Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 2:4

"And when they could not come nigh unto him for the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed whereon the sick of the palsy lay." — Mark 2:4 (ASV)

To understand these verses, it is necessary to visualize the layout of a typical Palestinian peasant’s house. It was usually a small, one-room structure with a flat roof, accessible by means of an outside stairway. The roof itself was usually made of wooden beams with thatch and compacted earth in order to shed the rain. Sometimes tiles were laid between the beams and the thatch.

The four men brought the paralytic to the house where Jesus was; but when they saw the size of the crowd, they realized it was impossible to enter by the door. So they carried the paralytic up the outside stairway to the roof, dug up the compacted thatch and earth, removed the tiles, and lowered the man through the now-exposed beams to the floor below.