When Jesus heard it, he said 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.
All Commentaries on Mark 2:17 Go To Mark 2
Jerome
AD 420
There are two ways of interpreting the saying “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” The first is by analogy with the accompanying phrase: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” The other way is to put a more literal construction on the statement, like this: Since no one is perfectly righteous, Christ has not come to call those who are not there, but the multitudes of sinners who are there, with whom the world is filled, remembering the Psalm which says “Help, O Lord, for there is no longer any one who is godly.”
