“through the tiles.” Mark 2:4 says that the men “uncovered the roof where he was, and...dug through it.” Although the average house had a roof of packed dirt, this house was in Capernaum, which had a large Roman influence, and so it is quite possible that the roof had a cap of tile over the dirt and beams. Thus, the men would “uncover” the roof and then dig through it. It is also possible that Luke, a Greek, was simply expressing what happened in the event in Greek terms. Because so many roofs in Greece and Rome had tile roofs, “the tiles” became a way to refer to the roof, so letting the man down “through the tiles” was simply a way of saying that they let him down through the roof.