Luke 14:3

εἰ before ἔξεστιν, which is found in Matthew 12:10, is here omitted by אBDL.

3. ἀποκριθεὶς … εἶπεν πρὸς τοὺς νομικοὺς καὶ Φαρισαίους. See on Luke 5:22. He took the initiative, and answered their unspoken thoughts.

ἔξεστιν τῷ σαββάτῳ θεραπεῦσαι; Some MSS. read εἰ ἔξεστιν, comp. Luke 22:49; Acts 1:6. In later Greek εἰ became a mere interrogative particle. We have already seen (Luke 6:1-11; Luke 13:11-17; comp. John 5:11; John 9:14) that these Sabbath disputes lay at the very centre of the Pharisaic hatred to him, because around the ordinance of the Sabbath they had concentrated the worst puerilities and formalisms of the Oral Law; and because the Sabbath had sunk from a religious ordinance into a national institution, the badge of their exclusiveness and pride. But this perfectly simple and transparent question at once defeated their views. If they said ‘It is not lawful’ they exposed themselves before the people to those varied and over whelming refutations which they had already undergone (see on Luke 13:15). If they said ‘It is lawful’ then cecidit quaestio, and their plot had come to nothing.

ἡσύχασαν. It was the silence of a splenetic pride and obstinacy which while secretly convinced determined to remain unconvinced. But such silence was His complete public justification. If the contemplated miracle was unlawful why did not they—the great religious authorities of Judaism—forbid it?