Notes on Disciples of John
and the Pharisees
In Mt 9:14 the disciples
of John the Baptist ask
why they and the Pharisees
fast and Jesus and his disciples
do not. Luke 5:33 has
the questions posed by Scribes
and Pharisees. This is not necessarily a
contradiction. There are a few possibilities:
1. Some of the Scribes
were disciples of John. Since John was a Jew in the Old
Testament tradition it is possible to have been
both and nowhere is it related that no scribe
could have been a disciple
of John. It is not
impossible for a Pharisees
to have been a student of John
but it seems unlikely both by the wording of the
passages and John's
comments about Pharisees.
2. It is also possible that the question was
raised by both the disciples
of John and the Pharisees,
once in the hearing of Matthew
and once in the hearing of one who related it to
Luke. If the question was part of a concerted
effort to embarrass Jesus then it is likely it
was raised more than once.
Mathew
Chapter 9 - Full Text
Luke
Chapter 5 - Full Text
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