Matthew 9:2 KJV
And¹, behold,
they brought² to him³ a man
sick of the palsy⁴,
lying⁵ on⁶ a bed⁷:
and⁸ Jesus⁹ seeing¹⁰ their¹¹ faith¹²
said¹³ unto¹⁴ the sick of the palsy¹⁵,
Son¹⁶, be of good cheer¹⁷;
thy¹⁸ sins¹⁹ be forgiven²⁰ thee.
¹) Just then – Καὶ (Kai) – And, even, also, namely.
²) [Some men] brought – προσέφερον (prosepheron) – Verb – Imperfect Indicative Active – 3rd Person Plural – From pros and phero; to bear towards, i.e. Lead to, tender, treat.
³) To Him – αὐτῷ (autō) – Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Dative Masculine 3rd Person Singular – He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.
⁴) A paralytic – παραλυτικὸν (paralytikon) – Adjective – Accusative Masculine Singular – Afflicted with paralysis. From a derivative of paraluo; as if dissolved, i.e. ‘paralytic’.
⁵) Lying – βεβλημένον (beblēmenon) – Verb – Perfect Participle Middle or Passive – Accusative Masculine Singular – (a) I cast, throw, rush, (b) often, in the weaker sense: I place, put, drop. A primary verb; to throw.
⁶) On – ἐπὶ (epi) – Preposition – On, to, against, on the basis of, at.
⁷) A mat – κλίνης (klinēs) – Noun – Genitive Feminine Singular – A couch, bed, portable bed or mat, a couch for reclining at meals, possibly also a bier. From klino; a couch. – The Oriental frequently spreads a mat upon the ground and sleeps in the open air. In the morning he rolls up his mat, and carries it away. I have also seen in Africa people who slept on a similar kind of mat in their huts, which they rolled up in the morning and put them aside in their hut.
⁸) When – καὶ (kai) – Conjunction – And, even, also, namely.
⁹) Jesus – Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) – Noun – Nominative Masculine Singular – Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.
¹⁰) Saw – ἰδὼν (idōn) – Verb – Aorist Participle Active – Nominative Masculine Singular – Properly, to stare at, i.e. to discern clearly; by extension, to attend to; by Hebraism, to experience; passively, to appear.
¹¹) Their – αὐτῶν (autōn) – Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural – He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.
¹²) Faith – πίστιν (pistin) – Noun – Accusative Feminine Singular – Faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, faithfulness.
¹³) He said – εἶπεν (eipen) – Verb – Aorist Indicative Active – 3rd Person Singular – Answer, bid, bring word, command. A primary verb; to speak or say.
¹⁴) To the – τῷ (tō) – Article – Dative Masculine Singular – The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.
¹⁵) Paralytic – παραλυτικῷ (paralytikō) – Adjective – Dative Masculine Singular – Afflicted with paralysis. From a derivative of paraluo; as if dissolved, i.e. ‘paralytic’.
¹⁶) Son – τέκνον (teknon) – Noun – Vocative Neuter Singular – A child, descendent, inhabitant. From the base of timoria; a child.
¹⁷) Take courage – Θάρσει (Tharsei) – Verb – Present Imperative Active – 2nd Person Singular – To be of good courage, good cheer, be bold. From tharsos; to have courage.
¹⁸) Your – σου (sou) – Personal / Possessive Pronoun – Genitive 2nd Person Singular – You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.
¹⁹) Sins – ἁμαρτίαι (hamartiai) – Noun – Nominative Feminine Plural – From hamartano; a sin.
²⁰) Are forgiven – ἀφίενταί (aphientai) – Verb – Present Indicative Middle or Passive – 3rd Person Plural – From apo and hiemi; to send forth, in various applications
Other translations
Berean Study Bible
Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Berean Literal Bible
And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus, having seen their faith, said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins have been forgiven.”
New King James Version
Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
New American Standard Bible
And they brought to Him a paralyzed man lying on a stretcher. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man who was paralyzed, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Study
Behold, they brought to him.
From the other Gospels we learn:
- That He was teaching (Luke 5:17) in a house (apparently, from what follows, from the upper room of a house), while the people stood listening in the courtyard.
- That the court-yard was crowded, so that even the gateway leading into the street was filled (Mark 2:2).
- That among the hearers were Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, who had come, not only from “every village of Galilee and Judaea,” but also “from Jerusalem.” The last fact is important as one of the few traces in the first three Gospels of an unrecorded ministry in Jerusalem, and, as will be seen, throws light on much that follows. They had apparently come to see how the new Teacher, who had so startled them at Jerusalem, was carrying on His work in Galilee, and, as far as they could, to hinder it.
- That “the power of the Lord was present to heal them” (Luke 5:17), i.e., that as He taught, the sick were brought to Him, and, either by word or touch, were cured.
A man sick of the palsy.
Matthew and Mark use the popular term “paralytic;” Luke, with perhaps more technical precision, the participle of the verb, “who was paralysed.”
The man was borne on a couch (Mark uses the Greek form of the Latin “grabatum”, the bed or mattress of the poor) carried by four bearers (Mark 2:3).
They sought to bring him through the door, but were hindered by the crowd; and then going outside the house, they got upon the roof, removed part of the roof (the light structure of Eastern houses made the work comparatively easy), let him down with ropes through the opening into the midst of the crowd, just in front of the Teacher (Mark 2:4; Luke 5:19).
This persistency implied faith in His power to heal on the part both of the sick man and the bearers.
Son, be of good cheer.
Better is “child”.
The word implies, perhaps (as in Luke 2:48), comparative youth, or, it may be, a fatherly tone of love and pity on the part of the speaker.
Here, as elsewhere, pity is the starting-point of our Lord’s work of healing, and He looked with infinite tenderness on the dejected expression of the sufferer, who had lost heart and hope.
Thy sins be forgiven thee.
The English is to modern ears ambiguous, and suggests the thought of a prayer or wish. The Greek is, however, either the present or the perfect passive of the indicative, “Thy sins ARE ” or “HAVE BEEN forgiven thee.”
The words were addressed, we must believe, to the secret yearnings of the sufferer.
Sickness had made him conscious of the burden of his sins, perhaps had come (as such forms of nervous exhaustion often do come) as the direct consequence of his sin.
The Healer saw that the disease of the soul must first be removed, and that then would come the time for restoring strength to the body.
Illustration
Sins forgiven
The Rev. H. Wilkins, Cheltenham, in ” Good Cause for Good Cheer,” writes: “It is no general statement, but a personal assurance of the forgiveness of sins.
Looking with His own keen glance of love into the sick man’s eyes, He says: ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’
The general truth of the pardon of sins is not enough for us, we want a personal forgiveness.
One day when Martin Luther was almost overwhelmed with despair in his cell at Erfurth, an old monk tried to comfort him by repeating the article of the Apostles’ Creed, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’
Luther often repeated the same words. ‘Ah!’ said the good old monk, ‘it is not enough to believe in the forgiveness of David’s sins or Peter’s sins; this the devils believe.
God’s command is to believe that our own sins are forgiven.’
This was the assurance that Jesus gave here.
He knew this man’s life-history;
He knew, probably, that there was a close connection between his suffering and his sin;
But whatever his sins were, they were frankly forgiven.”
Anecdote
“There have been two men in the world,” says Paul:
- The fallen Adam, with his infantile and undeveloped perfections;
- And the Christ, with His full and complete humanity.
All other men are fragments;
- He is the “Entire and perfect Chrysolite.”
- “Aristotle is but the rubbish of an Adam,”
- and Adam is but the dim outline sketch of a Jesus.
And between the two there have been none.
- The one Man as God meant Him,
- the type of man,
- the perfect humanity,
- the realized ideal,
- the home of all the powers of manhood.
Devotional
When you are in need you get to know your friends.
When a person gets old and deficient, he often loses friends.
They weren’t real friends!
Real friends don’t let you down.
Thus the afflicted one was brought to the Savior by four friends.
Through the roof they lowered the paralytic at the feet of the Saviour.
What a blessing the injured person may receive.
Forgiveness of sins and healing of the body.
- May you by grace seek the good things for others?
- Do you point out the need for others?
- May you dedicate others to the throne of grace?
A person usually is only concerned with the temporary well-being of himself and others.
Meeting earthly needs is then all that gets their attention
May the Lord give an eye, or more and more eye, for the greatest need in which man finds himself, through his own fault.
- Then temporary things take second place.
- Then the prayer rises: “Forgive me all my sins, which violated Your majesty.” Such shall share in the remission of sins.
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