Mark 2:27

καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς. This introductory formula may indicate that the cornfield incident is over, and that Mk is appending to it, as a sort of moral, a principle on which Christ used to insist. The formula is superfluous, if Mark 2:26-27 were spoken as a continuous utterance.

Τὸ σάββατον διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐγένετο. Neither Mt. nor Lk. has any parallel to this. Mt. may have omitted it as “a hard saying” for Jewish Christian (Hawkins, Hor. Syn.2 p. 122). Mt. substitutes the argument that the priests in the Temple were allowed to violate the Sabbath, on which day their work was not lessened, but increased; an argument which does not lead on to what follows in Mark 2:28 as Mark 2:27 does. And he again quotes Hosea 6:6. We owe the preservation of this wide-embracing principle, “The Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath,” to Mk, who may have seen its value for Gentile readers. The rigid observance of the Sabbath by Jewish Christians might sometimes hinder the conversion of heathen hearers. Cf. Ezekiel 20:12, “I gave them My Sabbaths.” The Sabbath is a boon, not a burden, as the Rabbis sometimes saw; “The Sabbath is handed over to you; not, ye are handed over to the Sabbath” (Edersheim, Life and Times, 11. p. 58). Charity comes before ritual. Cf. οὐκ ἐκτίσθη�, ἀλλὰ γυνὴ διὰ τὸν ἄνδρα (1 Corinthians 11:9): and Οὐ διὰ τὸν τόπον τὸ ἔθνος, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἔθνος τὸν τόπον ὁ κύριος ἐξελέξατο (2Ma 5:19). A few cursives, with Syr-Sin. and Syr-Pesh., read ἐκτίσθη here for ἐγένετο.

διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Not merely for the Jew. A periodic day of rest is a boon for the whole human race. When the observance of Sunday was abolished during the French Revolution, it was found necessary to make every tenth day a holiday. Syr-Sin. omits καὶ οὐχ … σάββατον.