Mark 2:3

2:3 Some people ¹  came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ² 

Mark 2:5

2:5 When Jesus saw their ³  faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁴ 

Mark 2:9-10

2:9 Which is easier, ⁵  to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 2:10 But so that you may know ⁶  that the Son of Man ⁷  has authority on earth to forgive sins,” – he said to the paralytic ⁸  –

Mark 2:4

2:4 When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof ⁹  above Jesus. ¹⁰  Then, ¹¹  after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on.

[2:3]  ¹ tn Grk “they”; the referent (some unnamed people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ² tn The redundancy in this verse is characteristic of the author’s rougher style.

[2:5]  ³ sn The plural pronoun their makes it clear that Jesus was responding to the faith of the entire group, not just the paralyzed man.

[2:5]  ⁴ sn The passive voice here is a divine passive (ExSyn 437). It is clear that God does the forgiving.

[2:9]  ⁵ sn Which is easier is a reflective kind of question. On the one hand to declare sins are forgiven is easier, since one does not need to see it, unlike telling a paralyzed person to walk. On the other hand, it is harder, because for it to be true one must possess the authority to forgive the sin.

[2:10]  ⁷ sn Now Jesus put the two actions together. The walking of the man would be proof (so that you may know) that his sins were forgiven and that God had worked through Jesus (i.e., the Son of Man).

[2:10]  ⁸ sn The term Son of Man, which is a title in Greek, comes from a pictorial description in Dan 7:13 of one “like a son of man” (i.e., a human being). It is Jesus’ favorite way to refer to himself. Jesus did not reveal the background of the term here, which mixes human and divine imagery as the man in Daniel rides a cloud, something only God does. He just used it. It also could be an idiom in Aramaic meaning either “some person” or “me.” So there is a little ambiguity in its use here, since its origin is not clear at this point. However, the action makes it clear that Jesus used it to refer to himself here.

[2:10]  ⁹ sn Jesus did not finish his sentence with words but with action, that is, healing the paralytic with an accompanying pronouncement to him directly.

[2:4]  ⁹ sn A house in 1st century Palestine would have had a flat roof with stairs or a ladder going up. This access was often from the outside of the house.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:4]  ¹¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.