Luke 14:5

υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς. See the note.

5. υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς. The unquestionable reading if we are to follow the MSS. is υἱὸς ἢ βοῦς. The strangeness of the collocation (which however may be taken to imply ‘a son—nay even an ox’) has led to the conjectural emendation of υἱὸς into ὄϊς ‘a sheep’ (whence the reading πρόβατον ‘a sheep’ in D) or ὄνος ‘an ass’ which was suggested by Deuteronomy 22:4. When however it is a question between two readings it is an almost invariable rule that the more difficult is to be preferred as the more likely to have been tampered with. Further (i) Scripture never has “ass and ox” but always “ox and ass;” and (ii) “son” is a probable allusion to Exodus 23:12, “thine ox and thine ass and the son of thine handmaid shall rest on the sabbath,” and (iii) the collocation ‘son and ox’ is actually found in some Rabbinic parallels. If it be said that ‘a son falling into a well’ is an unusual incident, the answer seems to be that pits (as in Matthew 12:2) and wells (as here) are so common and often so unprotected in Palestine that the incident must have been less rare than it is among us.

εὐθέως�. Will at once draw him out. Vulg[285] extrahat. They would draw him out although the Sabbath labour thus involved would be considerable. And why would they do this? because they had been taught, and in their better mind distinctly felt, that mercy was above the ceremonial law (Deuteronomy 22:4). An instance which had happened not many years before shews how completely they were blinding and stultifying their own better instincts in their Sabbath quibblings against our Lord. When Hillel—then a poor porter—had been found half-frozen under masses of snow in the window of the lecture-room of Shemaiah and Abtalion where he had hidden himself to profit by their wisdom because he had been unable to earn the small fee for entrance, they had rubbed and resuscitated him though it was the Sabbath day, and had said that he was one for whose sake it was well worth while to break the Sabbath.

[285] Vulg. Vulgate.