For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
All Commentaries on Matthew 12:8 Go To Matthew 12
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
De Cons. Ev., ii, 34: This which here follows is related both by Mark and Luke, without any question of discrepancy; indeed they do not say, “At that time,” so that Matthew has here perhaps preserved the order of time, they that of their recollection; unless we take the words in a wider sense, “At that time,” that is, the time in which these many and divers things were done, whence we may conceive that all these things happened after the death of John. For he isbelieved to have been beheaded a little after he sent his disciples to Christ. So that when he says “at that time,” he may mean only an indefinite time.
Quaest in Matt., q. 10: It should be observed, that one example is taken from royal persons, as David, the other from priestly, as those who profane the Sabbath for the service of the Temple, so that much less can the charge concerning the rubbing the ears of corn attach to Him who is indeed King and Priest.
cont. Faust., xvi, 28: He did not forbid His disciples to pluck the ears of corn on the sabbath, that so He might convict both the Jews who then were, and the Manichaeans who were to come, who will not pluck up a herb lest they should be committing a murder.
Quaest. Ev., i, 2: But no man passes into the body of Christ, until he has been stripped of his fleshly raiment; according to that of the Apostle, “Put ye off the old man.”
