The Sabbath is the most sacred day of the Jewish week. It is a day set apart for rest and the contemplation of God. It is also a day that is rooted in the Bible’s creation story(ies) described in Genesis and the Ten Commandments, in which it is given by God to be a day of rest from work and labor.

The Sabbath and Interpretations

Despite its great importance, there was no single Jewish approach to the Sabbath. Although it was obvious to all that the Sabbath meant to rest on the Sabbath day and that this was communicated in the Torah, Jews interpreted this in different contexts.

How it was to be applied differed from group to group. For example, the text of Jubilees prohibits the preparation of food or drink on the Sabbath (2:25–33). According to Philo of Alexandria, attending the synagogue on the Sabbath was required (2.215–16). The Jews living at Qumran allowed cattle to roam in pasture but only to the limit of three thousand feet (Damascus Document 11:5–6), yet the Mishna (composed in the second century CE) states that cattle can be led but only if they do not carry any load (Mishnah Shabbat 5:4). 

The Essenes, a monastic sect that flourished from the second century BCE to the end of the first century, prohibited anyone helping an animal give birth or rescue it if it fell into a pit (Damascus Document 11:12–17), and the legalistic Pharisees allowed the use of medicine to heal an ill individual on the Sabbath (Mishnah Yoma 8:6) and also had 39 rules stating what was prohibited on this day, some including sowing, plowing, baking, washing, weaving, stitching, writing two letters, building, tearing down, kindling or putting out a fire, transporting an object from one domain to another, and more (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2).

Although there was a wide interpretation of what constitutes work, these various Jewish groups attempted to faithfully obey God’s command for a day of rest and apply it to their lives.

It is apparent that the Sabbath was an important concept and theme in the brief ministry of the historical Jesus (c. 6-4 BCE–c. 32–36 CE), which the extant textual evidence shows.

Independent Attestation

The first, and perhaps most important, evidence is that the role of the Sabbath in Jesus’s ministry is multiply and independently attested, a core pillar and criterion of the historical method.

This criterion states that an event or saying appears in multiple sources that are near the time at which the event or saying is alleged to have occurred and that depend neither upon each other nor on a common source. The more independent witnesses to an event or saying, the better, just as the more independent witnesses to a crime make the case easier to solve for a detective.

The earliest Gospel of Mark, dating around 70 CE, describes the plucking of grain on the Sabbath (2:23–28). In this account, Jesus claims to be the Lord of the Sabbath: “Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (2-27-28).

This story is also mentioned in Luke’s gospel (6:1–5) as well as Matthew’s (12:1–8), although these two derive this material from Mark.

These accounts do include some differences and additions. Matthew’s account has the sole attestation of priests working in the temple on the Sabbath (12:5) and God’s desiring of mercy over sacrifice (12:7).

All three gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke include the anecdote of David and his soldiers eating the shewbread, which was not permitted by the law because it was the privilege of priests only (1 Samuel 21:2–10). There is controversy regarding Jesus’s healing of a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1–6 = Matthew 12:9–15 and Luke 6:6–11).

Together, Mark, Matthew, and Luke are only one source for the controversy caused by Jesus on the Sabbath. However, additional independent attestation comes from material unique to Luke’s gospel containing Sabbath healings (L = Luke 13:10–17, 14:1-6) and John’s gospel, which includes Sabbath controversies (5:1-47, 9:1-41).

Three independent sources therefore describe the controversies emerging from Jesus on the Sabbath: Mark, L, and John, suggesting this theme is deeply embedded in the early Jesus tradition. In the context of the New Testament corpus, Mark and L are also considered early sources, meaning that the controversies are in some of the earliest gospel traditions. 

Multiple, independent attestation describe the controversy surrounding Jesus’s healing on the Sabbath. Mark 3:22 (= Matthew 12:24 and Luke 11:15) and material unique to Matthew (M = Matthew 9:34) are these stories.

In this case, Jesus is accused of casting out demons and using the power of beelzebul, a term for Satan. There is a historical tradition among opponents of Christianity that Jesus is accused of wielding supernatural power that stems from an evil source. Justin Martyr, a Christian apologist and writer of the second century, claims that Jesus was accused of being a magician (Dialogue with Trypho 69.7, 108), which is also reiterated by the critic Celcus a century later (Origen’s Contra Celsus 1.28, 1.68). The Talmud later claims Jesus used sorcery (b. Sanhedrin 43a).

References

1. Dunn, James. 2003. Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. p. 670.

Bock, Darrell L. 2012. Who Is Jesus?: Linking the Historical Jesus with the Christ of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 65-78.