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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Mark 2:4 - 2:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Come nigh unto him (προσεγγίσαι)
The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. But some read προσενέγκαι, bring him unto him. So Rev., in margin.
They uncovered (ἀπεστέγασαν)
The only use of the word in New Testament.
Broken it up (ἐξορύξαντες)
Lit., scooped it out. Very graphic and true to fact. A modern roof would be untiled or unshingled; but an oriental roof would have to be dug to make such an opening as was required. A composition of mortar, tar, ashes, and sand is spread upon the roofs, and rolled hard, and grass grows in the crevices. On the houses of the poor in the country the grass grows more freely, and goats may be seen on the roofs cropping it. In some cases, as in this, stone slabs are laid across the joists. See Luk 5:19, where it is said they let him down through the tiles; so that they would be obliged, not only to dig through the grass and earth, but also to pry up the tiles. Compare Psa 129:6.
The bed (κράβαττον)
One of Mark's Latin words, grabatus, and condemned by the grammarians as inelegant. A rude pallet, merely a thickly padded quilt or mat, held at the corners, and requiring no cords to let it down. They could easily reach the roof by the steps on the outside, as the roof is low; or they could have gone into an adjoining house and passed along the roofs. Some suppose that the crowd was assembled in an upper chamber, which sometimes extended over the whole area of the house. It is not possible accurately to reproduce the details of the scene. Dr. Thomson says that Jesus probably stood in the lewan or reception-room, a hall which is entered from the court or street by an open arch; or he may have taken his stand in the covered court in front of the house itself, Which usually has open arches on three sides, and the crowd was around and in front of him.