Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
Parallel translations
- KJV And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
- BSB So Jesus asked the experts in the law and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”
- NKJV And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
- NASB And Jesus responded and said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
- NLT Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, “Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus directly asks the lawyers and Pharisees whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. He confronts their scrutiny with the real question at stake.
Overview
Rather than act covertly, Jesus openly puts the question to the experts in the law. He forces them to confront whether mercy can rightly be shown on God's day. The question exposes the gap between their traditions and the heart of God's commands.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Matt 12:10And behold there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” that they might accuse him.
- Luke 6:9Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?”
- Luke 13:14–16The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”
- John 7:23If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?
- Mark 3:4He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” But they were silent.
- Matt 22:35One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.
- Luke 11:44–45Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”
- Matt 12:2But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 14:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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