Mar 2:23-28 | RWP | e4.org | Through the cornfields ( δια των σποριμων ). See on . So Matt. and . But Mark uses παραπορευεσθα , to go along beside, unless διαπορευεσθα (BCD) is accepted. Perhaps now on the edge, now within the grain. Mark uses also οδον ποιειν , to make a way like the Latin iter facere , as if through the standing grain, plucking the ears ( τιλλοντες τους σταχυας ). Work of preparing food the rabbis called it. The margin of the Revised Version has it correctly: They began to make their way plucking the ears of corn (grain, wheat or barley, we should say). See on for discussion of this passage, parallel also in .

‏ Mark 2:23-28

Through the cornfields ( δια των σποριμων ). See on Mt 12:1. So Matt. and Lu 6:1. But Mark uses παραπορευεσθα, to go along beside, unless διαπορευεσθα (BCD) is accepted. Perhaps now on the edge, now within the grain. Mark uses also οδον ποιειν, to

make a way like the Latin iter facere, as if through the standing grain,

plucking the ears ( τιλλοντες τους σταχυας ). Work of preparing food the rabbis called it. The margin of the Revised Version has it correctly: They began to make their way plucking the ears of corn (grain, wheat or barley, we should say). See on Mt 12:1-8 for discussion of this passage, parallel also in Lu 6:15.

The house of God ( τον οικον του θεου ). The tent or tabernacle at Nob, not the temple in Jerusalem built by Solomon.

When Abiathar was high priest ( επ Αβιαθαρ αρχιερεως ). Neat Greek idiom, in the time of Abiathar as high priest. There was confusion in the Massoretic text and in the LXX about the difference between Ahimelech (Abimelech) and Abiathar (2Sa 8:17), Ahimelech's son and successor (1Sa 21:2; 22:20). Apparently Ahimelech, not Abiathar was high priest at this time. It is possible that both father and son bore both names (1Sa 22:20; 2Sa 8:17; 1Ch 18:16), Abiathar mentioned though both involved. Επ may so mean in the passage about Abiathar. Or we may leave it unexplained. They had the most elaborate rules for the preparation of the shewbread ( τους αρτους της προθεσεως ), the loaves of presentation, the loaves of the face or presence of God. It was renewed on the commencement of the sabbath and the old bread deposited on the golden table in the porch of the Sanctuary. This old bread was eaten by the priests as they came and went. This is what David ate.

For man ( δια τον ανθρωπον ). Mark alone has this profound saying which subordinates the sabbath to man's real welfare (mankind, observe, generic article with ανθρωπος, class from class). Man was not made for the sabbath as the rabbis seemed to think with all their petty rules about eating an egg laid on the sabbath or looking in the glass, et cetera. See 2Macc. 5:19 and Mechilta on Ex 31:13: "The sabbath is delivered unto you and ye are not delivered unto the sabbath." Christianity has had to fight this same battle about institutionalism. The church itself is for man, not man for the church.

Even of the sabbath ( κα του σαββατου ). Mark, Matthew (Mt 12:8), and Luke (Lu 6:5) all give this as a climax in the five reasons given by Christ on the occasion for the conduct of the disciples, but Mark has the little word "even" ( κα ) not in the others, showing that Jesus knew that he was making a great claim as the Son of Man, the Representative Man, the Messiah looked at from his human interest, to lordship ( κυριος ) even of the sabbath. He was not the slave of the sabbath, but the master of it. "Even of the sabbath, so invaluable in your eyes. Lord, not to abolish, but to interpret and keep in its own place, and give it a new name" (Bruce).