A.T. Robertson Commentary Mark 2:23

"And it came to pass, that he was going on the sabbath day through the grainfields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears." — Mark 2:23 (ASV)

Through the cornfields (δια των σποριμων). See on Mt 12:1. So Matt. and Lu 6:1. But Mark uses παραπορευεσθα, to go along beside, unless διαπορευεσθα (BCD) is accepted. Perhaps now on the edge, now within the grain. Mark uses also οδον ποιειν, to

make a way like the Latin iter facere, as if through the standing grain,

plucking the ears (τιλλοντες τους σταχυας). Work of preparing food the rabbis called it. The margin of the Revised Version has it correctly: They began to make their way plucking the ears of corn (grain, wheat or barley, we should say). See on Mt 12:1-8 for discussion of this passage, parallel also in Lu 6:15.