Boskie prerogatywy Jezusa opisane w perykopie o uzdrowieniu paralityka (Mk 2, 1–12). Studium literackie, semantyczne i teologiczne

Abstract

The Divinity of Jesus is among the most significant truths preached by the Apostles and their helpers. Unfortunately, the dogma met with resistance in both the Jewish and pagan worlds of that time. The Jews – both their spiritual and secular leaders – took it as a heresy against the foundations of Judaism and the existence of their nation. It is not surprising then that soon after the Pentecost of AD 30 they launched regular persecutions of Christians and even condemned them to death. Those sentenced to death for their belief in Jesus’ divinity, included Deacon Stephen (AD 35), James the Great, a son of Zebedee and an Apostle of Jesus (AD 62), and James the Lord’s brother, bishop of Jerusalem (AD 62). Naturally, among the victims were also all those anonymous Christians who regarded their faith as something more important than their earthly lives (Acts 8: 1–3). In the pagan world , the truth of Jesus’ divine nature was rejected for other reasons. One was the scandalum crucis (the Scandal of the Cross): the pagans found it difficult to believe the truth of God, who first became Man and then gave up His life in expiatory sacrifice (Mark 14: 22–25) by allowing His infamous crucifixion (Mark 15: 27). What added to the difficulty was the fact that it was the Romans, specifically Pontius Pilate, who shared responsibility for the death of Jesus (Mark 15: 1–15). The four canonical Gospels contain traces of those attempts by Gospel preachers to proclaim the truth of God and man to their reluctant listeners both in the Jewish and pagan worlds. They can easily be found in the oldest of the gospels, namely Mark, which begins with the words: ”The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ”The truth of Jesus’ divinity expressed in the passage is a recurrent motif of the following pages of the book, as exemplified by references to Jesus’ restoring a demon-possessed man (Mark 5: 1–20) and His trial before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14: 53–65). Further hints are provided by the description of a storm on the lake (Mark 4: 35–41) and the story of healing a paralytic (Mark 2: 1–12). It is the last of those passages that received special consideration in the article, the goal of which is to reveal the truth of the Divinity of Jesus included there. For easy reading, the paper is divided into three parts: the first deals with literary issues; the second discusses semantic aspects; while the third presents those related to theology. Part one demonstrates what is recorded in the gospel (Mark 2: 1–12) as well as its context and structure. Part two explains the meaning of key phrases and terms in the text. Finally, part three presents what we can learn from the fragment in question (Mark 2: 1–12).