What Does Mark 2:16 Mean in the King James?
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?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The shared meal makes the boundary visible: the people called “sinners” are eating and drinking in Jesus’ company.
THE MEANING
The question treats a meal as evidence of whose company Jesus shares. The people named as missing the mark are at the same table with him, and that closeness draws scrutiny. The verse brings the reader face to face with the boundary people draw around who belongs.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτωλῶν
hamartōlōn
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
To miss, err, or miss the mark; this form means “of sinners.”
“sinners” in this verse is hamartōlōn. The label grows from the language of missing: these people are named by what they miss. Yet they are eating and drinking in Jesus’ company while the label remains; the meal makes that nearness impossible to overlook.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb makes the family’s sense of missing visible beneath the label applied to the people at the table.
hamartia: Missing, missing the mark.
ἁμαρτία
This noun names the missing itself, connecting the disputed company to the root idea carried by “sinners.”
THE PATTERN
Who eats with whom makes a boundary of belonging visible.
And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.THE THREAD
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.The same Greek word family for “sinners” appears in Jesus’ answer. The people named by missing are also the ones he calls, so the shared meal belongs to the calling itself.
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