Matthew 12:5-7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
5 [a]Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent?(A) 6 I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 [b]If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’(B) you would not have condemned these innocent men.
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- 12:5–6 This and the following argument (Mt 12:7) are peculiar to Matthew. The temple service seems to be the changing of the showbread on the sabbath (Lv 24:8) and the doubling on the sabbath of the usual daily holocausts (Nm 28:9–10). The argument is that the law itself requires work that breaks the sabbath rest, because of the higher duty of temple service. If temple duties outweigh the sabbath law, how much more does the presence of Jesus, with his proclamation of the kingdom (something greater than the temple), justify the conduct of his disciples.
- 12:7 See note on Mt 9:13.
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