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Mat_9:2-3. Αὐτῶν ] the paralytic, and those who were carrying him.
τέκνον ] affectionately; Mar_2:5; Mar_10:24; Luk_16:25, and elsewhere. Comp. θύγατερ , Mat_9:22.
ἀφέωνται ] are forgiven; Doric (Suidas), not an Attic (Etym. M.) form of the perf. ind. pass.; Herod, ii. 165, ἀνέωνται ,[437] with ἀνεῖνται (so Bähr), however, as a different reading; Winer, p. 77 [E. T. 96]; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 42 [E. T. 49]. Beza correctly observes, that in the perf. is “emphasis minime negligenda.” The view that Christ’s words imply an accommodation to the belief of the Jews, and also of the paralytic himself, that diseases are inflicted by way of punishment for sins, is all the more to be rejected that Jesus elsewhere (Joh_9:3; Luk_13:1) contradicts this belief. He saw into the moral condition of the sick man, precisely as afterwards, Mat_9:4, He read the thoughts of the scribes (Joh_5:14; Joh_2:25), and knew how it came that this paralysis was really the punishment of his special sins (probably of sensuality). Accordingly, he first of all pronounces forgiveness, as being the moral condition necessary to the healing of the body (not in order to help the effect upon the physical system by the use of healing psychical agency, Krabbe), and then, having by forgiveness removed the hindrance, He proceeds to impart that healing itself by an exercise of His supernatural power.
εἶπον ἐν ἑαυτ .] as in Mat_3:9.
ΒΛΑΣΦΗΜ .] through the assumption of divine authority (Exo_34:7; comp. with Mat_20:5 f.). He thereby appeared to be depriving God of the honour that belongs to Him, and to be transferring it to Himself; for they did not ascribe to Him any prophetic authority to speak in the name of God.
[437] See also Phavorinus, p. 330, 49, and Göttling, Lehre vom Accent. p. 82; Ahrens, Dial. Dor. p. 344; Giese, Dor. Dial. p. 334 f.