Note 1 at Mt. 12:2: There is no Old Testament law that expressly forbids plucking grain and eating it on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees had written their own interpretations of the Mosaic law and held them to be equal in inspiration to Moses' writings, and it is apparently these traditions that Jesus' disciples had violated. They were probably interpreting the plucking of corn as being equal to harvesting, and rubbing of the grains in their hands (Lk. 6:1) as being equal to threshing.