Who can forgive sins? Four controversies in Capernaum

Mark's Gospel does not name its author, but the early tradition reported by Papias (via Eusebius) says that John Mark, the interpreter of Peter, wrote it. Most scholars date it to about AD 65-70, and most think it was written first of the four Gospels, though some argue that Mark abridged Matthew and Luke. It was probably written for Gentile Christians, perhaps in Rome. Its purpose is to show Jesus as the Son of God whose authority is real and whose path leads to the cross. Chapter 2 belongs to the first major section of the book, the Galilean ministry, and shows that opposition to Jesus begins early, while the crowds are still marvelling.

The setting is Capernaum, a fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which became Jesus' base in Galilee. It lay on a road used by traders and was a place where taxes on goods were collected under Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. The 'home' of 2:1 is probably Simon's house (1:29), though Mark does not say so. In the same period Pharisees were a lay movement committed to keeping the law of Moses and its traditional applications as faithfully as possible. Scribes were experts in the law. Some of them were Pharisees, as 2:16 shows.

Mark gathers five conflict stories in 2:1-3:6: forgiveness, eating with sinners, fasting, plucking grain and the withered hand. They are arranged to build in intensity. By 3:6 the Pharisees and Herodians are plotting to kill Jesus. Matthew 9 and 12 and Luke 5 and 6 have most of the same stories in different order and with some additions. Matthew names the tax collector 'Matthew', where Mark and Luke call him Levi. Many assume he is the same man with two names; others think two different people are meant. The chapter records events early in the ministry, perhaps AD 28 or 29.

Mark 2 is a set of controversy stories, a form common in the Gospels. Each has a setting, a challenge, a reply and a closing saying. The reply is the point of the story, and the closing saying names who Jesus is or what he has come to do. The four scenes should be read together, because Mark has built them as a sequence.

• The first claims that Jesus can forgive sins.
• The second shows him doing it by eating with sinners.
• The third says why the old patterns of fasting cannot hold what he brings, and the fourth says who he is in relation to the Sabbath.

Two principles help.

• First, read the objections fairly. The scribes were not stupid or merely malicious. In their frame, only God forgives sins, and the Pharisees were trying to protect Israel's holiness and the Sabbath. Their question 'Who can forgive sins but God alone?' is correct as a premise. The tension arises from what Jesus claims.
• Second, notice the Old Testament material Jesus uses: the priesthood and the bread of the Presence in 1 Samuel 21, the prophets' picture of God as husband, and the creation order behind the Sabbath. He argues from Scripture, not against it. The saying about new wine and new skins should not be taken as a rejection of the Old Testament, since Jesus roots his claims in it.

Verses 1–5

Jesus is 'home' in Capernaum, and the crowd fills the house until there is no room 'even outside the door'. Four men carry a paralytic and, unable to get through, uncover the roof. Houses in Galilee commonly had flat roofs of beams covered with branches and packed clay, reached by outside stairs, so digging through was possible. When Jesus 'saw their faith' he says to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' The word 'son' is tender. The statement is startling. It answers the spiritual need before the physical one, the verb is passive in the way Jews often avoided naming God, and no priest or sacrifice is mentioned.

Verses 6–12

The scribes think 'He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Their premise rests on texts such as Exodus 34:6-7, Isaiah 43:25 and Psalm 103:3, which present forgiveness as God's own act. Jesus knows their thoughts and asks which is easier, to say 'your sins are forgiven' or 'get up, pick up your mat, and walk'. The first cannot be checked, the second can. He then heals so that they 'may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'. The sentence breaks off in the middle in the Greek, and he turns to the man. The healing is the visible proof of the invisible claim. The crowd glorifies God: 'We have never seen anything like this!'

Verses 13–17

Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sits at the tax booth. Tax collectors were hated as collaborators who often took more than was due. Jesus says, 'Follow Me,' and Levi gets up and follows. At dinner many 'tax collectors and sinners' eat with Jesus and the disciples. 'Sinners' in this setting means people whom the strict regarded as living outside the law. In the ancient Near East, sharing a meal meant acceptance. The Pharisees' question to the disciples gets Jesus' answer: 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.' The saying does not mean that some are righteous without need. It says whom he came to call.

Verses 18–22

The only fast the law commanded was on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31). Others were voluntary, and the Pharisees and John's disciples practised them. Jesus answers with the image of a wedding: guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them. The Old Testament often pictures God as Israel's husband (Hosea 2:19; Isaiah 62:5). Then he adds that 'the bridegroom will be taken from them', and then they will fast. This is the first hint of his death in Mark. The two short parables follow. An unshrunk patch tears an old garment, and new wine bursts old wineskins, which had stiffened and could not stretch. What he brings cannot be held by the old arrangements alone.

Verses 23–28

On a Sabbath the disciples pick heads of grain. The law allowed this kind of gleaning for the hungry (Deuteronomy 23:25), but the Pharisees counted it as work forbidden on the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21). Jesus answers from 1 Samuel 21:1-6, where David and his men ate the consecrated bread that only priests could eat. Mark's phrase 'during the high priesthood of Abiathar' is a known difficulty, since 1 Samuel names Ahimelech as the priest and Abiathar was his son. Proposals include that the phrase refers to the section of Scripture about Abiathar, that Abiathar was the better-known figure, or that the wording is loose. Matthew and Luke leave it out. The argument is that human need and a king's mission could override ceremonial rules. Then comes the saying only Mark records, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath', followed by the claim that 'the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath'. The Sabbath is God's gift for people (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11), and Jesus claims to hold authority over it.

Forgiveness of sins is God's prerogative in the Old Testament, and Mark 2 shows it exercised by Jesus. This is a central doctrinal point. If Jesus can forgive, he does what God does. The early church built on this: Colossians 2:13-14 says God forgave us in Christ, and Hebrews 9 and 10 explain how his sacrifice is the basis. Mark 2 gives the claim in the form of a story, before the cross has been told.

The chapter also teaches the nature of God's welcome. The call of Levi and the meal with sinners show the grace of the gospel in action. The call comes first and the table follows. Jesus does not wait for the sinners to be made presentable, but his purpose is that they should be changed, since he calls sinners to follow him. The bridegroom, patch and wineskin sayings show the shift from the old order to the new, which the New Testament develops in Galatians 3-4 and Hebrews 8. Finally, the Sabbath saying joins the creation account to the new creation. The Sabbath is a gift, and the one who gave it is present. Hebrews 4 later speaks of a rest that remains for the people of God.

Mark 2 is fulfillment and echo working together. Jesus claims to do what the scribes rightly say belongs to God alone (2:7), and he demonstrates it by a healing they can see. He calls himself the Son of Man twice in the chapter (2:10, 2:28). The title echoes Daniel 7:13-14, where a figure like a son of man receives everlasting dominion, and Mark's use here is on earth, in the present. Jesus is therefore not only forgiving sins but also showing the authority Daniel promised.

The bridegroom is an echo of the Old Testament picture of God as husband of Israel (Hosea 2:19; Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 62:5). Jesus takes the place of God in this image, and the New Testament later makes the same identification of the church as the bride (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7). The remark that the bridegroom will be taken away may also touch Isaiah 53:8, which uses a similar verb, though that link is tentative.

David's story is a type. The king whose men were hungry and who ate what was reserved for priests is a pattern; Jesus is the greater son of David, and the hunger of his disciples is met in his presence. The argument is that if David's need mattered, the Son of David's presence matters more. Matthew 12:6 makes this explicit by saying that something greater than the temple is here, but Mark leaves the claim in the last saying. Jesus is the Lord of the day God made for rest.