Matthew 12:10

Mat_12:10

And behold there was a man which had his hand withered.

The withered hand

I. The person to whom the command in our text is addressed.

1. TO a man who was hopelessly incapable of obeying. The hand had lost the moisture of life. Christs power is displayed on our inability.

2. To one who was perfectly willing.

II. The person who gave the command. He said.

III. The command itself. The stretching forth of the hand was-

1. An act of faith.

2. An act of decision. The Pharisees around him.

IV. This mans obedience.

1. He did not do something else in preference to what Jesus commanded.

2. He did not raise any questions.

3. He was told to stretch out his hand, and he did so.

V. The result of this stretching out of the mans hand in obedience to the command.

1. The healing was manifest.

2. It was immediate.

3. It was permanent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The withered hand

I. A common calamity.

II. The man could do nothing.

III. He knew he could do nothing.

IV. He is a type of those whose usefulness is spoiled by some defect-the crotchety, ill-tempered, hasty, niggardly man.

V. The causes of this withered hand.

1. Disuse.

2. Multiplied anxieties and cares.

3. Contact with poisonous matters-questionable company or pleasures.

VI. The cure. The services of the synagogue not enough. The solemn ritual, the round of confession and sacrifice, of singing and the word, each of these was a help to the healing power, but nothing more-hands that pointed and lifted the sufferer nearer to the great Restorer. At last, before the man there stands the living Christ, as He stands before all who seek Him. Then swiftly comes the being made whole. That living Presence sought; that great Love appealed to; that mighty Power trusted; His word waited for, believed, obeyed. Thus may every withered hand be stretched forth perfectly whole. (Mark Guy Pearse.)

The use of means

It is one of the sophisms of every age Go urge the Spirits efficacy, as a plea for the neglect of means. It is folly and presumption to think that, because power is with God and from God, efforts should not be in ourselves. (Dr. Manton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 12:10. There was a man which had his hand withered — The nerves and sinews of it being shrunk up, so that it was entirely useless. And they — Namely, the scribes and Pharisees, who had either mixed with the crowd that followed Jesus, or were in the synagogue before he came; asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? — They made this inquiry merely that they might find matter whereon to ground an accusation against him. For they fully expected he would say that it was lawful, in opposition to the doctrine of their learned men, who accounted performing cures on the sabbath a violation of the holy rest of that day. Accordingly Mark says, They watched him whether he would heal, &c. — So gross was their hypocrisy, that they resolved to raise an outcry against him, if on the sabbath he should give a lame man the use of his hand, while they themselves were profaning it by an action which would have polluted any day; were seeking an opportunity to murder one who had never done them any harm, but had been and was incessantly doing them good!

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:10 Does the law permit: Rabbinic tradition permitted healing on the Sabbath only if life was in danger. Since life was not in jeopardy, the Pharisees thought healing was not permitted.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 12:10. Ἄνθρωπος ἦν, κ.τ.λ., there was a man, etc.) He had either come thither of his own accord, that he might be healed, or else he had been brought by others with an insidious design.—ἵνα κατηγορήσωσιν αὐτοῦ, that they might accuse Him) As if He had broken the Sabbath, which was then greatly respected even by courts of law. See Mat 12:14.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_12:10. The nature of the affection of the withered hand, in which there was a defective circulation (1Ki_13:4; Zec_11:17; Joh_5:3), cannot be further defined. It is certain, however, that what was wrong was not merely a deficiency in the power of moving the hand, in which case the cure would be sufficiently explained by our Lords acting upon the will and the muscular force (Keim).

The traditions forbade healing on the Sabbath, except in cases where life was in danger. Wetstein and Schoettgen on this passage.

εἰ] in the New Testament (Winer, p. 474 [E. T. 639]; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 214 [E. T. 249]) is so applied, in opposition to classical usage (see Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 202 f.; Klotz, ad Devar. pp. 508, 511), that it directly introduces the words containing the question. Comp. Mat_19:3; Luk_13:22; Luk_22:49; Act_1:6; occurring also in the LXX., not in the Apocrypha. However, in the order of ideas in the mind of the questioner is to be found the logical connection, which has occasioned and which will explain the indirectly interrogative use of εἰ (I would like to know, or some such expression), just as we Germans are also in the habit of asking at once: ob das erlaubt ist? The character of the questions introduced by εἰ is that of uncertainty and hesitation (Hartung, 1. 1; Kühner, II. 2, p. 1032), which in this instance is quite in keeping with the tempting which the questioners had in view. Fritzsches purely indirect interpretation (interrogarunt eum hoc modo, an liceret, etc.) is precluded by λέγοντες, and the passages where the question is preceded by some form of address such as κύριε in Act_1:6; Luk_22:49.

ἵνα κατηγορ. αὐτοῦ] before the local court (κρίσις, Mat_5:21) in the town, and that on the charge of teaching to violate the law of the Sabbath.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 12:10 . καὶ ἰδοὺ , here, as in Mat 8:2 , Mat 9:2 , introducing in a lively manner the story. ξηράν , a dry hand, possibly a familiar expression in Hebrew pathology (De Wette); useless, therefore a serious enough affliction for a working man (a mason, according to Hebrew Gospel, Jerome ad loc. ), especially if it was the right hand, as Luke states. But the cure was not urgent for a day, could stand over; therefore a good test case as between rival conceptions of Sabbath law. ἐπηρώτησαν . The Pharisees asked a question suggested by the case, as if eager to provoke Jesus and put Him to the proof. Mark says they observed Him, waiting for Him to take the initiative. The former alternative suits the hypothesis of immediate temporal sequence. εἰ ἔξεστιν , etc. After λέγοντες we expect, according to classic usage, a direct question without εἰ . The εἰ is in its place in Mark (Mar 12:2 ), and the influence of his text may be suspected (Weiss) as explaining the incorrectness in Matthew. But εἰ in direct questions is not unusual in N. T. (Mat 19:3 ; Luk 13:23 ; Luk 22:49 ), vide Winer, § 57, 2, and Meyer ad loc. In Mark’s account Christ, not the Pharisees, puts the question.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 10. A man which had his hand withered.] Probably through a partial paralysis. The man's hand was withered; but God's mercy had still preserved to him the use of his feet: He uses them to bring him to the public worship of God, and Jesus meets and heals him there. How true is the proverb - It is never so ill with us, but it might be much worse!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(10) There was a man which had his hand withered.—Two facts are implied: (1.) That the Pharisees expected our Lord to heal the man thus afflicted. They knew that commonly the mere sight of suffering of this kind called out His sympathy, and that the sympathy passed into act. (2.) That they had resolved, ii He did so heal, to make it the ground of a definite accusation before the local tribunal, the “judgment” of Mat_5:21. The casuistry of the Rabbis allowed the healing art to be practised on the Sabbath in cases of life and death, but the “withered hand,” a permanent infirmity, obviously did not come under that category.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. his hand withered] i. e. paralysed or affected by atrophy. St Luke has “his right hand.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said unto them,.... Well knowing their intentions, and also their usages and customs, which he was able to produce and object to them; in which, through covetousness, they showed more regard to their beasts, than they did humanity to their fellow creatures:

what man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? Christ appeals to them in a case which was usually done among them, and which, without delay, no man would scruple to do; though their present rule of direction, in such a case, is this (f):

"if a beast fall into a ditch, or a pool of water, if food can be given it, where it is, they feed it till the going out of the sabbath; but if not, bolsters and pillows may be brought, and put under it, and if it can come out: it may come out:''

and which is elsewhere (g) a little differently expressed;

"if a beast fall into a ditch, or pool of water, it is forbidden a man to bring it out with his hand; but if he can give it food where it is, it may be fed till the going out of the sabbath:''

which seems to have been made since the times of Christ, and in opposition to this observation of his.

(f) Maimon. Hilchot Sabbat, c. 25. sect. 26. (g) Kotsensis Mitzvot Tora pr. neg. 65.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 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.

Ver. 10. Which had his hand withered] So have all covetous caitiffs, who may well be said, amidst all their hoards, to have no current coin, no quick silver. They sit abrood upon what they have got, as Euclio in the Comedian: and when, by laying out their money, they might "lay hold on eternal life," they will not he drawn to it. But as Alphonsus, king of Spain, when he stood to be king of the Romans, was prevented by his hopes, because he, being a great mathematician, was drawing lines (saith the chronicler) when he should have drawn out his purse; so here.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is it lawful? His enemies perceiving in what manner he excused his disciples, have recourse to a fresh stratagem. (St. Jerome) --- By this question they did not seek learning or improvement, but merely an occasion to ensnare Jesus in his words. If he answered in the affirmative, they would accuse him of violating the repose of the sabbath, enjoined by the law of Moses; if in the negative, of cruelty and want of feeling, and would infallibly have objected his own practice against him, as he had before justified his disciples for plucking corn on the sabbath. Jesus seeing their malice, avoids their captious question by proposing one to them, as we read in St. Mark. Is it lawful to do good or ill on the sabbath? As if he had said, whether is it better to assist your neighbor on the sabbath, or to abandon him in his distress, when you are able to afford him relief? Unable to give an answer, that would not be a justification of his actions, they remain silent; but he still presses the subject, by retorting their own actions upon themselves. They afforded relief to brute animals that stood in need of it on the sabbath. It was therefore cruelty, or mere malice, to cavil at his relieving the sick man on the sabbath. (Jansenius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Mark, repeating the same history, saith, Mar 3:1,2, There was a man which had a withered hand, and they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day, that they might accuse him. So saith Luk 6:6,7, only he addeth that it was his right hand, which made his affliction greater. They asked him not that they might rightly inform themselves, but that they might accuse him to their magistrates, that had power in those cases, for the violation of the sabbath was, amongst the Jews, a capital crime.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

§ 34. — WITHERED HAND RESTORED, Mat_12:9-21.

10. His hand withered — A case of paralysis, by which the hand was shrunken away, and the nerves of motion had become incapable of action. This has ever been regarded as an incurable disease. They asked him — Luke informs us that they were watching our Lord’s movements that they might be able to accuse him of breaking the Sabbath. That they might accuse him — The position of the minds of the accusers of our Lord was peculiar and strange. They did not doubt that he was about to work a miracle; they expected it. But they are intending to make out that his miracles are contrary to the divine law, and so immoral. They would then have some ground for saying that he worked miracles by a diabolical power; which charge they did soon begin to make.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered; and behold a man having a withered hand (Revised Version, with Westcott and Hort). For the quotation by Jerome from "the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use" (comp. also Introduction, p. 16), in which this man tells our Lord, "Coementarius (a mason) eram, manibus vietum quaeritans," see especially Resch, "Agrapha," p. 379. And they asked him, saying. In the narrative of healing the man with the dropsy, found in Luk_14:1-6 (vide supra), a similar question is asked by our Lord. Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? The Tahnudic answer is that it is unlawful except in cases of actual danger to life (cf. Schurer, IL 2:104). but whether this distinction was really drawn as early as the time of our Lord"s not known in the present backward state of all critical investigations of Jewish literature. That they might accuse him; i.e. before the local court, Mat_5:21 (Meyer). Observe that, recognizing his readiness to help others, they desire (according to Matthew) to get a clear statement from him whether he would follow the traditional law (as we may assume it was) or net, intending to base their accusation on his reply. Verbally, however, Christ avoids the dilemma, as in the more famous case of the tribute to Caesar. (Mat_22:21)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. A man which had his hand withered. That is, dried up from a deficient absorption of the nutriment. Luke says his “right hand.” The disease here indicated results in a loss both in size and in power of the arm; for it there is no remedy known to man. Compare Mark 3:1–6 and Luke 6:6–11. And they asked him. Luke says it was the scribes and Pharisees. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? In the opinion of the Pharisees, to kindle or extinguish a fire on the Sabbath was a great desecration of the day, nor was even sickness allowed to violate rabbinical rules. It was forbidden to give an emetic on the Sabbath, to set a broken bone, or put back a dislocated joint. Of course, they had added all this to the law of Moses. That they might accuse him. Not in the conversation merely, but before the local judge, the officers of the synagogue, or the council.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

10. χεῖρα ἔχων ξηράν, i.e. paralysed or affected by atrophy. St Luke has ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ἡ δεξιά.

εἰ does not introduce direct questions in Attic Greek. For this later use, compare Latin an and even si. The construction is probably due to an ellipse. Winer, 639.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10.] This narrative is found in Mark and Luke with considerable variation in details from our text, those two Evangelists agreeing however with one another. In both these accounts, they (the Scribes and Pharisees, Luke) were watching our Lord to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath:—and He (knowing their thoughts, Luke) ordered the man to stand forth in the midst, and asked them the question here given. The question about the animal does not occur in either of them, but in Luk 14:5, on a similar occasion. The additional particulars given are very interesting. By Luke,—it was the right hand; by Mark,—our Lord looked round on them μετʼ ὀργῆς, συνλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν:—and the Herodians were joined with the Pharisees in their counsel against Him. See notes on Luke.

ξηράν = ἐξηραμμένην Mark, of which the use had been lost and the vital powers withered.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 10. And, behold, a man having a withered hand. And they questioned Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? that they might accuse Him.] “Mk. has: “And there was there a man having the hand withered. And they were observing Him, if He would heal him on the Sabbath, that they might accuse Him.”—καὶ ἰδού] See on 1:20. Mk. has καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ.—χεῖρα ἔχων ξηράν] Mk. has ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα. Lk. also has ξηρά.—καὶ ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν λέγοντες] Mk. has καὶ παρετήρουν αὐτόν.—εἰ ἔξεστιν—θεραπεύειν] Mk. has εἰ—θεραπεύσει αὐτόν. For εἰ before a direct question, cf. Blass, p. 260.

Mk. has here: “And He saith to the man having the withered (ξηράν) hand, Rise into the midst. And He saith to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? And they were silent. And looking round at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts.” Mt. omits all this. He elsewhere omits clauses which describe Christ’s human emotions. See Introduction, p. xxxi. Here he substitutes instead an example of the doing good of which Mk. speaks in v. 4.

That he may introduce vv. 11, 12 the editor changes Mk.’s “they were observing Him, if,” into a direct challenge, “they asked Him if.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is it lawful ? [ει εξεστιν] . The eij can hardly be rendered into English. It gives an indeterminate, hesitating character to the question : I would like to know if, etc.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.