Mark 2:1-3

Healing and Forgiving a Paralytic

2:1 Now ¹  after some days, when he returned to Capernaum, ²  the news spread ³  that he was at home. 2:2 So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by ⁴  the door, and he preached the word to them. 2:3 Some people ⁵  came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ⁶ 

Mark 6:55-56

6:55 They ran through that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever he was rumored to be. ⁷  6:56 And wherever he would go – into villages, towns, or countryside – they would place the sick in the marketplaces, and would ask him if ⁸  they could just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Mark 10:47

10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, ⁹  “Jesus, Son of David, ¹⁰  have mercy ¹¹  on me!”

¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

² sn Capernaum was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, 680 ft (204 m) below sea level. It was a major trade and economic center in the North Galilean region.

³ tn Grk “it was heard.”

⁴ tn Some translations (e.g., NIV, NLT) take the preposition πρός (pro"), which indicates proximity, to mean “outside the door.” Others render it as “in front of the door” (TEV, CEV), and still others, “around the door” (NAB). There is some ambiguity inherent in the description here.

⁵ tn Grk “they”; the referent (some unnamed people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn The redundancy in this verse is characteristic of the author’s rougher style.

⁷ tn Grk “wherever they heard he was.”

⁸ tn Grk “asked that they might touch.”

⁹ tn Grk “to shout and to say.” The infinitive λέγειν (legein) is redundant here and has not been translated.

¹⁰ sn Jesus was more than a Nazarene to this blind person, who saw quite well that Jesus was Son of David. There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).

¹¹ sn Have mercy on me is a request for healing. It is not owed the man. He simply asks for God’s kind grace.