Luke 6:1-5

The ears of corn (Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28). ἐν σαββάτῳ : Mk. makes no attempt to locate this incident in his history beyond indicating that it happened on Sabbath. Mt. uses a phrase which naturally suggests temporal sequence, but to which in view of what goes before one can attach no definite meaning. Lk. on the other hand would seem to be aiming at very great precision if the adjective qualifying σαββάτῳ δευτεροπρώτῳ, were genuine. But it is omitted in the important group [58] [59] [60], and in other good documents, and this fact, combined with the extreme unlikelihood of Lk.'s using a word to which it is now, and must always have been, impossible to attach any definite sense, makes it highly probable that this word is simply a marginal gloss, which found its way, like many others, into the text. How the gloss arose, and what it meant for its author or authors, it is really not worth while trying to conjecture, though such attempts have been made. Vide Tischendorf, N. T., ed. viii., for the critical history of the word. ἤσθιον, ate, indicating the purpose of the plucking, with Mt. Mk. omits this, vide notes there. ψώχοντες τ. χ., rubbing with their hands; peculiar to Lk., indicating his idea of the fault (or that of the tradition he followed); rubbing was threshing on a small scale, an offence against one of the many minor rules for Sabbath observance. This word occurs here only in N. T., and is not classical.

[58] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[59] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[60] Codex Regius--eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with א and B.