Mark 2:16 — Community Reflections

MARK 2:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?”

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? — the Pharisees' question is directed at the disciples rather than Jesus, a social indirection that communicates their disapproval without confronting Jesus directly. The combination teachers of the law who were Pharisees identifies the most religiously serious segment of the Jewish community — the group most committed to Torah observance and purity. Their objection is not primarily moral disgust but legal concern: table fellowship creates a sharing of status, and eating with the ritually impure creates ritual impurity. Jesus' response reframes the objection entirely.

Church Fathers on Mark 2:16

After that the Lord taught at Capernaum, He went to the sea, that He might not only set in order the life of men in towns, but also might preach the Gospel of the kingdom to those who dwelt near the sea, and might teach them to despise the restless motions of those things which pass away like the waves of the sea, and to overcome them by the firmness of faith.
Bede · 8th century

Or else, after the miracle, He goes to the sea, as if wishing to be alone, but the crowd runs to Him again, that thou mightest learn, that the more thou fliest from glory, the more she herself pursues thee; but if thou followest her, she will fly from thee. The Lord passing on from thence called Matthew.
Theophylact · 11th century

Thus then Levi, which means Appointed, followed from the custom-house of human affairs, the Word, Who says, 'He who doth not quit all that he has, cannot be My disciple.'
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 11 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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