136 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The violation of an explicit command — not to be eyaded. 



XV. 32; Amos viii. 5; Isai. Iviii. 13; Jerem. xvii. 21, 22; 

 JVeh. x. 31 ; xiii. 19), then have we — so far as these cases ap- 

 ply — an authoritative and Jinal decision as to the requirements 

 of the fourth commaudment. No sophistry can evade it. 



I have shown, by a comparison of John v. 8 with Jer. xvii. 

 21, that Jesus ostentatiously violated the fourth commandment. 

 The fact stands nnshaken and inevitable.* The only evasion 

 attemptedhy J. N. B. is that '^ the poor man's bed was evidently 

 nothing but {hrahhatoii) a small portable couch or mattress, 

 such as travellers carried about with them I" (p. 64.) When 

 my friend discovers '' the chapter and verse" by which ^' krah- 

 hatoi" are excepted from the command : " Thus saith the 

 Lord, take heed to yourselves and bcar no hurden on the 

 Sabbath-day,'' his suggestion will deserve a reply. 



So studiousli/ did Jesus end ea vor to wean the Jewish vene- 

 ration for the Sabbath, so stucUoushj did he seek occasiou 

 practically to deny its sanctity, that it would appear most of 

 his miraculous cures were performed on that day;f insomuch 

 that the synagogue ruler " said unto the people, there are six 

 days in which men ought to ' work ;' in them, therefore, come 

 and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day." {Luhe xiii. 14. )j; 

 Publicly and studiouslij did Jesus call attention to the fact of 

 his doing " work" on that da}^ : he did not " speak the word,'' 



■5^ " He requires him to do that on the Sabbath which was contrary 

 to the letter of the Law, to shoW that he was a prophet, who by their 

 own rules had poAver to require what was contrary to the ceremonial 

 rest of the Sabbath." Whitby. [Annotations, in loco.) 



f '< Though he frequently judged proper to conceal his miracles," 

 says Athanasius, "yet when the miracle was done on the Sabbath, 

 then he ' worked' most openly. So that his most wonderful miracles 

 seem to have been wrought on the Sabbath-day." 



X Indeed the people themselves appear generally to have been so 

 far regardful of the sanctity of the day, as to delay presenting their 

 diseased friends to Jesus till the setting sun announced the Sabbath 

 fully over. (See 3Iark i. 32 ; Luke iv, 40.) 



