Mark 2 Footnotes

2:26 According to 1Sm 21:1-6, Ahimelech was high priest when David ate the bread of the presence. Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, became David’s high priest shortly after as a result of the episode (2Sm 8:17; 1Ch 24:6). There is no error in Mk 2:26, however, because the Greek idiom used can merely mean “in the passage about Abiathar.” If that’s the case, Mark’s reference would be to the multi-chapter segment of 1 Samuel that would have been a unit within a Jewish lectionary.