Healing the paralytic at Capernaum

Christ healing the paralytic at Capernaum by Bernhard Rode 1780.

Healing the paralytic at Capernaum is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels in Matthew (9:1–8), Mark (2:1–12) and Luke (5:17–26).[1][2][3][4]

According to the Gospels, when Jesus entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four other people. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Some of the teachers of the law present interpret this as blasphemy since God alone can forgive sins. Mark says Jesus "...knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts..." (2:8

Jesus says to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins …" He says to the man "...get up, take your mat and go home." (8-11).

Mark's Gospel states that this event took place in Capernaum. In Matthew's Gospel, it took place in 'his own town', which he had reached by crossing the lake. Luke's text does not refer to Capernaum: the last reference to Capernaum was in the previous chapter (Luke 4:31) and the preceding incident in chapter 5 is set in 'a certain [unnamed] city' (Greek: μια των πολεων). In Luke's Gospel, the incident took place against the background of a Pharisee/Lawyer convention of some kind which brought the learned together from 'every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem'.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Miracles of Jesus by Craig Blomberg, David Wenham (2003, ISBN 1592442854), page 440
  2. ↑ Biblegateway Matthew 9:1–8
  3. ↑ Biblegateway Mark 2:1–12
  4. ↑ Biblegateway Luke 5:17–26
  5. ↑ Biblegateway Luke 5:17
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