How does Mark preserve the actions and questions concerning forgiveness, meals, fasting and sabbath?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Jesus responds to scribal thoughts, meal and fasting questions and the sabbath objection, with the roof opening and Levi’s call retaining their concrete human choices.

Chapter breakdown

# Mark 2

After some days Jesus returns to Capharnaum. Hearing he is in the house, many gather until there is no room even at the door, and he speaks the word. Four carry a man sick of the palsy. Unable to present him because of the crowd, they uncover and open the roof and lower his bed. No exterior stairs, tiles or particular roof construction are specified. Seeing their faith, Jesus calls the man Son and declares his sins forgiven. Some seated scribes think he blasphemes, asking who can forgive but God. Knowing their thoughts in his spirit, Jesus asks why they think this and whether saying sins forgiven or commanding rising and walking is easier. To make known the Son of man’s earthly power to forgive, he commands the man to rise, take his bed and go home. He immediately does so before all; they wonder and glorify God, saying they never saw the like. No illness caused by personal sin is inferred.

At the seaside Jesus teaches the gathering multitude. Passing Levi son of Alpheus at the receipt of custom, he says “Follow me”; Levi rises and follows. The next meal is described as in his house, with many publicans and sinners dining with Jesus and disciples, many also following him. Scribes and Pharisees question the disciples about this association. Jesus answers with the physician comparison: the well need none but the sick do, and he came to call sinners rather than the just. It is a comparison, not medical advice or an added diagnosis of the questioners’ presumed righteousness. The editorial heading names Matthew; the verse calls the man Levi, without a narrated ledger, tollhouse or explicit name identification.

John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, and a question is raised why Jesus’ disciples do not. Jesus asks whether children of the marriage can fast with the bridegroom present; while he is with them they cannot. When he is taken away they will fast in those days. The source does not say violently, describe free feasting or prescribe an intensity of fasting. He compares raw cloth on an old garment, where new piecing takes away from the old and makes a worse tear, and new wine in old bottles, where bursting loses both wine and bottles. New wine must have new bottles. The chapter does not supply a physiological fermentation explanation or a broad abolition of ritual law.

Walking through corn fields on the sabbath, the disciples pluck ears of corn. Pharisees ask why they do what is unlawful. Jesus recalls David’s need and hunger, with his companions: he entered God’s house under Abiathar the high priest, ate loaves of proposition lawful for priests alone and gave them to those with him. The disciples’ hunger, threshing and grain species are not explicitly stated here. Jesus says the sabbath was made for man, not man for sabbath, and concludes that the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath also. The text’s words are retained without supplying an unrestricted rule about every ceremonial precept or all worship.

The story inside

The crowded house and healing precede the call and meal; fasting comparisons precede the grain-field objection.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Four bearers open a roof; its materials and access route are unspecified.
2
The verse names Levi while the heading names Matthew.
3
Raw cloth and new wine comparisons are not an added rule abolishing ritual observance.

Test your recall

Four bearers; roof; bed; Levi son of Alpheus; bridegroom; raw cloth; Abiathar; sabbath for man.

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 114461–114516
2:1. And again he entered into Capharnaum after some days. 2:2. And it was heard that he was in the house. And many came together, so that there was no room: no, not even at the door. And he spoke to them the word. 2:3. And they came to him, bringing one sick of the palsy, who was carried by four. 2:4. And when they could not offer him unto him for the multitude, they uncovered the roof where he was: and opening it, they let down the bed wherein the man sick of the palsy lay. 2:5. And when Jesus had seen their faith, he saith to the sick of the palsy: Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. 2:6. And there were some of the scribes sitting there and thinking in their hearts: 2:7. Why doth this man speak thus? He blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins, but God only? 2:8. Which Jesus presently knowing in his spirit that they so thought within themselves, saith to them: Why think you these things in your hearts? 2:9. Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy: Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say: Arise, take up thy bed and walk? 2:10. But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy): 2:11. I say to thee: Arise. Take up thy bed and go into thy house. 2:12. And immediately he arose and, taking up his bed, went his way in the sight of all: so that all wondered and glorified God, saying: We never saw the like. 2:13. And he went forth again to the sea side: and all the multitude came to him. And he taught them. 2:14. And when he was passing by, he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he saith to him: Follow me. And rising up, he followed him. 2:15. And it came to pass as he sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat down together with Jesus and his disciples. For they were many, who also followed him. 2:16. And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with publicans and sinners, said to his disciples: Why doth your master eat and drink with publicans and sinners? 2:17. Jesus hearing this, saith to them: They that are well have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. For I came not to call the just, but sinners.
Lines 114518–114554
2:18. And the disciples of John and the Pharisees used to fast. And they come and say to him: Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast; but thy disciples do not fast? 2:19. And Jesus saith to them: Can the children of the marriage fast, as long as the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 2:20. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them: and then they shall fast in those days. 2:21. No man seweth a piece of raw cloth to an old garment: otherwise the new piecing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent. 2:22. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: otherwise the wine will burst the bottles, and both the wine will be spilled and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles. 2:23. And it came to pass again, as the Lord walked through the corn fields on the sabbath, that his disciples began to go forward and to pluck the ears of corn. 2:24. And the Pharisees said to him: Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? 2:25. And he said to them: Have you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry, himself and they that were with him? 2:26. How he went into the house of God, under Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the loaves of proposition, which was not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave to them who were with him? 2:27. And he said to them: The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. 2:28. Therefore the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath also.