1 And after some days, he again entered into Capernaum. 2 And it was heard that he was in the house. And so many gathered that there was no room left, not even at the door. And he spoke the word to them. 3 And they came to him, bringing a paralytic, who was being carried by four men. 4 And when they were not able to present him to him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. And opening it, they lowered down the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying. 5 Then, when Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” 6 But some of the scribes were sitting in that place and thinking in their hearts: 7 “Why is this man speaking in this way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” 8 At once, Jesus, realizing in his spirit that they were thinking this within themselves, said to them: “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up, take up your stretcher, and walk?’ 10 But so that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic: 11 “I say to you: Rise up, take up your stretcher, and go into your house.” 12 And immediately he got up, and lifting up his stretcher, he went away in the sight of them all, so that they all wondered. And they honored God, by saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” 13 And he departed again to the sea. And the entire crowd came to him, and he taught them. 14 And as he was passing by, he saw Levi of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs office. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And rising up, he followed him. 15 And it happened that, as he sat at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat at table together with Jesus and his disciples. For those who followed him were many. 16 And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing that he ate with tax collectors and sinners, said to his disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 Jesus, having heard this, said to them: “The healthy have no need of a doctor, but those who have maladies do. For I came not to call the just, but sinners.” 18 And the disciples of John, and the Pharisees, were fasting. And they arrived and said to him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them: “How can the sons of the wedding fast while the groom is still with them? During whatever time they have the groom with them, they are not able to fast. 20 But the days will arrive when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they shall fast, in those days. 21 No one sews a patch of new cloth onto an old garment. Otherwise, the new addition pulls away from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine will pour out, and the wineskins will be lost. Instead, new wine must be put into new wineskins.” 23 And again, while the Lord was walking through the ripe grain on the Sabbath, his disciples, as they advanced, began to separate the ears of grains. 24 But the Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbaths?” 25 And he said to them: “Have you never read what David did, when he had need and was hungry, both he and those who were with him? 26 How he went into the house of God, under the high priest Abiathar, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and how he gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 And so, the Son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”
Mark · Catholic Public Domain Version
Mark 2 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Alphaeus
Named as father of James, one of the Twelve (Matthew 10:3), and as the father of Levi the tax collector (Mark 2:14); the text does not say whether these are two different men…
Cited in the guide: Matthew 10:3; Mark 2:14; Mark 3:18
Matthew
A tax collector sitting at the tax booth whom Jesus told 'Follow Me'; Matthew calls him Matthew, while Mark and Luke tell the same call and name him Levi, and Mark 2:14 calls Levi…
Cited in the guide: Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:3; Mark 2:14
Places
Capernaum
A fishing and customs town on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus healed, taught, and called disciples. Its ruins include a 4th–5th c. synagogue built over an earlier one.
Cited in the guide: Matthew 4:13; Mark 2:1; Matthew 11:23
Cross references (28)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Luke 5:18; John 4:47; Luke 18:35–38; Matthew 9:1; Mark 7:24
- 2 Mark 2:13; Mark 1:45; Mark 6:34; Mark 1:33; Mark 4:1–2
- 3 Luke 5:18–26; Matthew 9:1–8; Matthew 4:24
- 4 Luke 5:19; Deuteronomy 22:8
- 5 Matthew 9:2; James 5:15; Mark 2:9–10; Luke 7:47–50; Luke 5:20
- 6 Luke 5:21–22; Mark 8:17; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Matthew 16:7–8
- 7 Isaiah 43:25; Luke 5:21; Daniel 9:9; Micah 7:18; Luke 7:49
- 8 Psalm 139:2; Ezekiel 38:10; John 2:24–25; John 6:64; Luke 24:38
- 9 Luke 5:22–25; Matthew 9:5
- 10 Daniel 7:13–14; Matthew 9:6–8; Acts 5:31; John 5:20–27; 1 Timothy 1:13–16
- 11 Mark 1:41; John 5:8–10; John 6:63
- 12 Matthew 9:33; Matthew 9:8; Luke 7:16; John 9:32; John 7:31
- 13 Proverbs 1:20–22; Mark 4:1; Luke 21:38; Mark 3:20–21; Mark 2:2
- 14 Luke 5:27–32; Mark 1:17–20; Luke 6:15; Matthew 9:9–13; Mark 3:18
- 15 Luke 15:1; Matthew 9:10–11; Luke 5:29–30; Matthew 21:31–32; Luke 6:17
- 16 Luke 18:11; Luke 19:7; Luke 19:10; Acts 23:9; Isaiah 65:5
- 17 Luke 15:7; Matthew 9:12–13; Luke 19:10; Luke 5:31–32; 1 Timothy 1:15–16
- 18 Luke 18:12; Matthew 6:18; Matthew 9:14–17; Matthew 6:16; Luke 5:33–39
- 19 Matthew 25:1–10; Genesis 29:22; Judges 14:10–11
- 20 Luke 17:22; Revelation 21:9; Isaiah 62:5; Revelation 19:7; Zechariah 13:7
- 21 Matthew 9:16; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Isaiah 57:16; Psalm 103:13–15
- 22 Matthew 9:17; Psalm 119:83; Luke 5:37–38; Job 32:19; Joshua 9:4
- 23 Deuteronomy 23:24–25; Matthew 12:1–8; Luke 6:1–5
- 24 Exodus 20:10; Hebrews 12:3; Matthew 12:2; Isaiah 58:13; Exodus 31:15
- 25 1 Samuel 21:3–6; Luke 10:26
- 26 2 Samuel 8:17; Leviticus 24:5–9; 1 Samuel 21:1; 1 Chronicles 24:6; 1 Kings 2:26–27
- 27 Colossians 2:16; Luke 6:9; Deuteronomy 5:14; Ezekiel 20:12; Isaiah 58:13
- 28 Matthew 12:8; Revelation 1:10; John 9:14; John 5:17; Ephesians 1:22
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Thy bed did carry thee, thou carriedst not thy bed, but wast a paralytic inwardly; He cometh who saith to thee, "Take up thy bed, and go thy way into thy house." "The Lord help him on his bed of pain." Then to the Lord Himself He turneth, as though it were asked, Why then, since the Lord helpeth us, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
Now Matthew indeed saith, that "they brought him," but the others, that they also broke up the roof, and let him down. And they put the sick man before Christ, saying nothing, but committing the whole to Him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Or in another sense they are used of a thing which is not reasonable; as, Can the Children of the Bridechamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them; whether He be considered as visible in bodily form (for the time of His sojourning among us was not one of mourning, but of gladness), or, as the Word.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
Upon their murmuring, then, and saying, "This man blasphemeth; who can forgive sins but God only?" let us see what He saith.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
And we have cause also to admire the self-denial of the evangelist, how he disguises not his own former life, but adds even his name, when the others had concealed him under another appellation. But why did he say he was "sitting at the receipt of custom?" To indicate the power of Him that called him, that it was not …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)