Mark 2:17

[325][326][327][328][329][330][331][332] and versions omit εἰς μετάνοιαν, which comes from Luke 5:32.

[325] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[326] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.
[327] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[328] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mark 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

[329] Codex Cyprius. 9th cent. One of the seven uncials which have the Gospels complete, the others being אBMSUΩ. At Paris.

[330] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[331] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.
[332] Codex Petropolitanus. 9th cent. Gospels almost complete. Mark 16:18-20 is in a later hand.

17. καὶ�. Probably He overheard. In all three accounts He takes the whole responsibility. It is His doing, not the disciples’, that they eat with sinners, with excommunicated toll-collectors and their associates. He asserts His mission as the Physician of souls; physicians do not visit healthy persons, and they are not afraid of being infected by the diseases of the sick. Moreover, they cannot heal the sick without visiting them. It is possible that this aphorism was current in Palestine before Christ used it, and that it came to Palestine from the Cynics, but the idea is “such an obvious one that different men may quite well have stumbled on it independently” (Jülicher). As Euthymius remarks, ὁ μὲν νόμος ἐξέβαλλε τὸν κακόν, ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς μετέβαλλεν.

οἱ ἰσχύοντες. They that are strong. Cf. Soph. Track. 234.

οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους. An argumentum ad hominem. They believed themselves to be δίκαιοι: He came to call those who knew themselves to be sinners, and He had no remedy for those who were convinced that they needed no remedy. The interpolation of εἰς μετάνοιαν weakens the incisiveness of the parallel; see crit. note. With ἦλθον cf. Mark 1:38; Mark 10:45. Those who attributed these expressions to Christ believed in His pre-existence; and whence came that belief? Salmon, Human Element, p. 170. Christ seems to have often used the form “not … but”; it is freq. in the Gospels, and specially freq. in Mk (Mark 3:26; Mark 3:29; Mark 4:17; Mark 4:22; Mark 5:39; Mark 6:9; Mark 7:19; Mark 9:37; Mark 10:8, etc.).