Mark 2:24 (BSB)
So the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
Commentary on Mark 2:24
- John Calvin (Reformed), Calvin's Commentaries on Mark 2:24: Mark 2:24. Why do they on the Sabbath what is not lawful? The Pharisees do not blame the disciples of Christ for plucking ears of corn from a field that was not their own, but for violating the Sabbath; as if there had been a precept to this effect, that famishing men ought rather to die than to satisfy their hunger.
- 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 2:24: And he said unto them,.... By way of answer to their question, and which was a full one, and enough to silence them: have ye never read what David did; referring to the history in Sa1 21:1. when he had need: of bread, was in great necessity, and in the utmost distress: and was an hungered, he, and they that were with him?
- Albert Barnes (Presbyterian), Barnes' New Testament Notes on Mark 2:24: Verse 24. That which is not lawful. That is, that which they esteemed to be unlawful on the sabbath day. It was made lawful by Moses, without any distinction of days; but they had denied its lawfulness on the sabbath. Christ shows them, from their own law, that it was not unlawful.