p. 89 | The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 23, 1882

The Sabbath-School.

The Infirm Woman Healed.

WE take the following paragraph from Scott's comments on this scripture:—

"This woman must have attended the worship of God with great difficulty, as she was so bowed together, that she 'could in no wise lift up herself,' but was forced to go almost double. The calamity under which she had so long labored, would in general have been considered as a very remarkable disease, arising from some known or unknown natural cause; but it was at that time justly ascribed to an evil spirit; so that in fact 'Satan had bound her eighteen years.' Our Lord, seeing her in this afflicted state, called her to him, and by his word, attended with the laying on of his hands, immediately restored her; and, being made straight, she glorified God before all, for this most desirable and unexpected deliverance. But the ruler of the synagogue, who evidently hated the doctrine, and envied the honor of Christ, yet attempted to veil his enmity with the appearance of singular piety, told the people in anger, that they ought to come for healing other days, and not on the holy rest of the Sabbath; as if the woman had come to the synagogue on purpose for a cure; or as if a word and a touch, attended with so powerful and beneficent an effect, could break the Sabbath! The malice and hypocrisy of the man were therefore evident, and our Lord severely rebuked him; showing, that none, even of the Scribes and Pharisees, scrupled to water their cattle on the Sabbath-day, though it was attended with some labor, and was necessary only to preserve the animals from the uneasiness of a day's thirst, or the owner from some temporal loss which might result from it; and could it then be questioned, whether it were right to relieve a rational creature, a descendant of Abraham (probably an heir of his faith), from her long-continued calamity, on that holy day; even if it had been effected by labor? This reply was so satisfactory and conclusive, that it silenced and put to shame the ruler, and all the other adversaries of Jesus, and caused the people to rejoice in his glorious miracles, as so many proofs of his being the promised Messiah."

Notice how the ruler of the synagogue tried to stir up popular feeling against Jesus. Although Jesus and the woman were the only parties to the transaction, and had there been any guilt, he alone was responsible, yet the ruler did not reprove him, but "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."

The reader will also notice how adroitly Jesus vindicated his action; taking the Pharisees on their own ground. On the ground that they were forbidden to bear a burden on the Sabbath-day, they could not carry water to a thirsty animal, but could "loose" it and lead it to the water. Christ's argument, then, was: If it is allowable to loose a beast on the Sabbath-day, and lead him to water, that it may not suffer even for one day, how much more allowable must it not be, that this woman who has been bound, and suffering, for eighteen years, should be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?

The argument was unanswerable, and convicted them at once of hypocrisy. As showing the completeness of their defeat, the Vulgate in this instance, affords a good commentary. The word for "they were ashamed," is erubescebant, "they began to grow red in the face, to blush."

to be assembled 'Anno ab incarnatione Dom. 742, 11 Calendas Maii.' But it was not established till the time of pope Eugenius IV. A. D. 1431, who ordered this era to be used in the public Registers; according to Mariana and others."—Hales' Chronology vol. i, pp. 83, 84. See also "Life of our Lord," by S. J. Andrews.