Bede the Venerable — as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Mark 3:1-5

“(ubi sup.) And anticipating the calumny of the Jews, which they had prepared for Him, He accused them of violating the precepts of the law, by a wrong interpretation. Wherefore there follows: And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil? And this He asks, because they thought that on the sabbath they were to rest even from good works, whilst the law commands to abstain from bad, saying, Ye shall do no servile work therein; (Levit. 23:7) that is, sin: for Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John 8:34) What He first says, to do good on the sabbath-day or to do evil, is the same as what He afterwards adds, to save a life or to lose it; that is, to cure a man or not. Not that God, Who is in the highest degree good, can be the author of perdition to us, but that His not saving is in the language of Scripture to destroy. But if it be asked, wherefore the Lord, being about to cure the body, asked about the saving of the soul, let him understand either that in the common way of Scripture the soul is put for the man; as it is said, All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob; (Exodus 1:5) or because he did those miracles for the saving of a soul, or because the healing itself of the hand signified the saving of the soul.”