Bible Background Ideas, Activities, and Resources for Jesus and the Man Let Down Through the Roof

Post your Sunday School bible background ideas, activities, and resources for Jesus and the Man Let Down Through the Roof

• Please include a scripture reference, supply lists, sources, suggested age range. age modification, etc.
• Photos are much appreciated!  Click "attachments" and upload to your post.
• Please be careful not to post copyrighted materials. Excerpting and paraphrasing is okay. Include attribution.
  
  
  

Background note

Posted by member Angie2:

The story of the paralytic being brought by four friends and healed by Jesus can be found in three of the four Gospels: Matthew 9:2-8, Mark 2:1-22 and Luke 5:17-26.

Matthew's account leaves out the roof destruction. Mark's account identifies the location as Capernaum. Luke's account is very similar to the Mark account.

I prefer to teach children with Mark's account because it has all the elements of the story we think of, plus the part about the miracle happening in Capernaum and described as "the house of Simon" which we assume might be Simon Peter. We do know it was the home of Peter's mother-in-law.

Background notes

Posted by Neil MacQueen:

I too prefer Mark's first chapter account of this episode for the purpose of teaching young people and identifying the "house" where it happened as "Simon Peter's house in Capernaum." To be honest with the scripture, however, we have to admit that John 1:44 says that Peter's hometown was Bethsaida, not Capernaum, meaning, one of them seems to have gotten it wrong, or didn't include enough information to solve this minor "where" mystery.

We know from archaeological evidence that after the Resurrection and in the early days of the church, the Capernaum house became an important meeting and worship place and was later covered by a church. However, in 2012,  archaeologists unearthed a basilica covering a 1st Century A.D. home in BETHSAIDA (John 1:44's hometown for Peter)  -- suggesting that in the early days of Christianity, Peter's Bethsaida home was known and subsequently preserved JUST LIKE the home found in Capernaum was preserved. Some have simply suggested that Peter moved from his hometown to Capernaum (they are about 4 miles from each other and Capernaum is on the Sea.) Regarding the "which town" of this story, there are translation possibilities that don't help. It's also quite possible that Mark and John didn't know the geography of the area or have a clear source for it when they wrote their gospels. Thus, we are left wondering "where" but not "who, what or why." Read more about this fascinating controversy.

I've been to Capernaum. The ruins have been extensively excavated and preserved. Capernaum looks like a small village of maybe 50 homes. It sits on the main road around the Sea, and had a stone fishing pier (recently rediscovered under the water) --making it more like a "port" than just a small village. Jesus knew how to pick his spots!

Late in the First Century A.D. the Jews in Capernaum built a wonderfully ornate synagogue which is still partially standing today. This indicates there was a strong Jewish community in Capernaum after the time of Jesus, and likely before as new synagogues are often built over the site of earlier ones. Such a structure suggests the presence of Scribes and Pharisees in Capernaum. All of this cozy village-ness suggests that the crowd inside Peter's house that day were family, neighbors, and local officials who knew the family. Today, there is a large modern Franscican church built on pillars over the ruins of Peter's house that appears to "hover" over the house (kind of looks like a spaceship).

Most of the houses in Capernaum were built next to each other using common stone walls between them. This may explain why the friends could so easily get to the roof. Perhaps they stepped up on their own roof and over to Peter's roof.  His house was a series of rooms around a central courtyard.

(Add: In my Faith Through the Roof now free to the supporting members of Rotation.org, we used this archaeology to recreate Capernaum village with Peter's house in the style of house with an inner courtyard.)

Check out the two video posts about a teaching clip from "The Nazareth Jesus Knew" A Television Series" on real archaeological-connections, describing what the house's roof would actually have been like, interesting stuff.

Based on the style of house and its archaeology, I estimate there was room for about 30 to 40 people in the main room of Peter's compound, and spilling outside.

Added by Neil MacQueen:

There are FOUR miracles in this story:

1. The man's healing.
   
   
2. That the man's friends would go to such great effort and risk annoying everyone, including the homeowner, let alone "interrupting" Jesus.
   
   
3. Jesus forgave the man's sins -- which is a miracle. It shocked the authorities because Jesus was essentially playing God. Good thing he was!
   
   
4. The Miracle of Belief. Everybody saw the miracle with their own eyes, but seeing is NOT believing. Some went away believing. Some went away doubting. Belief is a miracle.