Mark 2:17 Needing a Healer

This is my first article in two months. I am finally well enough to start posting again if only a limited way.

It makes me smile that one of the first verses that was next in my list for updating was Mark 2:17

NIV: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

The term translated as "healthy" means being "strong”. I clearly was not strong because my hospitalization was cause by falling, breaking three ribs, puncturing a lung and resulting pneumonia. I was initially sent to a bad hospital that infected me with a fungus that nearly killed me. Fortunately, I was sent what I can only describe as an angel doctor who diagnosed the problem and saved my life

The word translated as “doctor” which means "one who heals", "medic", "surgeon” or "midwife,” not only those dealing with illness but those aiding with bringing life into the world.

The word translated as “sick” means “morally bad”, and “evil” as well as physically sick and “ill”, but it is plural, so “ill ones”. It has much more the sense of morally bad than the Greek word translated as “sin.” However, since it is uses in contrast with “strong” its illness gains the sense of weakness.

As typical of Jesus’s speaking style, the second sentence in this verse provides an echo with the strong and ill in the first sentence.

The Greek word translated as “come” means “to start,” “to set out,” “to come,” “to go,” and any kind of motion. It means both “to go” on a journey and “to arrive” at a place. Jesus usually uses it in a way that is easily translated to mean “come” but that s nit exactly what others heard. It indicates movement, especially its beginning, without indicating a direction toward or away from anything, so it works either as “start,” “come,” or “go,” but it is more like our phrase “being underway.” Technically, it is in the middle voice meaning the subject acts on himself. In English, this is assumed in our words “come” and “go.” Our English word “show up” captures both the “start” and “come” ideas. See this article for more.

The Greek word translated as “call” means "call," "summon," "invite," "invoke," "call by name," and "demand." It is like our word "call" because it means both "to summon" and also "to name," but it also has the sense of “invite.”

The Greek word translated as “righteous” means "observant of rules", "observant of customs", "well-ordered”, "civilized” and "observant of duty”. Later it meant "well-balanced”, "impartial" and "just”. To Jesus listeners it meant those who obeyed the Law and the Prophets.

The Greek word translated as “sinners” means "erroneous" or "erring”. In describing people, the sense is “mistake makers.” It also means "of bad character" but with the sense of being a slave or low-born not evil. There were many bondslaves in Israel at the time who were looked down upon by other Jews. Getting into debt was strongly related to bad behavior such as drinking, gambling and other such vices.

Since we are all sinners, Jesus is calling all of us, even those who think we are righteous. We are all in need of healers, some more than others. And some of us are sicker than others.