Vincent's NT Word Studies
4. Come nigh unto him (proseggisai). The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. But some read prosenegkai bring him unto him. So Rev., in margin.They uncovered (apestegasan). The only use of the word in New Testament.
Broken it up (exoruxantev). Lit., scooped it out. Very graphic and true to fact. A modern roof would be untiled or unshingled; but an oriental roof would have to be dug to make such an opening as was required. A composition of mortar, tar, ashes, and sand is spread upon the roofs, and rolled hard, and grass grows in the crevices. On the houses of the poor in the country the grass grows more freely, and goats may be seen on the roofs cropping it. In some cases, as in this, stone slabs are laid across the joists. See Luke v. 19, where it is said they let him down through the tiles; so that they would be obliged, not only to dig through the grass and earth, but also to pry up the tiles. Compare Ps. lxxix. 6.
The bed (krabatton). One of Mark's Latin words, grabatus, and condemned by the grammarians as inelegant. A rude pallet, merely a thickly padded quilt or mat, held at the corners, and requiring no cords to let it down. They could easily reach the roof by the steps on the outside, as the roof is low; or they could have gone into an adjoining house and passed along the roofs. Some suppose that the crowd was assembled in an upper chamber, which sometimes extended over the whole area of the house. It is not possible accurately to reproduce the details of the scene. Dr. Thomson says that Jesus probably stood in the lewan or reception-room, a hall which is entered from the court or street by an open arch; or he may have taken his stand in the covered court in front of the house itself, which usually has open arches on three sides, and the crowd was around and in front of him.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:4 {Come nigh} (proseggisai). But Westcott and Hort read prosenegkai, to bring to, after Aleph, B, L, 33, 63 (cf. #Joh 5:18). {They uncovered the roof} (apestegasan ten stegen). They unroofed the roof (note paronomasia in the Greek and cognate accusative). The only instance of this verb in the N.T. A rare word in late Greek, no papyrus example given in Moulton and Milligan _Vocabulary_. They climbed up a stairway on the outside or ladder to the flat tile roof and dug out or broke up (exoruxantes) the tiles (the roof). There were thus tiles (dia twn keramwn, #Lu 5:19) of laths and plaster and even slabs of stone stuck in for strength that had to be dug out. It is not clear where Jesus was (hopou en), either downstairs, (Holtzmann) or upstairs (Lightfoot), or in the quadrangle (_atrium_ or _compluvium_, if the house had one). "A composition of mortar, tar, ashes and sand is spread upon the roofs, and rolled hard, and grass grows in the crevices. On the houses of the poor in the country the grass grows more freely, and goats may be seen on the roofs cropping it" (Vincent). {They let down the bed} (calwsi ton krabatton), historical present again, aorist tense in #Lu 5:19 (kaqekan). The verb means to lower from a higher place as from a boat. Probably the four men had a rope fastened to each corner of the pallet or poor man's bed (krabatton, Latin _grabatus_. So one of Mark's Latin words). Matthew (#Mt 9:2) has kline, general term for bed. Luke has klinidion (little bed or couch). Mark's word is common in the papyri and is spelled also krabbatos, sometimes krabatos, while W, Codex Washingtonius, has it krabbaton.
