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19. Μὴ δύνανται; Like num, μή expects a negative reply. Blass § 75. 2; Winer, p. 641; cf. Mar 4:21; Mat 26:25; Luk 6:39. In Joh 4:29; Joh 18:17; Joh 18:25, A.V. goes wrong on this point. The analogy of a wedding might come home to those whose master had declared his own relation to Jesus to be that of Bridegroom’s friend to Bridegroom (Joh 3:29). It is morally impossible to combine ascetic fasting with a festival of exceptional joyousness. Lk. has “Can ye make them fast?” Mt. has “Can they mourn?”
οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος. Filii nuptiarum (Vulg.). The common Hebraism for “those closely connected with” whatever the gen. denotes; Mar 3:17; Luk 10:6; Luk 16:8; Luk 20:36; etc. In LXX. such phrases are somewhat rare; Gen 11:10; 2Sa 12:5; 1Ki 1:52; 1Ma 4:2. Deissmann (Bib. St. p. 161) prefers to call them “Hebraisms of translation,” and he thinks that some of them are not Hebraisms at all. With this phrase compare the “comrades” of Samson (Jdg 14:11; Jdg 14:20), and the νυμφευταί, παράνυμφοι, or πάροχοι among the Greeks. They are analogous to our bridesmaids. Hort (Jud. Christ. p. 23) says that by custom those who were in attendance on a bridegroom were dispensed from certain religious observances. Here again (see on Mar 1:12) there is no reason to suspect that the saying is borrowed from heathen sources, such as myths about the marriage of the gods (Clemen, Primitive Christianity, p. 320). Νυμφών (Tob 6:14; Tob 6:17) is analogous to ἀνδρών, γυναικών, παρθενών, κ.τ.λ.
ὁ νυμφίος. In Hosea 2, the relation of Jehovah to Israel is repeatedly spoken of as betrothal. Jesus transfers the figure to the relation between Himself and His disciples, and it is often used in N.T. both by Himself (Joh 3:29; Mat 25:1-11) and the Apostles (2Co 11:2; Eph 5:27; Rev 19:7; Rev 21:9). “As long as they have the Bridegroom with them” has much more point than “as long as the wedding-feast lasts.” The sentence gives a solemn fulness to Christ’s reply to the questioners. The preceding question would have sufficed. The metaphor is not an obvious one to use of disciples, and the adoption of it by Christ in a saying which is certainly His is all the more remarkable.