Bible Strands
John 7:23
If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the Jerusalem crowd and religious leaders during the Feast of Tabernacles, directly countering their complaint that He violated Sabbath law by healing a paralytic.
The words — περιτομὴν (peritomēn) translates as circumcision, and λαμβάνει (lambanei) translates as receives or undergoes. Jesus cites the circumcision of a boy on the Sabbath to establish a recognized exception to Sabbath rest.
The thread — This Sabbath dispute mirrors Matthew 12:2 and Matthew 12:5, where authorities challenge Jesus’ disciples and note the priests’ Sabbath temple work, and it follows John 5:14, where Jesus warns the healed man to stop sinning.
Why it lands — The text explicitly states that an exception made for ritual law cannot justify anger toward someone who restores a person’s full health. It requires the reader to judge by consistent spiritual principles rather than by selective or outward appearances.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?
Cross-references
- John 5:14 Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
- Matthew 12:2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
- Matthew 12:5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
- John 5:8 Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”