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Mat_9:6-7. Ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ] placed near the beginning of the sentence so as to be emphatic: that the Son of man is empowered upon earth (not merely to announce, but) to communicate the forgiveness of sins. ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς does not belong to ἀφ . ἁμ . (Grotius),—in which case its position would convey an awkward emphasis, and the order of the words would naturally be ἀφ . ἁμ . ἐπὶ τ . γῆς (as Marcion read them),—but it is joined to ἐξουσίαν ἔχει in the consciousness of the ἐξουσία brought with Him from heaven. “Coelestem ortum hic sermo sapit,” Bengel.
τότε λέγει τῷ παραλυτ .] is neither to be taken parenthetically, nor is τόδε to be understood (Fritzsche), in order to justify the parenthesis; but Matthew’s style is such that no formal apodosis comes after ἁμαρτίας , but rather the call to the paralytic ἐγερθείς , etc. Matthew reports this change in regard to the parties addressed with scrupulous fidelity; and so, after concluding what Jesus says to the scribes with the anacoluthon ἵνα δὲ εἰδῆτε … ἁμαρτίας , he proceeds to add, in the narrative form, “then He says to the paralytic.” This is a circumstantial simplicity of style which is not to be met with in polished Greek writers, who would have omitted the τότε λέγει τῷ παραλ . altogether as a mere encumbrance. See passages from Demosthenes in Kypke, I. p. 48 f.
καὶ ἐγερθεὶς , κ . τ . λ .] therefore an immediate and complete cure, which does not favour the far-fetched notion that the declaration of Jesus penetrated the nervous system of the paralytic as with an electric current (Schenkel).