Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 3:4

And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

4. But they held their peace ] St Mark alone mentions this striking circumstance, as also what we read in the next verse, that “ He looked round about on them with anger.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 4. To do good – or – evil? to save life, or to kill?] It was a maxim with the Jews, as it should be with all men, that he who neglected to preserve life when it was in his power, was to be reputed a murderer. Every principle of sound justice requires that he should be considered in this light. But, if this be the case, how many murderers are there against whom there is no law but the law of God!

To kill – but instead of , several MSS. and versions have to destroy. Wetstein and Griesbach quote Theophylact for this reading; but it is not in my copy. Paris edit. 1635.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

And he saith unto them,…. Either to the whole multitude, to all the assembly in the synagogue; and so the Persic version renders it, “again he said to the multitude”; or rather, to the Scribes and Pharisees, who were watching him, and had put a question to him, which he answers by another:

is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions read, or “to destroy”, as in Lu 6:9, To do evil, kill, or destroy, are not lawful at any time; and to do good, and to save life, must be right at all times: our Lord has a particular view to the Scribes and Pharisees, and the question is put home to their own consciences; whose hearts and thoughts, designs and views, were all open to Christ; and who were now watching to do evil to him, and even to destroy and take away his life: for the violation of the sabbath was death by the law, and this was what they sought to accuse him of: now he puts the question to them, and makes them judges which must appear most right and just in the sight of God and men, for him to heal this poor man of his withered hand, though on the sabbath day; which would be doing a good and beneficent action to him, whereby his life would be saved, and preserved with comfort and usefulness, and he would be in a capacity of getting his livelihood; or for them to cherish an evil intention against him, to seek to bring mischief on him; and not only destroy his character and usefulness as much as in them lay, but even take away his very life also: he leaves it with them to consider of which was most agreeable to the law of God, the nature of a sabbath, and the good of mankind;

but they held their peace; or “were silent”, not being able to return an answer, but what must have been in his favour, and to their own confusion, and therefore chose to say nothing.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

But they held their peace ( ). Imperfect tense. In sullen silence and helplessness before the merciless questions of Jesus as the poor man stood there before them all. Jesus by his pitiless alternatives between doing good (, late Greek word in LXX and N.T.) and doing evil (, ancient Greek word), to this man, for instance,

to save a life or to kill ( ), as in this case. It was a terrible exposure.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “And He saith unto them,” (kai legei autois) “And He inquired toward them,” directed His questions to the Pharisees.

2) “Is it lawful to do good an the sabbath day, or to do evil?” (eks estin tois sabbasin agathon poiesei e kakopoiesai) ‘ , Is it legal or lawful to do good on the sabbath, or to do evil,” to do what is morally good or morally evil on the sabbath?

3) “To save life or to kill?” (psuchen sosai e apokteinai) “To save a life or to kill?” To be able to do good, to save life, and neglect or refuse to do so is evil – – Not to save life, when one can, is to destroy life is our Lord’s moral and ethical position, as found Jas 4:17.

4) “But they held their peace.” (hoi de esiopon) “Then they were silent,” were as quiet as death, conscience stricken, silent as a tombstone, Luk 12:1-4. Jesus approached the issue on ethical, compassionate, and moral grounds, not merely on abstract legality, apart from, or disregarding Divine attributes.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

4. To do good As I now purpose to do to this man. Or to do evil As you purpose to do to me. He intended to save life, nay, restore life to the withered hand. They sought to destroy life. He was on the side of goodness and mercy; they on the side of malice and murder. But our Lord’s purpose is to show them that they, with their laborious schemes of malice, are truly the Sabbath breakers. They held their peace The silence of self-condemnation.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And he says to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they held their peace.’

Then Jesus directed His attention to the Pharisees, and He could see the workings of their hearts. He knew exactly what they were thinking. And He knew that even as they sat there they had it in their minds to have Him killed. So while to the ordinary people these words were about the man and his condition, and Jesus was asking whether he should heal (do good) or refrain from healing (do harm and fail to help the man in his distress), the Pharisees knew that He knew their hearts and was speaking of them. They knew that it was they who were there with the intention of doing harm to Jesus, and were even aiming to kill Him, and they knew that they were using the Sabbath day in order to attain their end.

So His words contrasted what He was about to do, with what they were about to do. He was going to do good, they were aiming to do harm, He was going to help a man live again, they were planning to have Him put to death. But even at this stage He pleaded with them to consider and to ask themselves who was really in the right. (He was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance).

‘Is it lawful.’ The Pharisees were very keen on describing something as ‘lawful’ or ‘unlawful’. Jesus therefore wanted them to consider whether they thought that what they were planning to do was lawful. As a technical phrase which they used when giving a final warning concerning behaviour, they should have taken especial note of its significance. They too were receiving a final warning.

‘On the Sabbath day.’ That day which God had set aside as life-giving and blessed.

‘To do good or to do harm.’ This was the crux. What should the right thinking person do when these alternatives were offered? We can be in little doubt that He had the crowds with Him. They instinctively knew the answer and may well not have realised what a fix the Rabbis were in.

‘To save life or to kill.’ There was no question of the man with his withered arm being in danger of death, so Jesus must have had the Pharisees in mind here, otherwise He could have stopped after ‘to do harm’. The crowds simply saw it as an added example to justify doing good on the Sabbath, but the guilty men present could hardly have avoided seeing the further implication.

‘But they held their peace.’ They did not want to look bad in front of the people, and they knew how good Jesus was at turning things in His favour. So at His words they said nothing. This in itself revealed their guilt. But they were not willing to admit that they might be wrong. Instead they sat there, simmering with a growing anger, the kind of anger that comes when people are behaving in the wrong way, and underneath are aware in their subconscious that what they are doing is not quite right. It was an awareness that they had to stifle in order to be able to justify themselves.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The healing:

v. 4. And He saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath-days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

v. 5. And when He had looked round about them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out; and his hand was restored whole as the other.

v. 6. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him how they might destroy Him.

Jesus acted with the greatest patience and kindness. He tried to win His enemies by actual persuasion, by causing them to see the correctness of His position. His question to them is: Is it the right and proper thing, ought people to feel this as their obligation, to do good, to save life, to be of assistance to one’s neighbor on the Sabbath? Or can it be possible that anyone should want to advocate the doing of evil, the destroying of life, on that day? The omission of a good deed, the neglect of some act of kindness, is, in fact, equal to actual murder in a case where the personal well-being of the neighbor is concerned. The conscience of every man will tell him that on the Sabbath, as well as on any other day, deeds of mercy are not only permitted, but very distinctly commanded. We should help and befriend our neighbor in every bodily need. But the Pharisees here deliberately hardened their hearts. Just because their conscience condemned them before this Teacher, they determined not to give Him the satisfaction of yielding. And so they stubbornly refused to answer. Jesus waited. But when their purpose became increasingly evident, He let His stern gaze wander around in the circle, from one to the other. He was filled with righteous indignation over such unreasonable stubbornness. And, incidentally, He was deeply grieved over the obduracy, the callousness, the blindness of their hearts. Note: The anger of Jesus is always directed against the transgression, against the sin; for the sinners the Lord has only the feeling of deepest sorrow and sympathy. “By a long resistance to the grace and Spirit of God, their hearts had become callous; they were past feeling. By a long opposition to the light of God, they became dark in their understanding, were blinded by the deceitfulness of sin, and thus were past seeing. By a long continuance in the practice of every evil work, they were cut off from all union with God, the Fountain of spiritual life; and, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, they were incapable of any resurrection but through a miraculous power of God. ” Christ’s decision therefore was swiftly carried out. He bade the man stretch forth his hand. And the man obeyed, and his hand was restored to perfect health, so that he could now use it as before. This result of their little scheme angered the Pharisees beyond all semblance of reasonableness. They had enough. Without waiting for further teaching, they left the synagogue. Their minds as to their course were made up. It remained only to find ways and means to carry out their design. It was not so much the fact that their orthodox Sabbath-keeping had received a severe jolt and that, in their opinion, the Sabbath had been broken by the performance of the miracle of healing, but that the miracle brought fame to Jesus, and that they had been unable to answer His simple question without making their own position untenable. It was, then, in brief, nothing but vengeful spite that moved them. And they sought allies and chose the Herodians. This society, with its peculiar ideas regarding the Messianic calling of the family of Herod (See Mat 22:1-46:, might easily be influenced against Christ, if the Pharisees would but point out the growing influence of Jesus over the common people, who might soon be ready to hail Him as the promised Messiah. So these two parties, otherwise not the best of friends, readily agreed in counsel against Jesus, how they might destroy Him. So far hypocrisy and the semblance of piety may drive people that they try to cover the most obvious lack of love and mercy, yea, even mortal hatred and enmity, with pious usages and practices.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

Ver. 4. To do good or to do evil ] Not to do good, then, as there is opportunity, is to do evil. Qui non, cum potest, servat, occidit. Non faciendo nocens, sed patiendo fuit, it is said of the Emperor Claudius. Not robbing only, but the not relieving of the poor, was the rich man’s ruin, Luk 16:19-23 ; passive wickedness is taxed in some of the churches, Rev 2:4 ; Rev 2:14 ; Rev 2:20 ; Rev 3:4 ; Rev 3:15-16 .

To save life ] Gr. , soul, for man, and man for the body of man. So Psa 16:10 ; “Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave,” that is, my body, as Piscator senseth it.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

4. ] Luke adds : as his account is the most detailed, I refer to the notes there.

. does not belong to : to save life or to kill?

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament