What Does Mark 2:20 Mean?
But days will come when the bridegroom is lifted away from them, and then they will fast in those days.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.THE KEY
The Greek verb carries the image of the bridegroom being lifted away, making fasting the bodily shape of his absence.
THE MEANING
The verse holds presence and absence together: while the bridegroom is with them, fasting does not fit; when he is taken from them, their days change. Their response changes with the relationship, not with a fixed measure of devotion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fast is not automatically proof of greater devotion; here its meaning depends on whether the bridegroom is present or taken away.
THE ROOT
ἀπαρθῇ
aparthē
GROWS FROM
αἴρω
airō
to lift, carry, or take away
“lifted away” in this verse is aparthē. The verb pictures the bridegroom as lifted out from among them, not simply as someone they happen to miss. The same root can describe lifting something up or carrying it away, so the verse gives absence a sense of removal.
ALSO GROWS
airō: to lift, carry, or take away
αἴρω
This is the base verb beneath the word translated “taken away,” showing the movement hidden inside the phrase.
epairō: to raise or lift up
ἐπαίρω
This related form keeps the image of lifting, illuminating the force of the bridegroom being removed from their midst.
νυμφίος
nymphios
GROWS FROM
νυμφ-
nymph-
bride; bridal relationship
The word names the bridegroom through his bond with the bride. That relationship makes the fast here an answer to a person’s absence, rather than a bare rule about meals.
ALSO GROWS
nymphē: bride
νύμφη
The bridegroom’s name carries the bride within it; the verse’s focus is a relationship, not an isolated religious practice.
nymphōn: bridal chamber
νυμφών
This related word evokes the shared setting of a wedding, making the contrast between presence and absence especially vivid.
THE PATTERN
The bridegroom’s presence awakens rejoicing, while his absence makes fasting a fitting expression of grief.
For as a young man takes a virgin as his own, so shall your sons take you as their own; and as the bridegroom leaps for the bride, so shall your God leap for you.And Jesus said to them, Can the children of the bridal chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But days will come when the bridegroom is lifted away from them, and then they will fast.The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been filled.THE THREAD
So now you have pain, but again I will perceive you, and your heart will rejoice, and no one lifts your joy away from you.Mark’s verb for the bridegroom being taken away and John’s verb for someone taking joy share the same root of lifting or carrying away. Mark names the sorrow of removal; John places that sorrow beside a joy that cannot be taken away.
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