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LUKE 5:23 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Luke 5:22Luke 5:24
Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
Which is easier: to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, get up and walk? — the two-option question exposes the relationship between the unverifiable (forgiveness) and the verifiable (healing). Saying your sins are forgiven is easier to say because it cannot be immediately falsified; saying get up and walk is harder because it can be immediately tested. Jesus is about to use the verifiable as evidence for the unverifiable.

Church Fathers on Luke 5:23

The Scribes and Pharisees who had become spectators of Christ’s miracles, heard Him also teaching. Hence it is said, And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees sitting by, &c. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Not as though He borrowed the power of another, but as God and the Lord He healed by His own inherent power. Now men often become worthy of spiritual gifts, but generally depart from the rule which the giver of…

Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

But they are to be admired who brought in the paralytic, since on finding that they could not enter in at the door, they attempted a new and untried way. As it follows, And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in, they went upon the housetop, &c. But unroofing the house they let down the couch, and place the paralytic in the midst, as it follows, And they let him down through the tilings. Some one may say, that the place was let down, from which they…

Chrysostom · 4th century

The Lord about to cure the man of his palsy, first loosens the chains of his sins, that He may show him, that on account of the bonds of his sins, he is punished with the loosening of his joints, and that unless the former are set free, he cannot be healed to the recovery of his limbs. Hence it follows, And when he saw their faith, &c.

Bede · 8th century
Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Luke 5:23 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy