That Jesus’s disciples do not follow the examples of the disciples of John the Baptizer and the disciples of the Pharisees, both of whom were considered morally and ritually exemplary, is a further cause of offense to his contemporaries (2:18–22). The Pharisees, a lay movement that came into existence during the Maccabean revolt (168–146 BC), staunchly resisted the accommodation of Jewish life to prevailing Greco-Roman ideals. Pharisees, who constituted perhaps only 1 percent of the Jewish population in Jesus’s day, exercised an influence far beyond their numbers because of their uncompromising allegiance to the sovereignty of God, their belief in the resurrection of the dead and in the existence of angels and demons, and their scrupulous adherence to both the written torah and the oral t…
Jesus Questioned about Fasting
Mark 2:18-22
Mark 2:18-22
One Volume
by Gary M. Burge
by Gary M. Burge
Baker Publishing Group, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, by Gary M. Burge