What Does Mark 2:24 Mean?
The separated ones said to him, Look, why do they do what is not permitted on the Sabbath?
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
And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?THE KEY
The accusers turn a day named for cessation into a boundary test of what may be done.
THE MEANING
The accusation measures their action against what is permitted on the Sabbath. The Greek phrase οὐκ ἔξεστιν (ouk exestin) means “it is not permitted,” making permission the hinge of the question. The verse shows how a practice of rest can become a test of compliance.
THE ROOT
σάββασιν
sabbasin
GROWS FROM
σαββατ- / σαββασ-
Sabbath, the day of cessation and rest; the Greek loanword stem σαββατ- has the form σαββασ- in this verse.
“sabbath day” in this verse is sabbasin. The Greek σάββασιν (sabbasin, “Sabbath”) is a declined form in the σαββατ- / σαββασ- word family. English presents Sabbath as a rule-name, while its root carries cessation and rest into the very day the Pharisees make a boundary for judging action.
ALSO GROWS
sabbatizō: keep the Sabbath; rest on the Sabbath
σαββατίζω
This verb shares the σαββατ- family and shows Sabbath as an enacted cessation.
sabbatismos: Sabbath-rest
σαββατισμός
This noun shares the same family and names rest as the substance of Sabbath.
THE PATTERN
Sabbath rest is structured as shared relief for living beings, yet can be recast as a test of permitted behavior.
Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall stop, that your ox and your donkey may settle, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the sojourner who is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as you do.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.THE THREAD
Therefore a Sabbath settling remains for the people of God.The Greek word here for “rest” is σαββατισμός (sabbatismos), from the same σαββατ- family as the Sabbath in Mark’s question. The challenged day and the rest that remains are joined by one word-family.
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