Bible Strands
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.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses the scribes and Pharisees who have just questioned Him for eating with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:16). He answers their charge directly rather than defending the act.
The words — οὐ (ou) is the strong, categorical negation, not the softer μή; it marks a flat denial rather than a qualified one.
The thread — Matthew 9:12 preserves the same saying; Luke 15:7 and 19:10 extend the logic to the joy over one repentant sinner and the Son of Man's mission to save the lost.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to identify which side of the division they are on, and it does so by making the diagnosis (sickness, sin) the reader's own rather than Jesus's.
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
When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Cross-references
- Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.
- Matthew 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Luke 5:31 Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
- 1 Timothy 1:15 This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.
- Titus 3:3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Romans 5:6 For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
- Romans 5:20 The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,