Richard T. Mead, "The Healing of the Paralytic: A Unit?" JBL 80 (1961): 348-54.

Since Wrede, exegetes have viewed Mark 2:5b - 10 as a "pronouncement story" artificially inserted into the "healing narrative." Unsatisfied with this interpretation, Mead proposes that the passage in question is a holistic unit, following the tripartite pattern: "revolutionary action... protest... silencing of the remonstrants" a typical narrative construct which appears at least seven times in the Synoptics.