translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MAT

label: NET study note

text: His own town refers to Capernaum. It was a town of approximately 1000-1500, though of some significance.


text: The plural pronoun their makes it clear that Jesus was responding to the faith of the entire group, not just the paralyzed man.


text: The passive voice here is a divine passive ( ExSyn 437). It is clear that God does the forgiving.


text: Blaspheming meant to say something that dishonored God. To claim divine prerogatives or claim to speak for God when one really does not would be such an act of offense. The remark raised directly the issue of the nature of Jesus’ ministry.


text: 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.


text: 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 ).


text: 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.


text: Jesus did not finish his sentence with words but with action, that is, healing the paralytic with an accompanying pronouncement to him directly.


text: See the note on tax collectors in 5:46 .


text: See the note on Pharisees in 3:7 .


text: The issue here is inappropriate associations. Jews were very careful about personal associations and contact as a matter of ritual cleanliness. Their question borders on an accusation that Jesus is ritually unclean.


text: Jesus’ point is that he associates with those who are sick because they have the need and will respond to the offer of help. A person who is healthy (or who thinks mistakenly that he is) will not seek treatment.


text: A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7 ).


text: John refers to John the Baptist.


text: John’s disciples and the Pharisees followed typical practices with regard to fasting and prayer. Many Jews fasted regularly ( Lev 16:29-34; 23:26-32 ; Num 29:7-11 ). The zealous fasted twice a week on Monday and Thursday.


text: The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times ( John 3:29 ; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38 ).


text: The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13 ff.


text: Wineskins were bags made of skin or leather, used for storing wine in NT times. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old wineskins, which had already been stretched, would result in the bursting of the wineskins.


text: The meaning of the saying new wine into new wineskins is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. It could not be confined within the old religion of Judaism, but involved the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom of God.


text: Suffering from a hemorrhage. The woman was most likely suffering from a vaginal hemorrhage which would make her ritually unclean.


text: The edge of his cloak refers to the kraspedon , the blue tassel on the garment that symbolized a Jewish man’s obedience to the law (cf. Num 15:37-41 ). The woman thus touched the very part of Jesus’ clothing that indicated his ritual purity.


text: Have mercy on us is a request for healing. It is not owed to the men. They simply ask for God’s kind grace.


text: 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]).


text: See the note on synagogues in 4:23 .


text: The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.