Mark 2:25f – “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry—2:26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread…?”

According to 1 Sam 21:1-6, Ahimelech was high priest at this time.  His son, Abiathar, became high priest shortly afterwards.

The problem is discussed from a sceptical perspective by this blogger.

The ESV Study Bible summarises two of the main approaches to harminisation:

‘The incident with David actually occurred when Ahimelech, not his son Abiathar, was high priest (1 Sam.

12:1 ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…’

Does this mean that the redeemed in heaven observe us here on earth? Some think so (with varying degrees of clarity and conviction, Donald Guthrie, EBC).  It is noted that the imagery is that of the amphitheatre, and so it would make sense to understand these ‘witnesses’ be the spectators in the grandstand.  Even if this interpretation were correct, the text gives little encouragement to the kind of popular sentimentalism (“Grandma is looking down on us”) that operates in the absence of gospel faith.…

Jn 4:4 ‘Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.’

In this passage, ‘his own country’ may apply to:-

• no place in particular.  Michaels, judging all the suggested specific identifications to be unsatisfactory, concludes that Jesus’ meaning is simply that his is an itinerant ministry, and therefore he doesn’t intend to spend so long in any one place as to make it his ‘own country’.  ‘The saying, after all, is a generalization.