The Mishnah

Jewish Sabbath observance in Christ's day did not mean simply following Scriptural laws, but also meant adherence to strict regulations in Jewish oral tradition. The Mishnah, wherein many regulations of this so-called oral law were written at about AD 200, gives an idea of what Sabbath observance was like among the Scribes and Pharisees. There were both major laws and minor laws.

The thirty-nine major laws listed in the tractate (or section) of the Mishnah entitled "Shabbath" are given as follows: "The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying (a knot), loosening (a knot), sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer, and taking out aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one." ("Shabbath," 7.2 in Herbert Danby, trans, The Mishnah, London, 1933, p. 106)

These thirty-nine laws had many variations and ramifications. It would make a difference, for instance, whether two letters of the alphabet were written in such a way that they could both be seen at the same time. If an individual wrote one letter on a wall and another letter on another wall around the corner, yet, both walls could be seen from any vantage point revealing both letters, that individual would have broken the Sabbath by "writing two letters". However, if he wrote one letter of the alphabet on the front of his house and wrote the other on the back, so that both could not be seen from any vantage point, he was not "writing two letters," and, consequently, was not breaking the Sabbath in this way.

If an object needed to be carried from "one domain to another", for example: food taken from one house to another, it could be done in several steps. One person could take the food just outside the door and set it upon the threshold of the door. Then, later, the food could be carried to the threshold of the other house. Then, later, the food could be brought inside. Or, this process could be speeded up by having one person set it outside the first house, another carry it to the threshold of the other house, and another bring it inside.

Objects could be tossed on the Sabbath, but there were regulations as to how far to toss it. It was also important whether the object went from a private domain to a public domain in the course of the toss.

One could not even spit on the ground in during the Sabbath hours, for fear of accidentally "irrigating" a small plant or weed.

These are just a few of the Sabbath regulations that were added to the law of Scripture. In the context of this kind of rigid code of behavior, it becomes obvious why Christ and His disciples were often accused of "Sabbath breaking." When the disciples picked some wheat, rubbed it between their hands, and blew the chaff away so that they could eat, they were breaking three of the major thirty-nine "laws" of the Mishnah: reaping, threshing, and sifting.

It should be emphasized at this point that, by reaping, threshing, and sifting the wheat, the disciples were not infringing upon any Scriptural law. The disciples were only disregarding the traditions of men, which had been heaped upon and added to the Scripture. It was the sorts of rigid, senseless, man-made, Sabbath-keeping traditions mentioned above that Christ intended to invalidate by His repeated "Sabbath-breaking" activities. Christ came to set people free, and by breaking the man-made traditions that had obscured His law, He was declaring Himself Lord of the law and Lord of the Sabbath.