Matthew, Session 53

Skip,

Your discussion of Yeshua’s confrontation with the Pharisees over the “husking the wheat” incident was interesting, especially in regards to Yeshua’s response and the fact that there was no apparent connection between the example of David and his men being given the shewbread and what the disciples were doing.

Bob Gorelik made what I think is actually a valid connection between these two that would only be apparent to those training in rabbinic thought (it was on an audio teaching on Shabbat); David and his men were given food that was set aside for the priests, whereas the disciples were husking and eating the grain before it had been tithed (to the priests). Yeshua’s example was invoking the precedent of David and his men in defense of the disciples who were, in the Pharisees’ view, eating some of that which was set aside for the priests.