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Chapter 33MedVC.1.33

De habente manum aridam, et a Domino curato

Healing on the Sabbath

Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath, provoking the learned men's silence.

One Sabbath day the Lord Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, and there was a man there with a withered hand. Jesus had him stand before everyone and asked the learned men whether it was permitted to do good on the Sabbath.✦ They, for their part, said nothing.✦ Jesus then said to the man with the withered hand: "Stretch out your hand."✦ And he was healed.✦

The True Meaning of the Sabbath

Jesus repeatedly works miracles on the Sabbath to correct a carnal understanding of the law and to show that doing good is never forbidden.

Many times on Sabbath days. On the Sabbaths the Lord worked miracles to put the Jews to shame, because they understood the law in a carnal way, whereas God willed it to be observed spiritually. For the Sabbath was not a day to refrain from doing good or from works of love, but from sins and servile labor.

Scandal and Opposition

The onlookers are scandalized and reject Jesus because he does not keep the Sabbath as they understand it.

But they were greatly scandalized by this and conspired against him, saying: "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath."✦1

Zeal in the Face of Scandal

Rather than being deterred, Jesus acts more zealously to rescue others from error, and the reader is urged to persevere in good works despite unjust scandal.

The Lord, however, did not let them go for that reason; on the contrary, he acted all the more zealously, in order to snatch them away from their error. Consider him, then, in the works just described, and following his example do not hold back from good work, even if someone else is unjustly scandalized.2 For good work necessarily leads to the salvation of the soul and also to the progress of the spirit.3

Charity and Scandal

When salvation is at stake one must not stop because of scandal, yet for merely bodily advantage charity may require abstaining to avoid offending a weaker brother.

When salvation itself is at stake, you should not stop on account of someone else's scandal.4 When it comes to bodily advantage, however, one must abstain for the sake of a brother's scandal, as perfect charity demands.5 For this reason the Apostle says to the Romans: It is good not to eat meat or drink wine, nor anything by which your brother is offended, or scandalized, or weakened.✦67

Read the original Latin

Quadam die sabbati docebat Dominus Jesus in synagoga -: et ibi erat quidam habens manum aridam; et fecit eum Jesus stare in medio, et quaesivit ab ilhs sapientibus, si liceat in die sabbati bene facere. Ipsi vero tacuerunt. Dixit ergo Jesus habenti manum aridam: Extende manum iuam. Et sanatus est. Pluries in diebus. sabbatorum fecit Dominus miracula ad confusionem Judaeorum, quod carnaliter legem inteUigebant, quam Deus spiritualiter observari volebat. Non enim in die sabbati a bono erat abstinendum et ab operibus charitatis, sed a peccatis et operibus servihbus. At illi scandalizabantur inde multum, et conspirabant contra eum> ac dicebant ^: Non est hfc homo a DeOy qui sabbatum ii<m custodit.

Domiuus autem propterea non dimittebat; imo studiosius faciebat, ut eos erueret alD errore. Considera eum ergo in proedictis operationibus, et cjus exemplo non cesses a bono opere, quamvis aUusinde scandaUzetur injuste. A bono namque opcre necessario ad salutcm animae, cc etiam ad profectum spiritu. s conferente, cessare uon debes propter aUcujus scandalum. A commodo vero corporaU, secundum perfectse charilaUs exigenliam, absUnendum est propter scandalum fratris. Propter quod dicit Apostolus ad Romanos *: Bonum est non manducare carnem et non bibere vinum, neque in quo frater tuus offenditur, aut scandalizatur aut infirmaiur

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.12.9-Matt.12.10;Mark.3.1-Mark.3.3;Luke.6.6-Luke.6.7 — And having moved on from there, he went into their synagogue. Matt.12.10 — And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?' — so that they might accuse him. Mark.3.1 — He entered again into the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. Mark.3.2 — And they were watching him closely—whether he would heal the man on the Sabbath—so that they might bring charges against him. Mark.3.3 — And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward into the middle." Luke.6.6 — On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was withered. Luke.6.7 — The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him closely, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a way to accuse him.
  2. ↩Mark.3.4 — And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?" But they were silent.
  3. ↩Matt.12.13;Mark.3.5;Luke.6.10 — Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was restored, sound as the other. Mark.3.5 — And having looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their heart, he says to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Luke.6.10 — And having looked around at them all, he said to him, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he did, and his hand was restored.
  4. ↩Matt.12.13;Mark.3.5;Luke.6.10 — Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was restored, sound as the other. Mark.3.5 — And having looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their heart, he says to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Luke.6.10 — And having looked around at them all, he said to him, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he did, and his hand was restored.
  5. ↩John.9.16 — Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?" And there was a division among them.
  6. ↩Rom.14.21 — It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The normalized text contains scribal forms (hfc, DeOy, ii<m) that have been resolved as hic, Deo, and eius respectively. The translation follows the resolved reading.
  2. 2 ↩The source has scribal spelling variants (proedictis, cjus, aUusinde, scandaUzetur); the normalized reading is translated.
  3. 3 ↩The source has scribal variants (opcre, salutcm, cc); the normalized reading is translated.
  4. 4 ↩The initial word 's' is treated as an abbreviation for salus (salvation); 'uon' is a scribal variant of non; 'aUcujus' normalizes to alicujus.
  5. 5 ↩The source has scribal variants (corporaU, perfectse, charilaUs, exigenliam, absUnendum); the normalized reading is translated.
  6. 6 ↩Candidate allusion to Romans 14:21. The asterisk in the source marks a citation point; final resolution belongs to a later stage.
  7. 7 ↩'infirmaiur' is a scribal spelling of infirmatur.

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