Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
July 30, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana

⁽⁰⁹²⁾

1901 ASV

16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, [How is it] that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
17 And when Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

• I. The Developing Acceptance/Opposition Thesis [See Notes ⁽⁰⁸⁹⁾].
• II. Mark's Current Presentation.
  • A. Another "by the sea summons of a disciple who follows" record [See Notes ⁽⁰⁸⁹⁾].
  • B. Another "scribal opposition" record.
    • 1. This record specifically concerns "the scribes of the Pharisees". There were multiple factions in first century Judaism (Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, etc.) and each, presumably, had educated "scribes" to buttress their "positions" on issues. The "scribes" in our text/context are specifically identified by Mark.
    • 2. In Mark's references to the Pharisees, there are clear indications that it was "Pharisees" who were the most upset by Jesus, and 8:15 tells us why: there was a pervasive "leaven" in them of a decidedly wicked bent that made them exceedingly antagonistic toward Jesus.
      • a. This wickedness was, in part, a fixed commitment to attaining/maintaining the "glory of men" as the most fundamental methodological foundation for the experience of "the Joy of Life".
        • 1) Pilate, a most degenerate and foolish man who had no regard for "truth" or "righteousness", nonetheless clearly saw this fixed commitment as the bottom line in the actions of those who delivered Jesus up to him and demanded His crucifixion (15:10).
        • 2) Jesus, in John's record, pointedly declared the gross idolatry of this fixed commitment as the bottom line in the antagonism of those who opposed His teaching and Person (John 5:44 in the light of its context of murderous opposition; note also John 7:18 as a very strong warning regarding the extremely disastrous pursuit of the "glory" of men).
          • a) These texts/contexts are critical in light of Hebrews 11:6 where "faith" pleases God, and those whose ability to "believe" is blocked absolutely by their pursuit of the "glory" of men so that they are, by that "unbelief", kept from the Joy of Life by the greatness of the wickedness of that pursuit (Hebrews 3:12).
          • b) These texts/contexts are a most important revelation of the "fault" of the Pharisees.
      • b. This wickedness was, in another way, rooted in the "scribal" approach to the wicked pursuit: the detailed development of "doctrine" as it relates to God and men so that those who are not skilled in that particular set of abilities "seek after, and give their glory to" those who stand out as perceived "men of godly wisdom".
        • 1) Because of divine opposition to this aspect of the wickedness, the scribes could not "teach" as having authority (Mark 1:22) though they desperately wished for at least an "appearance" of such.
        • 2) And, because of Jesus' perceived ability in this realm, they both envied and despised Him and their opposition pushed them to make invalid accusations concerning Him (2:7) and to despise "tax collectors and sinners" as both "hopeless before God" and "unworthy of their efforts to instruct" (Romans 2:20). This was nothing more than a decidedly blind sense on their part of "moral superiority".
    • 3. This record has its focus upon this Pharisaical attitude of "moral superiority".
      • a. The present tense of the verb, "He is eating", used by Mark and the scribes of the Pharisees, is deliberately intense: it denotes a pronounced "fixation" upon Jesus' activity.
        • 1) The "eating" aspect is critical: Pharisaical "moral purity" put a premium upon not having any "accepting/familiar" associations with "the cursed" (John 7:49) who refused to sit in the synagogues and fawn over the "teachers of the Law" because of both their own real guilt and of their recognition of the falseness of the scribes in their teaching (if Pilate could see through these fakers, so also could the tax collectors and sinners).
        • 2) There were pronounced and emphasized "rules" against such familiar actions (note how the "circumcision" in the "Church" reacted against Peter when it discovered he had gone to Cornelius' home and ate with him in Acts 11:2-3).
        • 3) These "rules" were rooted in the Pharisaical fixation upon the idea that "contact" is what makes a person "unclean" rather than the sorry attitudes of the heart; a fixation rooted in a potent misunderstanding of the Law and its instructions regarding "uncleanness".
        • 4) Mark intends that we see the scribes of the Pharisees as "aghast" at Jesus' behavior and wishing to use it as an effective "weapon" to use to try to split His disciples away from Him ("...they were saying..."; not "...they said..." as the Authorized Version and the ASV translate it -- the verb is an imperfect, not an aorist).
      • b. The Authorized Version has a phrase included in the "translation" that ought not to be there: "How is it that...". The ASV translators, recognizing that the "translation" is flawed, put the phrase in brackets so their readers would understand that the phrase does not exist in the text, but included it anyway for some reason. The NASB does a little better by translating the single word at the root of the "phrase" (since when is a single word a "phrase"?) as "Why?".
        • 1) This "Why?" is not an unusual use of the Greek o.
        • 2) Nor, however, is it unusual for o to be used to indicate direct quotes. In English we use quotation marks (" "); Greek has no such punctuation marks. Thus, sometimes Greek uses o [as in John 10:36 (...ye say, "He is blaspheming")] to indicate a direct quote.
        • 3) This is what is going on in our text. The "scribes" are not asking a question; they are making an exclamatory accusation: "With tax collectors and sinners He is eating!!!"
        • 4) It seems to be their hope to intimidate the disciples by pointing out the great wickedness of Jesus' behavior so that they will quit following Him.
  • C. Another record of Jesus' response to the wicked.
    • 1. Mark first records, in this case, that Jesus' response was to what He "heard". This is different from the previous paragraph wherein He responded to what He "knew", by His Spirit, was in their hearts (2:8).
      • a. That He heard indicates a certain level of vehemence in the speaker whose voice was raised sufficiently to be heard over the hubbub of the large number of conversations going on in the room. The speaker may have done this deliberately so that Jesus would "hear" and, thus, "know" the speaker's disdain. On the other hand, he may have not really intended to be overheard, but was simply unguarded in his expression of his disgust.
      • b. That the scribes of the Pharisees were present to see what Jesus was doing also means something. What were such scribes doing in Levi's home?
    • 2. He then records Jesus' verbal response: "Those who are 'inherently strong' have no need of a doctor, but those 'having badly' [do have such a need]; I did not come to call 'righteous' but 'sinners'".
      • a. The description of those who are healthy as "those having inner strength" means that their bodies possess sufficient strength to throw off the causes of illness that were not rare in the setting.
        • 1) There is at least the suggestion here of the great flaw of the theology of these Pharisaical scribes: their "faith" in the human ability ("those having inner strength") to live by the Law and be successful against the onslaught of "Sin". They are, in Jesus' condemning retort, those whom He did not come to "call".
        • 2) These scribes were of the "stripe" of men to whom Paul referred in Colossians 2:23 with his unique term translated "will worship" in the Authorized Version and ASV.
          • a) This term is not recorded to exist in the massive and comprehensive Liddell-Scott lexicon of Greek words, except in this one place in all of the known Greek literature of multiple centuries.
          • b) There is in this at least the possibility that it was a word coined by Paul "on the fly" in his letter to the Colossians.
          • c) It is more than likely that Paul's use of this unique word was directly pointed at the "doctrine" of man's potent volitional capacities. In direct contradiction to Paul's anguished declaration that his "will" had no real power in Romans 7:23, these scribes championed "free will" as the root of "obedience" as a fundamental part of their "superiority complexes".
      • b. The phrase "having badly" is awkward English, but Mark has already used the phrase in 1:32 and 1:34 to signify people whose bodies were losing/had lost the inner strength needed to effectively address their illnesses.

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This is article #091.
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