“Successful Thai gatherings are always crowded. Four people carrying a wooden bed is a symbol of death to Thai people. Here Jesus symbolizes resurrection by raising the man from the sick bed back to health in body and soul.”
A few days passed. There was a house in the town of Capernaum. Jesus came there. A rumor went around among the people that Jesus was there. Many, many people began to come to the house. The house was full, it was very crowded, there was no room, even outside. Everyone wanted to hear Jesus. And Jesus preached to them.
There was one man there, a sick man. He was paralyzed, his body was not moving. He was lying down and four men were carrying him on a stretcher. They wanted to help him, to bring him to Jesus so that Jesus could heal him. And so they carried the sick man. There was a crowd of people around. Those men tried to push the crowd apart, but it was very crowded. There was no way through. They began to think what to do. They saw that the roof of the house was flat, and there was a ladder attached to the house, which led directly to the roof. And they decided: let’s climb up! All four of them climbed up to the roof. They took a thick stick and began to break a hole in the roof. The roof was flat, made of clay and reeds. And so they made a hole in the roof and pulled apart the clay and reeds. It was a big round hole. They looked down and there was Jesus preaching. They got excited. Jesus looked up at them from below and smiled.
— “I know you have faith in me!
And the four men used ropes to pull the stretcher with the sick man up onto the roof, and then carefully lowered him down into the hole below. Jesus watched the stretcher being lowered, and when it came down in front of him, he said:
— My son, your sins are forgiven!
And in the midst of the crowd sat several teachers of the law. They shuddered with indignation, and began to talk and point at Jesus:
— How dare Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven”! God alone can forgive sins! And Jesus says such things! He is insulting God.
They were very indignant.
Jesus realized what they were thinking and said:
— Enough! Why are you slandering me? I am asking you a question. There are two things: which one is easier?
First I say to him, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The second thing: Here is a paralyzed man lying down. I say to him, “Get up, roll up your mat, and go home!”
Which of these two things is easier? The first thing is easier. It’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.”
And so you see I’m here on earth right now. I have the power to forgive the sins of people who sin and do evil deeds. So here I am saying to this paralyzed man, “Get up, roll up your mat and get on your feet.”
The crowd around was amazed. Look, look — everyone said — we know this man could not walk, but he stood up. We have never seen such a miracle before! Everyone was amazed and glorified God.
Original Russian back-translation (click or tap here):
Прошло несколько дней. В городе Капернаум был один дом. Туда пришел Иисус. Между людьми повсюду пошел слух, что там Иисус. И многие-многие люди стали приходить в этот дом. Дом переполнился, было очень тесно, места не было даже снаружи. Все хотели послушать Иисуса. И Иисус им проповедовал.
Там был один человек, больной. Он был парализован, его тело не двигалось. Он лежал, а четыре человека несли его на носилках. Они хотели помочь ему, поднести его к Иисусу, чтобы Иисус исцелил его. И вот они несут больного. Кругом толпа народа. Те люди пытались раздвинуть толпу, но было очень тесно. Нет пути. Они стали думать, что делать. Видят они: у дома крыша плоская, а к дому приставлена лестница, которая ведет прямо на крышу. И решили: давайте заберемся! Все вчетвером забрались на крышу. Взяли толстую палку и стали пробивать дыру в крыше. Крыша была плоская, была она сделана из глины и тростника. И вот они делают дыру в крыше, раздвигают глину и тростник. Получилась большая круглая дыра. Смотрят вниз, а там Иисус проповедует. Они обрадовались. Иисус снизу на них посмотрел, улыбнулся.
Иисус говорит:
— Я знаю, у вас есть вера в Меня!
А эти четыре человека на веревках подтянули носилки с больным на крышу, а потом аккуратно опустили в дыру вниз. Иисус смотрел, как носилки опускаются, и когда они перед ним опустились, он сказал:
— Сын мой! Твои грехи тебе прощаются!
А среди толпы сидели несколько учителей закона. Они даже вздрогнули от возмущения и стали недовольно переговариваться, показывая на Иисуса:
— Да как же Иисус смеет говорить «твои грехи прощены»! Только один Бог может прощать грехи! А Иисус такое говорит! Он оскорбляет Бога.
Они были очень возмущены.
Иисус понял, о чем они думают, и сказал:
— Довольно! Зачем на меня клевещете? Я вам задаю вопрос. Есть две вещи: какая из них проще?
Первая вещь. Я ему говорю: «Твои грехи прощены».
Вторая вещь. Вот парализованный человек лежит. Я ему говорю: «Вставай, сверни свой коврик и ступай домой!»
Что из этих двух вещей проще? Первая вещь проще. Проще сказать: «Твои грехи прощены».
И вот вы видите, что я сейчас здесь, на земле. Я имею власть прощать грехи людей, которые грешат и совершают злые дела. Вот я говорю этому парализованному человеку: «Вставай, скатай свой коврик и ступай».
И о чудо! Этот человек поднялся, тело его сделалось здоровым. С восторгом он смотрит на свои руки и ноги. Он скатал свой коврик, взял его под мышку и радостный пошел.
Толпа вокруг была изумлена. Смотрите, смотрите — говорили все — мы знаем, этот человек не мог ходить, а он встал. Мы такого чуда никогда раньше не видели! Все изумлялись и прославляли Бога.
Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 2:2:
Uma: “that is why many people assembled wanting to see him. They assembled, with the result that it was crowded in the house, even to the doorway it was full of people. He preached the Word of God to them.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Many people gathered there to the house where Isa was. Therefore nobody else could fit in/there was no more room for them, even in the doorway. Isa proclaimed God’s word/message to them.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “and they gathered there. They were very many, and because of this there was no longer any room for them even under the eaves near the door. Jesus preached to them the Word of God” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Right then the many-people gathered there until there was no place for others, even around the doorway. Then as Jesus was preaching the word of God to them,” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “That’s why very many again were the people arriving there, even outside the house having no more room even to stand in. Without anything further, Jesus taught them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Isthmus Mixe: “Then many people gathered together. The house filled up, even around the door. There Jesus was inside preaching the word.” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
After the first kai ‘and’ Textus Receptus, Soden, Vogels and Kilpatrick add euthus ‘immediately,’ omitted by all other editions of the Greek text.
Exegesis:
sunēchthēsan (4.1; 5.21; 6.30; 7.1) ‘they were gathered together,’ ‘brought together,’ ‘collected’ (cf. episunagō in 1.33).
hōste mēketi chōrein ‘so as no longer to be room’: for the use of hōste with the infinitive of the verb to express result see 1.27.
chōrein (only here in Mark) ‘to have space for,’ ‘to hold,’ ‘to contain,’ ‘to be room (for).’
ta pros tēn thuran (cf. 1.33) ‘the (places, space) near (toward, about) the door’: the meaning is that such a crowd was gathered in the house and overflowing into the street, that not even on the street, near the door, was there room for any more people.
elalei (some 22 times in Mark) ‘he was speaking’: Revised Standard Version “preaching,” while not incorrect, is not completely consistent. It is better to reserve “preach” for kērussō ‘proclaim’ or euaggelizomai ‘preach the Gospel.’ The imperfect, describing action in progress, tells us what Jesus was doing when the paralytic was brought to him (next verse). Some translations join the last clause of this verse ‘and he was speaking the Word to them’ directly to the next verse: “And he was speaking to them the Word when…” (Moffatt, The Modern Speech New Testament, Manson, Berkeley).
ton logon ‘the word’ i.e. the Christian message, the Gospel; Lagrange “the good tidings of salvation.” Rather than “the word” it may be preferable to use capitalization – “the Word” or something similar. “The Message” would accurately convey the meaning (cf. 1.45 and Kilpatrick’s note on logos “word” in Mark, there referred to).
Translation:
The Greek verb translated were gathered together, though a passive in form, is generally best translated as an active, implying not that the people were brought, carried, or forced to come together by the actions of others, but that ‘they came together,’ or ‘crowded together.’
In some languages a verb implying the gathering of a crowd may require some statement as to the type of place in which such a gathering may occur. In this instance it is the home of Jesus.
The second clause may be rendered ‘so that there was no space for anyone else.’
About the door refers of course to the space outside the house, and the door is in this instance better taken as the opening (where a distinction is made – see 1.33), since obviously the door would be open at such a time.
Though laleō is a more colloquial term for ‘speaking,’ it is the combination with logon ‘word’ which gives it the strictly theological connotation of ‘preaching.’ The only equivalent of the word in many languages is ‘the good news.’ In Toraja-Sa’dan and Indonesian ‘the word of God’ must be used. Certainly this phrase means much more than merely ‘he was talking.’
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.