Text:

pōs ‘how’ in v. 26 is omitted by Kilpatrick, but included by all other modern editions of the Greek text (Nestle and Westcott and Hort have it in brackets).

Exegesis:

oudepote anegnōte…; ‘have you never read…?’: another rhetorical question. There is no doubt that they had read; the point is they are being accused of not having understood what they read.

anaginōskō (12.10, 26; 13.14) ‘read,’ ‘read aloud’: the incident referred to is related in 1 Sam. 21.1-6.

chreian eschen (cf. 2.17) ‘he had need,’ ‘he had necessity.’

epeinasen (11.12) ‘he got hungry’ (to be distinguished from nēsteuō ‘fast’; cf. 2.18).

hoi met’ autou ‘those with him,’ ‘his companions’ (cf. 1.36).

pōs ‘how?’: in omitting this interrogative, Translator’s New Testament places the question mark at the end of v. 25 and makes of v. 26 a statement; in including pōs ‘how?’ the other editions of the Greek text extend the question to the end of v. 26 (as does Revised Standard Version).

ton oikon tou theou ‘the house of God’: in the time of David, of course, it was the Tabernacle (not the Temple).

epi Abiathar archiereōs ‘when Abiathar was high priest.’

epi ‘upon’ with the genitive here indicates time: ‘in the time of,’ ‘under’ (cf. Lk. 3.2, Acts 11.28).

Abiathar ‘Abiathar’: for the problem involved in the fact that the high priest was actually Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar (cf. 1 Sam. 21.1; 22.20), see the commentaries. It has been suggested that the phrase here employed, like epi tou batou ‘in the passage about the bush’ in 12.26 (which see), means ‘at the passage of Scripture concerning (or, entitled) Abiathar the High Priest.’ The suggestion, however, is none too convincing.

archiereus ‘high priest’ (the singular is found further in 14.47, 53, 54, 60, 61, 63, 66; the plural hoi archiereis ‘the chief priests’ occurs 14 times in Mark: see 8.31).

tous artous tēs protheseōs literally ‘the loaves of the presentation’: a translation of lechem ha-panim ‘bread of the face (of God)’ (see Lev. 24.5-9 for instructions concerning the twelve loaves laid on tables before God every week by the priests). For the Greek phrase see Septuagint Lev. 24.8. In keeping with the meaning and purpose of these loaves, the accurate translation is ‘bread of the Presence (of God)’ (Revised Standard Version, Translator’s New Testament).

hous ouk exestin phagein ei mē tous hiereis ‘which (bread) it is not lawful (for anyone) to eat except the priests’: though a rather awkward construction, the meaning is clear.

kai edōken kai tois sun autō ousin ‘and he gave it also to those who were with him.’

kai (the second one) means here ‘also,’ ‘furthermore,’ ‘in addition.’

tois sun autō ousin ‘to his companions’ (the meaning is the same as that of hoi met’ autou of v. 25)

Translation:

Said is in this verse more specifically ‘answered’ or ‘asked,’ depending upon the requirements of the context as specified in a receptor language.

In some languages there are special forms of questions which are essentially rhetorical, i.e. asking not for the sake of the information communicated but asked to make a point in the very asking. Since this question directed to the Pharisees by Jesus is so obviously rhetorical – the Pharisees had read the Scriptures many times but had not taken them to heart – it may be essential to give the sentence a special form characteristic of such questions.

Because of the unusual placement of the appositional double subject he and those who were with him after the principal subject David (and separated from the latter by an intervening clause), it is often necessary to regroup the constituents as follows: ‘what David did when he and those who were with him were in need and were hungry’ (Amganad Ifugao).

To be in need may be translated as ‘had nothing,’ or in some instance as ‘were in difficulty.’

Because of the syntactic awkwardness of continuing the question with the beginning of verse 26, thus making two clauses dependent upon read: namely, ‘What David did…’ and ‘how he entered…,’ it is sometimes preferable to begin verse 26 as a statement, ‘he entered….’

One should use ‘house of God,’ despite the fact that this may have been selected as a term for the temple rather than for the tabernacle. In some languages, however, it is ‘the house for God’ rather than ‘God’s house,’ which could refer only to heaven.

High in the phrase high priest is generally translatable as ‘the biggest,’ ‘the strongest,’ ‘the most important,’ or ‘the chief.’ Rarely does elevation, i.e. literally ‘high,’ come into the figure.

Bread of the Presence involves two principal problems: (1) the traditional translation as ‘showbread,’ which would give rise to translations meaning ‘bread which was displayed,’ ‘bread put out to be seen,’ or ‘bread laid out’ (Tzeltal) and (2) the problems of rendering presence, without specifying whose presence is involved. The meaning in this latter type of phrase is that the bread was displayed before the presence of God, in which case the word ‘Presence’ would signify God Himself. In so many languages, however, it is quite impossible to talk about ‘presence’ without stipulating whose presence one is referring to, a problem not only presented by the semantic character of the phrase but by the very syntactic relationships of words, e.g. ‘presence’ is often either a verb which must have a subject or a noun which demands an actor possessor. In either case, therefore, ‘God’ would have to be specified. In some languages, accordingly, the closest equivalent of bread of the Presence would be ‘bread set before God’ or ‘bread set before the face of God’ (Luvale); ‘loaves which are laid before the face (of God)’ (Toraja-Sa’dan).

It is not lawful for any but involves a double negative, reproduced in some languages as ‘only the priests could eat.’

It is essential that the last clause be fully reproduced in any translation, for so much of the meaning is attached to the fact that David gave to those with him, a specific parallel to what Jesus was doing in permitting his disciples to do what was forbidden on the Sabbath.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .