Mark 2:18 (BSB)
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were often fasting. So people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t Your disciples fast like John’s disciples and those of the Pharisees?”
Commentary on Mark 2:18
- Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Mark 2:18-28: Christ had been put to justify himself in conversing with publicans and sinners: here he is put to justify his disciples; and in what they do according to his will he will justify them, and bear them out. I. He justifies them in their not fasting, which was turned to their reproach by the Pharisees. Why do the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast?
- John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Mark 2:18: And Jesus said unto them,.... Both to John's disciples and the Pharisees, can the children of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? Suggesting that he was the bridegroom, as John their master had called him, Joh 3:29, and that his disciples were the children of the bride chamber; and that it was very unsuitable for them, and very unreasonable to desire...
- Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), Barnes' New Testament Notes on Mark 2:18: Verse 18. And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast. Were accustomed often to fast. Compare .
- William Burkitt (Anglican), Expository Notes on the New Testament on Mark 2:18: Observe here, 1. A great difference betwixt John's disciples and Christ's in the matter of fasting. John's disciples imitated him, who was a man of an austere life, and much given to fasting; therefore he is said to come neither eating nor drinking, Matt 11:18.