Matthew 12:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But I say unto you, that in this place, &c.— "If you reply, that the priests were not culpable in those actions, because they were undertaken for the temple service, I acknowledge it; but at the same time it should be observed, that if the temple, with its service, be of such importance as to demand a particular dispensation from the law of the sabbath; I who am the Lord of the temple, and of whom the temple is but the type, may, with equal reason, take the same liberty in a case of the like necessity." Every prophet was in some sense greater than the temple; and hence Elijah sacrificed out of the temple on an extraordinary occasion: but our blessed Lord was infinitely greater than any prophet. It should also be observed, that Christ and his apostles were so taken up in the discharge of their duty, that they had not leisure to prepare food for the sabbath; they were therefore under a necessity either to intermit their prophetic office, or to act contrary to the literal sense of the law. Now, as the Jews did not intermit the office of the priesthood on account of the law concerning the sabbath; so neither should the prophetic office be intermitted on that account, especially as it was superior in its dignity, and more extensive in its benefits. According to this interpretation the reading μειζον, a greater work, instead of μειζων, a greater person, which is authorised by a number of manuscripts, will have a peculiar elegance. "There is here a much more noble work carrying on than the temple-service." Or the common reading may be retained thus: "If the servile work done in the temple on a sabbath is not reckoned an offence, because it is undertaken on account of the temple-worship, the rubbing of the ears of corn, for which you blamemy disciples, cannot be any; seeing they do it in order to support life, while they are employed in the service of one who is infinitely greater than the temple." For the Human Nature of Jesus was an infinitely more august temple, in respect of the essential habitation of the Divinity, than that of Jerusalem. See Grotius, Hammond, Wetstein, and Mill.