Mark 2:4. And when they could not come nigh, &c.— The better to understand the particulars in this verse, it will be proper to consider the manner of building in the East, which we find largely described in Dr. Shaw's excellent Travels, where he has given us a full explanation of the passage before us. "The general method of building," says he, "seems to be continued from the earliest ages down to this time, without the least alteration or improvement. Large doors, spacious chambers, marble pavements, cloistered courts, with fountains sometimes playing in the midst, are conveniences well adapted to the circumstances of these hotter climates. The jealousy of these people is less apt to be alarmed, whilst, if we except a small latticed window or balcony, which sometimes looks into the streets, all the other windows open into their respective courts or quadrangles. It is during the celebration only of some zeenah (as theycall a public festival) that these latticed windows or balconies are left open. For this being a time of great liberty, revelling, and extravagance, each family is ambitious of adorning both the inside and outside of their houses with their richest furniture; while crowds of spectators, dressed out in their best apparel, and laying aside all modesty and restraint, go in and out where they please.—The account we have Exodus 9:30 of Jezebel's painting her face and tiring her head, and looking out at a window, upon Jehu's public entrance into Jezreel, gives us a lively idea of an Eastern lady at one of these zeenahs or festivals."
"The streets of these cities, the better to shade them from the sun, are usually narrow, with sometimes a range of shops on each side. If from these we enter into one of the principal houses, we shall first pass through a porch or gateway, with benches on each side; few persons, not even the nearest relations, having further admission, except upon extraordinary occasions. Hence we are received into the court or quadrangle, which, lying open to the weather, is, according to the ability of the owner, paved with marble, or such materials as will carry off the water into the common sewers. When much people are to be admitted, as upon the celebration of a marriage, the circumcising of a child, or occasions of the like nature, the company is rarely or never received into one of the chambers. The court is the usual place of their reception, which is strewed accordingly with mats and carpets for their more commodious entertainment: and as this is called el woost, or the middle of the house, (literally answering to the το μεσον of St. Luke 5:19.) it is probable that the place where our Saviour and the apostles were frequently accustomed to give their instructions, might have been in the likesituation, or in the area or quadrangle of one of these houses. In the summer season, and upon all occasions when a large company is to be received, this court is commonly sheltered from the inclemency of the weather by a velum, umbrella, or veil; which being expanded upon ropes from one side of the parapet wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The Psalmist seems to allude either to the tents of the Bedoweens, or to some covering of this kind, in that beautiful expression of spreading out the heavens, like a veil or curtain
"The court is for the most part surrounded by a cloister, over which,when the house has one or more stories, (and they sometimes have two or three) there is a gallery erected, of the same dimensions with the cloister; having a ballustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work going round about it, to prevent people from falling into the court. From the cloisters and galleries we are conducted into large spacious chambers, one of them frequently serving a whole family; whence it is, that the cities of these countries, which are generally much inferior in bigness to those of Europe, yet are so exceeding populous, that great numbers of the inhabitants are swept away by the plague, or any other contagious distemper. These chambers in houses of better fashion, from the middle of the wall downwards, are covered and adorned with velvet, or damask hangings, of white, blue, red, green, or other colours, (Esther 1:6.) suspended upon hooks, or taken down at pleasure; but the upper part is embellished with more permanent ornaments, being adorned with the most ingenious wreathings and devices in stucco or fret-work. The ceiling is generally of wainscot, either very artfully painted, or else thrown into a variety of pannels, with glided mouldings and scrolls of their Koran intermixed. The prophet (Jeremiah 22:14.) exclaims against the Eastern houses that were ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. The floors are laid with painted tiles or plaister of terrace; but as these people make little or no use of chairs, (either sitting cross-legged, or lying at length) they always cover or spread them over with carpets, which, for the most part, are of the richest materials. Along the sides of the wall or floor, a range of narrow beds or mattrasses is often placed upon these carpets; and for their further ease and convenience, several velvet or damask bolsters are placed upon these carpets or mattrasses, indulgences that seem to be alluded to by the stretching themselves upon couches, and by sewing of pillows to arm-holes, as we have expressed, Amos 6:4.Ezekiel 13:18; Ezekiel 13:20."
"At one end of each chamber there is a little gallery, raised three, four, or five feet above the floor, with a ballustrade in the front of it, with a few steps likewise leading up to it. Here they place their beds; a situation frequently alluded to in the Holy Scriptures; which may likewise illustrate the circumstance of Hezekiah's turning his face, when he prayed, towards the wall, (that is to say, from his attendants) Exodus 20:2 that the fervency of his devotion might be the less taken notice of and observed. The like is related of Ahab, 1 Kings 21:4 though probably not upon a religious account, but in order to conceal from his attendants the anguish he was in for his late disappointment. The stairs are sometimes placed in the porch, sometimes at the entrance into the court; but never upon the outside of the house. The top of the house, which is always flat, is covered with a stony plaister of terrace; whence, in foreign languages, it has attained the name of terrace. This is usually surrounded by two walls, the outermost whereof is partly built over the street, and partly makes the partition with the contiguous houses; being frequently so low, that one may easily climb over it. The other, which I shall call the parapet wall, hangs immediately over the court, being always breast high, and answers to the מעקה, or lorica, Deuteronomy 22:8 which we render the battlements. Instead of this parapet wall, some terraces are guarded, like the galleries, with ballustrades only, or latticed work; in which fashion probably, as the name seems to import, was the שׁבכה, or net, or lattice, as we render it, that Ahaziah, (2 Kings 1:2.) might be carelessly leaning over, when he fell from thence into the court. For upon these terraces, several offices of the family are performed; such as the drying of linen or flax, (Joshua 2:6.) and the preparing of figs and raisins; where likewise they enjoy the cool refreshing breezes of the evening, converse with one another, and offer up their devotions. In the feast of tabernacles, booths were erected upon them, Nehemiah 8:16. As these terraces are thus frequently used, and trampled upon, not to mention the solidity of the materials wherewith they are made, they will not easily permit any vegetable substances to take root or thrive upon them; which, perhaps, may illustrate the comparison, Isaiah 37:27 of the Assyrians, and Psalms 129:6 of the wicked, to the grass that grows upon the house-tops, which withereth before it is grown up."
"When any of these cities are built upon level ground, one may pass along the tops of the houses from one end to the other. Such in general is the method and contrivance of these houses. If then it may be presumed, that our Saviour was preaching in one of these houses, one may, by attending to the structure of it, give no small light to one circumstance of that history, which has given great offence to some unbelievers,supposingunsurmountabledifficultieswouldattendsuchan action. Which mistake they might perhaps fall into by not attending to the original, which will bear this construction; When they could not come at Jesus for the press, they got upon the roof of the house, and drew back the veil where he was; or, they laid open and uncovered that part of it, especially, which was spread over the place, οπου ην, where he was sitting, and having removed and plucked away (according to St. Jerome) whatever might incommode them in their intended good office, or having tied (according to the Persian version) the four corners of the bed or bedstead with cords, where the sick of the palsy lay, they let it down before Jesus."
"For that there was not the least force or violence offered to the roof, and consequently that εξορυξαντες (breaking up) no less than απεστεγησαν, (they uncovered), will admit of some other interpretations than what have been given to them in our version, appears from the parallel place in St. Luke; where δια των κεραμων καθηκαν αυτον, per tegulas demiserunt ilium, (which we translate they let him through the tiling, as if that had actually been broken up already) should be rendered, they let him down over, along the side, or by the way of the roof. We have a passage in Aulus Gellius exactly of the same purport, where it is said, that 'if any person in chains should make his escape into the house of the Flamen Dialis, he should be forthwith loosed: and that his fetters should be drawn up through the impluvium, upon the roof, or terrace, and from thence be let down into the highway, or the street.'"
"When the use of these phrases and the fashion of these houses are rightly considered, there will be no reason to suppose that any breach was actually made in the tegula, or κεραμοι : since all that was to be done in the case of the paralytic was to carry him up to the top of the house, (either by forcing their way through the crowd up the staircase, or else by conveying him over some of the neighbouring terraces) and there, after they had drawn away the στεγη or veil, to let him down, along the side of the roof through the opening (or impluvium), into the midst (of the court) before Jesus." See Shaw's Trav. 4to, p. 207. Bishop Pearce's Vindication of the Miracles, part 4: p. 26 and the notes on Matthew 9:1; Matthew 9:38. Instead of for the press, we may read because of the throng.