Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/137

Rh synagogue on the next Sabbath: "For," said he, "the chief ruler of the synagogue hath a plot against thee, and desireth to question thee touching the Sabbath, that he may raise up a tumult of the people against thee. For all the Pharisees and elders of the synagogue are wroth with thee for the sake of the Sabbath, saying that thou dost both break it and teach others also to break it."

Hereon Jonathan, finding his occasion, spake to the same effect, saying that all the Scribes in the country round about Sepphoris had been turned away from Jesus because it had been noised abroad that he observed not the Sabbath. So he besought Jesus to consider his course well: "Despise not instruction from an elder, O my son, even though thou art a prophet. Art thou confident in thine heart that it is a spirit from God, and not a spirit from Satan, that tempteth thee thus to break the Sabbath? Bethink thee also how thou wilt cause the people of the land to go astray. For the simple walk by rules, and straighten their path by ordinances. But lo, thou takest away rules and ordinances; and what dost thou leave in the place thereof? I have heard from Eliezer the son of Arak that a certain man was working even at his handicraft on the Sabbath day, and thou sawest him, and didst not rebuke him: but didst say, that if he had knowledge of that which he did, he was blessed; but if he had not that knowledge, he was accursed. Whence, O my son, should the simple and unlearned gain this knowledge whereof thou speakest? But if thou sayest, 'I am a prophet and will give them this knowledge,' then remember that thou too art mortal, and as the grass of the field; and when thou shalt pass away, thy knowledge shall perish with thee, unless it be set forth in rules. But thou givest no rules to thy disciples.