Note 1 at Lk. 5:19: A tile was a slab or plate of baked clay. Tiles were not a common roofing material in Palestine, although they were popular in other countries of the world. Greece was one country in which tiled roofs were common, and Luke, being a Greek, may have said "through the tiling," meaning "through the roof." Another possibility is that this was simply a house in Capernaum that had a tile roof. It would not be unthinkable that along the shore of the Sea of Galilee (where Capernaum was located) or the banks of the Jordan River, there were clay deposits from which tiles could be made. Another possibility is that the Roman armies or some wealthy merchant imported the tiles.