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Mark 2:9

in Mark 2

“Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Which is easier, to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

KJV

Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

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This verse in Mark 2

Commentary

12 notes on this verse

A commentator

Tertullian

On Modesty · Written before 220.

For thus it was that the Lord Jesus Christ showed His power: "Why think ye evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Thy sins are remitted thee; or, Rise and walk? Therefore, that ye may know the Son of man to have the power upon earth of remitting sins, I say to thee, paralytic, Rise, and walk."

This site's exposition

At once Jesus knew in His spirit

on Mark 2:8-10

Jesus asks which is easier to say, since forgiveness cannot be checked and a healing can be seen by all. The healing comes so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

This site's exposition

Which is easier

Matthew Henry reads the question through cause and effect. The One who removes a disease must have power over the sin that lies behind it. Henry adds that each healing pictures pardon, since sin is the disease of the soul.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 407.

proposed

(non occ.) Further, He first healed by the remission of sins that which He had come to seek, that is, a soul, so that when they faithlessly doubted, then He might bring forward a work before them, and in this way His word might be confirmed by the work, and a hidden sign be proved by an open one, that is, the health of the soul by the healing of the body.

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Mark · Written before 1107.

proposed

Then the Lord, through the healing of the body, confirms that He also healed the soul — that is, by means of what is manifest He establishes what is hidden, and by means of the easier He establishes the more difficult, although it seemed otherwise …

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

proposed

But though their thoughts were laid bare, still they remain insensible, refusing to believe that He who knew their hearts could forgive sins, wherefore the Lord proves to them the cure of the soul by that of the body, showing the invisible by the visible, that which is more difficult by that which is easier, although they did not look upon it as such. For the Pharisees thought it more difficult to heal the body, as being more open to view; but the soul more easy to cure, because the cure is invisible; so that they reasoned thus, Lo, He does not now cure the body, but heals the unseen soul; if He had had more power, He would at once have cured the body, and not have fled for refuge to the unseen world. The Saviour, therefore, showing that He can do both, says, Which is the easier? as if He said, I indeed by the healing of the body, which is in reality more easy, but appears to you more difficult, will prove to you the health of the soul, which is really more difficult.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy,.... This question was put to them by Christ, in order to prove his deity, and clear himself from the charge of blasphemy; for he that could cure the sick of the palsy, by a word speaking, had power to forgive him his sins: and therefore proposes it to them, which was easiest to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

This was a suitable argument in itself. He could not have cured the disease, which was the effect, if he could not have taken away the sin, which was the cause. And besides, his curing diseases was a figure of his pardoning sin, for sin is the disease of the soul; when it is pardoned, it is healed.
4 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

His calling of Matthew from the receipt of custom, and his eating, upon that occasion, with publicans and sinners, and justifying himself in so doing,

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

This passage shows our Lord once more at Capernaum. Once more we find Him doing His accustomed work, preaching the word, and healing those that were sick. We see, in these verses, what great spiritual privileges some people enjoy, and yet make no use of them . This is a truth which is strikingly illustrated by the history of Capernaum. No city in Palestine appears to have enjoyed so much of our Lord's presence, during His earthly ministry, as did this city. It was the place where He dwelt, after He left Nazareth. (Matt. 4:13.)

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee--or "are forgiven thee"; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed and walk?--"Is it easier to command away disease than to bid away sin?

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

This passage shows our Lord once more at Capernaum. Once more we find Him doing His accustomed work, preaching the word, and healing those that were sick. We see, in these verses, what great spiritual privileges some people enjoy, and yet make no use of them . This is a truth which is strikingly illustrated by the history of Capernaum. No city in Palestine appears to have enjoyed so much of our Lord's presence, during His earthly ministry, as did this city. It was the place where He dwelt, after He left Nazareth. (Matt. 4:13.) It was the place where many of His miracles were worked, and many of His sermons delivered. But nothing that Jesus said or did seems to have had any effect on the hearts of the inhabitants. They crowded to hear Him, as we read in this passage, "until there was no room about the door." They were amazed. They were astonished. They were filled with wonder at His mighty works. But they were not converted. They lived in the full noon-tide blaze of the Sun of Righteousness, and yet their hearts remained hard. And they drew from our Lord the heaviest condemnation that He ever pronounced against any place, except Jerusalem — "And you people of Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in Sodom, it would still be here today. I assure you, Sodom will be better off on the judgment day than you." (Matt. 11:23, 24) It is good for us all to mark well this case of Capernaum. We are all apt to suppose that it needs nothing but the powerful preaching of the Gospel to convert people's souls, and that if the Gospel is only brought into a place everybody must believe. We forget the amazing power of unbelief, and the depth of man's enmity against God.

The words behind it

20 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Matthew 9:5

    Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’

    it leads to

    • John 5:8–14

      Then Jesus told him, “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

    • Mark 2:9–12

      “Which is easier: to say to a paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’?

    • Acts 3:16

      By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has given him this…

    • Luke 5:23–25

      Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’

    • Acts 14:8–11

      In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked.

Where this verse is studied

About Mark

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Mark: the study guide →Read Mark 2 →
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, On Modesty; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.

Read on in Mark 2 →