{Their faith} (	(886e) pistin aut(936e)). The faith of the four men
and of the man himself. There is no reason for excluding his
faith. They all had confidence in the power and willingness of
Jesus to heal this desperate case. {Are forgiven} (aphientai,
aoristic present passive, cf. punctiliar action, Robertson's
_Grammar_, pp. 864ff.). So  Mt 9:3 , but  Lu 5:20  has the Doric
perfect passive aphe(936e)tai. The astonishing thing both to the
paralytic and to the four friends is that Jesus forgave his sins
instead of healing him. The sins had probably caused the
paralysis.