And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
There was this guy there with a completely messed up hand that didn't work. The religious leaders asked Jesus, 'Is it even legal to heal someone on the Sabbath?' But honestly, they were just trying to trap him and find something to pin on him.
They cared more about catching Jesus breaking rules than about a man who needed healing.
📚 Historical Context
In the time of Jesus, the Sabbath was a sacred day of rest commanded in the Old Testament, but Jewish religious leaders like the Pharisees had developed strict interpretations and additional rules about what activities were forbidden as "work." In this account from Matthew's Gospel, Jesus is in a synagogue where He encounters a man with a withered hand, and the Pharisees pose a question about healing on the Sabbath not out of genuine inquiry but to trap Jesus and accuse Him of violating their traditions. This event reflects the broader conflict between legalistic observance and Jesus' emphasis on mercy in first-century Jewish culture.
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