Mark 2:23

Mark 2:23. His disciples began. While so doing they were interrupted by the objection of the Pharisees.

Began to make their way, plucking off the ears. That they ate the grain, appears not only from the parallel passages, but from the reference to David's eating (Mark 2:26). Some think the sense is: broke a way through the grain by plucking off the ears. But this would not have been necessary, since they could tread a path through. Evidently this account also in Mark 2:27 points to an act of necessity. Mark chooses the phrase in accordance with his graphic style.