Following are a number of back-translations of Mark 2:9:
Uma: “I, the Child of Mankind, I do have authority in the world to forgive sins. But if I say to this lame person: ‘Your (sing.) sins are forgiven,’ you do not know whether they are really forgiven or not. But if I say: ‘Get up, roll up your (sing.) mat, and walk,’ you will see whether it happens or not. So I will show you that I have authority to forgive sin.’ From there, he turned to that lame person,” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Which is the easier, to say to this paralyzed person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Get up, take your bed (lit. for-lying-on) and walk.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For which is easier to a mere person? Is it to forgive the sins of this paralyzed man or is it to heal him so that he can rise and pick up his hammock and walk?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “It is admittedly easier to say, ‘Your (sing.) sins will-be forgiven’ than ‘Get-up, pick-up that stretcher of yours (sing.) to walk.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Which is easier to say to this person who is paralyzed? Is it, ‘Your sins have now been forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand, carry what you are lying on and go now’? Isn’t it so that they are the same in that only the supernatural-power of God can do it?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Michoacán Nahuatl: “Which is harder for me to do in order to show you that I can forgive sins? Is it harder for me to tell this man, I forgive your sins? Is it harder to tell this man, Get up . . .”
Ojitlán Chinantec: “Surely if I can make him get up, pick up his bed, and walk away with it, I can also forgive his sins.
Western Highland Chatino: “Who can know if I can truly forgive sins if I say to the sick man that I forgive his sins? But if I tell the sick man to get up, pick up his bed,and walk, immediately you know whether I have authority or not.” (Source for this and two above: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Kim text for oral translation: “What is the easiest thing; it is that of saying to the paralysed: ‘Your sins have been forgiven’ or of saying ‘Get up, take your bed, go your going (go away)’?” (Source: Bayamy Tchande Awakde in The Bible Translator 2025, p. 23ff.)
English translation by Michael Pakaluk (2019): “Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your pallet, and walk’?”
Following is a 1973 painting of the JESUS MAFA project, a response to New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings was selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings:
From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Image retrieved March 23, 2026. Original source: librairie-emmanuel.fr.
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “cover over” (a figure of speech which is also employed in Hebrew, but which in many languages is not acceptable, because it implies “hiding” or “concealment”)
Warao: “not being concerned with him clean your obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
Martu Wangka: “throw out badness” (source: Carl Gross)
Kyaka: “burn the jaw bones” — This goes back to the pre-Christian custom of hanging the jaw bones of murdered relatives on ones door frame until the time of revenge. Christians symbolically burned those bones to show forgiveness which in turn became the word for “forgiveness” (source: Eugene Nida, according to this blog )
Koonzime: “remove the bad deed-counters” (“The Koonzime lay out the deeds symbolically — usually strips of banana leaf — and rehearse their grievances with the person addressed.”) (Source: Keith and Mary Beavon in Notes on Translation 3/1996, p. 16)
Ngbaka: ele: “forgive and forget” (Margaret Hill [in Holzhausen & Ridere 2010, p. 8f.] recalls that originally there were two different words used in Ngbaka, one for God (ɛlɛ) and one for people (mbɔkɔ — excuse something) since it was felt that people might well forgive but, unlike God, can’t forget. See also this lectionary in The Christian Century.
Amahuaca: “erase” / “smooth over” (“It was an expression the people used for smoothing over dirt when marks or drawings had been made in it. It meant wiping off dust in which marks had been made, or wiping off writing on the blackboard. To wipe off the slate, to erase, to take completely away — it has a very wide meaning and applies very well to God’s wiping away sins, removing them from the record, taking them away.”) (Source: Robert Russel, quoted in Walls / Bennett 1959, p. 193)
Gonja / Dangme: “lend / loan” (in the words of one Dangme scholar: “When you sin and you are forgiven, you forget that you have been forgiven, and continue to sin. But when you see the forgiveness as a debt/loan which you will pay for, you do not continue to sin, else you have more debts to pay” — quoted in Jonathan E.T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor in Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 17/2 2010, p. 67ff. )
Kwere: kulekelela, meaning literally “to allow for.” Derived from the root leka which means “to leave.” In other words, forgiveness is leaving behind the offense in relationship to the person. It is also used in contexts of setting someone free. (Source: Megan Barton)
Merina Malagasy: mamela or “leave / let go (of sin / mistakes)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
Mauwake: “take away one’s heaviness” (compare sin as “heavy”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )
Barclay Newman, a translator on the teams for both the Good News Bible and the Contemporary English Version, translated passages of the New Testament into English and published them in 2014, “in a publication brief enough to be non-threatening, yet long enough to be taken seriously, and interesting enough to appeal to believers and un-believers alike.” The following is the translation of Mark 2:1-12:
When Jesus returned home to Capernaum,
such a mob crowded around the door
that no standing room was left.
Jesus was teaching when four people arrived,
carrying a disabled man on a mat.
Unable to squeeze through the mob,
they dug through the mud roof and let the man down
in the middle of the room.
“Such faith!” thought Jesus. Then he said to the man,
“My friend, your sins are forgiven.”
Some biblical scholars were there and started wondering,
“Does this guy think he’s God
with the power to forgive sins?”
Jesus realized what was going on, so he said,
“Is it easier to forgive this man or to heal him?
I’ll show you who has the power
to forgive sins here and now.”
So Jesus said to the man,
“Take your mat and head home!”
At this, the man rose to his feet, picked up his mat,
and headed home, while everyone stood there stunned.
“Praise God!” they shouted,
“We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
ti estin eukopōteron ‘what is easier?’ The question answers itself: it is easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” because this statement is not susceptible of proof, while to say “Rise, take up your pallet and walk” would expose Jesus to ridicule should the paralytic not be able to obey the order. By proving he could do the harder Jesus proved he could do the (apparently) easier.
eukopōteron (10.25) ‘easier’: appears only in the comparative form in the New Testament (eukopos ‘easy’).
egeire (cf. 1.31) ‘rise,’ ‘get up.’
peripatei (5.42; 6.48, 49; 8.24; 11.27; 12.38; 16.12; used once figuratively of manner of life, 7.5) ‘walk,’ ‘go about.’
Translation:
Opposites such as ‘easy’ and ‘hard,’ ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ and ‘smooth’ and ‘rough,’ etc., may consist of words having contrastive meanings, or they may occur as positives and negatives. For example, in Tzotzil ‘easy’ is literally ‘not hard’ and in Yucateco ‘good’ is literally ‘not bad.’ Accordingly in this verse in Tzotzil one must say, ‘what is more not hard.’
Comparatives are expressed in a variety of ways, and hence this sentence must be recast to fit the syntactic and lexical requirements of the language into which one is translating, e.g. ‘shall I say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or shall I say, Rise…, which of the two is not hard’ (Southern Bobo Madaré). The reverse order is used in Central Tarahumara: ‘What manner is not hard? To say … or to say….’
Rise means ‘stand up,’ not as in one translation ‘to rise miraculously off the ground.’
Take up your pallet may be rendered in some cases as ‘roll up your mat’ (Tzeltal) or ‘pick up your stretcher.’
Walk does not imply here ‘to go home’ or ‘to leave,’ but to demonstrate the ability to walk, i.e. ‘to walk about.’
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 .
In this verse Jesus asked the teachers of the law a rhetorical question. He asked it because he wanted people to think carefully about his authority. He did not ask it to get information from them. There are two main ways to translate this rhetorical question.
• As a question. For example:
I have said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven.” Would it be easier to tell him, “Rise, take your mat, and walk?”
• As a statement. For example:
Think about this: I have told the paralytic that his sins are forgiven. Consider whether it would be easier to tell him to get up and walk.
Use a form that will express the meaning most clearly in your language.
2:9a
“Which is easier: to say…?: The phrase Which is easier: to say… introduces a rhetorical question that compares two sayings. These sayings represent two actions: forgiving the paralytic’s sins and healing the paralytic.
Both of these actions require God’s power. Forgiving sins requires great authority, so in that way, it is harder to do. However, the teachers could not see whether Jesus could really pardon the paralytic’s sins against God. They could see that he healed the paralytic if the paralytic really got up from his mat and walked.
Consider the way that people in your language would ask such a question. If they do not use comparatives, you may need to express it in a different way. For example:
Is it easy for me to…? Or is easy for me to…? -or-
Which is easy and which is hard…?
to say to a paralytic: The Greek words which the Berean Standard Bible translates as to say to a paralytic introduce a quote within a quote. Jesus was telling the teachers of the law what he had said to the paralytic. See the General Comment on 2:9a–b for an example of using indirect speech here.
paralytic: A paralytic is a person who cannot move some or all of his body. This particular paralytic could not walk. See the note on 2:3.
Your sins are forgiven: In 2:5 Jesus had already told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. See the note on 2:5c.
2:9b
or to say: The phrase or to say introduces different words that Jesus could say to the paralytic. See the note on 2:9a.
‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’: This sentence is expressed as a command (or as three commands). If the man obeyed these commands, everyone would be able to see that Jesus had healed him.
mat: The mat refers to the thin mattress or stretcher on which the man was lying. See the note on 2:4c.
General Comment on 2:9a–b
This verse contains two quotes within a quote. Jesus was quoting something that he had said and something that he might say. In some languages it may be more natural to use indirect speech for these quotes. For example, the Contemporary English Version says:
Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and pick up his mat and go on home?
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.
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