Mark 2:23-3:6
2:23 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
2:24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
2:25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
2:26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”
2:27 Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;
2:28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
3:1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
3:2 They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.
3:3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”
3:4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
3:5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
[23] Καὶ ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς σάββασι διὰ τῶν σπορίμων, καὶ ἤρξαντο οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὁδὸν ποιεῖν τίλλοντες τοὺς στάχυας.
[24] καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ἔλεγον αὐτῷ· ἴδε τί ποιοῦσιν ἐν τοῖς σάββασιν ὃ οὐκ ἔξεστι.
[25] καὶ αὐτὸς ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· οὐδέποτε ἀνέγνωτε τί ἐποίησε Δαυῒδ ὅτε χρείαν ἔσχε καὶ ἐπείνασεν αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ;
[26] πῶς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ ᾿Αβιάθαρ ἀρχιερέως καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους τῆς προθέσεως ἔφαγεν, οὓς οὐκ ἔξεστι φαγεῖν εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἱερεῦσι, καὶ ἔδωκε καὶ τοῖς σὺν αὐτῷ οὖσι;
[27] καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· τὸ σάββατον διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐγένετο, οὐχ ὁ ἄνθρωπος διὰ τὸ σάββατον·
[28] ὥστε κύριός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ σαββάτου.
[1]Καὶ εἰσῆλθε πάλιν εἰς τὴν συναγωγήν· καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ ἄνθρωπος ἐξηραμμένην ἔχων τὴν χεῖρα.
[2]καὶ παρετήρουν αὐτὸν εἰ τοῖς σάββασι θεραπεύσει αὐτόν, ἵνα κατηγορήσωσιν αὐτοῦ.
[3] καὶ λέγει τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τῷ ἐξηραμμένην ἔχοντι τὴν χεῖρα· ἔγειρε εἰς τὸ μέσον.
[4]καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἔξεστι τοῖς σάββασιν ἀγαθοποιῆσαι ἢ κακοποιῆσαι; ψυχὴν σῶσαι ἢ ἀποκτεῖναι; οἱ δὲ ἐσιώπων.
[5] καὶ περιβλεψάμενος αὐτοὺς μετ᾿ ὀργῆς, συλλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, λέγει τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ· ἔκτεινον τὴν χεῖρά σου. καὶ ἐξέτεινε, καὶ ἀποκατεστάθη ἡ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ ὑγιὴς ὡς ἡ ἄλλη.
[6] καὶ ἐξελθόντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι εὐθέως μετὰ τῶν ῾Ηρῳδιανῶν συμβούλιον ἐποίουν κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ὅπως αὐτὸν ἀπολέσωσι.
Comments
This discussion about the Sabbath features the word ‘Sabbath’ many times. Two vbs, παρατηρῶ & περιβλέπομαι, refer to modes of looking at another person.
Mk 2:
[23] Καὶ ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς σάββασι διὰ τῶν σπορίμων, καὶ ἤρξαντο οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὁδὸν ποιεῖν τίλλοντες τοὺς στάχυας:
παραπορεύομαι (attested in cl Gk with a different meaning) in post-cl. Gk means ‘I pass by, pass through’;[1] here = ‘I pass through’.
The syntactical construction ἐγένετο/ ‘it came to pass’…+ [καὶ] another independent sentence is characteristic of Hebrew. This verse exemplifies parataxis of a type that is very common in the Gospels and LXX, though not in Acts. Thus: ‘It happened that he passed through’.[2] In this particular idiom, the second sentence (καὶ ἤρξαντο οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὁδὸν ποιεῖν τίλλοντες τοὺς στάχυας) may be thought to be more important than the first. Jesus was passing through sown fields, and—more shocking to the Pharisees—his twelve disciples were plucking οr picking wheat (or barley?) ears. This seems to be selective picking rather than harvesting, which would have been denoted by, e.g., θερίζω.
ἐν τοῖς σάββασι: these controversial actions happened ‘on the Sabbath’. Σάββασι, the irreg. dat. plural, accords with the LXX usage of the noun, which is often pl. in LXX (Muraoka s.v. 1a) as in the NT. Ex. Dict. NT, p.220, s.v. 1: ‘Of 68 NT occurrences…24 are pl.’ ‘Sabbath’ will be repeated several times in the pericope.
ὁδὸν ποιεῖν: ‘to make a way, path’. ὁδός, ἡ, can be meant literally, as here, or figuratively, as in other contexts.
[27] τὸ σάββατον διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐγένετο, οὐχ ὁ ἄνθρωπος διὰ τὸ σάββατον: a chiaston (or chiasmus), a rhetorical device in which the second members of a clause reverse the order of the corresponding members in the first. The result is an x-shaped structure involving balance and antithesis: A ~ B
B′ A′
(A famous modern example is JFK’s ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’) Jesus makes a strong rhetorical point, his reverse syntax re-enacting his radical proposition.
Mk 3
[2] παρετήρουν αὐτὸν εἰ τοῖς σάββασι θεραπεύσει αὐτόν: παρατηρῶ (έω), ‘Ι observe closely’, followed by an interr. clause, as here (εἰ τοῖς σάββασι θεραπεύσει αὐτόν), a usage found also in cl. Gk (LSJ s.v. 1). The Pharisees scrutinise Jesus—they are spying on him and his group.
[3] ἔγειρε εἰς τὸ μέσον: ἐγείρω, intr., ‘I stand up, get up’.[3] The man with the withered (i.e. atrophic) hand was lying or sitting. His condition would perhaps have affected his ability to work.
εἰς τὸ μέσον, ‘in public’ , (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. ΙΙΙ b). Thus: ‘Get up and come here for all to see.’
[5] καὶ περιβλεψάμενος αὐτοὺς μετ᾿ ὀργῆς, συλλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν: περιβλέπω, intr., ‘look round about, gaze about’ (περί + βλέπω). Περιβλέπομαι, mid. vc., trans., is post-cl.: ‘I look around at’ (LSJ s.v. II). The type of gaze (searching, inquisitive, etc.) depends on the context. Here Jesus looks round at them μετ᾿ ὀργῆς, ‘with wrath, wrathfully’. Another vb dealing with vision as in v. 2, ‘they observed/ spied on him’.
συλλυπούμενος, pass. vc., ‘I share in grief with, sympathize with’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. II), c. dat. Here instead of a dat. obj. Mk uses the prep. phrase ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, ‘at the hardening of their heart’. Πώρωσις, a medical term in cl. Gk, means ‘hardening’. Here the meaning is fig., ‘hardening, stubbornness’. Jesus feels sorry for the recalcitrant Pharisees.
[1] Exeg. Dict. NT, p. 33. s.v.
[2] Mark could have used the articular inf. with the preposition ἐν: ἐν τῷ παραπορεύεσθαι would mean ‘in the very act of passing’ cf. Luke 17:11,
Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ πορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν. See Blass-Debrunner-Funk, par. 404.1 on the inf. + dat. (which however has cl. Gk precedents).
[3] Exeg. Dict. NT, p.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 