Mark 2:23 (BSB)
One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.
Commentary on Mark 2:23
- 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 2:23: And the Pharisees said unto him,.... To Christ, the same they said to his disciples, Luk 6:2. Behold, why do they on the sabbath day, that which is not lawful? see how they pluck the ears of corn and rub them, and eat things, which by the law, especially by the traditions of the elders, were not lawful to be done on the sabbath day; See Gill on Mat 12:2.
- Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), Barnes' New Testament Notes on Mark 2:23: Verses 23-28. See . The corn fields. The fields sown with grain, wheat, or barley. The word corn, in the Bible, refers only to grain of that kind, and never to maize or Indian corn. To pluck the ears of corn. They were hungry, (Matthew.) They therefore gathered the wheat, or barley, as they walked, and rubbed it in their hands to shell it, and thus to satisfy their appetite.
- William Burkitt (Anglican), Expository Notes on the New Testament on Mark 2:23: Observe here, 1. The poverty, the low estate and condition, of Christ's own disciples in this world; they wanted bread, and are forced to pluck the ears of corn to satisfy their hunger. God may, and sometimes doth, suffer his dearest children to fall in streights, to taste of want, for the trial of their faith, and dependence upon his power and providence. Observe, 2.