Mark 2

The “word,” logos in Greek, is a tech term. It usually means a message from God. It shows up in longer phrases, such as “the word of God” or “the word of the Lord.” In the Gospel of Mark, however, it almost always refers to the message of Jesus who, in another Gospel, says, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30).

Scribes specialized in the Jewish laws. Each of the major groups of Jews had their own scribes. That included the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. But in the time of Jesus, most scribes were Pharisees. This was the branch of the Jewish faith well known for its meticulous devotion to observing the Law as they interpreted it, and they insisted that everyone else do the same. In the Gospel of Mark, scribes represent the opposite of Jesus. If the Gospel of Mark were a cowboy movie produced in the early 1900s, the scribes would be wearing the black hats and starting fistfights in the saloon.

Usually translated “Son of Man.” This is a title Jesus used a lot to describe himself. In the Jewish Bible the phrase contains hints of divinity in some passages and humanity in others—perhaps a perfect phrase for describing someone Christians would say was fully God and fully human. Hint of the divine: the prophet Daniel saw someone like a son of man coming from heaven (Daniel 7:13). Hint of the human: God often described Ezekiel as a mere mortal by using the phrase “son of man” (Ezekiel 2:1).

Levi was also known as Matthew, according to Matthew’s version of this story (Matthew 9:9).

Pharisees were one of several groups of Jews. It was a bit like Methodists being one of many groups of Christians. Pharisees were known not only for strictly keeping the laws of Moses but also for keeping hundreds of other laws that were a bit like the rules in church manuals today. For example, Jewish law said Jews should not work on the Sabbath. Pharisees defined what they considered work. Pharisees taught that healing people on the Sabbath was practicing medicine. They said this was forbidden except when someone was at risk of dying that day.

Many Jews considered tax collectors collaborators with the enemy—Romans who had been occupying the Jewish homeland for about a century. Tax collectors were often Jews who bid on the job of collecting taxes from their fellow Jews. Their bid was a promise to pay that amount of money to Rome. Whatever they collected above that bid, they kept as profit. Many tax collectors had a reputation for overcharging. Some rabbis later taught that it was perfectly okay to lie to a tax collector—essentially, to cheat a cheater.

Mark doesn’t say why the two groups were fasting. All Jews were encouraged to fast on Yom Kippur, a nationwide day of repentance also known as the Day of Atonement. Jews also fasted on other occasions, and to express sorrow for their sins or their grief over a loss. In addition to this, some Pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday. They treated it as a way to express their devotion to God. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Jesus was not impressed.

Bible experts debate why Jesus followed his illustration about a bridegroom with two snippets of wisdom that can seem unrelated. One theory is that the two short sayings, which sound a little like condensed parables, are sending the signal that the old style of Jewish faith can’t continue under the new agreement God is setting up through Jesus. The old practices are represented by the old cloth and the old wineskin that is already stretched as far as it will go.

The Jewish Sabbath day starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. Jews are not supposed to work during those 24 hours.

The laws that Moses gave the Jews say they should not work on the Sabbath, but the Law stopped short of defining “work.” So Pharisees defined it. They taught people to observe hundreds of laws identifying what they considered work. Picking grain, they said, was harvesting.

Every Sabbath, Jewish priests put 12 loaves of fresh bread inside the worship center—one loaf for each of the tribes of Israel. Then priests ate the old loaves put there the previous Sabbath (Exodus 25:30).

Some Bible experts say Mark may have intended to say that because the Sabbath was made for people, people are the boss of the Sabbath. That is, they decide what to do with the sacred day. Scholars make this case from the Aramaic language that many Jews spoke during that time, and from the possibility that Mark intended some parallelism. As the argument goes, he was using a bit of a poetic beat to say that since the Sabbath was made for humans, the sons of humans (the generations to come) are in charge of what happens on the Sabbath.