Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 2:20
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
20. the days will come ] The thought of death accompanies our Lord even to the social meal, and in the now undisguised hatred of His opponents He sees a token of what must hereafter come to pass. A dim hint of the same kind He had already given in His saying to the Jewish rulers, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Joh 2:19), and in His conversation with Nicodemus (Joh 3:14).
taken away ] The same word is used by each of the Synoptists, and implies a violent termination of His life. The words occur nowhere else in the New Testament. This is the first open allusion recorded by St Mark, though probably little understood at the time, to the death, which was so soon to separate Him from His disciples.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 20. In those days.] But instead of , many of the best MSS. and versions read, , in that day; viz. the day in which Jesus Christ should be delivered up to the Jews and Gentiles. Mill and Bengel approve of this reading, and Griesbach adopts it. The former part of the verse seems to vindicate the common reading.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But the days will come,…. As they were in some sense now come to the disciples of John, their master being taken up by Herod, and confined in prison, and so it was a mourning time with them:
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days: referring to the time of the sufferings and death of Christ, which would be, and was a sorrowful season to his disciples.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then – in those days. The proper reading is ejn ejkeinh, in that day. So Rev. Another of Mark’s double expressions : then – in that day.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”But the days will come,” (eleusontai de hemeria) “Yet the days will come,” a phophecy of our Lord, of His coming death, resurrection, and return to the Father, Joh 14:1-3.
2) “When the bridegroom shall be taken away from them,” (hoton aparthe ap’auton ho numphios) “When the bridegroom shall be (and have been) taken apart from them,” separated from them, and it soon came, Joh 16:6; Joh 16:20; Joh 16:22.
3) “And then shall they fast in those days.” (kai tote nesteusousin en ekeine te hemera) “And at that time, in that day they will fast,” as it will then be appropriate for them to be sorrowful, regretful, because He is gone from them, with them’ no more, Luk 24:17. The “that” day, when the bridegroom is taken away, refers to the day (or era) of the Gentiles in which we now live, not just to the day Jesus died, or just to the day when He ascended into heaven. True followers of Jesus should fast, pray, look, long for, and serve Him, till the shout rings out, “Behold the bridegroom cometh,” Tit 2:13-14; Mat 25:1-12, Rev 19:5-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
“But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”
These words confirm that we are to see in the picture of the Bridegroom something significant concerning Jesus. For the Bridegroom Who was now here, would one day be snatched away (the verb is forceful – compare Isa 53:8) and then they will have good cause to fast. Jesus knew already from the voice at His baptism that He was called on to fulfil the ministry of the suffering Servant, and this was confirmed by John’s words, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29). Thus we have here the first indication of His awareness of the brutal end that awaited Him. He knew that He must face suffering on behalf of His people. And then indeed His disciples would fast.
Interestingly the words do not encourage regular fasting. The disciples would indeed sorrow but their sorrow would be turned into joy (Joh 16:20). Thus the need for fasting would quickly pass and would be no more. There is no real encouragement to fasting here.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
20 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
Ver. 20. Then shall they fast ] Novices are not to be tied to the austerities of religion. The Pharisees are revived in the Anabaptists, qui initiatis Christo ne risum quidem mediocrem adraittunt, saith Calvin, in Mat 9:15 . Capistranus the minorite, sent by the Pope into Germany and other countries, A. D. 1453, to preach obedience to the see of Rome, got a great deal of credit to his corrupt doctrine, by such a Pharisaical severity. Sed tales Doetores meretur mundus suo fastidio veritatis, saith one, they that will not receive the truth in love, are left to the efficacy of error. (Funccius in Chronolog.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 2:20 . Here also the style becomes burdened by the sense of the solemn character of the fact stated: there will come days when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast in that day! This final expression, , singular, for plural in first clause, is very impressive, although Fritzsche calls it prorsus intolerabile . There is no ground for the suggestion that the phrase is due to the evangelist, and refers to the Friday of the Passion Week (Holtz., H. C.). It might quite well have been used by Jesus.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark
THE PUBLICANS’ FRIEND
Mar 2:13 – Mar 2:22
By calling a publican, Jesus shocked ‘public opinion and outraged propriety, as the Pharisees and scribes understood it. But He touched the hearts of the outcasts. A gush of sympathy melts souls frozen hard by icy winds of scorn. Levi otherwise Matthew had probably had wistful longings after Jesus which he had not dared to show, and therefore he eagerly and instantly responded to Christ’s call, leaving everything in his custom-house to look after itself. Mark emphasises the effect of this advance towards the disreputable classes by Jesus, in his repeated mention of the numbers of them who followed Him. The meal in Matthew’s house was probably not immediately after his call. The large gathering attracted the notice of Christ’s watchful opponents, who pounced upon His sitting at meat with such ‘shady’ people as betraying His low tastes and disregard of seemly conduct, and, with characteristic Eastern freedom, pushed in as uninvited spectators. They did not carry their objection to Himself, but covertly insinuated it into the disciples’ minds, perhaps in hope of sowing suspicions there. Their sarcasm evoked Christ’s own ‘programme’ of His mission, for which we have to thank them.
I. We have, first, Christ’s vindication of His consorting with the lowest.
But what does He mean by the distinction between sick and sound, righteous and sinners? Surely all need His healing, and there are not two classes of men. Have not all sinned? Yes, but Jesus speaks to the cavillers, for the moment, in their own dialect, saying, in effect, ‘I take you at your own valuation, and therein find My defence. You do not think that you need a physician, and you call yourselves ‘righteous and these outcasts ‘sinners.’ So you should not be surprised if I, being the healer, turn away to them, and prefer their company to yours.’ But there is more than taking them at their own estimate in the great words, for to conceit ourselves ‘whole’ bars us off from getting any good from Jesus. He cannot come to the self-righteous heart. We must feel our sickness before we can see Him in His true character, or be blessed by His presence with us. And the apparent distinction, which seems to limit His work, really vanishes in the fact that we all are sick and sinners, whatever we may think of ourselves, and that, therefore, the errand of the great Physician is to us all. The Pharisee who knows himself a sinner is as welcome as the outcast. The most outwardly respectable, clean-living, orthodoxly religious formalist needs Him as much, and may have Him as healingly, as the grossest criminal, foul with the stench of loathsome disease. That great saying has changed the attitude towards the degraded and unclean, and many a stream of pity and practical work for such has been drawn off from that Nile of yearning love, though all unconscious of its source.
II. We have Christ’s vindication of the disciples from ascetic critics.
First, note that He calls Himself the ‘bridegroom’-a designation which would surely touch some chords in John’s disciples, remembering how their Master had spoken of the ‘bridegroom’ and his ‘friend.’ The name tells us that Jesus claimed the psalms of the ‘bride-groom’ as prophecies of Himself, and claimed the Church that was to be as His bride. It speaks tenderly of His love and of our possible blessedness. Next, we note the sweet suggestion of the joyful life of the disciples in intercourse with Him. We perhaps do not sufficiently regard their experience in that light, but surely they were happy, being ever with Him, though they knew not yet all the wonder and blessedness which His presence involved and brought. They were a glad company, and Christians ought now to be joyous, because the bridegroom is still with them, and the more really so by reason of His ascending up where He was before. We have seen Him again, as He promised, and our hearts should rejoice with a joy which no man can take from us.
Next, we note Christ’s clear prevision of His death, the violence of which is hinted at in the words, ‘Shall be taken away from them.’ Further, we note the great principle that outward forms must follow inward realities, and are genuine only when they are the expression of states of mind and feeling. That is a far-reaching truth, ever being forgotten in the tyranny which the externals of religion exercise. Let the free spirit have its own way, and cut its own channels. Laughter may be as devout as fasting. Joy is to be expressed in religion as well as grief. No outward form is worth anything unless the inner man vitalises it, and such a mere form is not simply valueless, but may quickly become hypocrisy and conscious make-believe.
III. Jesus adds two similes, which are condensed parables, to deal with a wider question rising out of the preceding principles.
The essential point in both the similes of the raw cloth stitched on to the old, and of the new wine poured into stiff old skins, is the necessary incongruity between old forms and new tendencies. Undressed cloth is sure to shrink when wetted, and, being stronger than the old, to draw its frayed edges away. So, if new truth, or new conceptions of old truth, or new enthusiasms, are patched on to old modes, they will look out of place, and will sooner or later rend the old cloth. But the second simile advances on the first, in that it points not only to harm done to the old by the unnatural marriage, but also to mischief to the new. Put fermenting wine into a hard, unyielding, old wine-skin, and there can be but one result,-the strong effervescence will burst the skin, which may not matter much, and the precious wine will run out and be lost, sucked up by the thirsty soil, which matters more. The attempt to confine the new within the limits of the old, or to express it by the old forms, destroys them and wastes it. The attempt was made to keep Christianity within the limits of Judaism; it failed, but not before much harm had been done to Christianity. Over and over again the effort has been made in the Church, and it has always ended disastrously,-and it always will. It will be a happy day for both the old and the new when we all learn to put new wine into new skins, and remember that ‘God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
away from. Greek. apo. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mar 2:20.[20] , shall come) This is the first intimation of His Passion.- ) So also the Gothic version reads. Moreover, the plural, which is substituted by some, comes evidently from Luke.[21] There is but one day of the Bridegroom being taken away; many days, of His continuing absent after having been so taken away. But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away; and then shall they fast in that day (In some one of those days, to wit, especially on the first of them). So in Luk 17:22 the plural number is used, the days shall come; and in Luk 2:31, on that day, in the singular number, with a force having relation to that plural.
[20] Mar 2:19. , the Bridegroom) This means Jesus, in whose absence, they, to whom he is known, cannot feel the day joyful, and in whose presence they cannot feel the day sad.-V. g.
[21] Through Harmonists.-ED. The Gnomon and margin of Ed. 2 and Vers. Germ. prefer the Sing. The Ed. Maj. has at it the mark .-E. B. ABCD and Amiat. Vulg. support the Sing.: abc later Vulg. and Rec. Text, the Plural.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the bridegroom: Psa 45:11, Son 3:11, Isa 54:5, Isa 62:5, Joh 3:29, 2Co 11:2, Rev 19:7, Rev 21:9
be taken: Zec 13:7, Mat 26:31, Joh 7:33, Joh 7:34, Joh 12:8, Joh 13:33, Joh 16:7, Joh 16:28, Joh 17:11, Joh 17:13, Act 1:9, Act 3:21
and: Act 13:2, Act 13:3, Act 14:23, 1Co 7:5, 2Co 6:5, 2Co 11:27
Reciprocal: Mat 25:1 – the bridegroom
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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This verse applies the illustration to the disciples who were destined finally to mourn the absence of their Lord. (See chapter 16:20).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Verse 20
The meaning is, that, while Christ was with his disciples, it was proper for them to rejoice, and not to mourn. The days for mourning and fasting would come when he should be taken away.