bbath days." He
called upon the man with the withered hand to stand forth before the
congregation. Grief and anger were mingled in His penetrating and
sweeping glance; but, turning with compassion toward the afflicted one,
He commanded him to stretch forth his hand; the man obeyed, and lo! the
hand "was restored whole, like as the other."

The discomfited Pharisees were furious, "filled with madness" Luke says;
and they went out to plot anew against the Lord. So bitter was their
hatred that they allied themselves with the Herodians, a political party
generally unpopular among the Jews.[455] The rulers of the people were
ready to enter into any intrigue or alliance to accomplish their avowed
purpose of bringing about the death of the Lord Jesus. Aware of the
wicked determination against Him, Jesus withdrew Himself from the
locality. Other accusations of Sabbath-breaking, brought against Christ
by Jewish casuists, will be considered later.[456]

NOTES TO CHAPTER 15.

1. Rabbinical Requirements Concerning Sabbath Observance.--"No feature
of the Jewish system was so marked as their extraordinary strictness in
the outward observance of the Sabbath, as a day of entire rest. The
Scribes had elaborated from the command of Moses, a vast array of
prohibitions and injunctions, covering the whole of social, individual,
and public life, and carried it to the extreme of ridiculous caricature.
Lengthened rules were prescribed as to the kinds of knots which might
legally be tied on the Sabbath. The camel-driver's knot and the sailor's
were unlawful, and it was equally illegal to tie or to loose them. A
knot which could be untied with one hand might be undone. A shoe or
sandal, a woman's cup, a wine or oil-skin, or a flesh-pot might be tied.
A pitcher at a spring might be tied to the body-sash, but not with a
cord.... 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, though some Rabbis,
more liberal, held that whatever endangered life made the Sabbath law
void, 'for the commands were given to Israel only that they might live
by them.' One who was buried under ruins on the Sabbath, might be dug
for and taken out, if alive, but, if dead, he was to be left where he
was, till the Sabbath was over."--Geikie, _Life and Words of Christ_,
chap. 38