translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: MRK

label: NET study note

text: 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. map For location see Map1-D2 ; Map2-C3 ; Map3-B2 .


text: 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.


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: The tax collectors would bid to collect taxes for the Roman government and then add a surcharge, which they kept. Since tax collectors worked for Rome, they were viewed as traitors to their own people and were not well liked.


text: Pharisees were members of one of the most important and influential religious and political parties of Judaism in the time of Jesus. There were more Pharisees than Sadducees (according to Josephus, Ant. 17.2.4 [17.42] there were more than 6,000 Pharisees at about this time). Pharisees differed with Sadducees on certain doctrines and patterns of behavior. The Pharisees were strict and zealous adherents to the laws of the OT and to numerous additional traditions such as angels and bodily resurrection.


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: John refers to John the Baptist.


text: See the note on Pharisees in 2:16 .


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 8:27 ff. (cf. 8:31; 9:31; 10:33 ).


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 is poured into new skins 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: Jesus’ response to the charge that what his disciples were doing was against the law is one of analogy: “If David did it for his troops in a time of need, then so can I with my disciples.” Jesus is clear that on the surface there was a violation here. What is not as clear is whether he is arguing a “greater need” makes this permissible or that this was within the intention of the law all along.


text: See 1 Sam 21:1-6 .