When we entered into the house, behold, Barabbas was with Jesus, beseeching him that he would not go into the 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.
“But come, let us reason together as though thou wert altogether right in this matter, having a message from God to us touching the Sabbath. Notwithstanding, is there not a place and a time for delivering a message, and a place and a time for concealing it? There is a time to go forward; but is there not also a time to make a stand? It is good to set thy face toward the light, that thou mayest advance; but it is good also to turn thy face from the light, that thou mayest see whither thou hast advanced. Moreover, why dost thou cause the Pharisees to stumble, and the rich to take offence at thy doctrine? Art thou not the Redeemer of all Israel? Are not the Pharisees also thy brethren, and the rich also sheep of the flock? Why therefore dost thou drive them from the fold and cast them forth into the wilderness? If thou sayest, ‘They are weak,’ then take pity, O my son, on the weak ones of Israel, yea and perchance on thine own disciples, lest they that may come after thee drink of thy doctrine and die, and the Name of Heaven be profaned.”