Lange Commentary - Mark 2:18 - 2:22

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Lange Commentary - Mark 2:18 - 2:22


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Third Conflict.—The Fasting of John’s Disciples and of the Pharisees. Mar_2:18-22

(Parallels: Mat_9:14-17; Luk_5:33-39.)

18And the disciples of John and [of] the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? 19And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 21No man also seweth a piece of new [unfulled] cloth on an old garment; else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. 22And no man putteth new wine into old [skin] bottles; else the new wine doth burst the [skin] bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the [skin] bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new [skin] bottles.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. See on the parallels of Matt. and Luke.—The offence at Christ’s meal with Levi, as it might represent similar meals, was twofold: 1. As an eating with publicans and sinners; 2. as the opposite of fasting. In the former view the Pharisees took umbrage; in the latter, the disciples of John,—the Pharisees also joining them. This offence was a point in which the legal Pharisees and the ascetic disciples of John, as spiritually related, might meet.

Mar_2:18. Used to fast: ἦóáí íçóôåýïíôåò .—Meyer: They were then in the act of fasting. It may be easily supposed that the imprisonment of John would give occasion to his disciples, and with them to many of the Pharisees, for an extraordinary fast (see art. “Fasten” in Winer). An ordinary legal season of fasting is not meant; for Christ and His disciples would not have neglected or outraged that. But if an extraordinary fast, occasioned by the Baptist’s imprisonment or by any other cause, formed the primary reason of this question, yet we think that the participle is to be taken as emphatic, according to the parallels in Matthew ( íçóôåýïõóé ðïëëÜ ) and Luke ( íçóôåýïõóé ðõêíÜ ).—And they come.—Of course only some, as representing the mind of all (Weisse); not necessarily all, as Meyer thinks. The combination of both parties on this point does not exclude the prominence of John’s disciples, according to Matthew.

Mar_2:20. In those days.—Emphatically, in those dark days.

Mar_2:21. Else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.—The new piece is rent away from the old: the most approved reading is also the most expressive. The inappropriate and disproportionate is again made emphatic by the antithesis.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See on the parallels.

2. Compare the word concerning fasting, Mat_6:16. We may distinguish: 1. Legal-symbolical fasting (Lev_16:29; Lev_23:27); 2. personal, real fasting—Moses (Exo_24:18), Elias (1Ki_19:8), Christ (Matthew 4); 3. ascetic, penance fasting (the Baptist); 4. hypocritical fasting (Isa_58:3-4), which may easily combine with 1 and 3. Fasting generally is the ascetic symbolical exercise of real renunciation of the world, in which all true fasting is fulfilled.

3. Application of the two parables concerning old garments and old bottles to the history of Ebionitism, of the Interim in the Reformation age, and of analogous incongruities in the present day.

4. The meal of Christ everywhere a sacred, spiritual feast.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

How often do sincere legal souls suffer themselves to be led away by traditionalists into an assault upon the freedom of the Gospel!—The greatest danger of the weak brethren (Rom_14:1; Rom_14:15), that they fall under the bondage of false brethren (2Co_11:26; Gal_2:4), and thus become separated from the peace of the Gospel.—Wrong alliances of Christians in the Church lead to wrong alliances of ecclesiastical things, even in opposition to the right alliances of both.—Openness a characteristic of John’s disciples as of their master: they apply themselves, as later the Baptist did, with their offence to Christ Himself.—Yet they are infected with the policy of the Pharisees; for they ask, Why fast Thy disciples not? (see on Matthew).—Christ at once the Physician and the Bridegroom: 1. The Bridegroom as the Physician; 2. the Physician as the Bridegroom. Or, Christ is the supreme festal end, and the only means of salvation, in the kingdom of God: 1. He is the means of healing, while He calls souls to the participation of His blessedness; 2. He is the Prince of the blessed kingdom in the midst of His redeemed.—We should think, on our feast-day, of our coming fast-day.—Even in the greatness of His fast, Christ with His disciples leaves far behind Him all the severe penitents of the old theocracy.—The secret fasting of Christians; or, the great, silent, and festal renunciation of the world: 1. Its form; 2. its reason, the reconciliation of the world; 3. its goal, the glorification of the world.

Starke:—It is a pharisaic and very common evil, that men are very much more troubled about setting others right in their living than about directing their own.—Quesnel:—The busybody begins by talking about others, and comes afterwards to himself, but makes the best of his own case, 1Ti_6:8.—Cramer:—Fasting is good; but to make a merit of it, or even to burden the conscience with it, is opposed to Christian freedom.—It is spiritual pride when, in matters which God has left to our freedom, people desire that others should regulate their piety by their rules.—The fasting of a penitent does not consist only in abstinence from food, but in abstinence also from all the pleasures and all the occasions of sin, Joe_2:12.—Where Jesus is the Bridegroom of the soul, there is joy and refreshment; where He is not, there is mourning and grief of heart.—Canstein:—The right measures of pacification in religion are those in which truth and sincerity are consulted.—Majus:—The nakedness of sin cannot be covered with old traditions.

Gerlach:—Jesus terms Himself the Bridegroom of His Church.—Longing for the Bridegroom is the feeling of the Church, when He is away; bridal love and delight, when He is present again.—Braune:—It is a special temptation to good-natured, well-meaning souls, not reconciled to Christ, His doctrine, His discipline, His life, His Church, when evil-minded cavillers fall in with them.—The disciples of Jesus a wedding company.—In all Christians there is more or less interchange of cheerful joy and gloomy sorrow, although the joyous temper when the Lord is near predominates.—New wine, new bottles.—Schleiermacher:—How Jesus would have us understand and treat the great new period which He came to bring in.—Thus the Redeemer compares Himself with John, Mat_11:18 seq.—“That day”: the interval of uncertainty concerning the further course of the divine economy for man’s salvation.—The old garment: He would thereby intimate that it was by no means lawful to cut up and divide the spiritual power with which He was furnished by God that He might communicate it to men, in order to repair and set in order again that which was obsolete and effete.—In our joyous fellowship with the Lord, let us preserve the happiness which He declares to be the prerogative of His people.—Gossner:—They have now once more discovered something. Envy looks at and judges only others, without caring about correcting itself. Another failing of the Pharisees was, that they required all pious people to measure according to their standard, and adopt their usages. The third error was, that they began to speak about others, in order that they might come to themselves, and exalt their own reputation at the expense of others.

Footnotes:

Mar_2:18.—The reading of the Rec., ïἱ ôῶí Öáñéóáßùí , is not supported. Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Fritzsche read ïἱ Öáñéóáῖïé .

Mar_2:20.—Rec.: ἐí ἐêåßíáéò ôáῖò ἡìÝñáéò is an emendation. Griesbach, Lachmann, Scholz, Tischendorf read ἐêåßíῃ ôῇìÝñᾳ

Mar_2:21.—We follow the reading: áἴñåé ἀð ’ áὐôïῦ ôὸ ðëÞñùìá ôὸ êáéíὸí ôïῦ ðáëáéïῦ ; adopted by Tischendorf and Meyer.

Mar_2:22.—The Present is more vivid than Lachmann’s Future, ῥÞîåé , found, also, in B., C., D., Vulgata.

Mar_2:22.—The addition “new,” ὁ íÝïò , is from Luk_5:37.

An ordinance of Charles V., “that all his Catholic dominions should, for the future, inviolably observe the customs, statutes, and ordinances of the universal church,” etc.; by which he endeavored to reëstablish Popery among the Protestants.—Ed.