One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands.
- KJV And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
- NKJV Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.
- NASB Now it happened that Jesus was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath, and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
- NLT One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain.
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
On a Sabbath the disciples pluck and eat grain as they pass through fields. A simple act becomes a flashpoint over Sabbath law.
Overview
Plucking grain by hand was permitted by the Law for a traveler, but doing so on the Sabbath was judged by the Pharisees to be 'work.' Luke sets up a controversy over the meaning of the Sabbath. The episode leads to Jesus' teaching on the purpose of the Sabbath and his own lordship over it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Deut 23:25When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.
- Mark 2:23–28One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.
- Matt 12:1–8At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
- Lev 23:7On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work.
- Exod 12:15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
- Lev 23:10–11“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.
- Lev 23:15From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
- Deut 16:9You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
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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 6:1 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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