In the cornfields

In the Cornfields

The sabbath was one of the most distinctive features of Judaism, and was guarded with fierce national pride. The Old Testament itself gave little specific guidance as to how it was to be ‘kept holy’, beyond the general injunction to ‘do no work’. But what is work, and are even necessary types of work forbidden? Here was a fertile field for scribal debate and definition, and their rules and regulations, designed to make it easier for people to know when they were and were not breaking the sabbath law, went into ever more meticulous detail. One of their chief complaints against Jesus was that he did not seem to share their enthusiasm for sabbath regulations…