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19 Jesus[a] said to them, “The wedding guests[b] cannot fast while the bridegroom[c] is with them, can they?[d] As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them,[e] and at that time[f] they will fast. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse.

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Footnotes

  1. Mark 2:19 tn Grk “And Jesus.”
  2. Mark 2:19 tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically, friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).
  3. Mark 2:19 sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5).
  4. Mark 2:19 tn Questions prefaced with μή () in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “can they?”).
  5. Mark 2:20 sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 8:27ff. (cf. 8:31; 9:31; 10:33).
  6. Mark 2:20 tn Grk “then on that day.”