt. 12.11), then Luke 14.5/Matt. 12.11
can be taken as indication that Pharisaic Sabbath halakhah was not so strict on this point as
Essene or Qumran halakhah (cf. m. Yoma 8.6); see also S. Westerholm, Jesus and Scribal Authority
(CBNTS 10; Lund: Gleerup, 1978) 95-96. The importance of the Sabbath elsewhere in
Jewish tradition is clear; see particularly Gen. 2.2-3; Exod. 20.8-11; 31.16-17; Deut. 5.12-15;
Neh. 9.13-14; Isa. 56.6; Ezek. 20.16; 1 Mace. 1.43; Josephus, Ant. 11.346; 14.241-6, 258, 263-
64; Philo, Abr. 28-30; Decal. 102; Spec. Leg. 2.59, 70; Legat. 155-58; Eusebius, Praep. Evang.
13.12.9-16; see further E. Lohse, sabbaton, TDNT 7.2-14.
111. See further above, §9.3a(l). Theissen naturally points out how well the episodes fit
with the situation of itinerant charismatics, in via, here today and gone tomorrow (Theissen and
Merz, Historical Jesus 369). See also W. R. G. Loader, Jesus'Attitude to the Law (WUNT 2.97;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997) 51-53.
112. Pace Goppelt: 'He suspended the sabbath commandment as such and by doing so
suspended the Law, the very foundation of Judaism' (Theology 1.93-94, though note also 105)
— one of those now embarrassing over-interpretations which was never justified.
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