The Fallible Study Bible

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Luke5:17–26

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

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Luke 5:17–26 — Jesus Heals a Paralytic. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

17

One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Jerusalem and from every village of Galilee and Judea, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai egeneto en mia tōn hēmerōn kai autos ēn didaskōn kai Pharisaioi kai nomodidaskaloi ēsan kathēmenoi hoi ēsan elēlythotes Ierousalēm kai ek pasēs kōmēs tēs Galilaias kai Ioudaias kai dynamis Kyriou ēn eis auton to iasthai

Word by word36 · parsed
ΚαὶKaivvvG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐγένετοegenetovvvG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be, to happen The formulaic aorist that opens dozens of Septuagint narratives. Luke writes history in the cadence of the Old Testament, and the effect is deliberate: this healing is filed as another act in the same continuing story.
ἐνenvvvG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
μιᾷmiaOneG1520
√ εἷς — oneAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Plural
ἡμερῶνhēmerōndayG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounGenitive Feminine Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτὸςautos[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἦνēnwasG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
διδάσκωνdidaskōnteachingG1321
√ διδάσκω — to teach (in the same broad application)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
didaskō: to teach The present participle holds the teaching open across the whole scene. Every commentator in the brief notices that the miracle interrupts a sermon, and Poole draws the rule from it: "mostly after preaching he wrought his miraculous operations."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioi[the] PhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
νομοδιδάσκαλοιnomodidaskaloiteachers of the lawG3547
√ νομοδιδάσκαλος — an expounder of the (Jewish) law, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
nomodidaskalos: teacher of the law A rare compound title (three verses in the New Testament). Its other two uses are Gamaliel in Acts 5:34 and the would-be law-teachers of 1 Timothy 1:7. In every case Luke and Paul use the word of men whose competence in the law is the very thing being weighed.
ἦσανēsanwereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καθήμενοιkathēmenoisitting [there]G2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
kathēmai: to sit down, to be seated Periphrastic imperfect: a settled, watching posture. Maclaren reads it as social distance ("near enough to see and hear, but far enough to show that they had no share in the vulgar enthusiasm"). That is inference, but the grammar supports a fixed stance rather than a casual seat.
οἳhoi[People]G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
ἦσανēsanhadG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἐληλυθότεςelēlythotescomeG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPerfect Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἸερουσαλήμIerousalēmfrom JerusalemG2419
√ Ἱερουσαλήμ — Hierusalem (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐκekfromG1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
πάσηςpasēseveryG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveGenitive Feminine Singular
κώμηςkōmēsvillageG2968
√ κώμη — a hamlet (as if laid down)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasof GalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἸουδαίαςIoudaiasJudeaG2449
√ Ἰουδαία — the Judæan land (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
δύναμιςdynamis[the] powerG1411
√ δύναμις — force (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Feminine Singular
dynamis: force, power The word Luke uses for the working energy of God (Luke 1:35; Luke 4:14; Luke 24:49). It is the subject of the clause, not an attribute of Jesus: power of the Lord was. Whether "the Lord" here is the Father or Jesus is exactly what the commentators split on.
ΚυρίουKyriouof [the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kyrios: lord, supreme in authority Ellicott and Cambridge take Kyriou as God the Father, so the sentence reads "the power of God was with him for healing." Maclaren takes it of Christ. The Greek genitive will not settle it, and the ambiguity is the point at which the rest of the passage will press.
ἦνēnwas [present]G1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisforG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτόνautonHimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ἰᾶσθαιiasthaito heal [the sick]G2390
√ ἰάομαι — to cure (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
iaomai: to cure, to heal Articular infinitive of purpose. Luke, of whom the tradition says he was a physician, uses the clinical verb rather than the more general therapeuō. The healing power is stated as present before anyone asks for it, which is Luke's way of loading the scene.
18

Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to bring him inside to set him before Jesus,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai idou andres pherontes hos ēn paralelymenos anthrōpon epi klinēs kai ezētoun eisenenkein auton kai theinai auton enōpion autou

Word by word19 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiJust thenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidou. . .G2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold, look A frozen imperative that functions as a pointer. Luke uses it to swing the camera off the seated critics and onto four men with a burden.
ἄνδρεςandres[some] menG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounNominative Masculine Plural
φέροντεςpherontes[came] carryingG5342
√ φέρω — to "bear" or carry (in a very wide application, literally and figuratively, as follows)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὃςhosvvvG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦνēnvvvG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
παραλελυμένοςparalelymenosa paralyzedG3886
√ παραλύω — to loosen beside, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
paralyō: to loosen beside, to enfeeble Perfect passive: the loosening is finished and its result stands. Of the five New Testament verses that carry this rare word, three are Luke's own (here, Luke 5:24, Acts 8:7, Acts 9:33), and Hebrews 12:12 turns it into a moral image of slackened knees.
ἄνθρωπονanthrōponmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
κλίνηςklinēsa matG2825
√ κλίνη — a couch (for sleep, sickness, sitting or eating)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
klinē: a couch, a bed The ordinary full-sized word here; in v. 19 and v. 24 Luke switches to the diminutive. Ellicott treats the switch as deliberate and explanatory.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐζήτουνezētounThey triedG2212
√ ζητέω — to seek (literally or figuratively)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
zēteō: to seek Imperfect of repeated effort. The verb that describes the friends here is the same verb Luke will use in v. 21 region of hostile intent elsewhere; here it is simple determination.
εἰσενεγκεῖνeisenenkeinto bring him insideG1533
√ εἰσφέρω — to carry inward (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
αὐτὸνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
θεῖναιtheinaito setG5087
√ τίθημι — to place (in the widest application, literally and figurativelyVerbAorist Infinitive Active
tithēmi: to place, to lay The concrete verb of setting a thing down. Its rare Lukan partner klinidion reappears in Acts 5:15, where the sick are again placed where healing power will pass.
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνώπιονenōpionbeforeG1799
√ ἐνώπιον — in the face of (literally or figuratively)Preposition
enōpion: in the face of, before Literally "in the eye of." The friends want a line of sight, and Luke will repeat the word in v. 25 when the healed man stands enōpion of the very critics who had only watched.
αὐτοῦautou[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
19

but they could not find a way through the crowd. So they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai mē heurontes poias eisenenkōsin auton dia ton ochlon anabantes epi to dōma kathēkan auton syn tō klinidiō dia tōn keramōn eis to meson emprosthen tou Iēsou

Word by word27 · parsed
καὶkaibutG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μὴmēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
εὑρόντεςheurontesthey could not findG2147
√ εὑρίσκω — to find (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ποίαςpoiasa wayG4169
√ ποῖος — individualizing interrogative (of character) what sort of, or (of number) which oneInterrogative / Indefinite PronounGenitive Feminine Singular
poios: what sort of, which Function word here, but note that it carries a genitive of the way taken, so the sense is "by what sort of route."
εἰσενέγκωσινeisenenkōsinG1533
√ εἰσφέρω — to carry inward (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτὸνautonG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄχλονochloncrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἀναβάντεςanabantesSo they went upG305
√ ἀναβαίνω — to go up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
anabainō: to go up Aorist participle of ascent, subordinate to the main verb.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
δῶμαdōmaroofG1430
√ δῶμα — properly, an edifice, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
dōma: a housetop, an edifice Strong's glosses it "properly, an edifice," but in the Septuagint and here it means the flat roof. Poole grounds this in Deuteronomy 22:8, the command to build a parapet on a roof, which presupposes a roof people walk on.
καθῆκανkathēkanand loweredG2524
√ καθίημι — and (to send)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
kathiēmi: to let down, to send down A rare verb (four verses). Every other use in Luke and Acts is of a descent from above that breaks a barrier: Paul through the wall, the sheet from heaven. Here the descent is through a roof, into the one room the crowd had sealed.
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
σὺνsynonG4862
√ σύν — with or together (but much closer than G3326 (μετά) or G3844 (παρά)), iPreposition
τῷtō[his]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Neuter Singular
κλινιδίῳklinidiōmatG2826
√ κλινίδιον — a pallet or little couchNounDative Neuter Singular
klinidion: a pallet, a little couch One of the rarest words in the unit (three verses). Luke uses it here and in v. 24, and it recurs in Acts 5:15 of the sick laid out in the streets for Peter's shadow. It is a Lukan signature word for the bed of the helpless.
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Plural
κεράμωνkeramōntilesG2766
√ κέραμος — earthenware, iNounGenitive Masculine Plural
keramos: earthenware, a tile Cambridge concedes the description is "too vague to enable us to understand the details" and notes that Mark speaks of digging through the roof, which implies both tiles and packed mud. The honest position is that Luke describes a real and ordinary procedure without giving us enough to reconstruct it exactly.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
μέσονmesonmiddle [of the crowd]G3319
√ μέσος — middle (as an adjective or (neuter) noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
mesos: middle They do not get him near the edge of the room. Luke puts the man in the center, in front of Jesus and in full view of the seated law-teachers, which is precisely the setting the argument of vv. 21 to 24 requires.
ἔμπροσθενemprosthenright in front ofG1715
√ ἔμπροσθεν — in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)Preposition
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
20

When Jesus saw their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai idōn autōn tēn pistin eipen Anthrōpe sou hai hamartiai apheōntai soi

Word by word12 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiWhenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδὼνidōn[Jesus] sawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
horaō: to see, to attend to Aorist participle. Luke says Jesus saw faith. What was visible was a hole in a roof and four determined men; the evangelist reports that Jesus read the act as faith.
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
autos: of them Plural genitive, fronted for emphasis. The faith that is seen belongs to the bearers at minimum.
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πίστινpistinfaithG4102
√ πίστις — persuasion, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
pistis: persuasion, faith Luke's first use of the noun in a healing narrative. Notice that it is credited to people acting on behalf of someone who cannot act, and that what follows is not the healing they came for but a word about sin.
εἶπενeipenHe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἌνθρωπεAnthrōpeFriendG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounVocative Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: a man, a human being Vocative. Luke alone has this address. The same noun returns in v. 24 in the genitive, "Son of man," so the man addressed and the title claimed are built on one word.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἁμαρτίαιhamartiaisinsG266
√ ἁμαρτία — a sin (properly abstract)NounNominative Feminine Plural
hamartia: a sin Plural: not a single lapse but the sum. The plural is what makes the scribes' objection in v. 21 a matter of prerogative rather than of etiquette.
ἀφέωνταίapheōntaiare forgivenG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
aphiēmi: to send away, to forgive Perfect indicative passive, third plural. The perfect tense announces a settled remission; the passive voice leaves the agent unnamed. Every hearer in that room knew who alone could stand behind such a passive, which is why the next verse is an accusation and not a question.
σοιsoi. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
21

But the scribes and Pharisees began thinking to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi grammateis kai hoi Pharisaioi ērxanto dialogizesthai legontes Tis estin houtos hos lalei blasphēmias tis dynatai apheinai hamartias ei mē ho Theos monos

Word by word24 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiButG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
γραμματεῖςgrammateisscribesG1122
√ γραμματεύς — scribe, town-clerkNounNominative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἤρξαντοērxantobeganG756
√ ἄρχομαι — to commence (in order of time)VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
archomai: to begin Inceptive aorist middle. The hostility starts here and, as Benson observes of the ending, does not dissolve even under the weight of the miracle.
διαλογίζεσθαιdialogizesthaithinking to themselvesG1260
√ διαλογίζομαι — to reckon thoroughly, iVerbPresent Infinitive Middle or Passive
dialogizomai: to reckon thoroughly, to debate The verb of internal argument. Luke uses it and its noun four times in this short unit (vv. 21, 22 twice by cognate), making the scribes' silent deliberation a character in the scene. That is what makes v. 22 a demonstration and not merely a retort.
λέγοντεςlegontes. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΤίςTisWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
οὗτοςhoutosthisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
houtos: this one Contemptuous near demonstrative, as Cambridge reads it. They will not use his name.
ὃςhos[man] whoG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
λαλεῖlaleispeaksG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
βλασφημίαςblasphēmiasblasphemyG988
√ βλασφημία — vilification (especially against God)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
blasphēmia: vilification against God The technical charge. Under the law the penalty for blaspheming the Name was death by stoning (Leviticus 24:16), which means the scribes are not merely disagreeing; they are beginning to build a capital case. Luke does not say this, and the commentators in this brief do not press it, so the link to Leviticus is stated here as inference.
τίςtisWhoG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Masculine Singular
δύναταιdynataicanG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
dynamai: to be able, to be possible Note the verb: not "who is permitted" but "who is able." The objection is about power, not about license, which is why Jesus answers it with a demonstration of power.
ἀφεῖναιapheinaiforgiveG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἁμαρτίαςhamartiassinsG266
√ ἁμαρτία — a sin (properly abstract)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
εἰeibutG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
μὴmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΘεόςTheosGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounNominative Masculine Singular
theos: God The scribes' premise is sound. Isaiah 43:25 and Micah 7:18 give them their theology, and Cambridge grants that "the remark in itself was not unnatural."
μόνοςmonosaloneG3441
√ μόνος — remaining, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
monos: alone, only The load-bearing word of the objection and of the whole passage. If forgiveness is God's alone, then the question is not whether Jesus has trespassed but who Jesus is. Luke lets the accusation state the doctrine correctly so that the answer has to be Christological.
22

Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus replied, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Epignous autōn tous dialogismous ho Iēsous apokritheis eipen pros autous Ti dialogizesthe en hymōn tais kardiais

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἘπιγνοὺςEpignousKnowingG1921
√ ἐπιγινώσκω — to know upon some mark, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
epiginōskō: to know upon a mark, to recognize fully The compound raises the claim above ordinary perception. In the logic of the passage this is the first proof: before the body is healed, the hidden reasoning is read aloud. Scripture reserves that to the LORD (1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Jeremiah 17:10).
αὐτῶνautōnwhat theyG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
διαλογισμοὺςdialogismouswere thinkingG1261
√ διαλογισμός — discussion, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
dialogismos: a reckoning, a reasoning The noun built on v. 21's verb. Ellicott insists on the connection, and it matters: Jesus does not answer a mood, he answers an argument, and he answers it before it is made.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἀποκριθεὶςapokritheisrepliedG611
√ ἀποκρίνομαι — to conclude for oneself, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
apokrinomai: to answer, to reply An answer given to something never said aloud. Gill notes that Jesus asks the question "not as being ignorant" but "to expose the wickedness of them," since Luke has already told us he perceived the reasonings.
εἶπενeipen. . .G2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
πρὸςpros. . .G4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
αὐτούςautous. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ΤίTiWhyG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
διαλογίζεσθεdialogizestheare you thinking [these things]G1260
√ διαλογίζομαι — to reckon thoroughly, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive2nd Person Plural
dialogizomai: to reason through Now in the second person: the verb is turned back on the men who were doing it. Luke's repetition makes the rebuke exact.
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
ταῖςtaisG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Plural
καρδίαιςkardiaisheartsG2588
√ καρδία — the heart, iNounDative Feminine Plural
kardia: the heart, the inner self In biblical usage the organ of thought, intention and decision. To be asked why you reason in your heart is to be told that the inner chamber is not private.
23

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

ti estin eukopōteron eipein sou hai hamartiai Apheōntai soi ē eipein Egeire kai peripatei

Word by word14 · parsed
τίtiWhichG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinisG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εὐκοπώτερονeukopōteroneasierG2123
√ εὐκοπώτερος — better for toil, iAdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
eukopōteros: less laborious, easier The comparative governs the infinitive "to say." Cambridge puts the logic exactly: "An impostor might say 'thy sins have been forgiven' without any visible sign whether his words had any power or not." The question is not which act is greater but which claim is cheaper to make.
εἰπεῖνeipeinto sayG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
σουsouYourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἁμαρτίαιhamartiaisinsG266
√ ἁμαρτία — a sin (properly abstract)NounNominative Feminine Plural
ἈφέωνταίApheōntaiare forgivenG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbPerfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
aphiēmi: to forgive The same perfect passive as v. 20, quoted back. Jesus stakes the earlier word on the later one.
σοιsoi. . .G4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
ἢēorG2228
√ ἤ — disjunctive, orConjunction
εἰπεῖνeipeinto sayG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
ἜγειρεEgeireGet upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
egeirō: to waken, to raise Present imperative. The verb of resurrection is used of a paralytic, and Luke repeats it in v. 24 and answers it with anastas in v. 25, so the pericope moves through three raising words in three verses.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
περιπάτειperipateiwalkG4043
√ περιπατέω — to tread all around, iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
peripateō: to walk about Present imperative of continuing action. The proof is not a twitch but a sustained walk out of the house.
24

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

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Greek — tap a word ↓

de hina eidēte hoti ho Huios tou anthrōpou echei exousian epi tēs gēs aphienai hamartias eipen tō paralelymenō legō Soi egeire kai aras sou to klinidion poreuou eis sou ton oikon

Word by word31 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἵναhinaso thatG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
εἰδῆτεeidēteyou may knowG1492
√ εἴδω — used only in certain past tenses, the others being borrowed from the equivalent G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι) and G3708 (ὁράω)VerbPerfect Subjunctive Active2nd Person Plural
eidō: to know, to perceive Perfect subjunctive in a purpose clause. The miracle is explicitly given as evidence addressed to the critics, not as compassion addressed to the patient; Luke is unembarrassed about that.
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ΥἱὸςHuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son With G444 it forms the title. Cambridge notes it is used about eighty times in the New Testament and always by Jesus of himself, except where his exaltation is in view (Acts 7:56; Revelation 1:13 to 20).
τοῦtouG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ἀνθρώπουanthrōpouof ManG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounGenitive Masculine Singular
anthrōpos: man The same noun with which Jesus addressed the paralytic in v. 20. Luke lets the word travel: Anthrōpe, man, to the one who cannot rise, and Son of anthrōpou of the one who tells him to.
ἔχειecheihasG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐξουσίανexousianauthorityG1849
√ ἐξουσία — privilege, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
exousia: privilege, authority The pivot of the unit. Daniel 7:14 says of the one like a son of man that "to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." Jesus claims that grant, and locates its exercise on earth rather than at the end of days.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τῆςtēstheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γῆςgēsearthG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounGenitive Feminine Singular
gē: soil, earth "Upon the earth" is the sharp edge. Cambridge: "and therefore of course, a fortiori, hath power in heaven." Daniel's figure receives authority in the heavenly court; here that authority is exercised in a crowded house in Galilee.
ἀφιέναιaphienaito forgiveG863
√ ἀφίημι — an intensive form of , to go)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
aphiēmi: to send away, to forgive Present infinitive of continuing competence, against the aorist of v. 21. A grammatical detail carrying the whole claim.
ἁμαρτίαςhamartiassins…G266
√ ἁμαρτία — a sin (properly abstract)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
εἶπενeipenHe saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τῷtōto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
παραλελυμένῳparalelymenōparalyticG3886
√ παραλύω — to loosen beside, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveDative Masculine Singular
paralyō: to loosen beside The perfect participle of v. 18 returns, now in the dative. The man is still described by his condition in the very sentence that ends it.
λέγωlegōI tellG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ΣοὶSoiyouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Singular
ἔγειρεegeireget upG1453
√ ἐγείρω — to waken (transitively or intransitively), iVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἄραςaraspick upG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
airō: to lift up Aorist participle. The command includes carrying off the evidence. JFB records Bengel's line on it, and Cambridge adds that in Jerusalem this same act drew Pharisaic fury (John 5:9) while the Galilean Pharisees let it pass.
σουsouyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
κλινίδιόνklinidionmatG2826
√ κλινίδιον — a pallet or little couchNounAccusative Neuter Singular
πορεύουporeuou[and] goG4198
√ πορεύομαι — to traverse, iVerbPresent Imperative Middle or Passive2nd Person Singular
εἰςeisvvvG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
σουsouvvvG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Singular
τὸνtonvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
οἶκόνoikonhomeG3624
√ οἶκος — a dwelling (more or less extensive, literal or figurative)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
oikos: a dwelling, a house He is sent home, not enlisted. The sign is complete when the man is out of the room and the claim stands behind him.
25

And immediately the man stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai parachrēma anastas enōpion autōn aras ho katekeito eph’ apēlthen eis autou ton oikon doxazōn ton Theon

Word by word17 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παραχρῆμαparachrēmaimmediatelyG3916
√ παραχρῆμα — at the thing itself, iAdverb
parachrēma: on the spot, instantly Luke's signature adverb for miraculous immediacy. Placed first in the clause, it answers the challenge of v. 23 without a pause in which anyone could allege suggestion or gradual recovery.
ἀναστὰςanastas[the man] stood upG450
√ ἀνίστημι — to stand up (literal or figurative, transitive or intransitive)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anistēmi: to stand up, to raise up The root of anastasis, resurrection. Luke narrates the rising with a different verb from the one Jesus commanded, and the third member of the chain (egeirō in vv. 23 and 24) is the standard New Testament verb for God raising Jesus from the dead.
ἐνώπιονenōpionbeforeG1799
√ ἐνώπιον — in the face of (literally or figuratively)Preposition
αὐτῶνautōnthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἄραςarastookG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
airō: to lift up, to take up He carries what carried him. Cambridge notes this detail is emphasized in all three Gospels precisely for the contrast.
ὃhowhatG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
κατέκειτοkatekeitohe had been lyingG2621
√ κατάκειμαι — to lie down, iVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
katakeimai: to lie down Imperfect of the old, settled state, set beside the aorists of the new act. The grammar itself marks the break.
ἐφ’eph’onG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
ἀπῆλθενapēlthenand wentG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeisvvvG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouvvvG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὸνtonvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
οἶκονoikonhomeG3624
√ οἶκος — a dwelling (more or less extensive, literal or figurative)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
oikos: house The command of v. 24 is fulfilled to the letter, including the destination.
δοξάζωνdoxazōnglorifyingG1392
√ δοξάζω — to render (or esteem) glorious (in a wide application)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
doxazō: to glorify, to esteem glorious Present participle, ongoing. Luke gives the healed man the same verb he gives the crowd in v. 26, but only the man has been forgiven as well as healed. Gill reads the man's glorifying as directed at Christ himself; the text says God, and leaves the identification to the reader who has heard v. 24.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΘεόνTheonGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
26

Everyone was taken with amazement and glorified God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai hapantas elaben ekstasis kai edoxazon ton Theon kai eplēsthēsan phobou legontes hoti Eidomen paradoxa sēmeron

Word by word16 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἅπανταςhapantasEveryoneG537
√ ἅπας — absolutely all or (singular) every oneAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
hapas: absolutely all The strengthened form of pas. Benson presses it: the amazement seized "the Pharisees and doctors of the law, as well as the people." The critics are not exempted from the reaction, though Benson adds they were not converted by it.
ἔλαβενelabenwas taken withG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἔκστασιςekstasisamazementG1611
√ ἔκστασις — a displacement of the mind, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
ekstasis: a displacement of the mind A rare noun (seven verses). Every other Lukan use is of a trance or a state in which ordinary perception gives way (Acts 10:10; Acts 11:5; Acts 22:17), and Mark 16:8 uses it of the women at the tomb. Here it is what the sign does to a room of religious professionals.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδόξαζονedoxazonglorifiedG1392
√ δοξάζω — to render (or esteem) glorious (in a wide application)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
doxazō: to glorify Imperfect, matching the healed man's present participle in v. 25. The crowd joins the verb but not the pardon.
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΘεόνTheonGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπλήσθησανeplēsthēsanThey were filledG4130
√ πλήθω — to "fill" (literally or figuratively (imbue, influence, supply))VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
plēthō: to fill, to imbue Aorist passive. A divine passive: the filling is done to them. Luke's usual object for this verb is the Spirit; here it is fear, which in biblical idiom is the proper response to having stood near God without warning.
φόβουphobouwith aweG5401
√ φόβος — alarm or frightNounGenitive Masculine Singular
phobos: alarm, fear Not reverent admiration but fright. The same reaction Luke reports of Peter at the catch of fish (Luke 5:8 to 9), where Cambridge sends the reader for the parallel.
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὅτιhotiG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ΕἴδομενEidomenWe have seenG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Plural
παράδοξαparadoxaremarkable thingsG3861
√ παράδοξος — contrary to expectation, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
paradoxos: contrary to expectation A single New Testament occurrence, and it is the last word the crowd is given. They name the event accurately (it was outside all expectation) and stop short of naming the one who did it, which is why Poole says they "only looked upon Christ as a great Prophet."
σήμερονsēmerontodayG4594
√ σήμερον — on the (iAdverb

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The room and the watchers — Luke 5:17 to 5:19

⚙ Luke opens with a Septuagintal formula, Καὶ ἐγένετο, and then does something the other evangelists do not: he surveys the audience before he tells the story. Ellicott notes that "the description of the crowd of listeners is peculiar to St. Luke," and JFB calls the presence of Pharisees and law-teachers from every quarter "the highest testimony yet borne to our Lord's growing influence." Barnes is honest that Luke himself names no place; Capernaum is borrowed from Matthew 9:1. Maclaren, reading the participle καθήμενοι as social distance, imagines them "near enough to see and hear, but far enough to show that they had no share in the vulgar enthusiasm of these provincial peasants," and then draws the moral that gives his exposition its title: "There is a temper of mind which is sharp-eyed as a lynx for faults, and blind as a bat to evidences of divine power." That is Maclaren's inference, not Luke's statement, and it should be held as such.

⚙ Against the seated men Luke sets four in motion. The imperfect ἐζήτουν says they kept trying; the rare verb καθῆκαν (four verses in the whole New Testament) says what they finally did. Cambridge is careful here: the roof work "is an everyday matter in the East, and is here alluded to, not because it was strange, but to illustrate the active, and as it were nobly impatient, faith of the man and the bearers," and he concedes that the details cannot be reconstructed, since Mark speaks of digging and Luke of tiles. Poole grounds the flat roof in Deuteronomy 22:8 and its command of parapets. Gill offers one plausible harmonization, a widened trap door. The Pulpit Commentary, quoting Delitzsch, offers another. The honest report is that the procedure was ordinary and the account is too brief to settle its mechanics, which is itself a mark of a witness rather than a legend.

ii. The word that was not asked for — Luke 5:20

⚙ Four men opened a roof to get a body to a healer, and the healer addressed a soul. Luke reports that Jesus saw their faith: what was visible was a hole and a rope, and the evangelist calls it faith. Then comes the perfect passive ἀφέωνταί, which Cambridge renders exactly: "have been forgiven thee, i.e. now and henceforth." It is a completed act with a standing result, spoken in a passive that leaves God unnamed. That is the whole scandal in one verb form.

⚙ Why forgiveness first? Gill says all the evangelists "agree that he pronounced the forgiveness of sins, which were the cause of his disease." The Pulpit Commentary supplies a biography to match: "very possibly the sad infirmity had been brought about by his old dissolute life." Luke says nothing of the kind, and the caution must be stated plainly, because Cambridge himself states it. Cambridge grants a particular connexion here ("our Lord's power of reading the heart must have shewn Him that there was a connexion between past sin and present affliction") and in the very next breath refuses the general rule: "The Book of Job had been directed against that hard, crude, Pharisaic generalisation," and our Lord "distinctly repudiated the universal inference" at John 9:3. Benson, writing a century earlier, does draw the universal rule ("sin is the cause of all sickness"). On this the brief's own voices disagree, and the synthesis sides with Cambridge and with John 9:3. What the text establishes is not a theory of illness but an order of gifts.

iii. The correct objection — Luke 5:21 to 5:23

⚙ The scribes reason rightly and conclude wrongly. Cambridge concedes the point: "The remark in itself was not unnatural," and cites Psalm 32:5 and Isaiah 43:25 as their warrant. Gill states the doctrine without softening it: "Certain it is, that none can forgive sins but God; not any of the angels in heaven, or men on earth; not holy good men, nor ministers of the Gospel." Their premise is Isaiah's own, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions." Their error is not in the theology but in the identification, and Luke has arranged the scene so that the reader feels the force of the syllogism before its conclusion is overturned.

⚙ Two things then happen that a bystander could check. First, the reasonings are read. Luke uses the compound Ἐπιγνοὺς, which Cambridge corrects to "recognising," and the noun διαλογισμοὺς, which Ellicott insists must be "reasonings" because it "is formed from the verb used in Luke 5:21." Gill notes the question that follows is not ignorance but exposure. Second, the challenge is put. Cambridge sets out the logic with precision: "An impostor might say 'thy sins have been forgiven' without any visible sign whether his words had any power or not; no one could by a word make a man 'rise and walk' who had not received power from God." Gill draws the conclusion for Christology: both sayings are "equally easy to him, that is truly God." Note that Jesus never says forgiving is the easier thing; he asks which is easier to say, and the Greek εὐκοπώτερον ("less laborious") keeps that restriction visible.

iv. The Son of Man on the earth — Luke 5:24

⚙ The answer to "who is this?" is a title out of Daniel. Cambridge states the derivation without hedging: "The Title, as distinctively Messianic, is derived from Daniel 7:13, and is there Bar-Enôsh, a word descriptive of man in his humiliation," and he notes it is used about eighty times in the New Testament, always by Jesus of himself. Daniel 7:14 says that to the one like a son of man "was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." Luke's word for what the Son of Man has is ἐξουσίαν, entitlement, not δύναμις, raw force; the scribes had asked who is able, and the answer given is about right.

⚙ Two details resist the softer readings. The infinitive shifts from the aorist ἀφεῖναι that the scribes used to the present ἀφιέναι, which states a standing competence rather than a single permitted act. And the authority is located ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, on the earth, which Cambridge glosses "and therefore of course, a fortiori, hath power in heaven." Cambridge elsewhere allows that the scribes "captiously overlooked the possibility of a delegated authority"; Gill refuses that softening, arguing that the Son "did not cease to be God by becoming man, nor lose any branch of his power, not this of forgiving sin, by appearing in the form of a servant." The brief carries both, and the reader should know that the delegation reading and the deity reading are both ancient options, and that the sentence structure of v. 24, which offers a visible sign as proof of an invisible right, fits either.

v. The evidence walks out — Luke 5:25 to 5:26

⚙ Luke narrates the obedience with παραχρῆμα, on the spot, and ἀναστὰς, the participle of the verb behind anastasis. Three raising words run through three verses (egeire twice, anastas once), and the man carries out what carried him in. Cambridge: "He now carried the bed which had carried him, and 'the proof of his sickness became the proof of his cure.'" JFB preserves Bengel's line on the same detail: "sweet saying! The bed had borne the man; now the man shall bear the bed!"

⚙ Then Luke does something only he does. Ellicott: "The fact that the man himself did this as well as the by-standers is peculiar to St. Luke." The forgiven man glorifies God in a present participle, continuously, as he goes. The crowd glorifies God too, in the imperfect, and is filled with φόβου, plain fear, and names what it saw παράδοξα, things contrary to expectation, the only occurrence of that word in the New Testament. Gill renders it "paradoxes, things wonderful, unthought of, unexpected." But Poole notices what the crowd did not say: "it is plain they only looked upon Christ as a great Prophet, to whom God had communicated such a Divine power, as of old he had communicated to Elijah, and then to Elisha." Benson notices the same gap in the critics: they "were convinced" of nothing, and did not "lay aside their enmity against him." The sign was public, immediate and unanswerable, and it did not by itself produce the conclusion that v. 24 had demanded.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested against Scripture and rejected where it fails. The passage is built as an argument, and the argument's hinge is a word about what cannot be seen. Everything Luke reports before v. 20 is visible: a crowd, a roof, a rope, a body. Everything after v. 25 is visible again: a man walking, a mat under his arm, a room full of fear. Between them stand two invisible acts, a pardon and a reading of hearts, and the miracle exists in this narrative to make those two credible. That is not the usual shape of a healing story, and Luke knows it: he says so in v. 24, where the sign is given expressly "so that you may know."

⚙ The scribes are right that forgiveness belongs to God alone. Isaiah 43:25, Micah 7:18 and Psalm 130:3 to 4 are on their side, and Gill will not let anyone weaken the premise. So the passage does not lower the doctrine to make room for Jesus; it raises the question of who Jesus is until the doctrine has to absorb him. Whether the absorption is by identity (Gill) or by grant (the delegated authority Cambridge mentions) is not settled by v. 24 alone, and this reading does not pretend otherwise. What v. 24 does settle is the location: on the earth. Daniel's figure receives authority in a heavenly court at the end of the visions. Luke puts that authority in a crowded house in Galilee, on an ordinary weekday, exercised on a man whose name we never learn.

⚙ One further thing seems worth saying, and it is the part most easily overclaimed. The order of gifts in this story is pardon first, then legs. It is tempting to read that as a doctrine of sickness, and Benson does read it that way. Scripture itself will not allow it: Job was written against exactly that inference, and John 9:3 closes the door. The safer reading is that the order here is evidential rather than diagnostic. Jesus gives first what only God can give and what no witness can verify, and then gives second what any witness can verify, so that the second underwrites the first. The four friends came for the lesser gift and were not refused it. They were simply made to wait while the greater one was handed over in front of the men who would have denied he could give it.

The mat is evidence, not the point; the point was spoken while the room could still only watch. (This line is the tool's own reading, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Luke's rare word for a body loosened: the paralysis chain verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The perfect participle παραλελυμένος (paralyō, G3886) that names this man in v. 18 and again in v. 24 is rare: the Verifier finds it in only five verses of the New Testament. Three of the others are Luke's own continuation of the story in Acts, where the same condition meets the same power through the apostles (Acts 8:7 in Samaria, Acts 9:33 of Aeneas, who like this man is told to rise and take up his bed). Hebrews 12:12 then lifts the word off the body entirely and applies it to slackened knees that must be straightened. Cambridge notes that Luke deliberately avoids Matthew's and Mark's non-classical noun in favour of this participle, so the chain is a matter of Luke's own vocabulary as well as the New Testament's.

Acts 8:7 · Acts 9:33 · Hebrews 12:12

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3886 παραλύω, a rare word found in only 5 verses of the New Testament. All refs are Greek to Greek within the New Testament, so a verbal tier is permitted; no quotation is claimed, only a rare shared lexeme.

The little couch: Luke's word for the bed of the helpless verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ In v. 19 and v. 24 Luke switches from κλίνη to the diminutive κλινίδιον (G2826), a word the Verifier finds in only three verses. Ellicott says Luke uses it "to show how it was that the process described was possible," and Cambridge calls it "probably a mere mat or mattress." Its one use outside this unit is Acts 5:15, where the sick are laid out on such couches in the streets so that Peter's shadow might fall on them. The verb τίθημι (G5087), which the four friends use here for setting the man down, is the verb used there too. Luke, writing both books, keeps one vocabulary for the helpless carried into reach of healing power.

Acts 5:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2826 κλινίδιον (in 3 vv, rare) and G5087 τίθημι (in 96 vv). Greek to Greek within the New Testament; the rare lexeme carries the tier. No quotation is claimed.

Law-teachers: a title used only three times verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ νομοδιδάσκαλοι (G3547) in v. 17 occurs in only three New Testament verses. The other two are Gamaliel in Acts 5:34, the one law-teacher in Luke's writings who counsels restraint toward the movement he cannot evaluate, and 1 Timothy 1:7, of men "desiring to be teachers of the law" who understand neither what they say nor what they insist on. Luke's own second use of the word, at Acts 5:34, sets it beside the same Pharisee party that sits watching here.

Acts 5:34 · 1 Timothy 1:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3547 νομοδιδάσκαλος (in 3 vv, rare), with G5330 Φαρισαῖος (in 93 vv) also shared with Acts 5:34. Greek to Greek within the New Testament. The link is lexical, not a quotation.

"One like a son of man" and the authority given him structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The title in v. 24 is not a modest circumlocution. Cambridge states the derivation plainly: it "is derived from Daniel 7:13, and is there Bar-Enôsh, a word descriptive of man in his humiliation." Daniel 7:14 then says that to that figure "was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom," which is precisely the noun Luke uses, ἐξουσίαν, authority as entitlement. The answer to the scribes' "who is this?" is therefore a citation: Jesus names himself out of Daniel's night vision, and then relocates the grant from the heavenly court to the earth, ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Cambridge draws the inference: "and therefore of course, a fortiori, hath power in heaven."

Daniel 7:13-14

basis: This is the clearest verbal borrowing in the unit: the title is Daniel's, and Cambridge names Daniel 7:13 as its source. The tier is structural rather than verbal solely because the link crosses Testaments (Greek Gospel to Aramaic/Hebrew Daniel), where shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and the house rule forbids a verbal tier. There is no citation formula in Luke's text.

"Who can forgive sins but God alone": the scribes quote the prophets correctly structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The objection of v. 21 is not invented on the spot; it is doctrine. Cambridge concedes the point and supplies two of the references himself: "The remark in itself was not unnatural, Psalm 32:5; Isaiah 43:25." Isaiah 43:25 is the sharpest, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake," with its doubled pronoun claiming the act as God's exclusively. Exodus 34:6 to 7 names forgiving iniquity among the divine attributes proclaimed at Sinai; Micah 7:18 asks "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity?"; Psalm 130:3 to 4 grounds the fear of God precisely in the fact that forgiveness is with him. Gill states the same doctrine as settled: none can forgive sins but God, not angels, not good men, not ministers. The passage does not weaken any of this. It forces a different question.

Isaiah 43:25 · Exodus 34:6-7 · Micah 7:18 · Psalm 130:3-4

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed and no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared doctrinal formula reported by the commentators: Cambridge names Psalm 32:5 and Isaiah 43:25 as the scribes' warrant. Luke uses no citation formula, so this is an echo of doctrine, not a quotation.

The charge of blasphemy and the law behind it flagged: verify source

⚙ βλασφημίας in v. 21 is a legal word in Jewish usage. Cambridge: "In classical Greek the word means abuse and injurious talk, but the Jews used it specially of curses against God, or claiming His attributes," and he sends the reader to Matthew 26:65 and John 10:36. Leviticus 24:16 fixes the penalty: whoever blasphemes the Name shall be put to death. If the scribes' category is the legal one, then their silent verdict in v. 21 already contains the charge that will be spoken aloud at the trial. That is the tool's inference, offered with the flag it deserves: neither Luke nor any commentator in this brief names Leviticus 24:16 here, and the reader should treat the legal link as reconstruction rather than reported exegesis.

Leviticus 24:16

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's basis is computable. The connection is the synthesis author's own inference from the legal sense of βλασφημία that Cambridge documents; no commentator in this brief cites Leviticus 24:16 at this passage. Flagged so the reader can verify it independently.

"Then will the lame leap like a deer" typological

⚙ Isaiah 35:5 to 6 lists the signs of the coming of God to save: eyes opened, ears unstopped, the lame leaping, the mute singing. Luke reports all four across his Gospel, and here the third one happens instantly (παραχρῆμα) in front of the men best qualified to recognise the list. Luke does not quote Isaiah at this point, and no commentator in the brief makes the link here; the reading is figural, resting on the shape of the sign rather than on shared words. It is, however, the reading Jesus himself will give to the same evidence at Luke 7:22, which is why it is marked as an ancient and widely held way of reading these healings rather than a novel one.

Isaiah 35:5-6

basis: Cross-Testament figural reading; no shared Strong's basis is possible and none is claimed. The recorded basis is the correspondence of the sign itself (a lame man walking at once) with Isaiah's catalogue of the signs of God's coming. Ancient and widely held, but this brief's commentators do not draw it at this verse.

Reasoning in the heart before the One who searches hearts structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ In v. 22 Luke uses the compound Ἐπιγνοὺς, "having recognised fully," of thoughts nobody voiced, and then has Jesus answer them. Scripture reserves this to the LORD with unusual consistency: "man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7); "the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought" (1 Chronicles 28:9); "I the LORD search the heart, I examine the mind" (Jeremiah 17:10); "You discern my thoughts from afar" (Psalm 139:2). Gill draws the conclusion the arrangement invites, that Jesus is "a discerner of the thoughts of these men" and that this, with the healing, is proof of who he is. The sequence in the passage is not accidental: the heart is read first, the body second, and only then is the title spoken.

1 Samuel 16:7 · 1 Chronicles 28:9 · Jeremiah 17:10 · Psalm 139:2

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's basis is computable and no verbal tier is available. The basis is a shared and repeated Old Testament formula, the searching of hearts as a divine prerogative, set against Luke's ἐπιγινώσκω of unspoken reasonings. Gill makes the argument from the heart-reading explicitly; the specific Old Testament references are the synthesis author's.

Sin and sickness held together, and the refusal to make it a rule structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Psalm 32:1 to 5 moves from the blessedness of forgiven transgression through wasting bones and a hand heavy upon the psalmist to confession and release, and Psalm 41:3 to 4 prays "heal me, for I have sinned against You," putting the two requests in one breath. 2 Chronicles 7:14 joins the healing of a land to the forgiving of its people's sin. That pattern is real, and it is the pattern Jesus follows here. But the same Scripture refuses to turn the pattern into a law. Cambridge says it exactly: "The Book of Job had been directed against that hard, crude, Pharisaic generalisation," and our Lord "distinctly repudiated the universal inference" at John 9:3. Benson, in this brief, does draw the universal rule, and on this the sources disagree. The thread records the resonance and the limit together.

Psalm 32:1-5 · Psalm 41:3-4 · John 9:3

basis: Mixed Old and New Testament refs, so no verbal tier is available and none is claimed; cross-Testament shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed. The basis is a shared motif, confession and healing named together, plus Cambridge's own citation of Job and John 9:3 as the limit on it. Reported as a pattern, explicitly not as a doctrine of illness.

Let down from above: Luke's rare verb and the trance that follows structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Two rare words in this unit reappear together in a single scene of Acts. καθῆκαν (kathiēmi, G2524, four verses) is what the friends do to the paralytic through the roof; ἔκστασις (G1611, seven verses) is what seizes the whole room at the end. In Acts 11:5 Peter says he was in an ekstasis and saw a vessel let down from heaven. The same pair of uncommon words, in the same author, describes a barrier opened from above and a mind displaced by what came through it. No doctrinal claim is being made here; this is Luke's own habit of language, and it is worth seeing.

Acts 11:5 · Acts 10:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2524 καθίημι (in 4 vv) and G1611 ἔκστασις (in 7 vv) with Acts 11:5, and G2524 with Acts 10:11. Both are rare and the refs are Greek to Greek, so a verbal tier would be permitted; it is downgraded to structural deliberately, because the observation is about one author's vocabulary and shared motif, not about a quotation or a deliberate echo.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son of Man who receives the kingdom, exercising it on the earth ancient/widely-held

⚙ Daniel sees one like a son of man come with the clouds to the Ancient of Days, and authority, glory and sovereign power are given to him. Luke shows that figure in a crowded Galilean house, using Daniel's title and Daniel's noun for what he holds, and adding the phrase that changes everything about the timing: ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, on the earth. Cambridge traces the title to Daniel 7:13 and notes it is "a word descriptive of man in his humiliation," then draws out the inference from Philippians 2:5 to 11 that the title carries the exaltation of one who first humbled himself. The passage is therefore not merely a miracle story with a theological aside; it is the first public exercise, in Luke's Gospel, of the eschatological authority Daniel assigned to a coming figure. Gill, JFB, Cambridge, the Pulpit Commentary and the Geneva notes all treat the claim as the centre of the episode, and the Pulpit Commentary observes that the early church evidently preached it as such: "we may be sure it and the mighty sign which followed sank deep into many a heart."

Daniel 7:13-14 · Philippians 2:5-11 · Luke 5:24

He does what God alone does, and proves it by what men can check ancient/widely-held

⚙ The scribes' premise is Isaiah's: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions." Gill will not soften it, and neither does the passage. Instead Jesus takes the one act that cannot be verified from outside (a pardon) and underwrites it with the one act that can (a paralytic walking), which is precisely the logic Cambridge sets out: an impostor can say the first safely; nobody can say the second and survive the test. Gill states the conclusion as the fathers and the Reformers did: both sayings are "equally easy to him, that is truly God," and he "did not cease to be God by becoming man, nor lose any branch of his power." It should be reported honestly that Cambridge leaves room for a weaker reading, that the scribes "captiously overlooked the possibility of a delegated authority," so the identification of Jesus with the God of Isaiah 43:25 is the apostolic and catholic reading of this text rather than the only grammatically available one.

Isaiah 43:25 · Micah 7:18 · Luke 5:21 · Luke 5:23

The bearer borne: an exchange written into the furniture novel

⚙ Bengel's line, preserved by JFB, is small and exact: "The bed had borne the man; now the man shall bear the bed!" Cambridge sharpens the same detail into a principle: "the proof of his sickness became the proof of his cure." ⚙ The synthesis offers one step further, and marks it as its own: this reversal is the visible grammar of what had just happened invisibly. A man who could carry nothing was carried by four; a man who could pay nothing was forgiven outright; and the first thing the pardoned man does is pick up the weight that had held him down and walk out with it. The New Testament will later use exactly this reversal of Christ himself, who bore what he could have laid on us (Isaiah 53:4, cited at Matthew 8:17 for Jesus' healings). That extension is not drawn by any commentator in this brief at this passage, and is offered as the tool's own reading, to be tested.

Luke 5:25 · Isaiah 53:4 · Matthew 8:17

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text. There is one real variant in this unit. At v. 17 the received text reads "to heal them" (autous), while Ellicott reports that "the better MSS. give the singular," and Cambridge names the witnesses (Sinaiticus, B, L) for "him." On the shorter reading the clause means "the power of the Lord was present for His work of healing" rather than naming a group of patients. The BSB supplies "the sick," which is an interpretive fill either way. Poole and Gill, working from the longer reading, both have to argue that "them" cannot mean the Pharisees, since none of them is said to be ill. This synthesis has followed the shorter reading in the literal rendering and flagged the choice.

⚙ Setting. Luke names no place. Barnes says so plainly: "The time and place are not particularly mentioned here, but from Matthew 9:1 it seems it was at Capernaum." Gill, Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary all import Capernaum, and Cambridge and the Pulpit Commentary further guess at Peter's house. Cambridge also notes that "the vagueness of the phrase shews that no stress is here laid on chronological order." The location and the date are harmonizations, not Luke's data.

⚙ The roof. Luke says tiles; Mark says they dug through. Cambridge is the honest voice here: "the description is too vague to enable us to understand the details." Gill's widened trap door and the Pulpit Commentary's reconstruction from Delitzsch are two plausible pictures, neither established. Poole's appeal to Deuteronomy 22:8 establishes only that these roofs were walkable, which is not in dispute.

⚙ Sin and sickness. The brief's own voices disagree. Benson draws a universal rule ("sin is the cause of all sickness"); Cambridge explicitly refuses it, citing Job and John 9:3, and allows only a particular connexion in this case read by Christ's knowledge of the heart. The Pulpit Commentary's suggestion of a "dissolute life" behind this man's paralysis has no basis in Luke's text. The synthesis has sided with Cambridge, and readers should know that the older commentators here press further than the text warrants.

⚙ Old Testament links. Luke uses no citation formula anywhere in this unit. Every link drawn here between the Gospel text and Isaiah, Daniel, the Psalms, Exodus, Micah or Leviticus is therefore an echo of doctrine or of a title, not a quotation, and every such thread has been tiered structural, typological or flagged accordingly. Cross-Testament links cannot carry a computed Strong's basis at all, since the lexicons do not overlap; where a thread names shared lexemes, the refs are Greek to Greek within the New Testament and the basis comes from the Verifier's own output. The Leviticus 24:16 link behind the blasphemy charge is the synthesis author's inference and is flagged as such.

⚙ Voices. Henry's entry in the brief is a single reflection on vv. 17 to 26 repeated at each verse, so it is quoted once. Barnes, Poole and JFB carry stub entries at most verses that simply refer the reader to Matthew 9 or Mark 2; only their substantive entries have been used. Benson's note filed at v. 20 is in fact commentary on the closing scene, and is labelled so. JFB's best line in this unit is a quotation of Bengel, and the attribution is preserved. Geneva and Poole are quoted for what they show about how the scene was read, not as agreement with everything in them.

⚙ What is uncertain. Whether "the Lord" in v. 17 is the Father or Jesus; whether the paralytic himself is included in "their faith" in v. 20; whether v. 24 asserts the deity of Christ or a delegated authority; and what exactly the friends removed from the roof. Each of these is left open here, with the options named.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)