Bible Strands
Luke 5:31
Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus responds to the Pharisees and scribes who have just questioned why his disciples eat with tax collectors and sinners. He delivers this statement at the moment of their direct complaint about his table fellowship with outcasts.
The words — The participle ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis) marks a deliberate answering action, while οὐ (ou) sets the negative condition that frames the medical analogy. These terms ground the remark as a direct rebuttal rather than a general proverb.
The thread — The exact physician analogy appears in Mark 2:17 and Matthew 9:12, where the Synoptic Gospels record Jesus defending his association with the marginalized. The underlying theme of divine healing and the absence of a physician parallels the challenge in Jeremiah 8:22.
Why it lands — The text states that recognized sickness, not self-perceived health, creates the need for a physician. A reader must honestly assess which category they occupy and prepare to respond to the call for repentance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Cross-references
- Mark 2:17 On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
- Matthew 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?