Luke 6

Luke 6 is the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, traditionally attributed to Luke the Evangelist, a companion of Paul the Apostle on his missionary journeys. Jesus' teaching about the Sabbath enrages the religious authorities and deepens their conflict. The selection of twelve apostles is recounted and this is followed by the "Sermon on the Plain", where key aspects of Jesus' teaching are presented.

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 49 verses.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

Luke relates two events which relate to Jesus' actions on the Sabbath and the differences between his teaching and that of the Pharisees regarding the significance of the sabbath day. These events lead to a widening conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities.

This story is told in the synoptic gospels (Mark 2:23–28, Matt 12:1–8, Luke 6:1–5). Jesus' disciples are accused of breaking the Law (Exodus 20:8–11) by the Jewish authorities who see them pluck wheat, rub it and eat it during the Sabbath. Jesus invites his audience to recall the actions of David and his men who when hungry received the showbread (1 Samuel 21:1–6). Jesus indicates that he, the Son of Man, is the Lord of the Sabbath. Mark's text on the purpose of the Sabbath, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, is not repeated in Luke.

Luke places the event at a specific date: Greek: εν σαββατω δευτεροπρωτω (en sabbatō deuteroprōtō), translated in the King James Version as "on the second Sabbath after the first". This phrase is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, and it is omitted in some ancient manuscripts, the New International Version and some other modern versions. Evangelical writer Jeremy Myers suggests this could have been the day of Shavuot (Festival of Weeks), which would give the action of Jesus an added significance. Only the priests were allowed to collect wheat and process it on the Sabbath to bake the showbread (which they could eat). Jesus extends this privilege to his disciples: in essence, in his teaching, priesthood is open to all. This action represents a radical departure from traditional ways and structures, and undermines the special status of the priests. In walking through the grainfields, Ambrose observes that Jesus' "very practice and mode of action" represent the absolution of his followers from the duty to follow the old law.

F. W. Farrar, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, refers to "spy-Pharisees", a group who "dogged [Jesus'] steps as his ministry advanced". He thinks their initial plan might have been to see how far Jesus and his disciples walked, given the 2000 cubit rule which regulated travel on the Sabbath.

The Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis manuscript contains an additional verse which the Jerusalem Bible calls "interesting, but probably spurious":