Would Jesus refer to another person as "son?"

In Mark 2:5, Jesus calls the paralyzed man "son". In our view of the child/Father relationship, Jesus would never take the position of a father, and would never call someone his child or son or daughter. St. Paul surely does this, but this referring to one as a "son" is contradictory to the Words of Jesus himself.

 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

 

I have checked all other bible versions, and they all use either son, my son, child, or my child, except The New Century Version says "young man". And from what I can tell, the word "tekvov" does mean child, or son, or daughter, as used in a parent/child relationship. What are your thoughts on this? 

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MY ANSWER

They all got it wrong except the NCV, and it isn't really correct since the word teknon means nothing but child. The young man is an interpretation also. This is a wonderful example of how Christians universally misunderstand Jesus and the significance of his gospel.  So, when Christian translators set out to translate the NT, they let their blindness show in many ways.

There are two Greek words that mean child.  Teknon  is one of them, paidion the other. There may be an exception -- I am not aware of one -- but it is my observation that paidion is used in the gospels to refer to a general category with no inference of parentage.  Teknon applies to the persons of the came category, but carrying with it an inference of paternity. Here is an example where Jesus used both words in a single utterance, and you can see the distinction clearly:

Luke.7

[32] They are like children (paidion) sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.'
[35] Yet wisdom is justified by all her children (teknon).

Thus, v. 32 simply refers to a category, with no parentage inferred.  But v. 35, infers the parentage, it being wisdom.  

Now back to Mark 2:5.  Teknon implies a parentage, but it does not imply that Jesus is the parent unless he used the possessive my as inserted into the RSV for example.  But the my is not present in the Greek!  

So, what is the implied parentage?  The context does not tell us, so we must infer.  It is possible that the man's parents were there with him, in which case, in the presence of the parents, Jesus would have used teknon to recognize their parentage.  But in view of the fact that Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic immediately, I tend to think that the Father in heaven is the implied parent and that Jesus is implying that this person is a child of God.  
Jesus definitely used teknon (teknia) in this way in addressing the disciples, implying their divine parentage:

John.13

[33] Little children (teknia), yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going you cannot come.

By way of contrast, Paul blew it big time when it came to his use of teknon:

Gal.4

[19] My little children (teknia mou), with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!

In this verse he does include the possessive pronoun my!  Further, the context indicates that he thought of himself as a mother giving birth.  Your view is correct that Jesus would never refer to anyone as "my son."  He is indeed consistent.  Christians do not understand the exclusive and inviolable fatherhood of God, and so their scholars think nothing of inserting a "my" in front of "son" indicating that Jesus is the father.

Peace to you

Brother Ed

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