Mark 2:24

Greek (Tischendorf 8th ed.)

English Translation

The Pharisees said to him, "Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?"

World English Bible · Public Domain

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ἔξεστιν

éxesti

G1832

“it is lawful”

Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular

Appears 32× in the Greek New Testament
First appears at Matthew 12:2

Full Thayer's Definition

Origin: third person singular present indicative of a compound of G1537 and G1510

TDNT: 11:20,2

1. it is lawful

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

13: words
12: distinct lemmas
Gospels: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

ἔξεστιν it is lawful G1832 occurs in 30 verses of the Greek New Testament. Also found in:

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse:

οἱ the G3588 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Mark 2:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
Matthew 12:2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."
Hebrews 12:3 For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don't grow weary, fainting in your souls.
Exodus 31:15 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Yahweh. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
Exodus 35:2–3 'Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of solemn rest to Yahweh: whoever does any work in it shall be put to death.
Numbers 15:32–36 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
Nehemiah 13:15–22 In those days saw I in Judah some men treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading donkeys [therewith]; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified [against them] in the day in which they sold food.
Isaiah 56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

Isaiah 56:4 For thus says Yahweh of the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:
Isaiah 56:6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to minister to him, and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;
Isaiah 58:13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, [and] the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking [your own] words:
Jeremiah 17:20–27 and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
Matthew 7:3–5 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?
Matthew 15:2–3 "Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat bread."
Matthew 23:23–24 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
Mark 2:7 "Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Mark 2:16 The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Commentary

Notes on Mark 2:24 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Expositor's Greek Testament

ed. W. Robertson Nicoll

Mar 2:24 . ἔλεγον αὐτῷ . In this case they speak to Christ against His disciples; indirectly against Him. ὁ οὐκ ἔξεστιν : the offence was not trampling the grain or straw, but plucking the ears reaping on a small scale; rubbing = threshing, in Lk. χρείαν ἔσχε καὶ ἐπείνασεν : another example of Mk.’s duality, intelligible only if hunger was the point of the story. The verbs are singular, because David ( αὐτὸς ) is the hero, his followers in the background.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

24. that which is not lawful] They did not accuse them of theft, for the Law allowed what they were doing (Deu_23:25). They accused them of profaning the Sabbath. The Law of course forbade reaping and threshing on that day, but the Rabbis tad decided that even to pluck corn was to be construed as reaping, and to rub it as threshing. They even forbad walking on grass as a species of threshing, and would not allow so much as a fruit to be plucked from a tree on that day. See Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Mat_12:2.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

And he said unto them,.... By way of answer to their question, and which was a full one, and enough to silence them:

have ye never read what David did; referring to the history in Sa1 21:1.

when he had need: of bread, was in great necessity, and in the utmost distress:

and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him? which was a justifiable reason for what he and his company did; as it was for the action of the disciples; being in a like case, and therefore very appropriate to the purpose; See Gill on Mat 12:3.

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

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?

Ver. 24. {See Trapp on "Mat 12:2"}

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.

The Pulpit Commentary

That which is not lawful. The supposed unlawfulness was not the plucking of the ears of corn with the hand, which was expressly permitted by the Law, (Deu_23:25) but the plucking and eating on the sabbath day.

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

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges

24. ἔλεγον. With Mk, conversation is a process, and he often introduces what was said by an imperf., without meaning that the remark was repeated.

Ἴδε. “Behold,” “See.” Mt. has ἰδού, Lk. neither. They are attacking the Master through the disciples; He must be aware of what they are doing. In Lk. the reproach is addressed to the disciples; τί ποιεῖτε; Evidently Christ Himself was not plucking.

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.

International Critical Commentary

24. ὃ οὐκ ἔξεστι—what is not lawful. The Sabbath law is meant, which forbids work on that day. The casuistry of the rabbinical interpreter found here its most fruitful field in drawing the line between work and not-work, and managed to get in its most ingenious and absurd refinements. But the great difficulty, as with all their work, is that they managed so to miss the very spirit and object of the law, that they made its observance largely a burden, instead of a privilege. Whenever they speak of that which is lawful, or unlawful, their standard is not simply the written law, but this traditional interpretation of it. In the same way, we can conceive of men now accepting the Bible as their standard, and yet admitting to an equal authority an interpretation of it contained in creed or confession, and really referring to this when they use the terms, Biblical or unbiblical.

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Mark, in the Gospels, opens this verse with 13 words (12 distinct Greek lemmas). Its most distinctive word is éxesti (“it is lawful”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “it is lawful” (éxesti) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Matthew 12:2, which shares the word «it is lawful», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “the” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
Compare how Expositor's Greek Testament and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“the” occurs 2× in this single verse.
12 distinct Greek lemmas span 13 words in this verse.