A SETTING-OUT, a placing before — and in the phrase artoi tēs protheseōs, the loaves of the PRESENCE: twelve loaves kept on a table in the sanctuary, renewed weekly and then eaten by the priests (Leviticus 24:5-9). Hebrew calls it lechem ha-panim, 'bread of the face', bread set before God. ⚠ Its New Testament fame is a precedent: David, on the run and hungry, ate it (1 Samuel 21), and Jesus cites the episode against a sabbath charge at Mark 2:26. Note the shape of that argument — he does not say the Law permitted what David did. He says David did it. The precedent is an admitted irregularity, which is harder to answer than a loophole. The same noun means 'purpose' elsewhere (Romans 8:28), from the sense of a thing set out in advance. → first discussed at Mark 2:26