Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, meets with the disreputable Levi and his friends, and argues over the need to fast, and whether or not one can harvest food on Sabbath.

Some early manuscripts containing the complete text of this chapter are: Several writers treat Mark 2:1-3:6 as a single unit for analytical purposes.

Joseph Mali refers to these verses as containing the "Galilean Conflict Stories", whilst noting that there is no scholarly consensus in this field.

He notes "Markan Public Debates" and "controversy dialogues" as other terms which have been used to cover these verses.

[1]: 11  Johannes Weiss sees its function as establishing "why Jesus' opponents hated [him] and pursued him to death".

Verse 1 of this chapter sees him "in the house" (Greek: εν οικω, en oikō).

[13] Jesus is impressed by their effort, praising all the men's faith, and he tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven.

Theophylact includes the paralytic as a person of faith: otherwise he would not have allowed himself to he carried up onto the roof of the house.

It has also been argued, to the contrary, that Jesus "did not mean the faith of the sick man, but of his bearers" (Pseudo-Chrysostom).

[14] Jerome and Ambrose exclude the paralytic himself from the commended faith, but John Chrysostom includes him.

[17] In both Luke 13:1–5 and John 9:2–3 Jesus rejects the notion that illness and misfortune are the result of sins.

Mark thus leaves it implied that Jesus is God and that faith in his power can lead to not just a cure of physical ills but to a forgiveness of a person's sins.

[17] This incident of the cure of a paralytic and his subsequent forgiveness of his sins is told in all the Synoptic Gospels, (Luke 5:17–26 and Matthew 9:1–8).

Jesus, while teaching a large crowd by the lake, finds Levi at the tax collector's booth and says "Follow me!"

He might have also been a toll collector for Herod Antipas,[16] and Capernaum was an area with a high traffic of people and merchants.

[21] The house is generally understood to have been Levi's,[16][22] but the text is not certain, and Nicoll refers to a suggestion that "Jesus, not Matthew, was the real host at the social gathering":[23] the "call" to sinners can be read as an "invitation", just as a host might invite guests to a meal.

"[26] Matthew has him say "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'" between the two sentences in Mark's version.

[30] Heinrich Julius Holtzmann suggests that John's disciples might have been fasting "on account of the loss of their master", although Meyer considers this an unsupported interpretation.

He is referred to as a bridegroom in several places in the New Testament, such as in John 3:29, 2 Corinthians 11:2, the Epistle to the Ephesians 5:32 and Revelation 19:7 and 21:2.

[32] All three synoptic gospels use the same phrase, ἀπάρθη ἀπ’ αὐτῶν (aparthē ap’ autōn),[33] which does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament.

[36] Ignatius of Antioch, among others, interpreted it as Jesus saying he was the start of a new religion separate from John the Baptist and Second Temple Judaism.

The command to observe Sabbath is found in Exodus 31:16–17, a "perpetual covenant ... [for] the people of Israel" (NRSV).

Some think this is not historical but is Mark's literary way of debating Sabbath observance issues.

Mark may have simply made an error or had an incomplete or inaccurate copy of the Books of Samuel.

A few early Marcan manuscripts omit this phrase, but most scholars think the name of the priest was originally written by Mark, not a later copyist.

Since form critics believe the Q hypothesis and that Luke and Matthew copied from Mark, many argue they might have found this too radical and so chose not to include it.

[35] Most scholars agree that Sabbath and proper observance of Mosaic law in general were a point of contention between Jesus and other Jewish teachers.

[35] The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jesus notes: "...stricter rabbis allowed only the saving of life to excuse the slightest curtailment of the Sabbath rest (Shab.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia: New Testament: Misunderstood Passages: Misunderstanding of the term "be-ḥad le-shabba tinyana" (on the first of the second week after Passover), preserved only in Luke vi.

In the one case Jesus, referring to David, defended his disciples, who in their hunger plucked the new corn in the field and ate it without waiting for the offering upon the altar; in the other case he himself disregarded Sabbath law in view of the "pikkuaḥ nefesh" (peril of life), a case in which the Rabbis admitted the suspension of the law, upon the principle, "The Sabbath is given over to you ["the son of man"], and not you to the Sabbath" (see Mek., Wayaḳhel, 1; Chwolson, "Das Letzte Passahmahl," 1892, pp.