Mark 2:25
in Mark 2Jesus replied, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And he said unto them, Did ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry, he, and they that were with him?
KJV
And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
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This verse in Mark 2
Commentary
11 notes on this verse(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) But our Lord brings forward David, to whom it once happened to eat though it was forbidden by the law, when he touched the Priest's food, that by his example, he might do away with their accusation of the disciples. For there follows, Have ye never read, &c.
This site's exposition
Have you never read what David did
on Mark 2:25-26
The phrase During the high priesthood of Abiathar is a known difficulty, since 1 Samuel 21 names Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar, in office. Some explain that Abiathar was present and became the better known high priest.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
It is foolish to believe the Evangelist's account that he ate and not to believe that he was really hungry. Yet it does not follow that everyone who eats is hungry. For we read that even an angel ate, but we do not read that he was hungry. Nor does it follow that everyone who is hungry eats. He may either restrain himself due to some obligation or lack food or the means to eat.… Now, just as the fact that Jesus ate food is unintelligible without a body, so the fact that he felt hunger is impossible without a soul.
The Medieval Church3 voices
For David, when flying from the face of Saul, went to the Chief Priest, and ate the show-bread, and took away the sword of Goliath, which things had been offered to the Lord. (1 Sam. 21.) But a question has been raised how the Evangelist called Abiathar at this time High Priest, when the Book of Kings calls him Abimelech. Or else, because when they hare rest from their passions, then are they made doctors to lead others to virtue, plucking away from them earthly things.
And he said to them: Have you never read, etc.? To refute the Pharisees' accusation, he recalls an old story, when David, fleeing Saul, came to Nob and was received by the priest Abimelech, and asked for food (1 Samuel 21). Since he did not …
The disciples of the Lord plucked the ears of grain, as men accustomed to living no longer under the law. When the Pharisees became indignant at this, Christ silences them by pointing to David, who out of necessity broke the law during the time of …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
This, it is said, David did in the days of Abiathar the High-Priest; or just before the days of Abiathar, who immediately succeeded Abimelech his father in the pontificate, and, it is probable, was at that time his father's deputy, or assistant, in the office; and he it was that escaped the massacre, and brought the ephod to David.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
And he said unto them,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
These verses set before us a remarkable scene in our Lord Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. We see our blessed Master and His disciples going "through the grainfields on the Sabbath day." We are told that His disciples, "as they went, began to pluck heads of grain." At once we hear the Pharisees accusing them to our Lord, as if they had committed some great moral offence. "Why are they doing that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?"
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
These verses set before us a remarkable scene in our Lord Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. We see our blessed Master and His disciples going "through the grainfields on the Sabbath day." We are told that His disciples, "as they went, began to pluck heads of grain." At once we hear the Pharisees accusing them to our Lord, as if they had committed some great moral offence. "Why are they doing that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?" They received an answer full of deep wisdom, which all should study well, who desire to understand the subject of Sabbath observance. We see from these verses, what extravagant importance is attached to trifles by those who are mere formalists in religion. The Pharisees were mere formalists, if there ever were any in the world. They seem to have thought exclusively of the outward part, the husk, the shell, and the ceremonial of religion. They even added to these externals by traditions of their own. Their godliness was made up of washings, and fastings, and peculiarities in dress, and will-worship, while repentance, and faith, and holiness were comparatively overlooked. The Pharisees would probably have found no fault, if the disciples had been guilty of some offence against the moral law. They would have winked at covetousness, or perjury, or extortions, or excess, because they were sins to which they themselves were inclined. But no sooner did they see an infringement on their man-made traditions about the right way of keeping the Sabbath, than they raised an outcry, and found fault. Let us watch and pray, lest we fall into the error of the Pharisees. There are never lacking professors who walk in their steps. There are thousands at the present day who plainly think more of the mere outward ceremonial of religion than of its doctrines.
How the passage was read
On Mark 2:18-28On Mark 2:18-28
The bridegroom's exemption and the Sabbath made for man
Two collisions sit side by side here, and both run on ground the tradition itself honors. The fasting question (verses 18-22) comes from devout practice: voluntary fasts, typically Monday and Thursday, kept by the pious beyond the Torah's one commanded fast. Jesus answers from wedding law: the tradition exempts a bridegroom from reciting the Shema on his wedding night because joy overrides duty (Mishnah Berakhot 2:5). “Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?” claims that exemption for His disciples, and names Himself the Bridegroom, a role the Prophets give to God (Hosea 2, Isaiah 62:5).
The grainfield scene (verses 23-28) is unpacked in detail in this site's Matthew 12 note (the thirty-nine categories of Sabbath labor; plucking as reaping). What Mark alone preserves is the saying “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath,” and it has a striking parallel in the tradition itself: “Shabbat is given into your hands, and you are not given to it” (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 85b). Jesus argues on ground the sages would themselves articulate, then goes where no sage went: “therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Berakhot 2:5 (the bridegroom's exemption) · Yoma 85b (Babylonian Talmud: the Sabbath given into your hands)
The words behind it
18 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| λέγει | legei | says | G3004 → | 1325 times |
| αὐτοῖς· | autois | to them; | G846 → | 5565 times |
| οὐδέποτε | oudepote | Surely | G3763 → | |
| ἀνέγνωτε | anegnote | you did read | G314 → | 32 times |
| τί | ti | what | G5101 → | 563 times |
| ἐποίησεν | epoiesen | did | G4160 → | 569 times |
| Δαυὶδ | dauid | David | G1138 → | 59 times |
| ὅτε | hote | when | G3753 → | 103 times |
| χρείαν | chreian | need | G5532 → | 49 times |
| ἔσχεν | eschen | he had | G2192 → | 707 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἐπείνασεν | epeinasen | hungered | G3983 → | |
| αὐτὸς | autos | he himself | G846 → | 5565 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| οἱ | hoi | those | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μετ᾽ | met᾽ | with | G3326 → | 461 times |
| αὐτοῦ; | autou | him? | G846 → | 5565 times |
ΚαὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
λέγειsays
legeiG3004 →1325 times
αὐτοῖς·to them;
autoisG846 →5565 times
οὐδέποτεSurely
oudepoteG3763 →
ἀνέγνωτεyou did read
anegnoteG314 →32 times
τίwhat
tiG5101 →563 times
ἐποίησενdid
epoiesenG4160 →569 times
ΔαυὶδDavid
dauidG1138 →59 times
ὅτεwhen
hoteG3753 →103 times
χρείανneed
chreianG5532 →49 times
ἔσχενhe had
eschenG2192 →707 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἐπείνασενhungered
epeinasenG3983 →
αὐτὸςhe himself
autosG846 →5565 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
οἱthose
hoiG3588 →19766 times
μετ᾽with
met᾽G3326 →461 times
αὐτοῦ;him?
autouG846 →5565 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 21:42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
it leads to
- Psalms 118:22–23
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
- Isaiah 28:16
So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
- Acts 4:11
This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
- 1 Peter 2:4–8
As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
- Ephesians 2:20
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- Psalms 118:22–23
Through
Matthew 19:4Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
it leads to
- Genesis 2:23
And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”
- Genesis 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Genesis 5:2
Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”
- Genesis 2:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies7
About Mark
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, AGAINST THE APOLLINARIANS, QUESTION 80; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.