Luke 6:1

One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Jesus and His disciples are walking through grainfields on a Sabbath day. This narrative moment immediately precedes the Pharisees questioning whether the disciples' actions violate Sabbath law.

The words — δευτεροπρώτῳ (deuteroprōtō) translates literally as "second after first," marking a specific Sabbath designation in the liturgical calendar. ἐγένετο (egeneto) means "it came to pass," functioning as a narrative hinge that introduces the disciples' hunger and subsequent actions.

The thread — This identical Sabbath grainfield encounter is recorded in Matthew 12:1 and Mark 2:23. Deuteronomy 23:25 supplies the Mosaic permission that allows hand-plucking grain from a neighbor's field without a sickle.

Why it lands — The text establishes that the disciples were gathering permitted food rather than performing prohibited agricultural labor. It requires a reader to confront how Sabbath regulations are interpreted when human need intersects with ritual boundaries.

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

And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 23:25 When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.
Mark 2:23 One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.
Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
Leviticus 23:7 On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work.
Exodus 12:15 For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
Leviticus 23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.
Leviticus 23:15 From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
Deuteronomy 16:9 You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.