Mark 2:16

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?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:13-17 Matthew was not a good character, or else, being a Jew, he would never have been a publican, that is, a tax-gatherer for the Romans. However, Christ called this publican to follow him. With God, through Christ, there is mercy to pardon the greatest sins, and grace to change the greatest sinners, and make them holy. A faithful, fair-dealing publican was rare. And because the Jews had a particular hatred to an office which proved that they were subject to the Romans, they gave these tax-gatherers an ill name. But such as these our blessed Lord did not hesitate to converse with, when he appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. And it is no new thing for that which is both well done and well designed, to be slandered, and turned to the reproach of the wisest and best of men. Christ would not withdraw, though the Pharisees were offended. If the world had been righteous, there had been no occasion for his coming, either to preach repentance, or to purchase forgiveness. We must not keep company with ungodly men out of love to their vain conversation; but we are to show love to their souls, remembering that our good Physician had the power of healing in himself, and was in no danger of taking the disease; but it is not so with us. In trying to do good to others, let us be careful we do not get harm to ourselves.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 9:12-13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Mr 2:13-17. Levi's (OR Matthew's) Call and Feast. ( = Mt 9:9-13; Lu 5:27-32).

See on [1408]Mt 9:9-13.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 16. See Poole on "Mark 2:15"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when the Scribes and Pharisees saw him eat,.... They were offended at his eating and drinking, though it was in moderation; because he did not fast as they, and their disciples did; and especially, that he eat

with publicans and sinners; men of very infamous characters, and bad lives, with whom the Pharisees disdained to keep company:

they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions read, "your master"; see Gill on Matthew 9:11; so some Greek copies here.

Geneva Study Bible

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?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 2:16. ἔλεγον: the scribes advance from thinking (Mark 2:6) to speaking; not yet, however, to Jesus but about Him to His disciples. They note, with disapproval, His kindly relations with “sinners”. The publicans and other disreputables had also noted the fact. The story of the palsied man and the “blasphemous” word, “thy sins be forgiven thee,” had got abroad, making them prick up their ears, and awakening decided interest in these tabooed circles, in the “Blasphemer”.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. they said unto his disciples] Overawed by the miracles He had wrought and the overthrow they had lately experienced at the healing of the paralytic, and not as yet venturing on any open rupture with Him, they vent their displeasure on His disciples. It is not likely that the Pharisees were present at the feast, or they would have involved themselves in the same blame. Probably they looked in while it was in progress, and afterwards came forward to the disciples coming out.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 2:16.[19] Τὶ ὅτι) So the LXX.; Jdg 11:7, etc.

[19] Mark 2:15. Καὶ ἠκολούθησαν, and they were following) Therefore even then already with reformed minds they were holding to [entering upon] the right way.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - According to the most approved readings, this verse should run thus: And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners. The words "publicans and sinners" are thus inverted in their order in the two clauses, as though they were convertible terms. Of course, the scribes and Pharisees had not sat down at this feast, but some of them had probably found their way into the chamber in which the feast was going on, where they would comment freely upon what they saw, and condemn our Lord's conduct as inconsistent with his character. It is as though they said, "By this conduct he transgresses the Law of God and the traditions of the elders. Why, then, do you follow him?" Mark 2:16

Vincent's Word Studies

Scribes and Pharisees

But the best texts read γραμματεῖς τῶν Φαρισαίων, scribes of the Pharisees. So Rev. Scribes belonging to the sect of the Pharisees. They had followed him into the hall where the company were seated. This hall answered to the k)ha3wah of Arabian houses, which is thus described by William Gifford Palgrave: "The k)ha4wah was a long, oblong hall about twenty feet in height, fifty in length, and sixteen or thereabouts in breadth. The walls were covered in a rudely decorative manner with brown and white wash, and sunk here and there into small triangular recesses, destined to the reception of books, lamps, and other such like objects. The roof was of timber, and fiat; the floor was strewn with fine, clean sand, and garnished all round alongside of the walls with long strips of carpet, upon which cushions, covered with faded silk, were disposed at suitable intervals. In poorer houses, felt rugs usually take the place of carpets" ("Central and Eastern Arabia").