Mark 2:20

Mar 2:20.[20] Ἐλεύσονται, shall come) This is the first intimation of His Passion.—ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ) So also the Gothic version reads. Moreover, the plural, which is substituted by some, comes evidently from Luke.[21] There is but one day of the Bridegroom being taken away; many days, of His continuing absent after having been so taken away. But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away; and then shall they fast in that day (In some one of those days, to wit, especially on the first of them). So in Luk 17:22 the plural number is used, the days shall come; and in Luk 2:31, on that day, in the singular number, with a force having relation to that plural.

[20] Mar 2:19. Τοῦ νομφῶνος, the Bridegroom) This means Jesus, in whose absence, they, to whom he is known, cannot feel the day joyful, and in whose presence they cannot feel the day sad.—V. g.

[21] Through Harmonists.—ED. The Gnomon and margin of Ed. 2 and Vers. Germ. prefer the Sing. The Ed. Maj. has at it the mark δ.—E. B. ABCD and Amiat. Vulg. support the Sing.: abc later Vulg. and Rec. Text, the Plural.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 2:20 . Here also the style becomes burdened by the sense of the solemn character of the fact stated: there will come days when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast in that day! This final expression, ἐν ἐκείνῃ ἡμέρᾳ , singular, for plural in first clause, is very impressive, although Fritzsche calls it prorsus intolerabile . There is no ground for the suggestion that the phrase is due to the evangelist, and refers to the Friday of the Passion Week (Holtz., H. C.). It might quite well have been used by Jesus.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 20. In those days.] But instead of εν εκειναις ταις ἡμεραις, many of the best MSS. and versions read, εν εκεινῃ τῃ ἡμερᾳ, in that day; viz. the day in which Jesus Christ should be delivered up to the Jews and Gentiles. Mill and Bengel approve of this reading, and Griesbach adopts it. The former part of the verse seems to vindicate the common reading.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. the days will come] The thought of death accompanies our Lord even to the social meal, and in the now undisguised hatred of His opponents He sees a token of what must hereafter come to pass. A dim hint of the same kind He had already given in His saying to the Jewish rulers, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh_2:19), and in His conversation with Nicodemus (Joh_3:14).

taken away] The same word is used by each of the Synoptists, and implies a violent termination of His life. The words occur nowhere else in the New Testament. This is the first open allusion recorded by St Mark, though probably little understood at the time, to the death, which was so soon to separate Him from His disciples.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

No man also seweth a piece of new cloth, The traditions of the elders are meant, particularly concerning eating and drinking, and fasting, things before spoken of; and which occasioned this parable, and which were new things in comparison of the commands of God: some of them were of very short standing, devised in, that age; and most, if not all of them, were since the times of Ezra.

On an old garment; the moral and ceremonial righteousness of the Jews, in obedience to the law of God; signifying, that the former were not to be joined with these, to make up a justifying righteousness before God; which were not sufficient for such a purpose, either singly, or both together:

else the new piece that filled it up, taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse; for by attendance to the traditions of the elders, the Jews were taken off from, and neglected the commandments of God; nay, oftentimes the commands of God were made void by these traditions, so that the old garment of their own righteousness, which was very ragged and imperfect of itself, instead of being purer and more perfect, became much the worse, even for the purpose for which it was intended; See Gill on Mat 9:16.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

20 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

Ver. 20. Then shall they fast] Novices are not to be tied to the austerities of religion. The Pharisees are revived in the Anabaptists, qui initiatis Christo ne risum quidem mediocrem adraittunt, saith Calvin, in Mat 9:15. Capistranus the minorite, sent by the Pope into Germany and other countries, A. D. 1453, to preach obedience to the see of Rome, got a great deal of credit to his corrupt doctrine, by such a Pharisaical severity. Sed tales Doetores meretur mundus suo fastidio veritatis, saith one, they that will not receive the truth in love, are left to the efficacy of error. (Funccius in Chronolog.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jesus Christ here foretelleth that fasting shall be used in his Church, no less than in the old law, or in the time of John the Baptist. See Matthew ix. 15. --- When first we begin to be converted to God, the spiritual consolations which God infuses into our souls, cause in us an overflowing of spiritual delights, so that we then feast, and are in the midst of delight; but when the Bridegroom shall be taken away, when these spiritual consolations cease, then we fast, and find the commandments difficult. It is then we must prepare ourselves for tribulation. (Ven. Bede)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This is the first occasion on which our Lord alludes to his removal from them. The bridegroom shall be taken away from them. The Greek word (aparyh) conveys the idea of a painful severance. And then will they fast in that day (en ekeinh th hmera). This is the true reading. After our Lord"s death, his disciples frequently fasted as of necessity, and went through much privation and trial. And so it must be for the most part with all who will live godly in Christ Jesus, until he returns to take to himself his kingdom, when there will be a glad and everlasting festival.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mark

THE PUBLICANS’ FRIEND

Mar 2:13 - Mar 2:22.

By calling a publican, Jesus shocked ‘public opinion and outraged propriety, as the Pharisees and scribes understood it. But He touched the hearts of the outcasts. A gush of sympathy melts souls frozen hard by icy winds of scorn. Levi {otherwise Matthew} had probably had wistful longings after Jesus which he had not dared to show, and therefore he eagerly and instantly responded to Christ’s call, leaving everything in his custom-house to look after itself. Mark emphasises the effect of this advance towards the disreputable classes by Jesus, in his repeated mention of the numbers of them who followed Him. The meal in Matthew’s house was probably not immediately after his call. The large gathering attracted the notice of Christ’s watchful opponents, who pounced upon His sitting at meat with such ‘shady’ people as betraying His low tastes and disregard of seemly conduct, and, with characteristic Eastern freedom, pushed in as uninvited spectators. They did not carry their objection to Himself, but covertly insinuated it into the disciples’ minds, perhaps in hope of sowing suspicions there. Their sarcasm evoked Christ’s own ‘programme’ of His mission, for which we have to thank them.

I. We have, first, Christ’s vindication of His consorting with the lowest.

He thinks of Himself as ‘a physician,’ just as He did in another connection in the synagogue of Nazareth. He is conscious of power to heal all soul-sickness, and therefore He goes where He is most needed. Where should a doctor be but where disease is rife? Is not his place in the hospital? Association with degraded and vicious characters is sin or duty, according to the purpose of it. To go down in the filth in order to wallow there is vile; to go down in order to lift others up is Christ’s mission and Christ-like.

But what does He mean by the distinction between sick and sound, righteous and sinners? Surely all need His healing, and there are not two classes of men. Have not all sinned? Yes, but Jesus speaks to the cavillers, for the moment, in their own dialect, saying, in effect, ‘I take you at your own valuation, and therein find My defence. You do not think that you need a physician, and you call yourselves ‘righteous and these outcasts ‘sinners.’ So you should not be surprised if I, being the healer, turn away to them, and prefer their company to yours.’ But there is more than taking them at their own estimate in the great words, for to conceit ourselves ‘whole’ bars us off from getting any good from Jesus. He cannot come to the self-righteous heart. We must feel our sickness before we can see Him in His true character, or be blessed by His presence with us. And the apparent distinction, which seems to limit His work, really vanishes in the fact that we all are sick and sinners, whatever we may think of ourselves, and that, therefore, the errand of the great Physician is to us all. The Pharisee who knows himself a sinner is as welcome as the outcast. The most outwardly respectable, clean-living, orthodoxly religious formalist needs Him as much, and may have Him as healingly, as the grossest criminal, foul with the stench of loathsome disease. That great saying has changed the attitude towards the degraded and unclean, and many a stream of pity and practical work for such has been drawn off from that Nile of yearning love, though all unconscious of its source.

II. We have Christ’s vindication of the disciples from ascetic critics.

The assailants in the second charge were reinforced by singular allies. Pharisees had nothing in common with John’s disciples, except some outward observances, but they could join forces against Jesus. Common hatred is a wonderful unifier. This time Jesus Himself is addressed, and it is the disciples with whom fault is found. To speak of His supposed faults to them, and of theirs to Him, was cunning and cowardly. His answer opens up many great truths, which we can barely mention.

First, note that He calls Himself the ‘bridegroom’-a designation which would surely touch some chords in John’s disciples, remembering how their Master had spoken of the ‘bridegroom’ and his ‘friend.’ The name tells us that Jesus claimed the psalms of the ‘bride-groom’ as prophecies of Himself, and claimed the Church that was to be as His bride. It speaks tenderly of His love and of our possible blessedness. Next, we note the sweet suggestion of the joyful life of the disciples in intercourse with Him. We perhaps do not sufficiently regard their experience in that light, but surely they were happy, being ever with Him, though they knew not yet all the wonder and blessedness which His presence involved and brought. They were a glad company, and Christians ought now to be joyous, because the bridegroom is still with them, and the more really so by reason of His ascending up where He was before. We have seen Him again, as He promised, and our hearts should rejoice with a joy which no man can take from us.

Next, we note Christ’s clear prevision of His death, the violence of which is hinted at in the words, ‘Shall be taken away from them.’ Further, we note the great principle that outward forms must follow inward realities, and are genuine only when they are the expression of states of mind and feeling. That is a far-reaching truth, ever being forgotten in the tyranny which the externals of religion exercise. Let the free spirit have its own way, and cut its own channels. Laughter may be as devout as fasting. Joy is to be expressed in religion as well as grief. No outward form is worth anything unless the inner man vitalises it, and such a mere form is not simply valueless, but may quickly become hypocrisy and conscious make-believe.

III. Jesus adds two similes, which are condensed parables, to deal with a wider question rising out of the preceding principles.

The difference between His disciples’ religious demeanour and that of their critics is not merely that the former are not now in a mood for fasting, but that a new spirit is beginning to work in them, and therefore it will go hard with a good many old forms besides fasting.

The essential point in both the similes of the raw cloth stitched on to the old, and of the new wine poured into stiff old skins, is the necessary incongruity between old forms and new tendencies. Undressed cloth is sure to shrink when wetted, and, being stronger than the old, to draw its frayed edges away. So, if new truth, or new conceptions of old truth, or new enthusiasms, are patched on to old modes, they will look out of place, and will sooner or later rend the old cloth. But the second simile advances on the first, in that it points not only to harm done to the old by the unnatural marriage, but also to mischief to the new. Put fermenting wine into a hard, unyielding, old wine-skin, and there can be but one result,-the strong effervescence will burst the skin, which may not matter much, and the precious wine will run out and be lost, sucked up by the thirsty soil, which matters more. The attempt to confine the new within the limits of the old, or to express it by the old forms, destroys them and wastes it. The attempt was made to keep Christianity within the limits of Judaism; it failed, but not before much harm had been done to Christianity. Over and over again the effort has been made in the Church, and it has always ended disastrously,-and it always will. It will be a happy day for both the old and the new when we all learn to put new wine into new skins, and remember that ‘God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

the bridegroom will be taken away

This can be stated in active form. AT: "the bridegroom will go away" (See: Active or Passive)

away from them ... they will fast

The word "them" and "they" refer to the wedding attendants.

No man sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment

Sewing a piece of new cloth on an old garment will make the hole on an old garment worse if the piece of new cloth has not yet shrunk. Both the new cloth and old garment will be ruined. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

No man

"No one." This phrase refers to all people, not just men. (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)

translationWords

bridegroom

fast

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

20. ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ([333][334][335][336][337][338][339][340]) rather than ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις ([341], Latt.).

[333] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[334] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[335] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[336] Codex Ephraemi. 5th cent. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out, and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it; but a great deal of the original writing has been recovered; of Mark we have Mar 1:17 to Mar 6:31, Mar 8:5 to Mar 12:29, Mar 13:19 to Mar 16:20. In the National Library at Paris.

[337] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[338] Codex Cyprius. 9th cent. One of the seven uncials which have the Gospels complete, the others being אBMSUΩ. At Paris.

[339] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mar 1:1 to Mar 10:15; Mar 10:30 to Mar 15:1; Mar 15:20 to Mar 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[340] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

[341] Codex Oxoniensis. 9th cent. Contains Mark, except Mar 3:35 to Mar 6:20.

20. ἐλεύσονται δὲ ἡμέραι. But days will come. There is no art.; yet even R.V. inserts it here in all three Gospels, and also Luk 17:22; Luk 19:43; Luk 21:6; Luk 23:29.

ὅταν ἀπαρθῇ. The verb is in all three, and nowhere else in N.T. He does not say simply ἀπέλθῃ or πορευθῇ (Joh 16:7), but implies, for the first time, that His death will be a violent one; ὅτι αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἡ ζωὴ αὐτοῦ (Isa 63:8). Dalman, Words, p. 263. Cf. Mar 14:7.

τότε νηστεύσουσιν. Then they will fast, of their own accord, ex arbitrio, non ex imperio (Tert.). Not, “they can fast,” or “they shall fast”; the fut. here is not imperative. We have instances of the fulfilment of this prediction, Act 2:13; Act 13:2-3; Act 14:23. The fast before Easter was observed from very early times, but for several centuries great diversity existed as to its duration; see Irenaeus in Eus. H. E. Mar 2:24; Socrates H. E. Mar 2:22; Sozomen H. E. vii. 19.

ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ. See crit. note. “In that sad day,” atra dies; cf. the superfluous, but impressive, ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος, Mar 14:21. Mt. omits these words as implied in τότε, while Lk. has his characteristic ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις, in agreement with the preceding ἡμέραι, which Mk seems to have forgotten. If a change is made it should rather have been the other way; “A day will come when He will be taken away, and then will they fast in those days.” Is Mk influenced by the usage in his own day, which may have been that of fasting on the Friday?

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. ἀπαρθῇ ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ὁ νυμφίος—It is evident here that Jesus, still keeping to the figure, points forward to the time when he shall be taken away from the disciples, and then, he declares, will be the time for them to fast. This is the first time that he has prophesied of his taking away, but we can see that even as a premonition it is not premature, because of the revolutionary character of his teaching. He had already brought on himself the charge of blasphemy, consorted with publicans, one of whom he had introduced into the immediate circle of his disciples, and shown his indifference to the strict law of fasting. And he knew that there was much more of the same kind in reserve. ὅταν—whenever. The expression leaves the time of the taking away indefinite. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ—in that day. Days and that day in this verse are simply a case of oratio variata, both denoting in a general way a period of time.

ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ instead of the plural, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א ABCDKL mss. of Lat. Vet. Pesh. Harcl. etc.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then - in those days. The proper reading is ejn ejkeinh, in that day. So Rev. Another of Mark's double expressions : then - in that day.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.