And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts?

And Jesus, having known their thoughts, said, 'Why think ye evil in your hearts?

Knowing their thoughts Jesus said, "Why are you cherishing evil thoughts in your hearts?

And Jesus, having knowledge of what was in their minds, said, Why are your thoughts evil?

And when Jesus had perceived their thoughts, he said: "Why do you think such evil in your hearts?

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus exclaimed, "Why do your cherish such wicked thoughts?

And when Jesus saw their thoughts He now gives a proof of his Divinity in bringing to light their secret thoughts: for who knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him? (1-Corinthians 2:11.) And so Mark adds, that Jesus knew by his Spirit: which means, that what was concealed in their hearts could not be perceived by man, but that Christ by his Divine Spirit knew it thoroughly. Why do you think evil? This does not imply that it gave them pain to see a mortal man assuming what God claims as his own prerogative, but that they proudly and wickedly rejected God, who was openly manifested to them.

Jesus, knowing their thoughts - Mark says, "Jesus perceived "in his spirit" that they so reasoned." The power of searching the heart, and of knowing the thoughts of people, belongs only to God, 1-Chronicles 28:9; Romans 8:27; Revelation 2:23; Jeremiah 17:10. In claiming this, as Jesus did here, and often elsewhere, he gave clear proofs of his omniscience, John 2:24-25.

Jesus knowing (ιδων seeing) their thoughts - In telling them what the thoughts of their hearts were, (for they had expressed nothing publicly), he gave them the fullest proof of his power to forgive sins; because God only can forgive sins, and God only can search and know the heart. Jesus pronounced the man's sins forgiven; and gave the scribes the fullest proof of his power to do so, by telling them what, in the secret of their souls, they thought on the subject.
God sounds the secrets of all hearts - no sin escapes his notice; how senseless then is the sinner to think he sins securely when unseen by men! Let us take heed to our hearts, as well as to our conduct, for God searches out and condemns all that does not spring from, and leads not to himself.

And Jesus knowing their thoughts,.... Which was a clear evidence, and full demonstration of his deity; for none knows the thoughts of the heart but God; and since he knew the thoughts of men's hearts, it could be no blasphemy in him to take that to himself which belonged to God, even to forgive sins. And this, one would think, would have been sufficient to have approved himself to them as the true Messiah; since this is one of the ways of knowing the Messiah, according to the Jews, and which they made use of to discover a false one.
"Bar Coziba, (they say (g),) reigned two years and a half: he said to the Rabbins, I am the Messiah; they replied to him, it is written of the Messiah, that he is "of quick understanding, and judges", (referring to Isaiah 11:3) let us see whether this man is of quick understanding, and can make judgment, i.e. whether a man is wicked, or not, without any external proof; and when they saw he was not of quick understanding, and could not judge in this manner, they slew him.''
But now Christ needed not any testimony of men; he knew what was in the hearts of men, of which this instance is a glaring proof: hence he said,
wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? it was no evil in them to think that God only could forgive sin; but the evil was, that they thought Christ was a mere man, and ought not to have took so much upon him; and that, for so doing, he was a wicked man, and a blasphemer.
(g) T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 93. 2.

Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? They had said nothing aloud, but he read their hearts.