Roof Materials

LETTING THE SICK MAN THROUGH THE ROOF TO JESUS A knowledge of the Oriental house is necessary in order to understand the story of the palsied man, who was let down through a hole in the roof, in order to get him to JESUS to be healed. Mark and Luke both give this aspect of the story. Mark says: "They uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed" (Mark 2:4). Luke puts it this way: "And let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus" (Luke 5:19). These accounts present some difficulties, and several interpretations have been offered in solving them. The two most plausible ones will be given here. The simplest explanation is that advocated by Dr. Thomson. He suggests that the sticks, thorn-bush, mortar, and earth of the roof were broken up, and thrown aside sufficiently, to let the sick man down into the house. He says that this could be done and the place could be repaired easily. Often this very thing is done in order to let grain, or straw or other things through. He testifies to having seen it done himself. The one difficulty about such a process, with the crowd below, would be the amount of dust caused. It would seem that Luke's account mentioning the letting down of the man through the tiling presents a difficulty to this interpretation. But some have considered "the tiling" to be a reference to the ordinarily constructed roof in the Orient. The Greek word for "tiling" means, "pottery ware," and such a word could describe a dirt roof when rolled and allowed to harden into clay.21 Other teachers of the Word have a different idea of what was done with the man. Advocating this view, Dr. Edersheim has this to say: It is scarcely possible to imagine that the bearers of the paralytic would have attempted to dig through this into a room below, not to speak of the interruption and inconvenience caused to those below such an operation. But no such objection attaches if we regard it not as the main roof of the house, but as that of the covered gallery under which we are supposing the LORD to have stood . . . In such case it would have been comparatively easy to "unroof' the covering of "tiles"; and then "having dug out" an opening through the lighter framework which supported the tiles, to let down their burden "into the midst before Jesus." In this connection Edersheim indicates that there were outside as well as inside stairways leading up to the roof. [Manners And Customs of Bible Lands]

Read More about Roof Materials