Mark 2:18-28

On Fasting

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.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. {Otherwise} the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine is destroyed and the wineskins [too]. But new wine [is put] into new wineskins."

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

23 And it happened that he was going through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples began to make [their] way [while] plucking off the heads of grain.
24 And the Pharisees began to say to him, "Behold, why are they doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?"
25 And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he had need and he and those [who were] with him were hungry--
26 how he entered into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the presentation, which it is not permitted to eat (except the priests) and also gave [it] to those who were with him?"
27 And he said to them, "The Sabbath was established for people, and not people for the Sabbath.
28 So then, the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

Footnotes 8

  • [a]. Literally "for what" [reason]
  • [b]. Literally "the sons of the bridal chamber"
  • [c]. The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here, indicated in the translation by the phrase "[are they]"
  • [d]. Literally "but if not"
  • [e]. Literally "but if not"
  • [f]. *Here "[while]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("picking") which is understood as temporal
  • [g]. The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began to say")
  • [h]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.