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Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”
He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Mark 2:9-12 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”
He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?’
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
“I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”
He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
Whether is it easyer to saye to the sicke of the palsie thy synnes are forgeven the or to saye aryse take vp thy beed and walke?
That ye maye knowe that the sonne of man hath power in erth to forgeve synnes he spake vnto ye sicke of the palsie:
I saye vnto the aryse and take vp thy beed and get the hense into thyne awne housse.
And by and by he arose toke vp the beed and went forth before them all: in so moche that they were all amased and glorified God sayinge: we never sawe it on this fassion.
Whether is it easier to say to the sicke of the palsie, Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee? or to say, Arise, and take vp thy bed, and walke?
But that ye may knowe, that the Sonne of man hath authoritie in earth to forgiue sinnes, (he sayde vnto the sicke of the palsie.)
I say vnto thee, Arise and take vp thy bed, and get thee hence into thine owne house.
And by and by he arose, and tooke vp his bed, and went foorth before them all, in so much that they were all amased, and glorified God, saying, We neuer sawe such a thing.
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v12 Word for word, past themselves, or out of their…
Word for word, past themselves, or out of their wits.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–12 9 Whether is it easier to say to the…
9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
Ver. 9. {See Trapp on "Mat 9:5"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–12 But that ye may know that the son of…
But that ye may know that the son of man,.... Meaning himself, who was really man, and the true Messiah, in which sense this phrase had been used in the writings of the Old Testament; see Psa 80:17, and though by reason of his outward form; and mean appearance, he might be thought by them to be but a mere man, and had no right, nor authority, to say what he had; in order to convince them; he affirms, that he
hath power on earth to forgive sins. As there is an emphasis lies on the phrase, "the son of man", suggesting, that his being so was no contradiction to his deity, nor any hindrance to the exertion of his power; so there is another on those words, "upon earth"; intimating, that though he was upon earth, in a very low estate, in a state of humiliation, yet he had the same power to forgive sin as in heaven; his humbling himself in human nature did not strip him of his perfections, power, and prerogative as God: and if he had power on earth to forgive sin, there can be no room to doubt of it now he is in heaven; since as mediator, he is "exalted to be a prince, and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins", Act 5:31, And that it might appear he had such a power on earth,
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he saith to the sick of the palsy; turning to, and addressing him in the following words, with great majesty, authority, and power; See Gill on Mat 9:6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v12 They were all amazed - Even the scribes themselves…
They were all amazed - Even the scribes themselves for a time.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v12 Verse 12. He - took up the bed] The…
Verse 12. He - took up the bed] The words of PROSPER, on this place, are worthy of notice:-
"What is sin but a deplorable fall, a grovelling on the earth, a repose in the creature, often followed by a universal palsy of the soul; namely, an utter inability to help itself, to break off its evil habits, to walk in the ways of God, to rise or to take one good step towards him? Grace can repair all in a moment: because it is nothing but the almighty will of God, who commands and does whatever he commands."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 The Son of man. Jesus Christ here proveth that…
The Son of man. Jesus Christ here proveth that himself as man, and not as God only, hath power to forgive sins; by this, that he was able to do miracles, and make the sick man suddenly rise; so the apostles and their successors, though they be not God, may in like manner have authority from God to remit sins, not as God, but as God’s ministers, and acting in his name, and vested with his delegated authority. --- On earth. This power which the Son of man hath to remit sins on earth, was never taken from him, but is perpetuated in his sacraments and ministers, by whom he still remitteth sins in the Church, and not in heaven only. Relative to sin, there is one court of conscience on earth, and another in heaven, and the judgment of heaven followeth and approveth this on earth; as is plain by the words of our Saviour, to Peter first, and then to all the apostles: Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall by bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. See Matthew xvi. 19. and xviii. 18. Whereupon St. Jerome sayeth: that priests having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, judge in some manner before the day of judgment. (Ep. v. ad Heliod; and St. John Chrysostom, more at large, lib. iii. de Sacerd.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9–12 Whether is it easier to say to the sick…
Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee--or "are forgiven thee";
or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk?--"Is it easier to command away disease than to bid away sin? If, then, I do the one which you can see, know thus that I have done the other, which you cannot see."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–12 9. Whether is it easier] Observe what is here…
9. Whether is it easier] Observe what is here contrasted, Not, “Which is easier, to forgive sin or to raise a paralytic?” but “Which is easier, to claim this power or claim that; to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk”? as He had already said to the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda (Joh_5:8).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v12 (12) We never saw it on this fashion.—St. Matthew…
(12) We never saw it on this fashion.—St. Matthew gives the substance but not the words. St. Luke, “We have seen strange things to-day.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v12 The words are spoken, and the paralytic arose, and…
The words are spoken, and the paralytic arose, and straightway took up the bed (hgeryh kai euyu) such is the most approved reading and went forth before them all. There is a spiritual application of this miracle which it is well to notice. The paralytic lifting up himself is a figure of him who, in the strength of Christ, has lifted himself up from the lethargy of sin. He has first applied to Christ, perhaps by his own sense of his need, perhaps with the help of others. He may have had difficulty in approaching him. A multitude of sinful thoughts and cares may have thronged the door. But at length, whether alone or with the kind assistance of faithful friends, he has been brought to the feet of Jesus, and has heard those words of love and power, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." And then he will rise and walk. He will take up that whereon he lay. He will carry away those things whereon he has hitherto found satisfaction his love of ease, his self-indulgence. His bed, whatever it may have been whereon he lay, becomes the proof of his cure. When the intemperate man becomes sober, the passionate man gentle, and the covetous man liberal, he takes up that whereon he lay. Thus does each penitent man begin a new life; setting forward with new hopes and new powers towards his true home, eternal in the heavens.
We are not informed of the effect of this miracle upon the scribes and Pharisees. But it is too evident that, though they could not deny the fact, they would not acknowledge the power; while the mass of the people, more free from prejudice, and therefore more open to conviction, united in giving glory to God. Faith in Christ as sent by God was in fact increasing amongst the mass of the people; while unbelief was working its deadly result of envy and malice amongst those who ought to have been their guides and instructors.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v12 We never saw it on this fashion.
Mar_2:12
We never saw it on this fashion.
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The new fashion
I. Do not disbelieve the gospel because it surprises you.
1. Nothing stands in the way of real knowledge so much as prejudice.
2. Many things which we know to be true would not have been believed by our fathers if they had been revealed to them.
3. There are many things which are undoubted facts which certain classes of men find it hard to believe.
4. The fact that a gospel statement seems new and astonishing ought not to create unbelief in the mind.
II. There are very singular and surprising things in the gospel.
1. That the gospel should come to people whom it regards as incapable.
2. That the gospel calls upon men to do what they cannot do.
3. That whilst the gospel bids men do what they cannot of themselves do, they actually do it.
4. This paralyzed man was healed-
(a) at once,
(b) without any ceremony,
(c) perfectly,
(d) evidently.
So is it when the gospel saves the soul.
III. If it be so with you, then go and glorify god. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Prejudice a stumbling block
Theories are the nuisances of science: the rubbish that must be swept away that the precious facts may be made bare. If you go to the study of a subject, saying to yourself, This is how the matter must shape itself, having beforehand made up your mind what the facts ought to be, you will have put in your own way a difficulty more severe than the subject itself could place there. Prejudice is the stumbling block of advance. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
New things may be true things
When an observer first discovered that there were spots on the sun he reported it, but he was called before his father confessor and upbraided for having reported anything of the kind. The Jesuit father said that he had read Aristotle through several times and he had found no mention in Aristotle of any spots in the sun, and therefore there could be no such things. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The inconceivable may be true
If our forefathers could have been informed that men would travel at forty or fifty miles an hour, drawn by a steam engine, they would have shaken their heads and laughed the prediction to scorn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sense not to limit faith
Some time ago a missionary had told his black congregation that in the winter time the water in England became so hard that a man could walk upon it. Now they believed a good deal that he told them, but they did not believe that. One of them was brought over to England. The frost came at length, and the missionary took his black friend down to it; and although he stood upon the ice himself he could not persuade the Negro to venture. No, he said, but I never saw it so. I have lived fifty years in my own country, and I never saw a man walk on a river before. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods power not to be limited by human calculation
If you are longing for a great salvation you must not sit down and calculate the Godhead by inches, and measure out the merit of Christ by ells, and calculate whether He can do this or do that. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The most senseless limit of evidence is the limit of the senses
But there is a great proneness to fix just such limits as these. Said a shrewd pastor in Massachusetts, when a new method of church work was proposed to him by a visiting brother, No, no, that wouldnt go down with my people; its too novel. There are two objections which my people raise against any fresh thing which I propose to them; one is, We never tried that thing here: the other is, We tried that here once, and it didnt go. Either of these objections is fatal. Such people as that dont all live in Massachusetts, nor in Palestine. (H. C. Trumbull.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v10 CHAPTER 2:10 (Mar_2:10)
CHAPTER 2:10 (Mar_2:10)
THE SON OF MAN
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"The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." Mar_2:10 (R.V.)
WHEN asserting His power to forgive sins, Jesus, for the first time in our Gospel, called Himself the Son of man.
It is a remarkable phrase. The profound reverence which He from the first inspired, restrained all other lips from using it, save only when the first martyr felt such a rush of sympathy from above poured into his soul, that the thought of Christ's humanity was more moving than that of His deity. So too it is then alone that He is said to be not enthroned in heaven, but standing, "the Son of man, standing on the right hand of God" (Act_7:56). [3]
What then does this title imply? Beyond doubt it is derived from Daniel's vision: "Behold there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a Son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days" (Dan_7:13). And it was by the bold and unequivocal appropriation of this verse that Jesus brought upon Himself the judgment of the council (Mat_26:64; Mar_14:62).
Now the first impression which the phrase in Daniel produces is that of strong and designed contrast between the Son of man and the Eternal God. We wonder at seeing man "brought nigh" to Deity. Nor may we suppose that to be "like unto a Son of man," implies only an appearance of manhood. In Daniel the Messiah can be cut off. When Jesus uses the epithet, and even when He quotes the prophecy, He not only resembles a Son of man, He is truly such; He is most frequently "the Son of man," the pre-eminent, perhaps the only one. [4]
But while the expression intimates a share in the lowliness of human nature, it does not imply a lowly rank among men.
Our Lord often suggested by its use the difference between His circumstances and His dignity. "The Son of man hath not where to lay His head:" "Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss," in each of these we feel that the title asserts a claim to different treatment. And in the great verse, God "hath given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man," we discern that although human hands are chosen as fittest to do judgment upon humanity, yet His extraordinary dignity is also taken into account. The title belongs to our Lord's humiliation, but is far from an additional abasement; it asserts His supremacy over those whom He is not ashamed to call brethren.
We all are sons of men; and Jesus used the phrase when He promised that all manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to us. But there is a higher sense in which, among thousands of the ignoble, we single out one "real man;" and in this sense, as fulfilling the idea, Jesus was the Second Man. What a difference exists between the loftiest sons of vulgar men, and the Son of our complete humanity, of the race, "of Man." The pre-eminence even of our best and greatest is fragmentary and incomplete. In their veins runs but a portion of the rich life-blood of the race: but a share of its energy throbs in the greatest bosom. We seldom find the typical thinker in the typical man of action. Originality of purpose and of means are not commonly united. To know all that holiness embraces, we must combine the energies of one saint with the gentler graces of a second and the spiritual insight of a third. There is no man of genius who fails to make himself the child of his nation and his age, so that Shakespeare would be impossible in France, Hugo in Germany, Goethe in England. Two great nations slay their kings and surrender their liberties to military dictators, but Napoleon would have been unendurable to us, and Cromwell ridiculous across the channel.
Large allowances are to be made for the Greek in Plato, the Roman in Epictetus, before we can learn of them. Each and all are the sons of their tribe and century, not of all mankind and all time. But who will point out the Jewish warp in any word or institution of Jesus? In the new man which is after His image there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all, something of Him represented by each, all of them concentrated in Him. He alone speaks to all men without any foreign accent, and He alone is recognized and understood as widely as the voices of nature, as the sigh of waves and breezes, and the still endurance of the stars. Reading the Gospels, we become aware that four writers of widely different bias and temperament have all found an equally congenial subject, so that each has given a portrait harmonious with the others, and yet unique. It is because the sum total of humanity is in Christ, that no single writer could have told His story.
But now consider what this implies. It demands an example from which lonely women and heroic leaders of action should alike take fire. It demands that He should furnish meditation for sages in the closet, and should found a kingdom more brilliant than those of conquerors. It demands that He should strike out new paths towards new objects, and be supremely original without deviating from what is truly sane and human, for any selfish or cruel or unwholesome joy. It demands the gentleness of a sheep before her shearers, and such burning wrath as seven times over denounced against the hypocrites of Jerusalem woe and the damnation of hell. It demands the sensibilities which made Gethsemane dreadful, and the strength which made Calvary sublime. It demands that when we approach Him we should learn to feel the awe of others worlds, the nearness of God, the sinfulness of sin, the folly of laying up much goods for many years; that life should be made solemn and profound, but yet that it should not be darkened nor depressed unduly; that nature and man should be made dear to us, little children, and sinners who are scorned yet who love much, and lepers who stand afar off -- yes, and even the lilies of the field, and the fowls of the air; that He should not be unaware of the silent processes of nature which bears fruit of itself, of sunshine and rain, and the fury of storms and torrents, and the leap of the lightning across all the sky. Thus we can bring to Jesus every anxiety and every hope, for He, and only He, was tempted in all points like unto us. Universality of power, of sympathy, and of influence, is the import of this title which Jesus claims. And that demand Jesus only has satisfied, Who is the Master of Sages, the Friend of sinners, the Man of Sorrows, and the King of kings, the one perfect blossom on the tree of our humanity, the ideal of our nature incarnate, the Second Adam in Whom the fullness of the race is visible. The Second Man is the Lord from Heaven. And this strange and solitary grandeur He foretold, when He took to Himself this title, itself equally strange and solitary, the Son of man.
[3] The exceptions in the Revelation are only apparent. St. John does not call Jesus the Son of man (Joh_1:13), nor see Him, but only the type of Him, standing (Joh_1:6).
[4] And this proves beyond question that He did not merely follow Ezekiel in applying to himself the epithet as if it meant a son among many sons of men, but took the description in Daniel for His own. Ezekiel himself indeed never employs the phrase: he only records it.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
sins
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v10 But in order that you may know
But in order that you may know
"But so that you may know." The word "you" refers to the scribes and the crowd.
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that the Son of Man has authority
Jesus refers to himself as the "Son of Man." AT: "that I am the Son of Man and I have authority" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
in front of everyone
"while all the people there were watching"
translationWords
Son of Man
authority
forgive
sin
amazed
glory
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 12 2:9-11 It is easier to say . . .…
2:9-11 It is easier to say . . . your sins are forgiven because this claim cannot be directly proved or disproved, while the claim to heal can be. Jesus showed his ability to heal in order to show his authority to forgive.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.