“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.
Retrotraducciones en español (haga clic o pulse aquí)
Unos días después en el mismo pueblo de Capernaúm Jesús otra vez fue a una casa.
La gente lo vio y dijo: “Jesús está en la casa allá, vengan”, y la todos fueron a la casa y entraron y estaba llena de gente, y afuera de la puerta todas las personas estaban intentando a ver a Jesús que estaba predicando.
Afuera había un hombre que no podía caminar, su cuerpo era paralizado y estaba acostado. 4 Personas fueron a ayudarlo y llevaron su camilla, pero vieron que estaba lleno de gente y no podían entrar, ¿cómo?
Vieron: “la azotea, bien, vengan”, y los 4 subieron cargando la camilla, y arriba pusieron la camilla en el piso y empezaron a quitar la techumbre.
Jesús estaba predicando y miró hacia arriba y vio que estaban quitando la techumbre.
Los hombres estaban quitando la techumbre, y cuando estaba todo bien, levantaron la camilla y la bajaron con cuerda, y la camilla con el hombre estaba bajando.
Jesús miró hacia arriba y pensó: huy, ellos tienen fe, y cuando la camilla había bajado dijo: “tus pecados son perdonados.”
Los maestros de la ley que estaban sentados lo vieron y pensaron: absurdo, Jesús habla mal, él es irrespetuoso contra Dios, ¿cómo puede ser?
Sólo Dios puede perdonar a las personas, y puede borrar pecados, ¿qué piensa él?
Pero Jesús lo sintió adentro y lo sabía y volvió a verlos diciendo: “Maestros de la ley, ¿porqué piensan e imaginanse que yo hizo algo mal?
Alto, yo les pregunto ¿cúal sería más fácil, decirle: ‘tus pecados ya son perdonados’ o decirle: ‘levantate, arregla tu camilla, guardala y vete’? ¿Cuál piensan uds?
Oigan, aqui en el mundo hay uno, el hijo del hombre, que tiene autoridad y que puede perdonar los pecados a la gente.
Uds me ven y son testigos (y dijo al hombre): levantate, arregla tu camilla y guardalo y vete a tu casa.”
El hombre acostado notó que todo su cuerpo se había sanado y se paró, arregló su camilla, lo guardó y se fue caminando.
Todas las personas lo vieron (y dijeron): “Esto jamás habíamos visto, hoy lo vemos por primera vez, huy, ¡qué maravilloso es Dios!”
Some days later in the same village of Capernaum Jesus went to a house again.
The people saw him and said: “There is Jesus, over there in the house, come” and the multitude went to the house and entered it and it was full of people, and outside the door all those people were trying to see as Jesus preached.
Outside there was a man who could not walk, his body was paralyzed and he was lying down. Four persons came to help him, they carried his stretcher over, but then they saw that it was full of people and they could not go in, how?
They saw: “Oh good, the roof, come” and the four of them went up carrying the stretcher and upstairs they put down the stretcher and started to take away the roofing.
Jesus was preaching and he looked up and saw them take away the roofing.
The men were taking out the roofing and when all was ready they took the stretcher and lowered it with a rope and the stretcher with the man went down.
Jesus looked up and thought: wow, they have faith, and when the stretcher had been lowered he said: “Your sins have been forgiven.”
The teachers of the law that were sitting there saw this and they thought: this is ridiculous, Jesus speaks badly, without respect, against God, how can he do that?
Only God can forgive people their sins, what is he thinking?
But Jesus felt this and knew it, and he turned to them and said: “Teachers of the law, why do you think and imagine that I did something bad?
“Now stop, let me ask you which you think is easier, to tell him: ‘your sins have already been forgiven’ or to tell him: get up, arrange your stretcher, put it under your am and go’? Which one do you think?
“Listen, here in the world there is one person, the son of man, who has authority and can forgive people their sins.
“You see me and are witnesses (and he said to the man): get up, arrange your stretcher, put it under your arm and go home.”
The man who was lying down felt that his whole body had healed and he got up, arranged his stretcher, took it under his arm and walked out.
All the people saw it (and said): “Who have never seen this before, today is the first time we have seen it, wow, God is wonderful!”
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.)
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kotoba (みことば) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese show different degree of politeness is through the usage of an honorific construction where the morphemes rare (られ) or are (され) are affixed on the verb as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. This is particularly done with verbs that have God as the agent to show a deep sense of reverence. Here, hanashiteo-rare-ru (話しておられる) or “speaking” is used.
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 .
they gathered in such large numbers that: The phrase they gathered in such large numbers that here means “large numbers of people came to the house, and as a result….”
Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:
Many people gathered together and so… -or-
such a crowd collected that… (Revised English Bible)
there was no more room: The phrase there was no more room indicates that there were so many people in the house that no one else could enter. There was no space left for people to sit or stand inside the house. In some languages it may be more natural to express this idea in a positive way. For example:
the house was full of people
2:2b
not even outside the door: The phrase not even outside the door indicates that people were crowding around the entry to the house. There was no space in the area outside the door for more people to stand. If you used a positive expression for the previous phrase, you may need to express this phrase positively as well. For example:
Even the area outside the doorway was full of people.
2:2c
This part of the verse tells what Jesus was doing while the people were gathering.
spoke the word: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as spoke the word is literally “was speaking the word.” The phrase the word refers to God’s word or to God’s message. Jesus told the people what God wanted him to tell them.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
taught God’s word -or-
made known God’s message
to them: The pronoun them refers to the people who were in the house and around the house.
Here are some other ways to translate this part of the verse:
Jesus was speaking [God’s] Word to them (God’s Word) -or-
Jesus was teaching them God’s message (New Century Version)
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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