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MARK 2:7 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 2:6Mark 2:8
“Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?”
Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone? — the scribes' objection is theologically accurate: only God can forgive sins. The claim is rooted in Old Testament theology (Isaiah 43:25: I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions; Psalm 103:3: who forgives all your sins). Their conclusion — blasphemy — follows logically if Jesus is merely human. Their error is not the logic but the premise: they have not allowed for the possibility that God himself has arrived in human form. The question who can forgive sins but God alone is the chapter's theological hinge — Jesus will answer it not by correcting the premise but by demonstrating that the Son of Man on earth has divine authority.

Church Fathers on Mark 2:7

Because the compassion of God deserts not even carnal persons, He accords to them the grace of His presence, by which even they may be made spiritual. After the desert, the Lord returns into the city.

Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 1, 10

But Matthew writes this miracle as if it were done in the city of the Lord, whilst Mark places it in Capernaum, which would be more difficult of solution, if Matthew had also named Nazareth. But seeing that Galilee itself might be called the city of the Lord, who can doubt but that the Lord did these things in His own city, since He did them in Capernaum, a city of Galilee; particularly as Capernaum was of such importance in Galilee as to be called its metropolis?

Augustine · 4th century · de Con. Evan., ii, 25

He saw the faith of the sick man himself, since he would not have allowed himself to be carried, unless he’d had faith to be healed.

Theophylact · 11th century
Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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