Mark 2:19

19 And Jesus said to them, "The {bridegroom's attendants} are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, [are they]? As long a time [as] they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast.

Mark 2:19 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 2:19

And Jesus said unto them
Both to John's disciples and the Pharisees,

can the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is
with them?
Suggesting that he was the bridegroom, as John their master had called him, ( John 3:29 ) , and that his disciples were the children of the bride chamber; and that it was very unsuitable for them, and very unreasonable to desire them to fast at such a time, and under such a character: wherefore the answer returned by Christ himself to the question is,

as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast:
all which the Syriac version expresses by (al) , "no": (See Gill on Matthew 9:15).

Mark 2:19 In-Context

17 And [when] Jesus heard [it], he said to them, "Those who are healthy do not have need of a physician, but those {who are sick}. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

18 And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, "{Why} do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

19 And Jesus said to them, "The {bridegroom's attendants} are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, [are they]? As long a time [as] they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast.

20 But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

21 No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. {Otherwise} the patch pulls away from it--the new from the old--and the tear becomes worse.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the sons of the bridal chamber"
• [b]. The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here, indicated in the translation by the phrase "[are they]"