Biblica Analytica

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

Triple Tradition
Mt Mk Lk
Legend: High overlap Moderate overlap Low overlap
Matthew 12:1–8
12:1 At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 87%
12:2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 82%
12:3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him; 100%
12:4 how he entered into God’s house, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 100%
12:5 Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless? 75%
12:6 But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 56%
12:7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless. 47%
12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 80%
Mark 2:23–28
2:23 He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. 90%
2:24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” 93%
2:25 He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? 84%
2:26 How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” 88%
2:27 He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 100%
2:28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 90%
Luke 6:1–5
6:1 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands. 82%
6:2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?” 93%
6:3 Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him; 86%
6:4 how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?” 93%
6:5 He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” 100%

Verbatim Agreement

Percentage of words that appear identically (same form and position) across gospel pairs.

Matthew ↔ Mark
65%
Matthew ↔ Luke
62%
Mark ↔ Luke
71%

Strong's Number Overlap

How much of each gospel's vocabulary (by Strong's number) is shared with another.

Mt
Mk
Lk
Mt
46%
53%
Mk
46%
56%
Lk
53%
56%

Explore the texts yourself

Every word in the synoptic gospels links back to its Greek lexicon entry. See what the gospel writers actually wrote.

Morphological data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.