Reading Guide
How the text is marked:
• Words in italics — added for English grammar (not in the Greek text)
• wind/spirit — a word the Greek leaves open to two meanings, both kept
• "…" — direct speech of God or Yeshua (Jesus)
Notes are tagged by type — Critical · Lexical · Grammatical · Theological — each shown with its colour (see the legend at the top of the Notes view).
This chapter gathers five controversies. Mark 2:1–3:6 is a connected series of conflict stories: the paralytic and the authority to forgive, the call of Levi and eating with sinners, the question of fasting, and two sabbath disputes. The "Son of Man" (ho huios tou anthrōpou) appears for the first time (2:10, 2:28), claiming authority to forgive and lordship over the sabbath. The TT keeps Mark's concrete verbs and the Aramaic-flavoured idioms.
Supplementary — patterns across the chapter
And entering again into Kfar Nachum (Capernaum) after some days, it was heard that he is in a house.
And many gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even at the door, and he was speaking the word to them.
• τὸν λόγον (ton logon*) = "the word" — Mark's shorthand for the message/proclamation (cf. 1:45; 4:14–20). The crowd-pressure motif (no room) continues from 1:33,45.
And they come, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four.
And not being able to bring him to him because of the crowd, they unroofed the roof where he was, and having dug it out, they lower the mat where the paralytic was lying.
And Yeshua (Jesus), seeing their trust, says to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."
• ἰδὼν … τὴν πίστιν αὐτῶν (idōn … tēn pistin autōn) = "seeing their trust." Pistis = trust/faith; "their" includes the four carriers. τέκνον (teknon*) = "child" — an address of affection. Marked as divine speech (Rule 30 — Yeshua speaking).
But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,
"Why does this one speak thus? He blasphemes! Who is able to forgive sins except one — God?"
And immediately Yeshua (Jesus), knowing in his spirit that they reason thus among themselves, says to them, "Why do you reason these things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and take up your mat and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on the land" — he says to the paralytic —
"To you I say, rise, take up your mat, and go to your house."
And he rose and immediately, taking up the mat, went out before all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this."
And he went out again alongside the sea; and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.
And passing by, he saw Levi the son of Chalfai (Alphaeus) sitting at the tax booth, and he says to him, "Follow me." And rising, he followed him.
And it happens that he reclines in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Yeshua (Jesus) and his disciples, for there were many, and they were following him.
And the scribes of the Perushim (Pharisees), seeing that he eats with the sinners and tax collectors, were saying to his disciples, "Why does he eat with the tax collectors and sinners?"
And hearing it, Yeshua (Jesus) says to them, "Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those having it badly. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
And the disciples of Yochanan (John) and the Perushim (Pharisees) were fasting. And they come and say to him, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Perushim (Pharisees) fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
And Yeshua (Jesus) said to them, "Can the sons of the bridal-chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
• οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος (hoi huioi tou nymphōnos*) = "the sons of the bridal-chamber" — a Semitic idiom for the bridegroom's wedding companions/guests. The bridegroom imagery evokes the HB marriage metaphor for God and Israel (Hos 2; Isa 62:5). Marked as divine speech (Rule 30 — Yeshua speaking, vv.19–22).
But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the fullness pulls away from it — the new from the old — and a worse tear happens.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine is destroyed, and the wineskins; but new wine into fresh wineskins."
And it happened that he was passing through the grainfields on the sabbath, and his disciples began to make their way, plucking the heads of grain.
And the Perushim (Pharisees) were saying to him, "See, why do they do on the sabbath what is not lawful?"
And he says to them, "Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry, he and those with him?
How he entered into the house of God in the time of Evyatar (Abiathar) the high priest and ate the loaves of presentation, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those being with him?"
And he was saying to them, "The sabbath came into being for the human, and not the human for the sabbath;
so that the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Glossary
Supplementary — patterns across the chapter
CROSS-CHAPTER TRACKING (HB -> Mark)
| Element | 1 Samuel 21 | Mark 2:25–26 |
|---|---|---|
| Who eats | David and his men | (cited as precedent) |
| The bread | the bread of the Presence (showbread) | "the loaves of presentation" |
| The priest | Ahimelech | "Abiathar the high priest" (a known discrepancy) |
| The point | need overrides ritual restriction | the sabbath serves human need |
Daniel 7:13 -> Mark 2:10, 2:28 — "Son of Man":
| Element | Daniel 7:13 | Mark 2:10, 28 |
|---|---|---|
| Phrase | "one like a son of man" | "the Son of Man" |
| Setting | coming with the clouds, given dominion | authority to forgive; lord of the sabbath |
| Sense | exalted heavenly figure | generic + titular held together |
Genesis 2:2–3 / Exodus 20:8–11 -> Mark 2:27 — the sabbath:
The sabbath as a creation gift "for the human" coheres with its institution at creation (Gen 2:2–3) and the Decalogue rationale (Exod 20:8–11) — rest grounded in human benefit, not human subordination to the day.
END OF MARK 2 — THE TRANSPARENT TRANSLATION (ENGLISH)
"A translation with nothing hidden."