Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 5:22
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
22. when Jesus perceived ] Rather, Jesus, recognising.
their thoughts ] Rather, their reasonings.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts,…. Being God omniscient;
he answering said unto them, what reason ye in your hearts? This he said, not as being ignorant what their reasonings were, for it is before said he perceived their thoughts, but to expose the wickedness of them; in one exemplar of Beza’s it is added, “evil things”, as in Mt 9:4.
[See comments on Mt 9:4].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Perceiving (). Same form (second aorist active participle of , common verb for knowing fully) in Mr 2:8.
Reason ye () as in Mr 2:8. Mt 9:4 has .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Perceived. See on Mr 2:8.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But when Jesus perceived their thoughts,” (epignous de ho lesous tous dialogismous auton) “Then Jesus knowing their skeptical, deranged reasoning,” their cynical mental attitude, knowing all things, Joh 2:24-25; Mat 9:4.
2) “He answering said unto them,” (apokritheis eipen peos autos) “Responding said directly to them,” as they sat in the room, directly before him who had been teaching and preaching to them, when the paralytic was let down, Luk 5:17-20.
3) “What reason ye in your hearts?” (ti dialogizesthe en tais kardiais humon) “Just why are you all questioning in your hearts what I have said and done?” As I have pronounced this man’s sins forgiven, because of his belief, or faith, why do you all question it? See, they were themselves unbelievers, natural, unsaved men, 1Co 2:14; Isa 55:8; Isa 55:8; Joh 8:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(22) When Jesus perceived their thoughts.Better, their reasonings, the Greek noun being formed from the verb used in Luk. 5:21.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘But Jesus perceiving their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why do you reason in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’, or to say, ‘Arise and walk?’ ”
Jesus gathered what they were thinking and whispering among themselves (for Jesus’ ability to discern thoughts compare Luk 12:15; Joh 2:24). What a contrast between what He knew about the paralytic and what He knew about them. He knew what the paralysed man had been thinking, about his faith, and about his uncertainty in respect of his worthiness. Now He knew what these men were thinking, about their lack of faith, and about their confidence in their own worthiness. And so He challenged them. They had been following Him around, they had seen some of His miracles. Well, let them now decide. Which was easiest, to declare a man’s sins forgiven or to heal him and make him walk? Let them think about that.
If they did so in the light of their own teaching their reply would have been, ‘Neither, for the one cannot happen without the other.’
So His reply was astute. He would agree that only God could forgive sins, but who could heal people? The answer was again, only God. In that case surely the One who could heal was proving that He was of God and could therefore also declare God’s forgiveness.
They were caught in the net of their own teaching. They believed that illness and disease was the consequence of sin. Thus for someone to be healed by God meant that their sin had been dealt with. The healing demonstrated forgiveness. A later Rabbi would say, ‘a sick man does not recover from his sickness until all his sins are forgiven him’. So the fact that Jesus healed men and women should have suggested to them that He had the power to determine whether God had forgiven a man.
Indeed they should have recognised that this was to be the proof positive that the Kingship of God had come. Isa 53:5-6 made quite clear that One was coming on Whom all their iniquities would be laid, because He bore them on their behalf. Did that not mean that He would bring forgiveness? But He would also carry their diseases. Jer 31:34 made clear that when the Kingship of God came men’s sins would be freely forgiven. And Micah declared that in those days God would turn and have compassion on them, pardoning sin and passing by transgression, delighting in mercy (Luk 7:18-19). For then would be opened to the house of David a fountain for sin and uncleanness (Zec 13:1).
So if the Kingly Rule of God was drawing near they should recognise from the Scriptures that the One Who brought it would also bring forgiveness. And as well as forgiveness He would bring healing. The eyes of the blind would be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the lame would leap like a hart (Isa 29:18; Isa 35:4-6; Isa 61:1-2). Thus forgiveness and healing would go together. They had seen the latter constantly in His ministry. Did they not see then that that meant that the Kingly Rule of God with its consequences of forgiveness had come? That the acceptable year of the Lord was now here. Yet still they would not concede the point for they were not willing to face the consequences. They did not want the hearers in the crowd to think that it meant that this man Jesus had been justified in declaring the man’s sins forgiven. So they did not reply. They sat there silent, but unforgiving, and for that reason quietly ignored. They have ceased for the present to be important. (Luke only mentions what is important to his theme).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The miracle:
v. 22. But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He, answering, said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
v. 23. Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Else up and walk?
v. 24. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
v. 25. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
v. 26. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. Jesus, in His omniscience, read their thoughts as easily as though they had spoken aloud, and answered in that sense, promptly calling them to account for their condemnation of His words. He proposes a question to them as to what they believed to be easier, to say: Forgiven be thy sins; or to say: Arise and walk. The scribes and Pharisees naturally thought that the saying of the former would be the easier, since the fulfillment lay in the spiritual field and could therefore not be seen or controlled by men. That this miracle of mercy really happened at the word of Jesus they did not believe. The Lord therefore performed before their eyes what they considered the more difficult, for a testimony unto them, incidentally proving that His words to the sick man could not have been blasphemy. The fact that He, the Son of Man, actually possessed the power on earth to forgive sins, He demonstrated by saying to the paralytic: To thee I say, Arise, and pick up thy hammock, or couch, and go to thy house. And without delay, at once, the sick man got up before them all, took up the bed upon which he had been lying, and went to his home, full of praise toward God for the miracle of healing performed in his case. His faith and trust had been gloriously vindicated. Christ the Lord has power to forgive sins as the Son of Man. Had God not, in Christ, become man and reconciled the world to Himself, He would have the power to destroy the sinners, but not to save them, since His holiness must be preserved at all costs. And Christ, the Head and Lord of His Church, has given the power to forgive sins to His Church on earth. This is the peculiar church power which Christ has given to His Church on earth, which His servants administer according to His command, Joh 20:23. When the absolution is spoken by the minister of the church or by any Christian in comforting his neighbor, then we may gladly believe that such word of forgiveness is spoken down from heaven itself and is the merciful sentence of God upon us. Of this fact the people had an inkling on that occasion in Capernaum. The greatest astonishment took hold of them all, even the Pharisees that hardened their hearts against Jesus feeling something of the power of God in the incident. The people in general glorified God, being filled also with awe in the presence of such supernatural evidence. Their opinion was that they had seen strange things, such as appeared contrary to the common run and course of nature, wonders which human reason declares to be impossible.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Luk 5:22 . The expression “in your hearts” coming in here suggests that Lk. may have omitted it in Luk 5:21 merely to avoid repetition.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
perceived = well knowing. Greek. epiginosko. App-132.
thoughts = reasonings.
answering said. See note on Deu 1:41, and App-122.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
perceived: 1Ch 28:9, Psa 139:2, Pro 15:26, Isa 66:18, Eze 38:10, Mat 9:4, Mat 12:25, Heb 4:12, Rev 2:23
What: Luk 24:38, Mar 8:17, Act 5:3
Reciprocal: Job 21:27 – I know Jer 13:22 – if Mat 3:9 – think Mat 22:18 – perceived Mar 2:6 – and reasoning Mar 2:8 – when Mar 2:9 – is it Luk 6:8 – But Luk 7:40 – answering Luk 9:47 – perceiving Luk 20:23 – he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
For comments on this paragraph see those on Mat 9:5-6.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Vers. 22-24. The Miracle. The miraculous work which is to follow is for a moment deferred. Jesus, without having heard the words of those about Him, understands their murmurs. His mind is, as it were, the mirror of their thoughts. The form of His reply is so striking, that the tradition has preserved it to the very letter; hence it is found in identical terms in all three narratives. The proposition, that ye may know, depends on the following command: I say to thee…The principal and subordinate clauses having been separated by a moment of solemn silence, the three accounts fill up this interval with the parenthesis: He saith to the paralytic. This original and identical form must necessarily proceed from a common source, oral or written. It is no easier, certainly, to pardon than to heal; but it is much easier to convict a man of imposture who falsely claims the power to heal, than him who falsely arrogates authority to pardon. There is a slight irony in the way in which Jesus gives expression to this thought. You think these are empty words that I utter when I say, Thy sins are forgiven thee. See, then, whether the command which I am about to give is an empty word. The miracle thus announced acquires the value of an imposing demonstration. It will be seen whether Jesus is not really what He claims to be, the Ambassador of God on earth to forgive sins. Earth, where the pardon is granted, is opposed to heaven, where He dwells from whom it proceeds.
It is generally acknowledged at the present day, that the title Son of man, by which Jesus preferred to designate Himself, is not simply an allusion to the symbolical name in Daniel 7, but that it sprang spontaneously from the depths of Jesus’ own consciousness. Just as, in His title of Son of God, Jesus included whatever He was conscious of being for God, so in that of Son of man He comprehended all He felt He was for men. The term Son of man is generic, and denotes each representative of the human race (Psa 8:5; Eze 37:3; Eze 37:9; Eze 37:11). With the art. (the Son of man), this expression contains the notion of a superiority in the equality. It designates Jesus not simply as man, but as the normal man, the perfect representative of the race. If this title alludes to any passage of the O. T., it must be to the ancient prophecy, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15). There is a tone of triumph in this expression, Luk 5:25 : He took up that whereon he lay. The astonishment of the people, Luk 5:26, is expressed differently in the three narratives: We never saw it on this fashion (Mark); They glorified God, which had given such power unto men (Matthew). This remarkable expression, to men, is doubtless connected with Son of man. Whatever is given to the normal man, is in Him given to all. Matthew did not certainly add this expression on his own authority, any more than the others arbitrarily omitted it. Their sources were different.
, strange things, in Luke, is found in Josephus’ account of Jesus. By the term to-day the multitude allude not only to the miracle,they had seen others as astounding on previous days,but more particularly to the divine prerogative of pardon, so magnificently demonstrated by this miracle with which Jesus had just connected it. The different expressions by which the crowd give utterance to their surprise in the three Syn. might really have been on the lips of different witnesses of this scene.
Keim, applying here the method indicated, pp. 253-4, thinks that the paralysis was overcome by the moral excitement which the sick man underwent. Examples are given of impotent persons whose power of movement has been restored by a mighty internal shock. Therefore it is just possible that the physical fact might be explained in this way. But the moral fact, the absolute assurance of Jesus, the challenge implied in this address, In order that ye may know,…arise and walk!a speech the authenticity of which is so completely guaranteed by the three narratives and by its evident originality,how is this to be explained from Keim’s standpoint? Why, Jesus, in announcing so positively a success so problematical, would have laid Himself open to be palpably contradicted by the fact! At the commencement of His ministry He would have based His title to be the Son of man, His authority to forgive sins, His mission as the Saviour, His entire spiritual work, on the needle’s point of this hazardous experiment!
If this were the case, instead of a divine demonstration (and this is the meaning which Jesus attaches to the miracle), there would be nothing more in the fact than a fortunate coincidence.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
As a prophet, Jesus may have had special insight into what His critics were thinking (cf. Mat 9:3; Mar 2:6). It was easier to say, "Your sins have been forgiven you," because no one could disprove that claim. In another sense, of course, both claims were equally difficult because healing and forgiving required supernatural power.