KJV: And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
YLT: And the scribes and the Pharisees, having seen him eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners, said to his disciples, 'Why -- that with the tax-gatherers and sinners he doth eat and drink?'
Darby: And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing him eating with sinners and tax-gatherers, said to his disciples, Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax-gatherers and sinners?
ASV: And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and publicans, said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
γραμματεῖς | scribes |
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: γραμματεύς Sense: a clerk, scribe, esp. |
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τῶν | of the |
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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Φαρισαίων | Pharisees |
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: Φαρισαῖος Sense: A sect that seems to have started after the Jewish exile. |
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ἰδόντες | having seen |
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: εἶδον Sense: to see with the eyes. |
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ἐσθίει | eating |
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἐσθίω Sense: to eat. |
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ἁμαρτωλῶν | sinners |
Parse: Adjective, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: ἁμαρτωλός Sense: devoted to sin, a sinner. |
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τελωνῶν | tax collectors |
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Plural Root: τελώνης Sense: a renter or farmer of taxes. |
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ἔλεγον | were saying |
Parse: Verb, Imperfect Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural Root: λέγω Sense: to speak, say. |
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τοῖς | to the |
Parse: Article, Dative Masculine Plural Root: ὁ Sense: this, that, these, etc. |
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μαθηταῖς | disciples |
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Plural Root: μαθητής Sense: a learner, pupil, disciple. |
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αὐτοῦ | of Him |
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular Root: αὐτός Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself. |
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Ὅτι | Why |
Parse: Conjunction Root: ὅτι Sense: that, because, since. |
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ἐσθίει | does He eat |
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἐσθίω Sense: to eat. |
Greek Commentary for Mark 2:16
This is the correct text. Cf. “their scribes” in Luke 5:30. Matthew gave a great reception These publicans and sinners not simply accepted Levi‘s invitation, but they imitated his example “and were following Jesus” It was a motly crew from the standpoint of these young theologues, scribes of the Pharisees, who were on hand, being invited to pick flaws if they could. It was probably in the long hall of the house where the scribes stood and ridiculed Jesus and the disciples, unless they stood outside, feeling too pious to go into the house of a publican. It was an offence for a Jew to eat with Gentiles as even many of the early Jewish Christians felt (Acts 11:3) and publicans and sinners were regarded like Gentiles (1 Corinthians 5:11). [source]
But the best texts read γραμματεῖς τῶν Φαρισαίων , scribes of the Pharisees. So Rev. Scribes belonging to the sect of the Pharisees. They had followed him into the hall where the company were seated. This hall answered to the k)ha3wahof Arabian houses, which is thus described by William Gifford Palgrave: “The k)ha4wahwas a long, oblong hall about twenty feet in height, fifty in length, and sixteen or thereabouts in breadth. The walls were covered in a rudely decorative manner with brown and white wash, and sunk here and there into small triangular recesses, destined to the reception of books, lamps, and other such like objects. The roof was of timber, and fiat; the floor was strewn with fine, clean sand, and garnished all round alongside of the walls with long strips of carpet, upon which cushions, covered with faded silk, were disposed at suitable intervals. In poorer houses, felt rugs usually take the place of carpets” (“Central and Eastern Arabia”). [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Mark 2:16
Indoors the nine disciples seek an explanation for their colossal failure. They had cast out demons and wrought cures before. The Revisers are here puzzled over Mark‘s use of hoti as an interrogative particle meaning why where Matthew 17:19 has dia ti Some of the manuscripts have dia ti here in Mark 9:28 as all do in Matthew 17:19. See also Mark 2:16 and Mark 9:11. It is probable that in these examples hoti really means why. See Robertson, Grammar, p. 730. The use of hos as interrogative “is by no means rare in the late Greek” (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 126). [source]
Note article with each substantive and the order, not “scribes and Pharisees,” but “the Pharisees and the scribes of them” (the Pharisees). Some manuscripts omit “their,” but Mark 2:16 (the scribes of the Pharisees) shows that it is correct here. Some of the scribes were Sadducees. It is only the Pharisees who find fault here. [source]