Mark 2:16-18
The Voice
16 When the Pharisees’ scribes saw who shared the table with Jesus, they were quick to criticize:
Scribes (to His disciples): If your master is such a righteous person, then why does He eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, the worst among us?
17 Jesus heard them.
Jesus (to the scribes): People who have their health don’t need to see a doctor. Only those who are sick do. I’m not here to call those already in good standing with God; I’m here to call sinners to turn back to Him.[a]
18 The disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees made a practice of fasting.
Some Jews fast twice a week and pray three times daily, but Jesus has a different set of practices for His followers. Some of the pious are disturbed by this.
Some People (to Jesus): Why is it that John’s followers and the Pharisees’ followers fast, but Your disciples are eating and drinking like it was any other day?
Footnotes
- 2:17 Literally, repentance
Mark 2:16-18
New International Version
16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees(A) saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”(B)
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”(C)
Jesus Questioned About Fasting(D)
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.(E) Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
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