Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 7:31
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
31 37. The Healing of one Deaf and Dumb
31. the coasts ] A misleading archaism is this word for “border” or “region.” No allusion is made, in the original word to the sea-board. Thus we are told that Herod “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof,” though Bethlehem was not near the sea; and again we read of “ the coasts ” (=borders) of Juda in Mat 19:1; comp. Mar 10:1, where there is no sea-coast at all; of the coasts (=borders) of Gadara in Mar 5:17; “the coasts of Decapolis” in this verse; of “the coasts ” (=regions) of Antioch in Pisidia (Act 13:50). Comp. 1Sa 5:6. The word comes from the Latin costa, “ a rib,” “ side,” through Fr. “ coste.” Hence it = “a border” generally, though now applied to the sea-coast only. Wyclif translates it here “bitwix be Endis ( or coostis) of Tire, be myddil endis of Decapoleos.”
and Sidon ] The preferable reading here, supported by several MSS. and found in several ancient versions, is, And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre, He came through Sidon unto the Sea of Galilee. This visit of the Redeemer of mankind to the city of Baal and Astarte is full of significance.
he came unto the sea of Galilee ] The direction of the journey appears to have been (1) northward towards Lebanon, then (2) from the foot of Lebanon through the deep gorge of the Leontes to the sources of the Jordan, and thence (3) along its eastern bank into the regions of Decapolis, which extended as far north as Damascus, and as far south as the river Jabbok.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Departing from the coasts – The country or regions of Tyre.
Came unto the sea of Galilee – The Sea of Tiberias. See the notes at Mat 4:18.
Decapolis – See the notes at Mat 4:25. He did not go immediately into Capernaum, or any city where he was known, but into the retired regions around the Sea of Galilee. This was done to avoid the designs of the Pharisees, who sought his life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 7:31-37
And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech.
The pattern of service
The missionary spirit is but one aspect of the Christian life. We shall only strengthen the former as we invigorate the latter. Harm has been done, both to ourselves and to this great cause, by seeking to stimulate compassion and efforts for heathen lands by the use of other excitements, which have tended to vitiate even the emotions they have aroused, and are apt to fail us when we need them most. It may therefore be profitable if we turn to Christs own manner of working, and His own emotions in His merciful deeds, as here set forth for our example. We have here set forth-
I. The foundation and condition of all true work for God, in the Lords heavenward look. That wistful gaze to heaven means, and may be taken to symbolize, our Lords conscious direction of thought and spirit to God as He wrought His work of mercy. Such intercourse is necessary for us too. It is the condition of all our power, and the measure of all our success. Without it we may seem to realize the externals of prosperity, but it will be an illusion. With it we may perchance seem to spend our strength for naught; but heaven has its surprises; and those who toiled, nor left their hold of their Lord in all their work, will have to say at last with wonder, as they see the results of their poor efforts, Who hath begotten me these? behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? The heavenward look is-
1. The renewal of our own vision of the calm verities in which we trust.
2. It will guard us from the temptations which surround all our service, and the distractions which lay waste our lives.
II. Pity for the evils we would remove, by the Lords sigh. It is a sharp shock to turn from the free sweep of the heavens; starry and radiant, to the sights that meet us on earth. Thus habitual communion with God is the root of the truest and purest compassion. He has looked into the heavens to little purpose who has not learned how bad and how sad the world now is, and how God bends over it in pitying love. And pity is meant to impel to help. Let us not be content with painting sad and true pictures of mens woes, but remember that every time our compassion is stirred and no action ensues, our hearts are in some measure indurated, and the sincerity of our religion in some measure impaired.
III. Loving contact with those whom we would help, in the Lords touch. The would-be helper must come down to the level of those whom he desires to aid. We must seek to make ourselves one with those whom we would gather into Christ, by actual familiarity with their condition, and by identification of ourselves in feeling with them. Such contact with men will win their hearts, as well as soften ours. It will lift us out of the enchanted circle which selfishness draws around us. It will silently proclaim the Lord from Whom we have learnt it. The clasp of the band will be precious, even apart from the virtue that may flow from it, and may be to many a soul burdened with a consciousness of corruption the dawning of belief in a love that does not shrink even from its foulness.
IV. The true healing power and the consciousness of wielding it, in the Lords authoritative word. That word is almighty, whether spoken by Him, or of Him (Joh 14:12). We have everything to assure us that we cannot fail. The work is done before we begin it. The word entrusted to us is the Word of God, and we know that it liveth and abideth forever. Nothing can prevail against it. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Ephphatha
I. Teaching for those who would follow the Lord in doing good.
1. Be considerate. Deal with each case according to its need.
2. Look up to heaven. It is the privilege of serving God to create correspondence with God. He who does good, enters into alliante with heaven.
3. Sigh. Shall the heirs of sinful blood, seek joy unmixed in charity? Doing good is lessening evils; contact with evils makes us serious-sad. Therefore many avoid it all they can-avert eyes from realities around them, attend only to what will please and amuse. Selfish creatures, children of world, who have not the Spirit of Christ. Those who have will, in this, share His experience. Sadness in sympathy: pain in disappointment.
II. Admonition to all to whom the Word of God comes. Their case was before Christs mind. The deepest cause of His sigh and sorrow was that they were spiritually deaf, and therefore spiritually dead. Hear, and your soul shall live. (T. D. Bernard.)
Deaf mutes
I. Many cannot speak because they are deaf, so some souls are silent because they are dull of hearing.
II. Christ sighs over faculties misused or destroyed.
III. We need this miracle in our souls-the opening of the ear, and the loosening of the tongue.
IV. When one was healed many sought healing (Mat 15:30), and found it, till the half-heathen people summed up their experience in a word which describes all Christs action in miracles, providence, and grace-He hath done all things well. (R. Glover.)
He took him aside
Thus it is that Gods greatest works are performed. Crowds may admire the full-blown rose, but in silence and secrecy its leaflets have been folded in the bud. The broad river bears navies on its bosom, but amid the mosses and ferns of the lonely mountain it takes its rise. In this instance, when the man and his Saviour were alone together, there was as much care bestowed on him as if there were none else in the world.
I. The greatness of Gods universe. How difficult to conceive that one individual can be of importance to its Ruler that we see each soul standing in His sight aside from all the rest;
1. Aside for responsibility;
2. Aside for affection.
II. In the work of spiritual healing, Christ deals in the same way still.
1. In childhood, by a mothers voice.
2. In after years, by books, sermons, friends, trials. The conscience is touched; we stand face to face with God.
III. The healed in body might go back to the multitude. The healed in soul must stay aside. In the world, but not of it. His objects of life, tastes, aspirations, are different from those of the multitude. He must be much alone with Christ in prayer, communion, and study. Alone, but not lonely.
IV. The final taxing aside. Death. Aside from the earthly multitude, its toil, bustle, and sorrow: united with the great multitude whom no man can number. (F. R. Wynne, M. A.)
Healing the deaf and dumb man
Jesus speaks to him in signs.
(1) Takes him aside from the multitude-alone with Jesus;
(2) puts His fingers into his ears-these are to be opened;
(3) touches his tongue with His saliva-Christs tongue is to heal his;
(4) looks up to heaven and sighs-Gods help in mans sorrow;
(5) speaks the word Ephphatha-and the man speaks plain. (T. M. Lindsay, D. D.)
He took him aside
Teaching us by this act-
1. To avoid vain glory in all our works of mercy to others.
2. That the penitent must separate himself from the crowd of worldly cares, tumultuous thoughts, and inordinate affections, if he would find rest for his soul in God.
3. That he must tear himself from the company of evil and frivolous companions, and from the bustle of incessant occupation.
4. That Christ alone can heal the soul. He took from the deaf and dumb man any trust that he might have had in those who stood by.
5. He leaves also this lesson to His ministers, that if they would heal the sinner by their reproof, they should do this when he is alone. (W. Denton, M. A.)
The successive steps in the conversion of the sinner
1. The departure from the multitude, i.e., from evil companions, sinful desires, corrupt practices.
2. The favour which comes from Christ, who gives us both the sight of our sins, and the knowledge of Gods will; and then strengthens us to obey His commands.
3. The confession of our sins which is given us when Christ touches our tongue with the wisdom which is from above, and gives us grace to acknowledge God by word and deed. (W. Denton, M. A.)
Meaning of Christs action
The whole action would seem to have been symbolical, and accurately suited to the circumstances of the case. Translate the action into words, and what have we but sayings such as these? I have taken thee aside from the multitude, that thou mightest observe and remember Who it is to Whom thou hast been brought. Thine organs are imperfect: here are members of thy body, which are useless to the ends for which they were given, and I am about to set on them with a power which shall supply all defects. Yet I would have thee know that this power is but a credential of My having come forth from God, and should produce in thee belief of My prophetical character. Behold, therefore: I lift My eyes unto heaven, whilst I utter the word which shall give thee hearing and speech. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The abuses and uses of speech
I. Why did Christ sigh? For us Christians, as well as for that poor Jew; because, when He looked up to heaven, He looked up to His home as God, and as God He had before His omniscience all the sins which, through ear and tongue, had brought, were bringing, and would bring, misery to man.
II. Is there not still a cause why Christians should sigh with Christ?
1. For blasphemous words.
2. Unbelieving, sneering words, and flippant, irreverent words.
3. False words; the lies of society, of vanity, of business, of expediency, of ignorance.
4. Obscene, lascivious, wanton words.
5. Bitter, slanderous, and railing words.
Of what does our conversation too often consist? First, there are self-evident platitudes about the weather (very often murmurings of discontent with that which comes so plainly and directly from God); then, the old Athenian craving either to tell or to hear some new thing, and that new thing, how commonly! an evil report about our neighbour. Thou safest at thine ease, deliberately, in your home, at the table of your friend, in the railway carriage, in the newsroom, in the office, thou satest and spakest against thy brother. Instead of every man shall give an account of himself, it might have been written, every man shall give account of his neighbour unto God, so eager are we to detect and remember his infirmities, to ignore and forget our own. It never seems to strike us that, while we are so busy in spying and pointing out to others the thistles in our neighbours fields, the tares are choking our own wheat. Our neighbours idleness, lust, drunkenness, profanity, debt,-these are our theme; and we forget that there is such a thing as a judgment to come for our own misdeeds.
III. The cure of the disease.
1. Not mere secular education: that is only the pioneer, who saps and mines, not the artillery which destroys the citadel. If the fountain is poisonous, the filter may remove the dirt which discolours, but it will not make the water wholesome. No mental, no moral education, can directly act upon the soul. You may teach men to speak more correctly and politely, to think more cleverly, and to reason more closely; but this will not purify the heart. Lust and dishonesty are all the more dangerous, when they quote poetry, and converse agreeably.
2. Education is but a means to an end. It is the ambulance on which we may convey the wounded man to the surgeon-the couch on which we bring the sick man to Jesus. Regarded thus, education is a most useful handmaid to religion. Christ is the sole physician; to Him, and to none else, the sin-sick soul must come.
IV. Faith in him, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, leads us to consecrate our power of speech to His glory and the good of His creatures.
V. The final issue. The use we make of the tongue will decide our future (Mat 12:37). It is said that one who had not long been converted to Christianity, once came to an aged teacher of the faith, and asked instruction. The old man opened his Psalter, and began to read the Psalm which first met his eye, the thirty-ninth; but when he had finished the first verse, I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not in my tongue, his hearer stopped him, saying, That is enough; let me go home and try to learn that lesson. Some time after, finding that he came no more, the elder sent to enquire the reason, and the answer was, I have not yet learned the lesson; and even when many years had passed, and the pupil became a teacher as full of grace as years, he confessed that, though he had been studying it all his life, he had not mastered it yet. (Canon S. R. Hole.)
Christs sigh
What did that sigh mean?
1. Sympathy for the afflicted. The incarnation brings the heart of Jesus close to our own, and we know that He feels for our sorrows.
2. Grief at the effects of sin. Man, made in Gods image, had become through sin the poor dumb creature on which Christ looked. The thought of Eden with its sinless inhabitants, and the sad contrast presented by the sight before Him, made Jesus sigh.
3. Apprehension for the future. What use would the man make of his restored faculties? Hitherto he had been unable to let any corrupt communication proceed out of his mouth, and his ears had been sealed to the cruel, false, impure words of the world. What evil he might now do with his tongue; what poisonous words might now enter into his ears. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
Sighs
It is by prayer, and the secret sighs of the heart, that Christ applies His merits, and that the Church does it after His example. If the conversion of a sinner cost Jesus Christ so many desires, prayers, and sighs; is it unreasonable that it should likewise cost the sinner himself some? Is it not necessary that His servants, called and separated to this work, should be men of desires, prayers, and sighs? That which Christ does here is the pattern which a minister of the Church ought to follow, who, in the exercise of his ministry, ought to lift up his heart toward heaven, to groan and sigh in behalf of those under his hand, and to expect everything from Him who is the sovereign Master of all hearts. (Quesnel.)
The sigh of disappointed desire
We may readily understand how, on the instant of working a miracle, a glance towards heaven might cause Christ to sigh. Wherefore had He descended from that bright abode if not to achieve its being opened to the lost race of man? And wherefore did He work miracles, if not to fix attention on Himself as the promised seed of the woman who, through obedience and death, was to reinstate our lineage in the paradise from which they had been exiled for sin? There was a sufficiency in the satisfaction which He was about to make, to remove the curse from every human being, and to place all the children of Adam in a more glorious position than their common parent had forfeited. But He knew too well that, in regard of multitudes, His endurances would be fruitless; fruitless, at least, in the sense of obtaining their salvation, though they cannot be in that of vindicating the attributes of God, and leaving the impenitent self-condemned at the judgment. Therefore, it may be, did Christ sigh; and that, too, immediately after looking up to heaven. I can read the sigh; it is full of most pathetic speech. Yonder, the Redeemer seems to say, is the home of My Father, of the cherubim and seraphim. I would fain conduct to that home the race which I have made one with Myself, by so assuming their nature as to join it with the Divine. I am about to work another miracle-to make, that is, another effort to induce the rebellious to take Me as their leader to yon glorious domain. But it will be fruitless; I foresee, but too certainly, that I shall still be despised and rejected of men. Then who can wonder that a sigh was interposed between the looking up to heaven and the uttering the healing word? The eye of the Redeemer saw further than our own. It pierced the vault which bounds our vision, and beheld the radiant thrones which His agony would purchase for the children of men. And that men-men whom He loved with a love of which that agony alone gives the measure-should refuse these thrones, and thereby not only put from them happiness, but incur wretchedness without limit or end-must not this have been always a crushing thing to the Saviour? and more especially when, by glancing at the glories which might have been theirs, He had heightened His thought of their madness and misery? I am sure that were we striving to prevail on some wretched being to enter an asylum where he would not only be sheltered from imminent danger, but surrounded with all the material of happiness, a look at that asylum, with its securities and comforts, would cause us to feel sorer than ever at heart, as we turned to make one more endeavour, likely to be useless as every preceding one, to overcome the obduracy which must end in destruction. Therefore ought we readily to understand why the Redeemer, bent only on raising to glory a race, of which He foresaw that myriads would voluntarily sink down to shame, gave token of a distressed and disquieted spirit, between looking towards heaven and working a miracle-as though the look had almost made Him reluctant for the work. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christ the opener of locked doors
The Ephphatha of Christ was not spoken in Decapolis alone. It is heard also in history. He sighed Ephphatha, and the conflict of His Church was revealed to His evangelist. He sighed Ephphatha, and the tongue of Galileo and Kepler told of the wondrous order of the heavens. He sighed Ephphatha, and buried monuments gave up their records of the past, and threw side lights on higher truths. He spoke Ephphatha, and Caxton gave new powers to the world. Knowledge stepped forth from her dust-covered shrine, and carried her rich bounties into every city and house. History unlocked her long-hidden lore. Science painted in noble colours the half-veiled face of Nature. The tongue of Europe was loosed. But well might a sigh have been heaved as the Ephphatha was spoken. It is not truth alone, or holiness alone, which has been unlocked. It is not Chaucers well of English undefiled, the pure song of Spenser, the heart-rousing vision of Dante, the chivalrous epic of Tasso, the stately and magnanimous verse of Milton alone which have been given to the world. A fouler current mingles with the bright, pure stream, and darkens the flood of knowledge-the unredeemed filth of Boccaccio, the unbridled licentiousness of Scarron, the stupid sensuality of Dancourt, the open indecency of Wycherley, the more fatal suggestiveness of Sterne. The press became indeed the voice of nations; but when it was loosed a sigh drawn from the pure heart of Christ, wounded by the misuse of a glorious opportunity, might have been heard by the Church of God. Yet Christ did not withhold the boon. Freely, ungrudgingly, were His miracles of love performed. To deny powers or privileges, or the free exercise of rights and faculties, on the ground that they may be abused, is to act according to the dictates of expediency, not of right. But there is a remedy for the evils which accompany this freedom. It is by conferring an additional and guiding gift. There is another Ephphatha. He speaks, Be opened, and the tongue is loosed; but the ear is unstopped also. While He bestows the faculty of speech, He bestows also the opportunity of hearing those glad and soul-elevating principles of righteousness, and forgiveness, and love, which will fill the loosened tongue with joy, and put a new song of praise in that long-silent mouth. (Bishop Boyd Carpenter.)
His ears were opened
Christ first opened the mans ears, then untied his tongue; because we must hear well, before we can speak well. (Pontanus.)
The heavy ear and speech of faith
There are diseases of the soul as well as the body, and a mans spiritual nature often needs, in order to its perfection, as great and almost as miraculous a change as the gifts of speech and hearing to the dumb and deaf. What shall we say of those who have no ears to hear what our Father in heaven is always revealing to the hearts of those who love Him? There are sounds in nature which often arrest our attention in spite of ourselves; there are messages of grace which often touch the conscience in the midst of an ungodly course. Can the discontented churl walk abroad, on a fine morning in the early summer, and not find the joyous singing of the birds around him in some sort a condemnation and a solace of his unthankful spirit? Can the moments of solemn thought (though they be but moments) which are awakened by the heavy roll of thunder, pass away without our remembering how small and insignificant we ourselves are in the hands of Him who made all created nature? Is it possible that the old, old story of Jesus Christ, our Brother and our God, can be repeated without stirring up some desire to be with Him? Or is it possible for us, who have our organs of speech perfect, to use that speech for every worldly object of profit or interest, and yet to have no voice, because we have no heart, to join in earnest prayer, or utter our songs of praise? Is it possible, in short, for a professing Christian to harden his heart, and to be deaf to the spiritual invitations which he listens to in Gods Word, in Gods providence, and in Gods whispers to his soul? Alas, we know such things are possible; but we know also that He who imparted the gift of speech and hearing to the afflicted one near the lake of Galilee is waiting, by His Spirit, to impart a greater gift to every one of us, however careless and unfaithful and earthly has been our life. The Lord our Master is ready to bestow the hearing ear and the speech of faith. (Dean Bramston.)
The sigh of Jesus
In all our Saviours sorrows-I do not enter now into the mysteries of Gethsemane and Calvary-but in all the sorrows of our Saviours life among men, there are two features characteristic, beautiful, and instructive. Our Saviours recorded sadnesses were all for others. They were either, as at Bethany, sympathy with others griefs; or as when He wept over Jerusalem, or when He encountered the opposition of the Sadducees, for our sins; the selfish element was unknown. Again, His sorrow was never an idle sentiment. There is a great deal of useless, impassioned feeling in the world. Thousands are pained by the wickedness and misery they see around; they descant upon it; they can even weep when they speak of it-but it leads to no action. There is no effort; there is no self-sacrifice. It is almost poetry. It is but little more than the luxury of a tragedy. How different His! We never read of a sigh or tear of Jesus, but it immediately clothes itself into a benevolent word, or a benevolent work. I question whether, if we were in a right state, there would ever be a sorrow which did not throw itself into an action. Some receive affliction passively and meditatively. They go into seclusion. But others at once go forth the more. They see in their trial a call to energy. The sigh of Jesus, as He healed the deaf and dumb man in Decapolis, has been made to speak many languages, according to the varied habits of mind of those who have interpreted it. I will arrange them under four heads, and we may call them:-the Sigh of Earnestness; the Sigh of Beneficence; the Sigh of Brotherhood; and the Sigh of Holiness. Let us note each: lest, by omitting one, we should miss our lesson.
1. Because it says that looking up to heaven, He sighed, some connect the two words, and account that the sigh is a part of the prayer-an expression of the intensity of the workings of our Lords heart when He was supplicating to the Father. And if, brethren, if the Son of God sighed when He prayed, surely they have most of the spirit of adoption-such a sense of what communion with God is-who, in their very eagerness, exhaust themselves; till every tone and gesture speak of the struggle and ardour they feel within.
2. But it has been said again, that He who never gave us anything but what was bought by His own suffering-so that every pleasure is a spoil purchased by His blood-did now by the sigh, and under the feeling that He sighed, indicate that He purchased the privilege to restore to that poor man the senses he had lost.
3. But furthermore, as I conceive of this, that sigh was the Sigh of Fellowship-the Sigh of Brotherhood.
4. But fourthly. All this still lay on the surface. Do you suppose that our Saviours mind could think of all the physical evil, and not go on to the deeper moral causes from which it sprang? But, after all, what is worth sighing for, but sin? And observe, He only sighed. He was not angry. He sighed. That is the way in which perfect holiness looked on the sins of the universe. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The sigh of apprehension
Who among us has not sighed to look on his speechless child in its cradle, thinking what words those innocent lips might one day form? Who has not sighed when he first sent his boy to school, remembering what other lessons must enter into his ears besides those of the classroom? Jesus looked up to heaven as He performed the miracle of healing. Surely this was to teach the dumb man to look up also, and to learn that every gift comes from above. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
Why Jesus sighed
1. This is not the only record of the sighs, and tears, and troubled heart of Jesus (Heb 5:7; Mar 8:12; Joh 11:33). Truly He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So, to some extent, have all His saints and children been. You must not suppose that our blessed Saviour had no bright and joyous hours on earth. This joy of Jesus-deep joy, though noble and subdued-is not our subject today, but I touch on it for one moment only, lest any of you should take a false view of the life of man, or fatally imagine that in this world the children of the devil have a monopoly of happiness. Happiness?-they have none. Guilty happiness? there is no such thing! Guilty pleasure for a moment there is;-the sweetness of the cup whose draught is poison, the glitter of the serpent whose bite is death. Guilty mirth there is-the laughter of fools, which is as the crackling of thorns under a pot. But guilty happiness there never has been in any life, nor ever can there be. True happiness, happiness in the midst of even scorn and persecution, happiness even in the felons prison and in the martyrs flame, is the high prerogative of Gods saints alone-of Gods saints, and therefore assuredly, even in His earthly life, of Him the King of Saints; since there is in misery but one intolerable sting, the sting of iniquity, and He had none.
2. But you will not have failed to notice that on two of the occasions on which we are told that Jesus sighed and wept, He was immediately about to dispel the cause of the misery. He was about to heal the deaf. Why then should He have sighed? He was about to raise the dead. Why then did the silent tears stream down His face? The doing of good is not a work of unmixed happiness, for good men can never do all the good that they desire. They have wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as for themselves; and this sort of happiness brings much pain.
3. My friends, there was in truth cause enough, and more than enough, why the Lord should sigh. In that poor afflicted man He saw but one more sign of that vast crack and flaw which sin causes in everything which God has made. When God had finished His work, He saw that it was very good; but since then tares have been sown amid His harvest; an alien element intruded into His world; a jangling discord clashed into His music. Earth is no longer Eden.
4. And alas, it is not only the unintelligent creation which groans and travails. We ourselves, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body. We are apt to be very proud of ourselves and of our marvellous discoveries and scientific achievements; but, after all, what a feeble creature is man! what a little breed his race! what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue! We fade as the grass, and are crushed before the moth. If we knew no more than Nature can tell us, and had no help but what Science can give to us, what sigh would be too deep for beings born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward? (Canon F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
I. The nature of the miracle. One of the most wonderful ever wrought. It was both a physical and mental miracle, reaching the mind as well as the organs of the body. It not only conferred the wanting faculties of hearing and pronouncing words, but also supplied an acquaintance with the meaning and use of words. Long and laborious discipline of the tongue, and inward effects of memory, and association of ideas with particular inflections of sound, are still necessary to enable us to employ that language as a medium of communication. Here, however, was the impartation at once of both hearing, and understanding of what was heard. It has been compared to the work of creation; it had in it all the elements of creativeness, beneficence, and Divine power, from which we may see the majesty of our Saviour.
II. The attendant circumstances of this miracle.
III. The spiritual significance of this miracle. There are disabilities upon every soul by nature akin to the deficiences of him whose ears were deaf, and whose tongue was tied. The Great Healer is now among us He can help anywhere, on the highway. This Ephphatha is prophetic. It tells of the ultimate consummation of Christs mediatorial work. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
Impediment in speech
Notice, too, that those who are spiritually deaf have also an impediment in their speech. This is shown in many different ways. When I find persons who will not speak out boldly for the honour of Jesus Christ, who will not confess Him before the world, I know they have an impediment in their speech. When I find persons in church silent throughout the service, making no responses, singing no psalm, or chant, or hymn, I know they have an impediment in their speech: they will not put their tongue to its right use, which is to praise God with the best member that we have. If I find a man saying what is false, hesitating to give a plain, straightforward answer, I know that he has an impediment in his speech, his stammering tongue cannot utter the truth. If I hear a man wild with passion, using bad language, I know that he has an impediment, he cannot shape good words with his tongue. And so with those who tell impure stories, or retail cruel gossip about their neighbours character, they are all alike afflicted people, deaf to the voice of God, and with an impediment in their speech. And now let us look at the means of cure. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
Bringing men to Jesus
They brought the afflicted man to Jesus. That is the first step. If we would find pardon and healing, we must be brought to Jesus. The Holy Spirit leads the sinner back in many different ways. It was the reading of one text of Scripture which turned Augustine from his evil life. It was the single word Eternity printed in the tract which a man had torn scoffingly in two, and which lay in a scrap of paper on his arm, that led him to repent. Sometimes it is a word in a sermon, or a verse in a hymn; sometimes it is the question of a little child, or the sight of a dead face in a coffin; but whatever it is which brings us back to Jesus, that must be the first step to finding pardon and healing. (H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
Love and Sorrow
I. That sigh, then, was a prayer. Probably Jesus, when on earth, never did any great work without prayer. And how much of the real force of prayer was concentrated in this one sigh? Let us not measure the power of prayer by the time it occupies, or by the noise it makes.
II. But while the sigh was a prayer, the prayer was a sigh. But what does the sigh suggest to us?
1. Not that He felt Himself incompetent to perform the task sought at His hands.
2. Not that He felt any reluctance to bestow the requested boon. Jesus was no miser in mercy.
3. Not that He felt that the performance of this miracle would be in any respect inconsistent with the principles and purposes of His mission to our world.
I. It reveals to us the reality and intensity of the Saviours love to individual sufferers.
II. It shows the keenness with which the Saviour felt the evil of sin.
III. May not that sigh suggest that the Saviour felt that the boon He was about to bestow was a comparatively trivial one? He is only one of millions of men, all of whom are victims of some misery, and all of whose miseries spring from the one cause-sin. What have I done towards the accomplishment of My work when I have cured this man?
IV. That sigh reminds us of the essential central principle of the philosophy of salvation. Christ never relieves a man of any curse the misery of which He does not appropriate to Himself. In all our afflictions He is afflicted. This sigh was the price He paid for an opened ear and a loosened tongue. What spiritual blessing have you and I which He has not paid for in the sorrow of His own experience?
V. That sigh may well suggest to us the holy sadness of doing good. (J. P. Barnett.)
The Saviours Sigh
He sighed when about to unstop deaf ears. Sighed when on the verge of opening the door by which the music of nature and the welcome sounds of the human voice would enter the hitherto silent regions within. Sighed when He was prepared to give power to the mute organ of speech. Why, we should rather have expected that He would have smiled, and, looking up to heaven, rejoiced. We do not sigh when engaged in a mission of mercy. Far from it. When we take loaves to the famishing, or money to the wretched bankrupt, we feel a throb of sacred delight. As we mark the pallid invalid get stronger and better, or as we visit asylums for the deaf and dumb in order to witness the compensations offered by us for the defects of nature, we are filled with grateful happiness. Why did the Master sigh?
I. The answer brings before us the most impressive and tragic feature in the Saviours experience. His whole life was a sigh. So utterly was this the case that we find Him mournful even when about to perform a miracle of great mercy! Just as there are dark spots on the bright sun, so even when suffused with celestial glory on the Mount of Transfiguration the awful cross made its appearance, for they spake of His decease. Hardly had the cheerful hosannahs of the multitude died away when He beheld the city and wept over it. To quote from Jeremy Taylor, This Jesus was like a rainbow; half made of the glories of light, and half of the moisture of a cloud. We speak often of Christs sacrifice in a one-sided style. Too often we mean by His sufferings the death He endured. We think of Calvary. The accursed tree rises before our imaginations. All these were dreadful indeed, albeit they were not the sum but the consummation of His trials. They were the closing pages of a volume filled with like details. He looked up to heaven, and what saw He there? Crowns prepared for men who would not seek them; thrones made ready for such as cared not to occupy them.
II. What ought we to learn from the Saviours sigh?
1. A lesson of consolation. Intense trouble seeks solitude. In great affliction men often wish to be alone. Even in inferior creatures something of this kind appears. The wounded deer retreats from the herd into the dark recesses of the forest. The whale, smitten by the harpoon, dives into the lowest depths of the sea. Human beings frequently prefer isolation when in trial. Peter went out, when he saw the truth of his Masters prediction, and wept bitterly. Of Mary, bereaved so heavily, the friends near her said, She went forth unto the grave to weep there. Was there anything akin to this in our Lord? There was. Even in minor matters of such an order He was made in all points like unto His brethren. Where did He sigh? In company? In a crowd? No. We are distinctly informed He took him aside from the multitude. No one heard Him sigh, not even the afflicted man, for he was unable to do so. The sigh was between the Son and the Father. Looking to heaven, not to earth, He sighed. Let us be comforted in sorrow. These incidents clearly show how qualified the Great High Priest is to sympathize with His disciples. He was once as we are.
2. Is there not a lesson of stimulus? Jesus did more than sigh. He said, Ephphatha, and thus restored sound and speech to the sufferer before Him. We must act as well as feel. Sighing will never reform the world, regenerate humanity. We must work. Our effort should be to bring men to Him who can still heal and restore.
3. There is also a lesson of caution. Possibly there were special reasons for sorrow on the part of Christ in reference to the man whom He healed. Perhaps the Redeemer foresaw that the bodily restoration would not lead to spiritual restoration, etc. Do we never sin with the ear? with the tongue? Alas, none is innocent herein. The golden rule has not yet brought our words into subjection to it. Keep the door of my lips. The grand thing is to have our hearts right, then all will be well. (T. R. Stevenson.)
The sigh of Jesus
I. The general study of the story would furnish several very excellent and edifying lessons suggested by our Lords action in working this miracle upon the shore of Decapolis.
1. We might note, earliest, the wide reach of the Masters zeal: And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. Jesus had just come from Tyre and Sidon, clear across in a heathen land; He was now in the midst of some Greek settlements on the eastern shore of the Sea of Tiberias. We see how He appears thus going upon a foreign mission.
2. Then, next, we might dwell upon the need of friendly offices in apparently hopeless cases. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him.
3. We might also mention, just here, the manipulations of our Saviour as illustrating the ingenuity of real sympathy. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue.
4. Even better still is our next lesson: we observe our Lords respect for everyones private reserves of experience. And He took him aside from the multitude privately. We shall surely do better always, when we bring souls to the Saviour, if we respect the delicacy of their organization, and take them aside.
5. Now we notice the naturalness of all great services of good. And looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. At the supremely majestic moments of His life our Lord became simpler in utterance and behaviour than at any other time. He fell back on the sweet and pathetic speech of His mother tongue.
6. Again: we learn here the risks of every high and new attainment. And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And He charged them that they should tell no man: but the more He charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; He maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. What will the restored man do with his gifts?
II. The singular peculiarity of this story, however, is what might be made the subject of more extended remark in a homiletic treatment. Three things meet us in their turn.
1. A question stands at the beginning: Why did our Lord sigh when He was looking up to heaven?
2. We are left in this case to conjecture. And, in a general way, perhaps it would be enough to say that there was something like an ejaculatory prayer in this sigh of Jesus soul; but more likely there was in it the outbreaking of sad and weary sympathy with the suffering of a fallen race like ours. It may be He sighed because there was so much trouble in the world everywhere. It may be He sighed because there were many who made such poor work in dealing with their trouble. It may be He sighed because He could not altogether alleviate the trouble He found. Some worries were quite beyond the reach of His power. He did not come to change the course of human affairs. Men are free agents; Jesus could not keep drunkards from killing themselves with strong drink if they would do it. It was not His errand on earth to crush in order to constrain. It may be He sighed because the trouble He met always had its origin and its aggravation in sin. This was the one thing which His adorable Father hated, and against which He was a consuming fire. It may be He sighed because so few persons were willing to forsake the sins which made the trouble. It may be He sighed because the spectacle of a ruined and rebellious world saddened Him. When the old preacher came back from captivity and found Jerusalem in fragments; when Marius returned and sat down among the broken stones of Carthage, we are not surprised to be told that they wept, though both were brave men. But these give but feeble illustration of the passionate mourning of soul which must have swept over the mind and heart of Jesus. Who knew what this earth had been when it came forth pure from the creating hand of His Father. No wonder He walked heavily depressed and mournful all through His career.
3. It is time to end conjecture, and come at once now to the admonition we find here in the story. Christians need more sighs. Christians must follow sighs with more looking up to heaven. Christians may cheer themselves with the prospect of a new life in which sighing shall be neither needed nor known. The Saviour shall then have seen of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Sorrow in healing
He sighed, and said, Be opened. The sigh therefore arose from no feeling of helplessness to remove the malady. The cure followed, as ever, that word of power. And yet He sighed as He said, Be opened.
1. He sighed, we cannot doubt, at the thought of that destructive agency of which He had before Him one example. Here was one whom Satan had bound. Here was an illustration of that reign of sin unto death to which the whole world bears witness. This deaf and dumb man reminded Christ of the corruption that had passed over Gods pure creation: and therefore, looking up to heaven, He sighed. And it will be no light gain, my brethren, if this thought should teach you to see with your Saviours eye even those bodily infirmities which you perhaps are tempted to regard almost with ridicule, but which are making life a burden and a weariness to so many of our fellow creatures. Remember whence these things come; from the power of him who has entered into Gods creation to torture and to ruin Gods handiwork.
2. But there was more than this, as we all feel at once, in that sigh. That outward bondage was but the token of an inward thraldom. Whether healed or not in this life, no bodily infirmity can have more than a temporary duration. Death must end it. But not so that spiritual corruption of which the other was but a sign. That inward ear which is stopped against Gods summons; that voice of the heart, which refuses to utter His praise; these things are of eternal consequence. And while bodily infirmities and disorders are occasional and partial in their occurrence, spiritual disease is universal. It overspreads every heart. And, as a mere matter of doctrine, I suppose we all assent to this. Without Gods grace, we all admit, we can know nothing and do nothing. But oh, how different our view of all this and Christs! First of all, we shut out from our anxiety every case but our own. No one by nature feels the value of his brothers soul: it is well if he bestows a thought upon his own. But how differently did Christ view these things, when He sighed as He opened the deaf mans ears! Christ sees sin as it is; sees it in its nature, as a defiance of God; sees it in its effects, as leaving behind it in each heart that it enters defilement, and weakness, and hardness, and misery; sees it in its consequences, as bringing forth fruit unto death-a death not of annihilation, not of blank unconsciousness, but a death of unspeakable and interminable wretchedness.
3. He sighed therefore, we may say further, from a sense of the disproportion in actual extent between the ruin and the redemption. The ruin universal. All the world guilty before God. And yet the great multitude refusing to be redeemed. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The deaf man cured
I. Consider first the mans introduction to Jesus. Now, in contemplating a fellow creature in such sad case, the thought may well occur how little are we affected by our common mercies! How little think we of such blessings as preserved senses, unshattered reason, the links unbroken which connect us with the outer world, and all the faculties unimpaired which fit us for the activities of life. And, though of all such privations, the gift of sight is perhaps the one we should least like to have taken away, yet blindness even may be less to be deplored than loss of hearing and speech. For this calamity, unalleviated, and existing from birth, shuts up the soul of the sufferer in a perpetual prison house. He has no outlet for communion with his kind; he has no medium for the interchange of sentiment or emotion, until wearied with treading forever the same cycle of never-extending and never-wearied thought, he sinks into a condition of utter mindlessness-Gods image on a dark cloud, a sad wreck of humbled and defaced humanity. It has been among the glorious achievements of a scientific philanthropy in our own day to have discovered means for abating somewhat the deep misery of this infliction; but any such alleviation was unknown then. So they bring him to Jesus. Brethren, is there not some light thrown by this fact on the purl which our friends are permitted to perform for us in reference to the more helpless and hopeless forms of spiritual malady? What does thin prove but that there are no men whose case is so bad and hopeless as that we must not try to convert them, but rather in exact proportion to the hopelessness of a mans moral condition, is the obligation to do all we can for him. We are to pray for none so earnestly as for those who through the inveteracy of their souls malady cannot pray for themselves.
II. But I pass to our second portion, to observe some peculiarities connected with the method of this afflicted mans cure. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Why were the methods used by our Lord in working his miracles so diverse one from another? The only account to be given of these variations is, that they had reference either to something in the moral circumstances of the sufferer, or to some effect to be produced in the mind of the bystanders, or it might he, to some lesson of practical instruction which through these typical healings might be conveyed to believers to the end of time. Especially are we to suppose that in each case of the wrought miracle there was in the method chosen some express adaptation to the circumstances of the person benefitted-the state of his affections towards God, and his susceptibility to become a subject of the spiritual kingdom. For to this end we are sure our Divine Lord worked always. Indeed, the benefit had been no benefit otherwise. To what purpose had been the recovery of sight to a man only to look on the face of this outer world, while his soul was left to grope its way through mists of an everlasting blindness? The instances seem to suggest that there are some persons, who, in order to their learning holy lessons must be withdrawn from the world for a season. They cannot have their ears effectually opened in a crowd-not even in a crowded church. They must be forced into retirement. Anything Jesus might say to them while the bustle and stir of life was upon them, whilst its feverish excitements were drawing them hither and thither, would make no impression. On coming to some retired place, however, our Lord proceeds to the miracle, but still, observe, by a gradual process. He puts His fingers into the mans ears, then spits, and with the moistened finger touches his tongue. As to the reasons for the choice of these means, in preference to any other, it does not seem necessary to go further than the circumstances of the man himself. Questions he could not answer; verbal directions he could not understand; it was only by visible and sensible applications to the organs affected, that he could be made to perceive what was going on, or could connect Jesus with the authorship of his cure. All that we gather is, that the case was one in which it would not be well that the blessing to be bestowed should be instantaneous-that it was needful that time should be given for consideration of what all those processes were to lead to-that faith should be exercised, disciplined, taught to look up, expecting to receive something, and that the soul before coming into that which would be to it as a new world, should know who that Being was to whom it must dedicate all its restored faculties and powers. And it is certain, brethren, that the Great Healer has recourse to like protracted methods now. The ears of the deaf must be unstopped before the tongue of the dumb can sing. The heart must believe unto righteousness, before with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But, then, how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear who are born deaf? Deaf to the calls of mercy; deaf to the alarms of danger; deaf to the warning of conscience; deaf to the voice of the Son of God. Must there not, I say, be an opening of the ears first? Must not the finger of Jesus be put into them, making a passage through, so that His word may reach the heart. Brethren, let us all pray for unstopped ears. It is for our life the prophet tells us-Hear, and your souls shall live. Oh, how far is he on the way heavenward who has an ear ever open to the whisperings of the Divine Spirit! And looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. He looked up to heaven: so at the grave of Lazarus He lifted up His eyes. On the deep mystery of our Lords prayers. They were as much prayers as yours or mine are prayers-and in connection with His miracles were petitions, not for Himself, that He might be able to work them, but for the people that they might be able to receive them, that the benefit might not be lost to them through the want of those moral dispositions, faith and love, without which He could not, according to the stipulations of the everlasting covenant, have performed any wonderful work. The same view gives a reality to His continued intercession for us at the throne of God. Christ does not pray for anything relating to His own work-for His blood that it may cleanse, for His righteousness that it may justify, for His pardons and acquittals, that they may be endorsed and owned of God-these are among heavens immutable things. What he does pray for is the removal of those hindrances in our hearts which prevent the free flowing of His mercy towards us, for the triumphs of His grace over all our unbelief and worldliness, far the unclosed ear that the voice of the charmer may pierce through, for the loosened tongue that it may magnify the grace of God. And He sighed. Again our thoughts revert to Bethany, where, just before working the miracle it is said, He groaned in spirit and was troubled. We may see many reasons for the distress of soul on the part of the Holy Saviour. He sighed over the spectacle before Him as evidence of the suffering and sorrow of our race; He sighed over it as a mournful defacement and distortion of Gods moral image; bat He sighed most of all over the stubborn unbelief, that miserable infidelity of tee heart, the one solitary obstacle in the whole universe of God, to the instantaneous wiping of all tears from off all faces, and the saving of every soul of man. Yes, brethren, this last it was that wrung these bitter sorrows from the Saviours heart. He could bear the scourge, disregard the mockery, endure the cross, despise the shame; that which next to the hidden face of God, rent His soul most was, to be obliged to say continually, Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life. Ephphatha, Be opened. Here the Almighty power of God speaks. The taking him aside, the touching of the ear, the spitting and moistening of the tongue, the eye raised heavenwards, and the deep sigh, were all the human preparations; the mans heart was getting ready, the grace of Jesus making way for the demonstration of His power, the Spirit of God was moving upon the face of a dark soul before the irresistible word should go forth, Let there be light; and as irresistible was the word of Jesus to this poor sufferer, for it was the same word; so that it was no sooner uttered than straightway the mans ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. Our profit in the incidents we have been considering will be found in seeing how entirely our souls health and life are in the hands of Christ. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Alone with Jesus
It is a great thing to be alone with nature; to be alone with a man of a noble heart; a greater thing by far to be alone with Jesus, Aside from the multitude.
I. That He might quicken his sense of individuality. God has made us persons; we lose ourselves in the crowd; trials depress, we lose hope and become more like things. But Jesus awakens us.
II. That He might awaken him to a truer consciousness of his spiritual needs. Touched him. Where? Ears and tongue. There was the evil, there the cure. Some are touched through their fears, others through their hopes.
III. That he might concentrate all his hopes on Christ.
IV. That He might bind him forever to Himself. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)
Glimpses of Jesus
I. The upward look.
1. Devout faith in heaven.
2. Conscious harmony with heaven.
3. Undoubting confidence in heaven.
II. The sigh.
1. Holy grief.
2. Brotherly sympathy.
3. Anxious solicitude.
III. The word.
1. A word of love.
2. A word of power.
3. A word of prophetic meaning.
An earnest of greater victories. Some sigh, but nothing more. Idle sentiment. Others sigh, but do not look up. No faith in God. (W. Forsyth, M. A.)
Words not necessary to prayer
It is impossible fully to enter into the profound depths of the sigh which Jesus uttered on this occasion. We may learn from it, at least, two things:-It teaches us that words are not absolutely indispensable to the offering of prayer. This sigh doubtless contained a prayer, for in all things the Redeemer acknowledged the Father, saying: I can of Mine own self do nothing. The sigh of Jesus, like some of the mightiest forces of nature that are silent, was charged with the power of God. Some of the sincerest, deepest, and most agonizing supplications that have ascended to the ear of God, have gone up with no more audible sound than that of a sigh. (G. Hunt Jackson.)
The touch of Christ
How exquisitely delicate is the touch of those highly-gifted musicians who can sweep the keys or chords of their instrument and make it speak as with living voice, now melting the audience to tears, now stirring their souls with lofty thoughts or martial enthusiasm! With equally magic power does the master painter evoke life from the canvas, and impart to his creations those inimitable touches of form and colour that delight the eye and captivate the imagination. The tender manipulation of a wise and skilful surgeon or experienced nurse has almost a healing influence, as it soothes the overstrung nerves and infuses confidence into the sufferer. A friends gentle pressure of the hand and touch of sympathy will often calm sorrowful hearts more than the most kindly and fitly chosen words of condolence. If it he thus with merely human beings, we might reasonably expect to find far more wonderful effects connected with the touch of Him, in Whom, while a partaker of flesh and blood, dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Such we know from the Gospels to have been actually the case: His touch does hold an important place in our Lords miracles, as well as in His ordinary ministry. He touched, and was touched, and through this medium there went forth blessings of various kinds. His touch was healing, creative, life-giving, enlightening, comforting. The fact that it was so during His life on earth will suggest the inquiry how far it may be so still. (The Quiver.)
Leading our friends to Jesus
I. In view of the great misery in which man finds himself without Christ (Mar 7:32). Miserable condition of the dumb and deaf man.
II. In view of the great blessedness into which he enters through the Lord. Especially since we thereby enter upon the greatest happiness of earth (Mar 7:33). The treatment of this deaf man is apt illustration of how Jesus treats those who are led to Him by friend or acquaintance. (Dr. Arndt.)
Leading our friends to Jesus
During the exhibition of 1867 in Paris, a minister met with an instance of direct labour for souls which he states he can never forget. In conversation with an engineer employed on one of the pleasure boats which ply on the Seine, the discovery was made that the man was a Christian, and on the inquiry being put, by what means he was converted, he replied: My mate is a Christian, and continually he told me of the great love of Jesus Christ, and His readiness to save, and he never rested until I was a changed man. For it is a rule in our church that when a brother is converted, he must go and bring another brother; and when a sister is converted, she must go and bring another sister; and so more than a hundred of us have been recovered from Popery to the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus. This is the way in which the gospel is to spread through the whole world. (Anon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
This history is recorded by Mark only.
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. We heard, Mar 7:24, of his going into those coasts; some think that our Saviour did not go out of the Jewish country, though he went to
the coasts of Tire and Sidon, which were pagan countries.
He came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. That Decapolis was a union of ten cities so called, is plain by the name; but what those cities were, and whether they lay on the same side of Jordan that Galilee did, or on the other side of Jordan, is disputed; most think they lay on the Galilean side.
One that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech: some think that he was dumb, but the word signifies one that spake with difficulty, so as it is likely his deafness was not natural; (for all naturally deaf, are also dumb; we learning to speak by hearing); besides that it is said after the cure, that
he spake plain: it was probably an accidental deafness happening to him after that he could speak. Their beseeching Christ to put his hand upon him, proceeded from their observation of him very often to use that rite in his healing sick persons.
And he took him aside from the multitude, not seeking his own glory and ostentation,
and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue. All these things were ex abundanti, not necessary actions, or naturally efficacious for his cure; but our Lord sometimes used no signs or rites, sometimes these, sometimes others, as it pleased him.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed, pitying the condition of human nature, subject to so many miseries, defects, and infirmities, and saith,
Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. By the word of his power he made the world, and by the word of his power he upholds it, and by the same word of his power he restoreth any lapsed or decayed part of it. He speaks, and it is done.
And straightway his ears were opened: nature obeyeth the God of nature. Concerning his charge of them not to publish it, and their disobedience to it, I have had occasion once and again to speak, and must confess I can neither satisfy myself in the reason from my own thoughts, nor from what I read in others. This miracle hath no other effect on the people than astonishment, and confession that what he did was well done; which was the common effect of Christs preaching and miracles upon the most.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. And again, departing from thecoasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the Sea of Galileeor,according to what has very strong claims to be regarded as the truetext here, “And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre, Hecame through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee.” The manuscripts infavor of this reading, though not the most numerous, are weighty,while the versions agreeing with it are among the most ancient; andall the best critical editors and commentators adopt it. In this casewe must understand that our Lord, having once gone out of the HolyLand the length of Tyre, proceeded as far north as Sidon, thoughwithout ministering, so far as appears, in those parts, and then bentHis steps in a southeasterly direction. There is certainly adifficulty in the supposition of so long a detour without anymissionary object: and some may think this sufficient to cast thebalance in favor of the received reading. Be this as it may, onreturning from these coasts of Tyre, He passed
through the midst of thecoastsfrontiers.
of Decapoliscrossingthe Jordan, therefore, and approaching the lake on its east side.Here Matthew, who omits the details of the cure of this deaf and dumbman, introduces some particulars, from which we learn that it wasonly one of a great number. “And Jesus,” says thatEvangelist (Mt 15:29-31),”departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee,and went up into a mountain”the mountain range bounding thelake on the northeast, in Decapolis: “And great multitudes cameunto Him, having with them lame, blind, dumb, maimed”not”mutilated,” which is but a secondary sense of the word,but “deformed””and many others, and cast them downat Jesus’ feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude[multitudes] wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed tobe whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see; and they glorifiedthe God of Israel”who after so long and dreary an absence ofvisible manifestation, had returned to bless His people as of old(compare Lu 7:16). Beyond thisit is not clear from the Evangelist’s language that the people sawinto the claims of Jesus. Well, of these cases Mark here singles outone, whose cure had something peculiar in it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon,…. The Vulgate Latin version reads, “and coming out again from the borders of Tyre, he came through Sidon”; and so two of Beza’s copies; the Arabic version, which De Dieu made use of reads “to Sidon”; as he must needs come to it, if he came through it; though the version in the Polyglot Bible of Walton’s reads, , “from Sidon”: but the greater number of copies, and the Syriac and Persic versions read as we do, and which is rightest; since it does not appear, that Christ went out of the land of Israel, into any Heathen cities: and besides, Sidon was further from Galilee than Tyre, and so did not lie in his way to it; and therefore it is not likely he should pass through that city, in order to go to it. The Ethiopic version reads, “and coming out again from Tyre, he went through Sidon”: both these places were in Phoenicia, and it is probable that the woman before mentioned might belong to one or other of them. According to this version, she may be thought to be of Tyre, and that it was there, where the above discourse passed between Christ and her; though some Dutch pictures, Dr. Lightfoot b takes notice of, represent her as praying for her daughter, at the gate of Sidon; and Borchard the monk, as he relates from him, says, that before the gate of Sidon eastward, there is a chapel built in the place, where the. Canaanitish woman prayed to our Saviour for her daughter. But Christ, for the reason before given, could be in neither of these places, being out of the land of Israel; besides, the text is express, that it was to the borders of this country he came, and from thence he went; and to, or from, or through any of these places.
He came unto the sea of Galilee; or Tiberias, the same with the lake of Gennesaret: he came to those parts of Galilee, which lay by it, where he had been, before he went the borders of Tyre and Sidon:
through the midst the coasts of Decapolis; of this place,
[See comments on Mt 4:25]. It was a country which consisted of ten cities, from whence it had its name: now not through the middle of these cities, or of this country, as the Ethiopic version reads; but through the midst of the borders of it Christ passed, which lay in his way from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, to the sea of Galilee. The Syriac and Persic versions render the words, “unto the borders of Decapolis, or the ten cities”; and the Arabic version, “unto the middle of the coasts of the ten cities”; [See comments on Mt 15:29].
b Chorograph. Decad. in Mark, ch. vi. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Cure of a Deaf and Dumb Person. |
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31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Our Lord Jesus seldom staid long in a place, for he knew where his work lay, and attended the changes of it. When he had cured the woman of Canaan’s daughter, he had done what he had to do in that place, and therefore presently left those parts, and returned to the sea of Galilee, whereabout his usual residence was; yet he did not come directly thither, but fetched a compass through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, which lay mostly on the other side Jordan; such long walks did our Lord Jesus take, when he went about doing good.
Now here we have the story of a cure that Christ wrought, which is not recorded by any other of the evangelists; it is of one that was deaf and dumb.
I. His case was sad, v. 32. There were those that brought to him one that was deaf; some think, born deaf, and then he must be dumb of course; others think that by some distemper or disaster he was become deaf, or, at least, thick of hearing; and he had an impediment in his speech. He was mogilalos; some think that he was quite dumb; others, that he could not speak but with great difficulty to himself, and so as scarcely to be understood by those that heard him. He was tongue-tied, so that he was perfectly unfit for conversation, and deprived both of the pleasure and of the profit of it; he had not the satisfaction either of hearing other people talk, or of telling his own mind. Let us take occasion from hence to give thanks to God for preserving to us the sense of hearing, especially that we may be capable of hearing the word of God; and the faculty of speech, especially that we may be capable of speaking God’s praises; and let us look with compassion upon those that are deaf or dumb, and treat them with great tenderness. They that brought this poor man to Christ, besought him that he would put his hand upon him, as the prophets did upon those whom they blessed in the name of the Lord. It is not said, They besought him to cure him, but to put his hand upon him, to take cognizance of his case, and put forth his power to do to him as he pleased.
II. His cure was solemn, and some of the circumstances of it were singular.
1. Christ took him aside from the multitude, v. 33. Ordinarily, he wrought his miracles publicly before all the people, to show that they would bear the strictest scrutiny and inspection; but this he did privately, to show that he did not seek his own glory, and to teach us to avoid every thing that savours of ostentation. Let us learn of Christ to be humble, and to do good where no eye sees, but his that is all eye.
2. He used more significant actions, in the doing of this cure, than usual. (1.) He put his fingers into his ears, as if he would syringe them, and fetch out that which stopped them up. (2.) He spit upon his own finger, and then touched his tongue, as if he would moisten his mouth, and so loosen that with which his tongue was tied; these were no causes that could in the least contribute to his cure, but only signs of the exerting of that power which Christ had in himself to cure him, for the encouraging of his faith, and theirs that brought him. The application was all from himself, it was his own fingers that he put into his ears, and his own spittle that he put upon his tongue; for he alone heals.
3. He looked up to heaven, to give his Father the praise of what he did; for he sought his praise, and did his will, and, as Mediator, acted in dependence on him, and with an eye to him. Thus he signified that it was by a divine power, a power her had as the Lord from heaven, and brought with him thence, that he did this; for the hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord has made, and can remake even both of them. He also hereby directed his patient who could see, though he could not hear, to look up to heaven for relief. Moses with his stammering tongue is directed to look that way (Exod. iv. 11); Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord?
4. He sighed; not as if he found any difficulty in working this miracle, or obtaining power to do it from his father; but thus he expressed his pity for the miseries of human life, and his sympathy with the afflicted in their afflictions, as one that was himself touched with the feeling of their infirmities. And as to this man, he sighed, not because he was loth to do him this kindness, or did it with reluctancy; but because of the many temptations which he would be exposed to, and the sins he would be in danger of, the tongue-sins, after the restoring of his speech to him, which before he was free from. He had better be tongue-tied still, unless he have grace to keep his mouth as with a bridle, Ps. xxxix. 1.
5. He said, Ephphatha; that is, Be opened. This was nothing that looked like spell or charm, such as they used, who had familiar spirits, who peeped and muttered, Isa. viii. 19. Christ speaks as one having authority, and power went along with the word. Be opened, served both parts of the cure; “Let the ears be opened, let the lips be opened, let him hear and speak freely, and let the restraint be taken off;” and the effect was answerable (v. 35); Straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and all was well: and happy he who, as soon as he had his hearing and speech, had the blessed Jesus so near him to converse with.
Now this cure was, (1.) A proof of Christ’s being the Messiah; for it was foretold that by his power the ears of the deaf should be unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb should be made to sing,Isa 35:5; Isa 35:6. (2.) It was a specimen of the operations of his gospel upon the minds of men. The great command of the gospel, and grace of Christ to poor sinners, is Ephphatha-Be opened. Grotius applies it thus, that the internal impediments of the mind are removed by the Spirit of Christ, as those bodily impediments were by the word of his power. He opens the heart, as he did Lydia’s, and thereby opens the ear to receive the word of God, and opens the mouth in prayer and praises.
6. He ordered it to be kept very private, but it was made very public (1.) It was his humility, that he charged them they should tell no man, v. 36. Most men will proclaim their own goodness, or, at least, desire that others should proclaim it; but Christ, though he was himself in no danger of being puffed up with it, knowing that we are, would thus set us an example of self-denial, as in other things, so especially in praise and applause. We should take pleasure in doing good, but not in its being known. (2.) It was their zeal, that, though he charged them to say nothing of it, yet they published it, before Christ would have had it published. But they meant honestly, and therefore it is to be reckoned rather an act of indiscretion than an act of disobedience, v. 36. But they that told it, and they that heard it, were beyond measure astonished, hyperperissos—more than above measure; they were exceedingly affected with it, and this was said by every body, it was the common verdict, He hath done all things well (v. 37); whereas there were those that hated and persecuted him as an evil-doer, they are ready to witness for him, not only that he has done no evil, but that he has done a great deal of good, and has done it well, modestly and humbly, and very devoutly, and all gratis, without money and without price, which added much to the lustre of his good works. He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak; and that is well, it is well for them, it is well for their relations, to whom they had been a burthen; and therefore they are inexcusable who speak ill of him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Through the midst of the borders of Decapolis ( ). Jesus left Phoenicia, but did not go back into Galilee. He rather went east and came down east of the Sea of Galilee into the region of the Greek cities of Decapolis. He thus kept out of the territory of Herod Antipas. He had been in this region when he healed the Gadarene demoniac and was asked to leave.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
A DEAF AND DUMB MAN HEALED, V. 31-37
1) “And again, departing the coast of Tyre and Sidon,” (kai palinekselthonekton horion Turou) “And again going forth out of the district of Tyre,” traveling Southeast through Sidon, across the Lebanese range of mountains in upper Galilee.
2) “He came unto the Sea of Galilee,” (elthen dia Sidonos eis ten thalassan tes Galilaias) “He went through Sidon unto the Sea of Galilee,” returning to the Sea of Galilee, near the geographical center of His Galilean ministry, Mat 15:29.
3) “Through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. (ana mesa horion Dekapoleos) “Through the upper midst of Decapolis,” through the mountains, across the highlands of the midst of Decapolis, the province of ten cities, on the East of the Sea of Galilee, Mat 4:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar. 7:31. For true reading see R. V. Through Sidonnot necessarily the city. The object of this long dtour was to obtain much-needed retirement and rest.
Mar. 7:32. This mans deafness had rendered him hard-of-speech, scarcely able to articulate intelligibly.
Mar. 7:34. Ephphatha.The actual Aramaic word used. Be thou openedit is the man who is addressed; it was he who needed to be corporeally opened to the ingress of sounds, and to the ready egress of words.
Mar. 7:35. String.The bond holding his tongue and impeding his speech.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mar. 7:31-37
The deaf-mute healed.
I. The journey of Christ, and the place where the miracle was performed (Mar. 7:31).From His short and necessary excursion unto a foreign territory Christ speedily returned to the land of Judea, the proper scene of the ministry of Him who was sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. With a view, probably, both of allowing time for the resentment of His enemies to be moderated, and of instructing numbers whom He had not visited in the regular course of His journeys, He makes a circuit through the rich and fertile district of Decapolis, or the Ten Cities, the most populous part of the well-inhabited province of Galilee. His stay seems to have been short, for none of the Evangelists mention any remarkable event to have taken place there. He hastens to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the birthplace and residence of many of His disciplesthe country of a numerous people who listened to Him with more attention and respect than the proud and bigoted inhabitants of the capital and its neighbourhood.
II. The nature of the disease to be cured (Mar. 7:32).This man had not power in those organs which are necessary for the reciprocal communication of ideas and sentiments. We are little accustomed to consider the vast importance of the gift of speecha gift, I believe, in the strictest sense of the term, from our Supreme Benefactor; for articulate language, an art so complicated and yet so necessary in the earliest infancy of society, can scarcely be considered as a matter of human invention. No theory has proved satisfactory, or thrown light on the subject, but that one which ascribes it to the Father of lights, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift. It is indeed a good gift, on which all the other improvements of society depend. Without it man must be still almost a solitary individual. In the midst of society he were aloneguided in his difficulties by no kind instruction, soothed in his calamities by no soft voice of sympathy, gladdened in the day of strength by no cheering note of joy, comforted in the hour of darkness and sorrow by no kindred spirit to tell him of another and a better life, of the high destiny of man, and of the grace of a merciful God.
III. The request of the people (Mar. 7:32).There is a modesty in the request which gives a favourable idea of the character of the petitioners. They were evidently humane; for they bring their distressed neighbour for a cure. They were humble; they present the opportunity of working a miracle to Him whom they believed to be possessed of the power; but they did not demand nor even solicit the exertion of His Divine energy. They believed in the compassion of Christ; and they present to Him an object of pity, and pray that He will bless him. To lay the hand on one is the natural and significant action of goodwill, of a benevolent wish and friendly inclination. The people expected that by this action Christ would communicate the particular blessing which the case required. They did not suppose that He was to use any vain arts, like the false pretenders to miraculous power; but that by His own inherent energy He would effect the cure of which the laying on of His hand marked, according to the usual significant form, the wish and the accomplishment. The people knew that Christ was raised far above all vainglory, and that by a simple indication of His will He could produce a miraculous cure.
IV. The manner in which our Lord proceeded in performing this miracle (Mar. 7:33-34).He would not expose the man, while He is communicating with him by the necessary signs, to the idle gaze of the indifferent, or the impertinent observations of those wicked companions who followed Him everywhere, and might now be mixed among the friendly observers, and who might alarm the patient, who could not hear nor understand their words, but might comprehend their gestures so far as to produce in him uneasiness and fear. Retiring a little from the crowd, He put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue. You are aware that from the situation of this man, precluded from all conversation with his neighbours, from all the means of knowledge which depend on spoken language, he must therefore have had a very imperfect notion of our Lords character and power. There was no way by which Christ could excite his attention or communicate His own views or purpose but by appropriate signs, to the use of which he was probably accustomed. As the ears of the deaf seem to be closed, He puts His fingers on them; and as the tongue is supposed to be fastened, He touched it with a wet finger, to intimate, perhaps, to the wondering patient and his friends the nature of the relief He was about to convey. Then observe our Lords sympathyHe sighed. He felt for the degraded situation of the man before Him, excluded from society, whose converse cheers us amid the calamities of lifefrom that moral instruction which elevates us above them, from the knowledge of God and that religious truth which prepares us for the enjoyment of Him; and by a sigh, the frequent attendant of inward and silent prayer, especially when the mind is oppressed by grief, He shewed how much His heart was affected, and how ardent His wish to grant relief. It might be that there were some circumstances unknown to us which made this man a peculiar object of pity. But whether general or particular, it was evidently His sympathy with human wretchedness which agitated His bosom, that tender feeling for all our sorrows which renders Him so fit a High Priest for men compassed about with infirmity. Observe our Lords piety in this action: Looking up to heaven. Through all His life, from His earliest years till it was finished on the Cross, His reverence for His Heavenly Father is conspicuous. His will was the guide of His actions, His honour the end and aim of them. From Him He asked for power, and to Him ascribed the glory. In this case He raised His eyes to the heavens and to Him who made them, as a mark of His own trust in the Divine blessing on this work of kindness, as an intimation to the person to be cured, who could see, though he could not speak nor hear, that from thence was to come his aid, and as a warning to all the witnesses of the transaction that they should glorify the God of their fathers for His wondrous works. In this action observe the power and authority of Christ; He saith, Ephphatha, that is, Be thou opened. He speaks in the Syriac, the common language of the country, that the audience might all know what was passing. Assured of His power, He commands, and it is done. The authority of Heaven accompanying His words, sanctions the high claims of the Carpenter of Nazareth to the office and character of the Messiah.
V. The account of the miracle (Mar. 7:35).The miracle was accomplished straightway, instantly, on the commandnot gradually, as if it were the effect of external application. Although Christ, as the Messiah, was not to cry nor lift up nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets as a vain boaster or a deceiver of the people, yet He possessed within Him a mighty energy which gave its proper effect to every word which He spake, which made the deaf to hear His voice, and gave to the tongue of the dumb a power unknown and unconceived before. He spake with the voice of power; but as it broke on the delighted ear of the patient, it sounded soft as the voice of mercy speaking in its sweetest tones; gentle and kind, it diffused joy over his frame, mixed with that astonishment which he could not help feeling when all the knowledge of manhood was at once bestowed on such a weak and imperfect being.
VI. The charge of concealment (Mar. 7:36).Without waiting to receive the expressions of astonishment, joy, and gratitude which were ready to break forth from every tongue, and which would have been so pleasant to an ordinary mind, He enjoins silence and secrecy with regard to this humane action. He laid the foundation for a complete proof of His Divinity, but He was not anxious to receive the direct testimony or honour of men. He formed the strongest claims to the gratitude of mankind, but He declined, with the genuine modesty of a superior mind, the applause which they were ready to bestow. It has been often observed, that true greatness is always adorned with this lovely quality, and that the highest attainments have ever been accompanied with humility. Possessing qualities far above those of humanity, the humility of Christ reflects a peculiar beauty on His character, and renders His virtues and His works most engaging and attractive. We are astonished at the Divine power in this miracle. We admire the Divine goodness and condescension. We adore and love the lowly spirit which shrank from the noisy praises of the wondering multitude, and avoided the ostentation of a public testimony to His merits.
VII. The effect on the beholders (Mar. 7:36-37).In His journey through life Christ was much oftener harassed by envy and malice than consoled by the soft voice of sympathy or cheered by the sweet notes of praise. The people among whom. He now was felt and spake of His good deeds as it became them. There is often a zeal without knowledge which appears in the writings of pious men. Hence these Galileans have been blamed because they published this miracle so much the more that the Worker of it charged them to conceal it. Christ, they say, was a Lawgiver entitled to the obedience of all whom He had addressed, and had peculiar reasons, involving His comfort and His safety, for wishing that this command should be carefully observed. All this is certainly true. But it was not yet known to these men of Galilee: they viewed Him merely as an illustrious prophet, whose modesty would keep secret what tended to His great honour, and, moved by wonder and gratitude, they feel themselves bound to proclaim the virtue which they admired, and the good deeds which they experienced. Far from entertaining any enmity to Christ, or a malicious disregard of His request, they are anxious to promote His credit among men, and use only the language of commendation.L. Adamson.
Mar. 7:34. Ephphatha.A serious and philosophical mind, contemplating the innumerable evils, physical and moral, to which men are exposed during their short continuance in this world, would very naturally conclude that the present state could not be that for which the Almighty originally intended them. Divine revelation alone can carry us back to the origin of things, and give us the true information with respect to their present appearances. By this we learn, that the beautiful order and harmony of creation were marred by the creatures transgression, who, turning his will from the source of infinite goodness, lost that first state in which his Maker had placed him, and wherein all was light and joy, and found himself in subjection to an evil nature within and a world of darkness and distress without. By this too we are informed, that nothing less than a return to his original source could reinstate him in his original bliss; that this return could be rendered possible in no other way than by a ray, a spark, a seed, an earnest, a taste, or a touch of his first life, imparted or inspoken into his fallen nature by the God of love, to be gradually opened and unfolded by such a redeeming process as, with the co-operation of his own will, would effectually restore him to his primeval felicity; and that this was undertaken, and only could be undertaken and accomplished, by that Eternal Son of the Father in and by whom man was originally created, and in and by whom alone he could be redeemed.
I. The looking up to heaven was beautifully expressive of the real situation in which this Great Restorer of human nature stood before His Heavenly Father. It was intended, no doubt, to communicate to every attentive observer this great lesson of instruction: that all the powers and virtues of which He was possessed came down from above; that they were communicated to Him without measure; and that He could have no authority over the evils of human life, so as either to mitigate or remove them, but by standing continually in the heavenly world, inspiring its air, receiving its beams of light and love, and sending them forth into every human heart that was truly desirous of receiving them; and that it was by such a communication alone that He should be enabled to restore hearing and speech to the unhappy patient they had brought before Him.
II. This look was accompanied with a sigh.A sigh seems to indicate distress. An anxious, oppressed, and afflicted heart is sometimes so full as to deprive the tongue of the power of utterance; it vents itself, therefore, in a sigh. But what could oppress or afflict the heart of the meek and innocent Jesus? As the Second Adam, the Father and Regenerator of our whole lapsed race, He voluntarily assumed our nature, and became as intimately united to it as the head to the members of the body. His sympathetic heart is sensible of every want and distress of every son and daughter of Adam. He is persecuted with the Church that Saul persecuteth; and whoso toucheth His children, toucheth the apple of His eye. Yea, He feels for those who feel not for themselves, and sighs over the sad estate of those who are blind to their true happinesswho call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.
III. And He saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.Whatever salutary efficacy there may be in medicine, it must proceed from that heavenly virtue which rises from the reunion of divided properties. This reunion is the source of health, and the restoration of aught that may be impaired in any of our outward organs or inward faculties. To Him who had all nature under His control, who knew how to bring together and unite in an instant those properties which have been separated, a single word, the mere motion of His will, was sufficient to produce the desired effect.
IV. The same supernatural powers which Jesus displayed upon this occasion He still continues to exercise in the hearts of His redeemed offspring.Deaf and dumb with respect to our inward and spiritual senses we all are by nature. We can hear and speak, indeed, of worldly things with a quickness and facility which manifests in innumerable instances the strong attraction by which they hold our attention and affections: the calls of business and of pleasure we are ever ready to answer. Our earthly senses are continually open; but our heavenly faculties are closed by a thousand obstructions which we suffer the devil, the world, and the flesh to form in our hearts. The Great Shepherd of Israel, who is perpetually employed in seeking and saving that which was lost, makes use of a variety of means and methods to bring the soul to a conviction of its loss. The efficacy of these depends, indeed, upon the concurrence of the human will, because nothing can come into the soul but what itself wills or desires. The different dispensations of Providence are wisely and affectionately adapted to the different circumstances of individuals: the end and design of them all is one and the same, viz. to bring the wandering creature to a sense of his deviations, and to guide his feet into the way of peace. By whatever means this conviction is wrought, the soul soon becomes sensible of its mistaken choice, and soon determines to withhold its attention from the calls of earthly objects. In vain does the siren sing her delusive songit ceases now to charm; for the finger of God stops the outward ear, that the inward ear may be opened to a sweeter note. The sigh of a contrite sinner brings down heaven into his heart. Jesus often sighed. He loves a sighit invites Him into His own temple; and Ephphatha, Be opened, is the blessed voice that precedes His salutary entrance. Be opened! Opened to what? To the harmony of heaven, to the symphonies of angels, to the voice of the Bridegroom. The marriage of the Lamb is come; the bride is prepared; the silver cord is tied; the blessed union is completed! The soul is now all eye, all ear, all heart, all tongue; and eye, and ear, and heart, and tongue are all employed in receiving the gifts and graces and celebrating the beauties and perfections of Him who is fairest among ten thousand, who is altogether lovely.J. Duch, M.A.
Mar. 7:37. He hath done all things well.
I. The peoples testimony or verdict concerning our Saviour.He hath done all things well.
1. No doubt but the scribes and Pharisees had been witnesses of Christs miracles as well as the people; but vainglory, envy, and other by-respects had jostled out the belief of them, so that by means of them they were rather hardened than converted. We owe the growth of Christian religion to plain, honest men, who received the gospel with free and unprejudiced affections, and closed with it when they saw it consonant to right reason. Oh, how blessed would this nation be if it had people of the like temper, who, without prejudice and prepossession, without siding and faction, would embrace sound doctrine, and bear testimony to it by their peaceable and holy lives!
2. From the persons testifying I proceed to the Person of whom they testifyHe, a mere man, for so they express Him, and not as believers in after-times did, who never mentioned Him as mere man, but either as God or as the Eternal Son of God. However, this denomination of the people was at present accepted and registered as a proof of their ingenuity, that they gave Christ the glory of His actions, though their appellation of Him was not sufficiently honourable. God opens the eyes of mens understanding and cures the infirmities of their souls by degrees. Twas enough, at our Lords first entrance upon His prophetic office and preaching to the world, that the people received His doctrine and conceived rightly of His miracles, though not of His Divine nature; that they acknowledged Him to be a good man, though not the Son of God Incarnate, which at that time was not understood by the apostles themselves. This their ignorance God then winked at; but how injurious, how derogatory to His honour would it now be so far to debase Him as to strip Him of His Divine nature and to degrade Him to mere humanity! Tis necessary to believe not only all that is delivered by Him, but also all that is delivered of Him, and to acknowledge Him to be our God as well as our Saviour. To say in these days, with the Jewish multitude, He, or this man, were no less than sacrilege, when our style ought to be, the Eternal Son, God blessed for evermore.
3. I pass to the third particularthe peoples verdict or approbation of Him, He hath done well. This testimony was rightly grounded: they concluded, with good reason, that He who had made both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak was no deceiver, but a man approved of God; that He whose works were so mighty must Himself be holy and His words true. Miracles, says St. Austin, have a tongue, and speak; they are not only works, but arguments. To give speech to a man that was from his birth without it is even of itself a kind of speech, the speech no less than of the Almighty; for God not appearing personally to converse with men, such as these are the expressions of Himself to the world. Neither did the voices which broke from the clouds at the baptism and transfiguration of our Lord, saying, This is My Beloved Son, more plainly and intelligibly declare to hearers who Christ was, than the voice of God in every miracle that Christ wrought pronounced the same thing: on all His works were these Divine words engraved, in bright and shining characters, This is My Beloved Son; hear Him.
4. I told you before that when the people gave Him this approbation, they did not understand Him to be that great prophet that was to come into the world, the Messias, and Son of God; though a true prophet they apprehended Him to be, for this He had made apparent to the most scrupulous. But how then could they give Him so large a testimony as they did, when even true prophets sent by God did not do all things well, but had all of them their infirmities, and were not without sin? I confess, indeed, that, acknowledging Him no more than a man, their approbation of Him was not without exception; for though they pronounced a right sentence, twas not with a right knowledge; they overshot themselves in their testimony (though true) when they said, He hath done all things well. This is no trifling or insignificant observation; for we may build on it this important truth, that we may not from a few instances of goodness conclude a universal probity, nor from a few specious or astonishing actions allow a Divine approbation: for thus a Theudas or a Judas Gaulonites may pass for the Messiah, and Simon Magus might pretend to the Godhead that was given him at Rome for his skill in magic; and the heathen demons, who were all deified for some uncommon and extraordinary performances, might challenge their deities.
II. The application of this testimony to the present miracle.He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
1. He touched him with His fingers
(1) That the standers-by might see and testify that the cure came from Him, not from any confederacy with spirits, nor from any other external power; and this could not but oblige them to have a greater veneration both for His person and doctrine; it could not but persuade them that what proceeded from His mouth must needs be true, when they saw that the operations of His hands were supernatural and Divine.
(2) That the miracle might make a deeper impression, and be longer remembered both by the beholders and by the person recovered. For the like reason our Saviour instituted the two great sacraments. He could have conveyed to us the pardon of our sins and the grace of His Holy Spirit without the ceremonies of washing and breaking of bread; but He thought fit to add these outward actions not only to make spiritual things more plain and conceivable, but to make transient things more permanent, that His benefits might be more remarkable and better fixed in our minds.
2. By casting up His eyes to heaven and sighing, He made intercession with God, from whom cometh salvation, in such strains as cannot be uttered or distinctly expressed; not that the Father did not hear Him readily and at all times, but that the people might see that the miracle which He wrought was the return of His prayerthat as His finger touched the tongue and ear of the man, so His request touched the throne of God.
3. The last circumstance which Christ used was the word Ephphatha, Be openeda word like that which God spoke at creation (Gen. 1:3). The poets tell us of a famous enchantress whose spells were so prevalent that the celestial orbs yielded obedience to her. This was either a fiction or a juggle. But it is certain that all creatures, without any demur, speedily obeyed the commands of our Lord, without expecting a second fiat.E. Lake, D.D.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar. 7:31. Why did Christ now leave Tyre and Sidon and go again to Galilee?
1. Because He was called and appointed by God to be the minister of the circumcision.
2. That by His departure, depriving them of all further benefit of His presence and ministry, He might punish the unthankfulness of the people of those coasts, who apparently did not esteem and make use of His presence and ministry while He was with them.G. Petter.
Mar. 7:34. Christs look, sigh, and word.
1. The upward look. Not so much an appeal as a testimony (Joh. 11:41-42), indicating
(1) Devout faith in Heaven.
(2) Conscious harmony with Heaven.
(3) Undoubting confidence in Heaven.
2. The sigh.
(1) Holy grief.
(2) Brotherly sympathy.
(3) Anxious solicitude. Says Henry: He had better be tongue-tied still, unless he have grace to keep his mouth as with a bridle.
3. The word.
(1) Love.
(2) Power.
(3) Prophetic meaning. Learn:
1. Adoring gratitude (Exo. 4:1).
2. Humble patience. What use are we making of speech? (Jer. 8:6; Isa. 6:5).
3. Practical brotherly-kindness. Some sigh, but nothing more. Idle sentiment. Others sigh, but do not look up. No faith in God. If they pity and strive to help, it is only of themselves. They give not God the glory. Let us seek the Spirit of Christ.W. Forsyth.
A compassionate Saviour.
1. See how great hardness of heart possesses us by nature in that we are not touched with feelings of our own sins and miseries, which caused Christ to grieve and sigh, etc.
2. Comfort to Gods children in all miseries and afflictions. Christ is a merciful and compassionate Saviour.
3. Learn by Christs example to be affected with grief and compassion for others miseries.G. Petter.
The heavenward look.Let us be like our Lord, lifting up our eyes and looking up to heaven; sighing, too, as He did, because of the many sadnesses of this worldits blindness, deafness, dumbness; but looking up to that heaven where none will be blind, but all shall see Godnone deaf, but all shall hear His voice, and, hearing, understandnone dumb, but all shall praise God in the home of hallelujah for ever.Jas. Lonsdale.
Mar. 7:35. Ears opened before the tongue untied.It has been well observed that Christ first opened the mans ears, and then untied his tongue, because we must hear well before we can speak well.
Mar. 7:36. Ostentation to be avoided by ministers.
1. In doing good duties of our callings, we must be far from the very shew of ambition and vainglory.
2. Ministers must be very wise and careful to prevent all occasions and impediments that may any way hinder or interrupt them in their ministerial duties.
3. In that Christ forbade this miracle to be made known, because the time was not yet come in which the glory of His Godhead proved by His miracles should be clearly and fully manifested, hereby He teaches us to be far from desiring or seeking any honour or glory to ourselves which does not belong to us, or which does not as yet belong to us, or is not meet and fit for us at this or that time.G. Petter.
Mar. 7:37. God has done all things well.This is one of the most momentous principles of all wisdom and religion, one of the main pillars of human virtue and happinessa principle essentially inherent in Christianity, and which should be always present to our thoughts, the soul and guide of all our judgments, dispositions, actions, hopes, and views.
1. God has done all things well is applicable to the arrangements and institutions which God has established in nature, to the laws which He has prescribed to the innumerable host of His inanimate and animate creatures. All is one immense, close-compacted whole, the several parts whereof in various ways insinuate together, confine each other, advance, retard, impel, uphold, produce, enliven one another: a whole, where no power extrudes another, no part militates with another, no aim defeats another, no cause is disproportionate to its effect, no effect without cause; where is neither want nor superfluity, nor chasm; where nothing is indeterminate, nothing casual, nothing detached and separate from the rest; where absolute, exquisite connexion and order and harmony exist.
2. God has done all things well holds in regard to the arrangements and provisions which He has made in the moral world and for promoting moral ends. Is it expedient that thou, O man, from a sensual, animal creature, shouldst be formed and educated into a rational, wise, good, happy intelligent agent; is it expedient that thy faculties should be exerted, drawn forth, exercised, strengthened, perfected; is it expedient that thou shouldst act not from blind instinct, but by just perceptions and freely; is it expedient for thee to shun the deceitful paths of folly and vice, and pursue the career of virtue with courage and resolution; is it expedient for thee to know, to seek, to enjoy substantial, lasting happiness, and learn to look rather at the unseen than at the visible, at the future than at the present; is it expedient that thou shouldst prepare and fit thyself for a superior life,then all these institutions and arrangements could be no other than they are; they are the properest means for promoting thy perfection and forwarding thee to thy appointment.
3. God has done all things well holds in regard to the particular laws which He has prescribed to us as moral creatures. They are all just and expedient, so many means and methods to perfection and happiness, how numerous soever the restraints they put upon us, however hostile they are to our lusts and passions, whatever attention, care, self-denial, exertion of our faculties it may cost us, whenever they deprive us of some present advantage, some transient pleasure. Never without danger can we exceed the bounds which He has set us, never without detriment neglect the duties which He has enjoined us, never without injury omit the exercises which He has prescribed us.
4. God has done and does all things well is applicable to the providence and government which He extends over all. Let the ways of His providence seem ever so dark and intricate to us, before Him all is unclouded light, all perfect order. The association of means and ends may appear to us ever so incomprehensible, ever so incongruous; the coherence and combination of the whole and its parts ever so embarrassed: His ends will be infallibly attained, the means He employs are always the surest and best, and all evolve and disentangle themselves agreeably to the laws of sovereign perfection.
5. God has done and does all things well applies to all the dispensations which He is pleased to vouchsafe to each of us in particular. Riches and poverty, health and sickness, majesty and meanness, prosperity and adversity, thraldom and liberty, life and death, are equally in His hand, and are severally by Him distributed, ascertained, decreed, balanced, and combined together in such manner as may best consist with the greatest possible welfare of all living beings in general, and of each in particular. No one is postponed or preferred to another from partial or self-interested views; no one needs suffer on account of another, without being indemnified for it; no one will for ever forego or bear what at present by means of the combination of things he is obliged to forego or to bear; no one will fail of his appointment to happiness; but one sooner, another later, one in this, the other in another method will arrive at it.
6. God has done and does all things well is applied by the worshipper of God to all the vicissitudes, accidents, events, little or great, that betide him, and thereby keeps his mind in continual serenity, even though in every other respect he is surrounded by darkness. He considers everything in its dependence on the will of the Sovereign Ruler of the world, and finds all that is agreeable to His will to be just and expedient. This idea gives a totally different aspect to all that we see and hear and learn, sheds light and joy on all, preserves us from a thousand fallacies of sophistry and artifices of imposture along the dubious journey of life, enucleates and unravels to us many things both in the natural and the moral world, pacifies us concerning all that we cannot comprehend and explain, and is inexhaustible in power and consolation.G. J. Zollikofer.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Mar. 7:32. Incapacity removed in heaven.At a deaf-and-dumb institution for children a boy was once dying, and, when his teacher signified to him that there was no hope of recovery, his face lighted up, and in his own language he said, Oh, sir, I shall soon be singing Gods praises, and wont you be surprised and delighted to hear me when you come? The boy had so grieved over his incapacity for thus honouring God on earth, that the prospect of death was one of unqualified joy, as setting him free to use the best member that he had in the glorification of God.
Mar. 7:33. Aside from the multitude.There is too much noise around us, and we cannot hear the voice of God as long as all is well with us and we have the enjoyment of life. Every affliction is a wilderness in which a man is in solitude and stillness, so that he understands better the Word of God When human voices are silent, the voice of God begins to speak.Dr. Tholuck.
Mar. 7:34. Christ saddened by the sight of human misery.How it must have saddened the heart of Jesus to walk through this world and see so much human misery! There is a story of a sculptor who wept as he saw at his feet the shattered fragments of his breathing marble, on which he had spent years of patient, loving toil. Jesus walked through this world amid the ruin of the noblest work of His own hands. Everywhere He saw the destruction wrought by sin. So His grief was twofoldtender sympathy with human suffering, and sorrow over the ruinous work of sin.
Ephphatha.The Ephphatha of Christ is heard also in history. He sighed Ephphatha, and the conflict of His Church was revealed to His Evangelist. He sighed Ephphatha, and the tongue of Galileo and Kepler told of the wondrous order of the heavens. He sighed Ephphatha, and buried monuments gave up their records of the past, and threw sidelights on higher truths. He spoke Ephphatha, and Caxton gave new powers to the world; knowledge stepped forth from her dust-covered shrine, and carried her rich bounties into every city and house; history unlocked her long-hidden lore; science painted in noble colours the half-veiled face of nature; the tongue of Europe was loosed. But well might a sigh have been heaved as the Ephphatha was spoken. It is not truth alone, or holiness alone, which has been unlocked. It is not Chaucers well of English undefiled, the pure song of Spenser, the heart-rousing vision of Dante, the chivalrous epic of Tasso, the stately and magnanimous verse of Milton, alone which have been given to the world. A fouler current mingles with the pure, bright stream, and darkens the flood of knowledgethe unredeemed filth of Boccaccio, the unbridled licentiousness of Scarron, the stupid sensuality of Dancourt, the open indecency of Wycherley, the more fatal suggestiveness of Sterne. The press became indeed the voice of nations; but when it was loosed a sigh drawn from the pure heart of Christ, wounded by the misuse of a glorious opportunity, might have been heard by the Church of God. Yet Christ did not withhold the boon. Freely, ungrudgingly, were His miracles of love performed. To deny powers or privileges, or the free exercise of rights and faculties, on the ground that they may be abused, is to act according to the dictates of expediency, not of right. But there is a remedy for the evils which accompany this freedom. It is by conferring an additional and guiding gift. There is another Ephphatha, He speaks, Be opened, and the tongue is loosed; but the ear is unstopped also. While He bestows the faculty of speech, He bestows also the opportunity of hearing those glad and soul-elevating principles of righteousness and forgiveness and love which will fill the loosened tongue with joy and put a new song of praise in that long-silent mouth.Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
Mar. 7:35. Tongue loosed.Dr. Carey found a man in Calcutta who had not spoken a loud word for four years, under a vow of perpetual silence. Nothing could open his mouth, till happening to meet with a religious tract, he read it, and his tongue was loosed. He soon threw away his paras and other badges of superstition, and became a partaker of the grace of God. Many a professing Christian, who is as dumb in religious subjects as if under a vow of silence, would find a tongue to speak if religion were really to touch and warm his heart.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
2. HEALING A DEAF MUTE 7:31-37
TEXT 7:31-37
And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to lay his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS Mar. 7:31-37
354.
Please trace on the map the route of Jesus on this occasion.
355.
What is the meaning of the word Decapolis? How used here?
356.
Who brought the deaf mute to Jesus?
357.
Why did Jesus take him away from the multitudeplease attempt an answer.
358.
How would this deaf-mute feel as Jesus took Him to Himself?
359.
Into whose ears does Jesus place His fingers?into His own or into the deaf-mute? Why do this? Was this sign language?
360.
Please notice the actions of Jesus and remember they were given for the benefit of the deaf-mutethe deaf-mute was intently watching the actions and expressions of Jesuseach action spoke to himwhat did they say?
361.
Did the deaf-mute hear the wordEphphatha?
362.
Why charge them that they should tell no man?
363.
Who gave voice to the thought He hath done all things well?
COMMENT
TIMESummer A.D. 29.
PLACETyreSidonDecapolis.
PARALLEL ACCOUNTSOnly Mark records this incident.
OUTLINE1. The place of the healing, Mar. 7:31. 2. The man to be healed, Mar. 7:32. 3. Preparations for healing, Mar. 7:33-34 a. 4. The healing and results, Mar. 7:34 b Mar. 7:37.
ANALYSIS
I.
THE PLACE OF HEALING, Mar. 7:31.
1.
Journeyed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon.
2.
Through Sidon to the shore of Galilee.
3.
Into the midst of the district of Decapolis.
II.
THE MAN TO BE HEALED, Mar. 7:32.
1.
Brought by his friends.
2.
Deaf with a serious speech impediment.
3.
Begged Jesus to lay His hands upon him.
III.
PREPARATIONS FOR HEALING, Mar. 7:33-34 a.
1.
Jesus took him aside from the multitude unto himself.
2.
Jesus placed His fingers in the ears of the man.
3.
Spat on the ground and touched the mans tongue.
4.
Looked up to heaven and sighed.
IV.
THE HEALING AND RESULTS, Mar. 7:34 b Mar. 7:37.
1.
He was healed when Jesus said Ephphatha or Be opened.
2.
Ears were openedtongue was loosenedhe spoke plainly.
3.
Jesus strongly urged them to tell no man about thisthe more He urged them the more they did publish it.
4.
They were beyond measure astonished and said, He hath done all things well.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
I.
THE PLACE OF HEALING.
Mar. 7:31. According to the text adopted by the revisers, the course of the journey is here quite definitely marked out: And again he went out from the borders (region) of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders (region) of Decapolis. That he visited the city of Tyre itself is not affirmed, but from the course of the journey it seems probable. He did pass through Sidon, which lay, like Tyre, on the shore of the Mediterranean. From Capernaum to Tyre may have been thirty English miles, and from Tyre to Sidon twenty more. Between the two cities were Zarephath (called Sarepta in Luk. 4:26), where Elijah was preserved alive in famine and restored the widows son to life (1 Kings 17). His alluding to the event in the synagogue at Nazareth is enough to assure us that our Lord did not pass the spot without remembering again how it was a Gentile widow to whom the prophet was sent. From Sidon he turned south-eastward, and crossed the upper Jordan, and came down on the eastern side. But he did not merely make the journey downward along the river; he appears to have extended his tour still eastwardwe cannot tell how farthrough some part of the region known as Decapolis, probably visiting some of the cities from which that region took its name. The reasons that determined the route, of course, cannot be ascertained. Thus he made his way down to the Sea of Galilee, reaching it somewhere on the eastern side. The limits of Decapolis are somewhat uncertain, but its extent was such that his journey may have taken him farther south than his destination; so that it is impossible to tell from what direction he approached the lake or what point of its shore he probably first touched. Of course the length of the journey cannot be measured; but it can scarcely have been, from Capernaum back to the lake, less than one hundred and fifty English miles, and it may have been more. On the east as well as on the north this was a tour into heathen territory, but in no part, so far as we can judge, was it a tour of missionary activity. It was rather an episode in his ministry when he was alone with his disciples. By comparison with Matthew it appears that this miracle was wrought, most probably, on some mountain near the lake, where many were gathered about him.
II.
THE MAN TO BE HEALED.
Mar. 7:32. They bring unto him one that was deaf. The adjective literally means stricken, or smitten (kophos, from the verb kopto, to strike); the thought is that the person has been smitten in some of the organs of sensation, so as to be deprived of power. Sometimes it is the organs of speech that are thus conceived of as smitten, and the word then means dumb, sometimes it is the organs of hearing, and it then means deaf, as here. The other descriptive word (mogilalos) means speaking with difficulty; not speechless (alalos), as in Mar. 7:37. It is used here alone in the New Testament. It cannot be smoothly rendered without paraphrase, and had an impediment in his speech represents it well. Yet the word is used broadly for dumb in the LXX. (Isa. 35:6).The great healer was asked to put his hand on the man; so Mat. 9:18 : But come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. But now, as then, the great Healer had a way of his own.
III.
PREPARATIONS FOR HEALING.
Mar. 7:33-34. Three peculiarities appear in this act of healingthe privacy of the transaction, the use of signs and physical media, and the unusual vocal utterances of the Healer. These peculiarities all appear again in the other miracle in chap. Mar. 8:22-26, already alluded to. In studying them in this case it is to be remembered that this is the only detailed report that we possess of the healing of a deaf man; and, although we may not be justified in inferring that all healings of the deaf resembled this, we may find in the peculiar method now adopted a special significance in connection with the nature of the affliction that was to be removed, In healing the blind, Jesus, so far as we know, always made some appeal to the senses and powers of which the afflicted ones were possessed, drawing out their faith by word or touch or by requiring the performance of some act. (See Mat. 9:29; Mar. 8:23; Mar. 10:49; Joh. 9:6). So, usually, in healing the lame and helpless. (See Joh. 5:6-8; Mar. 3:3; Luk. 17:14.) In the case of a deaf man words would be of no avail; and if any such appeal was to be made, it must be done by signs. In the present case Jesus probably saw in the man himself some reason for judging it best that the cure should be private. The withdrawal from the crowd would impress him, though he could not hear its tumult, with a sense of solemnity. Perhaps Jesus saw in him a vanity that would render anything like a public act of healing hurtful to him. In any case, it was a solemn and touching experience to be alone, or almost alone, with Jesus to be healed.As for the signs and the physical media, they were such as he could well understand. Jesus put his fingers into his ears, Not a mere touch, but an insertiona sign of the impartation or transference of something from one person to the other, with reference now to the powerless organs of hearing. This was the laying on of his hand that had been asked for, made definite, appropriate, and instructive by his wisdom. Then he spit, and touched his tonguei.e. touched the mans tongue with a finger perhaps moistened with his own salivaanother sign of the transference of something from himself to the afflicted man, this time with reference to his injured organs of speech. Then he stood looking up to heaven, to indicate that this was an act that depended upon a heavenly poweran act, indeed, of Heaven upon the earth. Of course there had been no opportunity, because no possibility, of preaching to the man, and in his ignorance he may easily have supposed that this was some influence of a magical kind. He may not have known to what power he was submitting himself, and the reverent heavenward look of Jesus may have been intended silently to lift his heart and faith to God. How better could he show a deaf man that he was receiving a gift from above? Then be sighed, or rather, groaned. The word is not used elsewhere of him, but it is found in Rom. 8:23 and 2Co. 5:2, where evidently no less a word than groan is needed to represent its meaning. This was no artificial utterance intended for effect: it was a spontaneous utterance of genuine sorrow in sympathy with human suffering. It came from the same source as the tears at the grave of Lazarus. Although the man could not hear the groan, he might be aware of it, for doubtless his eyes were busy in observing what his Benefactor was doing; and if he was aware of it, he must have felt, however dimly, that there was a deep and genuine sympathy in the Healers heart. This could be no magicians performance to him: this was a deed of love. And then at last he spoke; and, though the man might not hear the word he may have known, as before, that it was spoken.
IV.
THE HEALING AND RESULTS.
Mar. 7:34 b. Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Here, as in chap. Mar. 5:41, Mark has preserved the very word in the Aramaic tongue that fell from the lips of Jesus. No other evangelist has done this, except in the case of the utterance on the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. In the other case (chap. Mar. 5:41) the Aramaic words that Mark preserves were spoken when of the disciples only Peter, James, and John were present; and it is not unlikely that the same special three were the only auditors at this time also. Whether others were present or not, this must certainly have come down to us from one who heard it. The Ephphatha, Be opened, was addressed to the man with reference to his organs of sense, which are conceived of as closed.
Mar. 7:35. It would seem that the moment of the Ephphatha was the moment of the change. Of course we know that the preceding parts of the transaction were in no sense necessary to the cure, and were introduced for the sake of the man himself; and we may judge that he received no new power of speech or hearing until the symbolic or pictorial part was finished and the word was spoken.The cure itself is detailed in Marks peculiar way. The revisers omit straightway, and thus represent the result: And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain, or rightly, normally.The string of his tongue is an unfortunate phrase, from which a reader might suppose that the man was in some way tongue-tied. But the reference is merely to the bond or restraint that was upon his powers of speech, and there is no indication as to the nature of that restraint.But now the organs of sense were opened, and henceforth all was done (orthos) in the natural or normal way.
It is worth while to look back at this act and observe how beautifully our Lord brought to light all that was essential in a work of healing. Perhaps the symbolic action was all the more beautiful, because it must be made to do the whole work of words. Two signs of the transferring of power from himself to the afflictedthe upward look to heaven, to indicate the source of power; the deep sigh or groan of genuine sympathy with the suffering that is to be removedand the word of power by which the deed is done, and the bond is broken. A beautiful story for deaf-mutes.
Mar. 7:36-37. He charged them. Not merely the man himself, but the people who were around. Of course they would quickly know what had been done, and must be included in his prohibition. Often did he thus plead for silence about his works (as in chap. Mar. 3:12 and Mar. 5:43), and now, while he was in search of retirement and quietness, the request was especially to be expected. But, as usual, it was all in vain: the gratitude of the healed and the wonder of the spectators were too strong, and the story must be told, It seems probable that this miracle was the means of bringing on the great period of thronging that is described in Mat. 15:30-31. Marks expressions in description of the abundant proclamation and the excessive amazement are of the very strongest character.The final testimony of praise seems to have been called out by the many healings that took place, though first suggested by the one, He hath done all things well (perfect tense)he has been gracious everywhere and successful in everythinghe maketh (present tense) both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak,The dumb. A stronger word than in Mar. 7:32. (W. N. Clarke)
FACT QUESTIONS 7:31-37
403.
Read Mat. 15:29-31 and relate it to this record in Mark.
404.
Show how Mar. 8:22-26 compares with this incident.
405.
How far from Capernaum to Tyre?; from Tyre to Sidon? What place was between the two cities?
406.
What was the total distance traveled from Capernaum to the place of the healing?
407.
They bring to him one that was strickenexplain the word stricken as here used.
408.
The man to be healed could speakbut how?
409.
Jesus never healed without a genuine personal concern for the one to be healed (if they were present)show how he adapted His words and actions to the one to be healedwith the blind; the lame; the deaf.
410.
What did the deaf-mute think when Jesus looked to heaven?
411.
What is a better word than sigh in reference to Jesus? Why?
412.
Why preserve the very word Jesus spoke?
413.
The man was in no way tongue-tiedhow do we know?
414.
This is a beautiful story for deaf-mutesshow how.
415.
Why would His request for quietness about His work be especially expected at this time and place?
416.
Read Mat. 15:30-31 and show the relation to this incident.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(31) Departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.The better MSS. give from the coasts of Tyre through Sidon. The latter city lay about twenty miles to the north. Accepting this reading, it marks the extreme limit of our Lords journeyingswe can hardly say of His ministry, for there is no indication that He went there as a preacher of the Kingdom. We may however, perhaps, trace the feeling which prompted the visit in the words, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, in Luk. 10:14, and in the Other sheep, not of this fold, in Joh. 10:16.
Decapolis.Another instance of St. Marks use of a Roman nomenclature. St. Matthew says simply, He departed thence, and came by the Sea of Galilee. For Decapolis, see Note on Mat. 4:25.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the border of Decapolis.’
The strange route taken is often commented on, for Sidon is to the North of Tyre and the Sea of Galilee to the South. It clearly contains a part of His life which was not well known, but which Mark mentions in order to stress His continued presence in Gentile territory. This may well have been a period of recuperation and private teaching of His disciples. No doubt it also enabled Him to spend time alone with His Father. He had to move on from the region of Tyre because He was apprehensive of the crowds that might seek Him out, and North was the best route in order to be incognito. Then He eventually moved South through Decapolis, still avoiding Galilee. It would appear that He moved along the territory just inside Decapolis’ Western border until He reached the Sea of Galilee.
Consideration must also be given to the thought that both Tyre and Sidon were within the land promised to Israel (Joshua 19-28-29) and that Jesus was as it were possessing these lands in God’s name.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb Man (7:31-37).
Continuing His ministry in Gentile territory Jesus entered the region of Decapolis where He had exorcised the Gadarene ex-demoniac and there performed a remarkable healing. His method of healing by using physical methods in a public way, draws attention to the unusualness of this incident (especially in the light of the previous healing at a distance) and we must ask if there was any special reason for it. When we consider the opening of the blind eyes, healed in a similar way (Mar 8:22-26), which is placed just before the disciples’ ‘eyes’ were opened (Mar 8:27-31), and the cursing of the fig tree, which demonstrated the barrenness of Israel (Mar 11:12-14), we look for a specific message in what He did. And that message undoubtedly was that He had come so that through His ministry spiritually deaf ears would hear, and tongues would begin to speak because of His impartation of blessing. As Isaiah had said of the day when God’s blessing would be revealed, ‘the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing’ (Isa 35:5-6). That day was now here, and on Gentile territory. The ears of Gentiles were about to be opened, and their mouths so as to give glory to Him.
Analysis.
a
b And he took him aside from the crowd privately (Mar 7:33 a).
c And He put His fingers into his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven He sighed and says to him, “Ephphatha”, that is, “Be opened” (Mar 7:33-34).
c And his ears were opened and the bond of his tongue was loosed and he spoke plainly (Mar 7:35).
b And He charged them that they should tell no man, but the more He charged them the more they spread it widely (published it everywhere)’ (Mar 7:36).
a And they were astonished above what can be measured, saying “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak” (Mar 7:37).
Note that in ‘a’ they bring a deaf man with a speech impediment, and in the parallel He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. In ‘b’ He took the man aside privately, and in the parallel He enjoins silence on all. In ‘c’ He says, ‘Be opened’, and in the parallel the man’s ears are opened.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Heals a Deaf Mute Mar 7:31-37 gives us the unique account of Jesus healing a deaf and dumb man. As in the previous story of Syrophoenician woman, this man was probably another Gentile.
Mar 7:32 “and they beseech him to put his hand upon him” – Comments – Jesus met them at their point of faith. He touched the man as they requested of Him.
Mar 7:32 Comments – This person was deaf and dumb, so in verse 33 Jesus touches his ears and his tongue. Note how the parallel passage in Mark differs:
Mar 8:23, “And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.”
Mar 7:33-37 Comments – Jesus Heals a Deaf Mute – I pray that God would take me aside, cause me to hear His voice in order to speak His Gospel to a lost and dying world. (July 14, 1983)
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Healing of the Deaf-and-Dumb. The return to Palestine:
v. 31. And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
v. 32. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf and had an impediment in His speech; and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him. The story of this healing is one peculiar to the gospel of Mark. After His sojourn in Syrophenicia, in the region between Tyre and Sidon, Jesus did not take the direct route back to Galilee. It seems, from all accounts, that He went through the borders of Coele-Syria and Upper Galilee, perhaps along the river Leontes, and then came down from the neighborhood of Caesarea-Philippi through Gaulanitis into the region of the Decapolis. Concerning this journey of the Lord, which was perhaps the longest single journey which He made, we know nothing, since none of the evangelists or apostles give accounts of it. But we are undoubtedly not far wrong in saying that He employed the time in instructing His apostles in things which were so necessary for them in their divine calling. It was after Christ’s return into the neighborhood of the Sea of Galilee, in the region where, not so very long before, He had healed the demoniac, that they, his relatives or friends, brought to Him a man that was deaf and had a bad impediment in his speech. He may have been able to make sounds and even indicate his wishes to people that watched him closely, but he could not articulate, his tongue was unable to form the words. It was a severe ailment, in which the extent of Satan’s power is evident. “For that this poor man is hurt in this manner that he can use neither tongue nor ears, like other people, those are blows and thrusts of the accursed devil. Before the world it may seem, and everyone be of the opinion, that they be natural ailments; for the world does not know the devil that he does so much harm, makes the people mad and foolish, inflicts all manner of misfortune upon them, not only in the body, but also in the soul, that they die for terror and sorrow and cannot attain to true joy. But we Christians should deem such defects and infirmities nothing else but blows of the devil; he causes such distress on earth and does damage wherever he call.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 7:31-37 . A narrative peculiar to Mark. Matthew, at Mar 15:30-31 here foregoing details, of which he has already related many only states in general that Jesus, having after the occurrence with the Canaanitish woman returned to the lake, healed many sick, among whom there were also deaf persons. Mark has preserved a special incident from the evangelic tradition, and did not coin it himself (Hilgenfeld).
] his reference to , Mar 7:24 .
] (see the critical remarks): He turned Himself therefore from the region of Tyre first in a northern direction, and went through Sidon (we cannot tell what may have been the more immediate inducement to take this route) in order to return thence to the lake. If we should take not of the city, but of the region of Sidon ( , Hom. Od. xiii. 285; Ewald, Lange also and Lichtenstein), the analogy of would be opposed to us, as indeed both names always designate the cities themselves .
. ] He came (as he journeyed) through the midst (Mat 13:25 ; 1Co 6:5 ; Rev 7:17 ) of the regions belonging to Decapolis , so that He thus from Sidon arrived at the Sea of Galilee, not on this side, but on the farther side of Jordan (comp. on Mat 4:25 ), and there the subsequent cure, and then the feeding the multitude, Mar 8:1 , occurred, Mar 8:10 .
Mar 7:32 . ] is erroneously interpreted: a deaf man with a difficulty of utterance (see Beza, Grotius, Maldonatus, de Wette, Bleek, and many others). Although, according to its composition and according to Atius in Beck. Anecd. p. 100, 22, means speaking with difficulty , it corresponds in the LXX. to the , dumb. See Isa 35:6 . Comp. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, Exo 4:11 . Hence it is to be understood as: a deaf-mute (Vulgate, Luther, Calovius, and many others, including Ewald), which is also confirmed by , Mar 7:37 , and is not refuted by , Mar 7:35 . The reading , speaking hollowly (B ** E F H L X , Matthaei), is accordingly excluded of itself as inappropriate (comp. also Mar 7:35 ).
Mar 7:33 . The question why Jesus took aside the sick man apart from the people, cannot without arbitrariness be otherwise answered than to the effect that He adopted this measure for the sake of an entirely undisturbed rapport between Himself and the sick man, such as must have appeared to Him requisite, in the very case of this sick man, to the efficacy of the spittle and of the touch. Other explanations resorted to are purely fanciful, such as: that Jesus wished to make no parade (Victor Antiochenus, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, and many others); that in this region, which was not purely Jewish, He wished to avoid attracting dangerous attention (Lange); that He did not wish to foster the superstition of the spectators (Reinhard, Opusc. II. p. 140). De Wette conjectures that the circumstance belongs to the element of mystery, with which Mark invests the healings. But it is just in respect of the two cases of the application of spittle (here and at Mar 8:23 ) that he relates the withdrawing from the crowd; an inclination to the mysterious would have betrayed itself also in the presenting of the many other miracles. According to Baur, Mark wished to direct the attention of his readers to this precise kind of miraculous cure. This would amount to a fiction in a physiological interest. The spittle [108] (like the oil in Mar 6:13 ) is to be regarded as the vehicle of the miraculous power. Comp. on Joh 9:6 . It is not, however, to be supposed that Jesus wished in any wise to veil the marvellous element of the cures (Lange, L. J. II. 1, p. 282), which would amount to untruthfulness, and would widely differ from the enveloping of the truth in parable.
] namely, on the tongue of the patient; [109] this was previous to the touching of the tongue (comp. Mar 1:41 , Mar 8:22 , Mar 10:13 ), which was done with the fingers, and not the mode of the touching itself.
Mar 7:34 f. ] Euthymius Zigabenus well says: (comp. Grotius and Fritzsche). Certainly (see . . ) it was a sigh of prayer (de Wette and many others), and yet a sigh : on account of painful sympathy. Comp. Mar 8:12 , also Mar 3:5 . It is reading between the lines to say, with Lange, that in this half-heathen region duller forms of faith rendered His work difficult for Him; or with Hofmann ( Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 352), that He saw in the deaf-mute an image of His people incapable of the hearing of faith and of the utterance of confession (comp. Erasmus, Paraphr. ).
] , imperative Ethpael.
] be opened , namely, in respect of the closed ears and the bound tongue. See what follows.
] the ears , as often in classic use (Eur. Phoen. 1494; Luc. Philop. 1; Herodian, iv. 5. 3; comp. 2Ma 15:39 ).
. . .] The tongue, with which one cannot speak, is conceived as bound (comp. the classical , , and see Wetstein), therefore the expression does not justify the supposition of any other cause of the dumbness beside the deafness.
] consequently, no longer venting itself in inarticulate, irregular, stuttering sounds, as deaf-mutes attempt to do, but rightly , quite regularly and normally.
Mar 7:36 . ] to those present , to whom He now returned with the man that was cured.
] and the subsequent (see the critical remarks) correspond to one another: He on His part they on their part .
] however much He enjoined (forbade) them, still far more they published it . They exceeded the degree of the prohibition by the yet far greater degree in which they made it known. So transported were they by the miracle, that the prohibition only heightened their zeal, and they prosecuted the with still greater energy than if He had not interdicted it to them. As to this prohibition without result generally, comp. on Mar 5:43 .
[110] ] along with another comparative, strengthens the latter. See on Phi 1:23 ; Hermann, ad Viger. p. 719 f.; Stallbaum, ad Phaed. p. 79 E; Pflugk, ad Hecub. 377.
Mar 7:37 . ] Let be distinguished from the subsequent . The former relates to the miraculous cure at that time, which has taken place and is now accomplished ( perfect ); and ( even ) . . . is the general judgment deduced from this concrete case. In this judgment , however, the generic plurals , are quite in their place, and do not prove (in opposition to Kstlin, p. 347) that a source of which Mark here availed himself contained several cures of deaf and dumb people.
. . .] the speechless to speak . On , comp. Plut. Mor. p. 438 B; Psa 37:14 ; Psa 38:13 .
[108] According to Baur, there is betrayed in the narrative of the , as also at Mar 6:13 , “the more material notion of miracle in a later age.” But it cannot at all be shown that the later age had a more material conception of the miracles of Jesus.
[109] As in Mar 8:23 He spits into the eyes of the blind man. It is not therefore to be conceived that Jesus spat on His own fingers and so applied His spittle to the tongue of the sick man (Lange, Bleek, and older commentators), for this Mark would certainly in his graphic manner have said .
[110] Here in the sense of “ only all the more .” See Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. iii. p. 397 A; Ngelsbach’s note on the Iliad , cd. 3, p. 227.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
(31) And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. (32) And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. (33) And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; (34) And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. (35) And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. (36) And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; (37) And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Some copies read this passage, concerning our LORD’s progress, that JESUS went through Sidon; but as Sidon was further off from Galilee than Tyre, it is more than probable JESUS went not through it. However, this deaf and dumb man which they brought to JESUS, was not of either place. The miracle the LORD manifested in healing him, excited great astonishment among the people; but the spiritual sense of it seems to have been wholly overlooked by them. Nothing becomes more striking, in proof of a spiritual deafness and dumbness , than a poor unawakened sinner. He is like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears at the voice of the charmer; charm he never so wisely; for all the melody of mercy in the Gospel of CHRIST, nor all the harsh sounds of condemnation in the law of God, can affect mind. And as he hears of nothing, either to allure, or to alarm, so no cry for salvation ever passeth his lips. I pray the Reader to notice, however, the solicitude of his friends in bringing him to Jesus. Gracious souls, who know the LORD, do well to bring to JESUS those who know him not. He that hath unstopped your ears, and opened your lips, can do the same by others. And while we qualify prayers for the most graceless, by our LORD’s standard, we cannot err. Neither, said Jesus, (while acting as the Great High Priest in interceding for his Apostles,) pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Joh 17:20 . Precious prayed including the thousands then unborn of the Redeemer’s family. Jesus’ followers have here a very plain direction how to qualify their prayers, when visiting a mercy seat for the unawakened.
I beg the Reader, not to overlook the circumstance, in the miracle, of the LORD’s taking the poor man aside from the multitude. Yes! When JESUS works an act of sovereign grace upon his people, for the most part he calls them aside from the world, yea, from themselves, from what they were before; and manifests himself in secret, and gives them to eat of the hidden manna. Rev 2:17 . Neither do I think the actions of our adorable LORD were without signification. JESUS may be said to put his fingers into the ears of his redeemed, when he opens them to hear the joyful sound. He truly toucheth our tongues with the spittle of his mouth, when he looseneth our lips to speak his praise. And his looking up to heaven, in confirmation of what he saith, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Joh 5:17 . is a sweet testimony of the Oneness in the FATHER and the SON, in all the parts of his divine mission. The sigh of CHRIST, and the Ephphatha or Ethphatha he pronounced with it, are beautiful proofs of his GOD-Man, Person, and Character. His power to open, and his sigh in testimony of his fellow feeling, were here beautifully blended. Reader! do not overlook it! Oh! what everlasting effects of sovereign grace must follow, when JESUS visits the souls of his redeemed with his great salvation!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
Ver. 31. Of Decapolis ] A little country consisting of ten cities. See Plin. lib. iii. cap. 18.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
31 37. ] HEALING OF A DEAF AND DUMB PERSON. Peculiar to Mark .
A miracle which serves a most important purpose; that of clearly distinguishing between the cases of the possessed and the merely diseased or deformed . This man was what we call ‘deaf and dumb;’ the union of which maladies is often brought about by the inability of him who never has heard sounds to utter them plainly: or, as here apparently, by some accompanying physical infirmity of the organs of speech.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
31. ] He went first northward (perhaps for the same reason, of privacy, as before) through Sidon, then crossed the Jordan, and so approached the lake on its E. side. On Decapolis , see Mat 4:25 . We have the same journey related Mat 15:29 ; and mentioned among the miracles, for which the people glorified the God of Israel.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 7:31-37 . Cure of a deaf-mute , peculiar to Mk. Mt. has, instead, a renewal of the healing ministry on an extensive scale, the thing Jesus desired to avoid (Mar 15:29-31 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 7:31 . After the instructive episode Jesus continued His journey, going northwards through ( , vide critical notes) Sidon, then making a circuit so as to arrive through Decapolis at the Sea of Galilee. The route is not more definitely indicated; perhaps it was along the highway over the Lebanon range to Damascus; it may conceivably have touched that ancient city, which, according to Pliny ( H. N. , v., 16), was included in Decapolis ( vide Holtz., H. C., and Schrer, Div., ii., vol. i., p. 95).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 7:31-37
31Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. 32They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. 33Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; 34and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. 36And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. 37They were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Mar 7:31 This geographical description is unusual. Sidon was north of Tyre on the coast, while the Decapolis was south and east of the Sea of Galilee. The NKJV has “departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon,” but this translation is not supported by P45, A, W, and the Peshitta. Most textual critics support the more difficult text which takes Jesus north and east before going south.
“Sea of Galilee” This same body of water is called (1) Chennereth in the OT; (2) Lake of Gennesaret in Luk 5:1; and (3) Sea of Tiberias during the first century Roman period in Joh 6:1; Joh 21:1.
“region of Decapolis” This was the area of the Gedarene Demoniac (cf. Mar 5:1-20). It was also a Gentile area to the east and south of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus’ ministry in these areas shows His love for the Gentiles.
Mar 7:32 “was deaf and spoke with difficulty” This term is used only here in the NT and in the Septuagint in Isa 35:6. Mar 7:37 may relate to Isa 35:5-6, which describes the future healing ministry of the Messiah.
“to lay His hand on him” See Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: LAYING ON OF HANDS IN THE BIBLE
Mar 7:33 “took him aside from the crowd” This was both to stop the stories about His healing and to make the man feel more at ease (cf. Mar 8:23).
“put His fingers into his ears” Jesus was communicating to the man what He was trying to do in culturally acceptable physical gestures (i.e., a finger in the ear and saliva on the tongue).
“He touched his tongue with the saliva” Saliva was commonly used medicinally in the first century Mediterranean world. It was meant to increase the man’s faith.
Mar 7:34 “and looking up to heaven” This was the standard physical posture for Jewish prayer in Jesus’ day (i.e., standing, eyes open, head raised, hands raised).
“with a deep sigh” This refers to an inarticulate sound that expresses strong emotion (cf. Romans 4; Rom 8:22-23; 2Co 5:12). Whether it is positive (cf. Mar 7:34; Rom 8:26) or negative (cf. Act 7:34; Jas 5:9) depends on the literary context. This may have revealed Jesus’ grief over sin and sickness in a world devastated by rebellion. A compound form of this term appears in Mar 8:12.
“Ephphatha” This is an Aramaic aorist passive imperative, meaning “be opened” (and they were, cf. Mar 7:35). Peter remembered the very Aramaic words which Jesus spoke and Mark translated it into Greek for his Gentile (i.e., Roman) readers. See note at Mar 5:41.
Mar 7:36 “He gave them orders not to tell anyone” The reason for this was that the gospel was not yet complete. Jesus did not want to be known as a miracle worker. The press of the crowds was already a problem. This “Messianic Secret” is characteristic of Mark. However, it is surprising because Jesus does so many acts and says such revealing things about Himself in Mark. Jesus clearly reveals Himself as Messiah and fulfills current Jewish expectations to those who had spiritual eyes to see!
Mar 7:37 Healing the deaf was a clear Messianic sign (cf. Isa 35:5-6).
“‘He has done all things well'” This is a perfect active indicative. What a summary statement made by the people of northern Palestine!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
from = out of. Greek ek. App-104.
coasts = borders.
Galilee. See App-169.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
31-37.] HEALING OF A DEAF AND DUMB PERSON. Peculiar to Mark.
A miracle which serves a most important purpose; that of clearly distinguishing between the cases of the possessed and the merely diseased or deformed. This man was what we call deaf and dumb; the union of which maladies is often brought about by the inability of him who never has heard sounds to utter them plainly:-or, as here apparently, by some accompanying physical infirmity of the organs of speech.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 7:31. , the boundaries) That is, through the midst of Decapolis. [The region comprising Decapolis was situated, for the most part, outside of Galilee (Mat 4:25), beyond Jordan, and some portion of it, if this view be accepted, on the southern side of Galilee, and was accordingly chiefly inhabited by Syrians and heathens. To this region appertain Gadara (Mar 5:20) and Carea Philippi. There is frequent mention in the Evangelists, about this time, of the heathen borders; whence it is evident that the Saviour traversed the whole land of Israel.-Harm. p. 313.] [Mar 7:32. , deaf) The narrative of this deaf man, as also of the blind man, concerning whom ch. Mar 8:22 treats, is recorded in Mark alone.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mar 7:31-37
2. JESUS HEALS A DEAF STAMMERER
Mar 7:31-37
(Matt. 16:29-31).
31 And again he went out from the borders of Tyre,–How long Jesus remained in Tyre and Sidon is not stated. Having completed his work there he now starts on his way to another field of operation.
and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis.–He starts from Tyre and passes through Sidon. He travels northward. From Sidon he passed over into the borders of Decapolis, on the east of the Jordan, thus approaching the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Decapolis was a region of “ten cities,” lying east of the Jordan. Only Mark gives an account of the following miracle.
32 And they–Friends of the deaf. Those interested in him. The demoniac of Gadara, after his healing, went through this region declaring what great things Jesus had done for him. (Mar 5:20.) Thus his fame was spread abroad in that region.
bring unto him one that was deaf,–His friends conduct him to Jesus. He was merely diseased and not possessed of a demon.
and had an impediment in his speech;–He was “a deaf stammerer.” He was not entirely without hearing, but spoke indistinctly or with difficulty.
and they beseech him to lay his hand upon him.–That is, to cure him. Blessings were commonly imparted by laying on the hands.
33 And he took him aside from the multitude privately,–From the crowd in the presence of only a few witnesses. Why? Many reasons may be given and none be correct. (1) His friends had suggested their way of healing (to put his hands upon him) (verse 32); they needed to be taught that they should leave the way to Jesus. (2) The people may have gathered to see a great miracle. But Jesus would make no display; nor satisfy mere curiosity. (Mat 12:15-21.) (3) He would withdraw from observation; and produce as little excitement as possible. (Mar 6:31-32; Mar 8:22-23.) (4) While he would strengthen their faith, he would not feed their superstition. (5) For the good of the man himself; that he might have a proper view of Christ’s healing power. Jesus showed that he was not limited to any one way of exercising his miraculous power.
and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;–The diseased organ. Jesus spat on the eyes of the blind man at Bethsaida (Mar 8:23), and “on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed” the eyes of the blind man at Jerusalem (Joh 9:6). Why Jesus used the spittle in either case can only be an opinion on our part. But surely not on account of any healing power in it. This may be one way that Jesus teaches us that we are not to enter into the reasons of all his actions;and that when he has appointed any observance, we are humbly to submit, though we may not be able to see why it might not be different.
34 and looking up to heaven,–Heaven is upward. To lift up the eyes to heaven is an act imploring aid from God, and denotes an attitude of prayer. (Psa 121:1-2; Mar 6:41; Joh 11:41.) By looking up to heaven, as representing the abode of God, he gave God recognition in the miracle.
he sighed,–Groaned, pitying the suffering man who stood before him. The expression of his compassion in his sigh heavenward would naturally impress all present with the necessity of looking to God for help.
and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.–A word in common language in Judea at that time.
35 And his ears were opened,–Every obstruction was removed, and a perfect action of the organs enjoyed.
and the bond of his tongue was loosed,–The difficulty in speaking was removed. There is nothing for, but rather everything against, the supposition of some, that the cure was gradual.
and he spake plain.–His stammering was all gone. A perfect cure. He spoke without difficulty–all could understand his speech. The process adopted in this case was peculiar. Jesus first put his fingers in the man’s ears, then spat. He then touched the man’s tongue, looked up to heaven, heaved a sigh, and exclaimed, “Be opened,” and the man was healed.
36 And he charged them that they should tell no man:–Why, he does not state, but we may be assured he had good reasons. It was, however, an impressive way of showing that he did not seek the praise of men.
deal they published it.–Forbidding them publishing it seems to have created a great desire to spread the news. A very common freak of human nature is seen here, the more he charged them to keep the cure a secret, “the more a great deal they published it.”
37 And they were beyond measure astonished,–Exceedingly –very much. In the Greek, “very abundantly.”
saying, He hath done all things well;–All things in a remarkable manner; or he has perfectly effected the cure of the deaf and the dumb. It is an exclamation of the highest approval and satisfaction. All God’s creation was very good.
he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.–Mark refers to this case and probably to others. Matthew (Mat 15:30-31) states that many miracles were performed, among which were the dumb speaking. In this, and the parallel in Matthew, the characteristic difference between the two writers is seen. Matthew says that “there came unto him great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at his feet; and he healed them”; but he gives no particular description of any single case. Mark, on the other hand, selects a single one of these cures, and describes minutely both it and its effect on the people.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
CHAPTER 31
Ephphatha!
And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
(Mar 7:31-37)
We have before us the story of a remarkable cure wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, the cure of a man who was a deaf mute. It is a story told only by Mark.
Departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. How quickly the Son of God passes by! While he is present there is hope. When he is gone there is none! He came into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. While he was there one lone Canaanite woman seized the opportunity. One lone woman came to the Master and obtained mercy. Now, he was gone! Mercy was gone! Grace was gone! The Son of God passed through the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, but did not stay long. What a warning! He came there to show mercy to that chosen sinner. Indeed, he showed mercy to every sinner who sought him for it. Then he left as quickly as he had come. Well might we cry with Fanny Crosby
Pass me not, O gentle Savior!
Hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by!
Our Lord Jesus, while he walked on this earth, never stayed in one place for very long. When he had cured the Canaanite womans daughter, he had done what he came there to do. Then he went through the coasts of Decapolis; he came again unto the sea of Galilee, where he had so often performed miracles of mercy and taught sinners the way of life.
As our Lords departure from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon is a warning, his return unto Galilee is most hopeful and encouraging. The Son of God is often found in the same place and often performs his wonders among the same people. I cannot tell you how that inspires me as a member of a local church where the Lord Jesus has constantly manifested his presence for twenty-eight years. As I try to prepare my heart for worship, Sunday after Sunday and Tuesday after Tuesday, I come to the house of God with the prayer and hope, with the reverent expectation that Christ will meet with us again, that he will show himself again, that he will speak again, that he will again stretch forth his mighty arm of grace for the saving of chosen, redeemed sinners, that he might again embrace me in his arms, smother me with his love, and revive me with his Spirit!
A Very Sad Condition
The healing of this deaf mute by the Son of God is a tremendous picture, both of our Lords power and of his grace, full of spiritual instruction. In Mar 7:32 we see a man in a very sad condition. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
We are not told who these people were that brought this poor deaf-mute to the Lord Jesus. That is obviously insignificant. But someone had heard about Christ. Perhaps they had personally seen or experienced the Masters miraculous healing, saving power. Whatever the case may have been, they knew who Christ was, where he was, what he could do, and how desperately this poor soul needed the Savior. So they brought him to the Lord Jesus, knowing that if he would just lay his hand on him, the deaf-mute would be healed. Gracious souls, Robert Hawker observed, who know the Lord, do well to bring to Jesus those who know him not. He that hath unstopped your ears, and opened your lips, can do the same by others. John Gill wrote, concerning those who brought this man to Christ
As the friends and relations of this man, having a great opinion of Christ, and a persuasion of his ability to relieve and cure him, bring him unto him, that he might put his hands upon him; so do such who know Christ themselves, and have felt the power of his grace upon their own souls, bring their deaf and dumb, their relations in a state of nature, under the means of grace; being very desirous that Christ would make bare, and put forth his mighty arm of grace, and lay hold upon them, and work a good work in them, and give them ears to hear his voice, and a tongue to speak his praise.
Notice how the Holy Spirit directed Mark to choose his words. And they beseech him to put his hand upon him. That is to be commended. They firmly believed that Christ could heal this poor man by merely laying his hands upon him. Yet, they made a big mistake, as we shall see. They dared to presume to tell the Son of God how to heal him! We must never do so. We must never presume to prescribe to God how to do his work, or even presume that he must always work his wonders the same way. Every child of God experiences the same grace, by the same means; but we all have differing experiences of grace. This mans experience was truly singular. He experienced the grace and power of God like no one else in the world!
This poor, needy creature is a pretty good picture of all men by nature, representing unregenerate sinners, who are deaf to the voice of both the law of God and the gospel. All who are yet without life and faith in Christ are very much like this man.
He does not hear what God says by way of wrath and condemnation in his holy law. The unregenerate do not hear the command of the law. He will not and cannot obey the precepts of the law. And he is not moved by the menacing curse, condemnation, and terrible wrath and justice of the law. God says, The soul that sinneth it shall die. But that does not bother him. He is deaf. He is not at all affected and disturbed with such things. You might as well be talking to stones, when talking to unregenerate souls about the things of God. Indeed, you are talking to stones. Until God graciously takes away the stony heart, none can hear.
Like the deaf adder, unregenerate souls stop their ears to the charming sound of the gospel. The sweet sound of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they utterly despise. They consider it a contemptuous, bothersome, irksome thing. They are totally deaf to all the instructions, directions, cautions, and exhortations of Gods Word, his servants, their dearest relations and their best friends.
Not only are all men by nature spiritually deaf, they are deaf-mutes. Try as they might, they cannot speak the language of Canaan. It is a strange language to them. They cannot speak it themselves; and they cannot understand it when others speak it. The things of Christ sound like much meaningless babble about nothing to them. And, having no true experience of the grace of God in their souls, they simply cannot speak of what they do not know.
Nothing becomes more striking, in proof of a spiritual deafness and dumbness, than a poor unawakened sinner. He is like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ears at the voice of the charmer; charm he never so wisely; for all the melody of mercy in the Gospel of Christ, nor all the harsh sounds of condemnation in the law of God, can affect his mind, And as he hears of nothing, either to allure, or to alarm, so no cry for salvation ever passeth his lips. (Robert Hawker)
I think it is also proper to say that this poor deaf-mute is a picture, type, and representative of sinners newly awakened by the Spirit of God. When a person is first born again, we ought not expect him or her to walk and talk like an aged, experienced saint. Babes in Christ usually behave as such, though they may think they are very strong, mature, and knowledgeable. Children often think that way. And those who are under the first workings of the Spirit of God upon their souls are often as it were tongue tied. Through fear or bashfulness, or the temptations of Satan, they fear to speak; or with great difficulty are brought to speak of what God has done for them. When they do, it is but in a lisping, stammering way.
A Very Singular Cure
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain (Mar 7:33-35).
This mighty miracle performed by our Savior was a clear demonstration of his sovereign power over creation and over all the elements of nature in creation. But, if all we see in this miracle is the fact that a deaf-mute was miraculously cured by the power of God, if all we see here is a picture of physical healing, we have missed the point altogether. There are precious, spiritual truths revealed here, lessons about Gods saving power, mercy, and grace in Christ toward helpless sinners.
The Holy Spirit intends for us to see here that the Son of God has power to heal the spiritually deaf. He can give the most hard-hearted, spiritually deaf sinner a hearing ear and make him delight in hearing the very gospel he once despised.
As he can heal spiritually deaf sinners, he can also untie the tongue of those who are spiritually mute. Jesus Christ can cause the most obstinate rebel to call upon him in faith. He can put a new song of grace in the heart and in the mouth of the vilest transgressor. And he can make the basest blasphemer a preacher of the gospel.
When the Son of God comes in saving power, nothing is impossible. We believe in and preach irresistible grace, grace that cannot be resisted. When God has a will to save, the sinner he comes to save has no will to resist. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth (Psa 110:3). Let no sinner regard himself as being beyond the reach of Gods omnipotent arm. Let us never consider anyone beyond hope. Jesus Christ, our all glorious Savior, is that One who is Mighty to save. He that healed the deaf-mute still lives.
I remind you again that our all glorious Savior is not limited to any one way of doing things. The peculiar means employed by the Son of God in healing this man may have many hidden lessons that I do not see, but this is the most obvious thing about it. I know that God saves chosen sinners by the appointed means of grace, as he has declared in Scripture. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Still, sometimes God works one way and sometimes another. Sometimes he works through the Word preached publicly. Sometimes he works by the Word spoken privately. Sometimes he is pleased to use the oral exposition of the Word, and sometimes the written exposition. Sometimes he uses great adversities and afflictions to bring sinners to himself. Sometimes he uses the gentle, loving persuasion of a friend or relative to arrest the attention of the chosen. But of this you may be sure: God almighty will not perform his wonders of grace like a trained seal in obedience to our whims and plans! As soon as we begin to think this is the way the Son of God works, by laying his hands on the needy soul, he uses something as despised by us as spit, and gives no account of his matters.
Look at the details of what the Lord Jesus did here and glean the spiritual truths set before us in this wonder of mercy. He took him aside, separating him from everyone else. When the Lord Jesus comes to save, he separates his people, like sheep culled out of a flock by the shepherd, from the rest of the world. He allures his chosen into the wilderness that he may speak to their hearts, that he may speak grace to the soul. He calls his elect out of the world, out of Babylon, and brings them to himself.
The Master put his fingers into the deaf mans ears, as if to say, I alone, who made the ear, can give the hearing ear to whom I will by the finger of my grace. He puts his finger into the ears of his redeemed, when he opens them to hear the joyful sound.
He spat and touched the mans tongue, as if to say, Only that which comes forth out of me entering into you can loosen your tongue and cause you to know and show forth my praise. As Hawker observed, He truly toucheth our tongues with the spittle of his mouth, when he looseneth our lips to speak his praise. What a humbling, but necessary picture!
The Lord Jesus looked up to heaven, as One who is the Servant of God on a mission from God, doing the will of God, teaching us that all grace and power, all good and perfect gifts, indeed, all things are of God. Then, he sighed. No doubt this is a picture of our Saviors compassion, pity, and mercy for needy souls. It was a sigh for this man, but for many others as well.
Next, he looked at the deaf-mute himself and spoke a single word of sovereign power and authority – Ephphatha! The word means, Be opened! Immediately, the mans ears were opened and his tongue was loosed, so that he spoke plainly. Those whose ears are opened and whose tongues are loosed by Christ speak plainly and clearly of what they have seen and heard, of what they have experienced and been taught by the grace of God. They can give a ready answer to any man who asks the reason of their hope. Mr. Spurgeon once told a story illustrating this beautifully.
Once there was a poor man, a huckster, who used to go through country villages selling his goods. This poor creature, while going round on his journeys, heard some women singing a little chorus. It went like this
Im a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.
Jack said to himself, That sure suits me. So he started to hum the tune to himself, as he walked along. By Gods grace, in time, the words of the little chorus worked their way into the poor hucksters heart.
After some time he was converted and began to attend church regularly. Finally, he made up his mind to publicly confess his faith in Christ and join the church. So he went to see the pastor. The pastor asked him, What can you say for yourself? Not much, Jack replied, only this
Im a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.
You must tell me more than that, the pastor said. No, I cant, Jack answered, for that is all I know. Thats my confession of faith. Well, the pastor said, I cannot refuse you church fellowship, but you will have to come before the elders and deacons. They will have to see you and judge you.
At the appointed time the poor huckster met with the elders and deacons. They wanted to see if they could find some fault with him. Being asked to stand and state his experience, Jack simply said
Im a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.
One of the old men asked, Is that all you have to say? Yes, thats all, he answered. The pastor said, You may ask him some questions, if you wish. So another man spoke up. Brother Jack, Do you have many doubts and fears? No, Jack answered, I can never doubt that I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, for I know that I am. And I can never doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in all, for he says he is. How can I doubt that?
Then another man said, But sometimes I lose my evidences and my graces, and then I get very sad. Oh, Jack said, I can never lose anything, for, in the first place, I am a poor sinner and nothing at all. No one can rob me if I am nothing. And in the second place, Jesus Christ is my all in all. And who can rob him? He is in heaven. I never get richer or poorer, for I am always nothing, but I always have everything.
But, my dear brother, Jack, another man asked, Dont you sometimes doubt whether you are a child of God? Well, he said, I dont quite understand your question. But I can tell you I never doubt but that I am a poor sinner and nothing at all and that Jesus Christ is my all in all.
They were astonished at Jacks simple, constant composure. They had a world of doubts and fears. When they asked him why he never doubted, he just said, I cannot doubt but that I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all, for I know that, and feel it every day. And why should I doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in all? for he says he is.
Oh, one of the men said, I have my ups and downs. I dont, Jack replied. I can never go up, for in myself I am a poor sinner and nothing at all; and I cannot go down, for Jesus Christ is my all in all.
The deacons and elders kept trying to shake the simple man from his simple faith. Why, said one brother, I sometimes feel so full of grace, I feel so advanced in sanctification, that I begin to be very happy. I never do, Jack replied. I am a poor sinner and nothing at all. Then, I go down again, and think I am not saved, because I am not as sanctified as I used to be, the brother continued. I never doubt my salvation, Jack said, because Jesus Christ is my all in all, and he never alters.
They admitted Jack into the church, and he continued all the days of his life with this simple confession.
Im a poor sinner, and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all in all.
That was all his experience, and you could not get him beyond it. For the rest of his days on earth, the poor huckster was called Happy Jack, because of his happiness in faith. Happy Jacks simple story is beautifully instructive. It sets forth a picture of plain, simple, clear faith in Christ. It exemplifies adherence to Pauls admonition in Col 2:6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
A Very Satisfying Confession
And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak (Mar 7:36-37).
This man who was healed and those who brought him to be healed went everywhere telling what wonders Christ had wrought for him and in him. But the Lord charged them to tell no man what he had done. Perhaps he did so because he sought not the praise of men. Perhaps he did so that he might try these people, to see whether they were truly grateful for his grace. Whatever the case may have been, this deaf-mute was not about to keep his mouth shut! He went everywhere confessing Christ for the praise of him who had wrought such wonders in him. He who is God our Savior maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak!
They also confessed, He hath done all things well. No doubt these poor souls no more understood the full meaning of their words when they spoke them than we do in repeating them; but what a satisfaction we find here for our souls. He hath done all things well! Let us remember this when we think about the past, as we consider the present, and as we anticipate the future.
In that great and glorious eternal day awaiting us, we will fully see and gladly confess He hath done all things well! In that great day we will understand the why and wherefore of all things. We will wonder at our past blindness and marvel that we could have even once doubted our Saviors love and called into question his faithfulness.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
from: Mar 7:24, Mat 15:29-31
Decapolis: Mar 5:20, Mat 4:25
Reciprocal: Mar 3:8 – Tyre
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Chapter 9.
The Healing of the Deaf and Dumb
“And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to put His hands upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched His tongue.”-Mar 7:31-33.
A Ministry to Gentiles.
The healing of the Syro-Phnician’s sick daughter had just that untoward effect that Jesus feared. It put an end to all His hopes of quietness and seclusion. It spread His name and fame abroad. But our Lord was so “full of grace,” as John puts it, that no shade of resentment ever invaded His breast, even when His cherished plans were frustrated by the importunity of the people. When, instead of solitude, He found on the other side of the lake a multitude, His feeling was not one of annoyance; He was moved with compassion, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And so now in Phnicia, when His identity became known, and the crowds began to gather, instead of being vexed and hurrying off to some other place for the quiet He had come to seek, apparently He stayed for a little time to preach to them and minister to their needs. Just as He availed Himself of the opening made for Him at Sychar by His conversation with the woman at the well, and seeing the fields white already with the harvest, remained there two days, so now, seeing a “great and effectual” door opened to Him amongst these pagan people of Phnicia, He tarried there some time, preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. He visited Tyre, and then travelled northward along the shore of the Mediterranean to Sidon, and there, taking a circuit round, along the southern slopes of Lebanon and Hermon, He made His way along the east bank of the Jordan through the midst of the borders of Decapolis, until at length He came to Galilee again. It must have been a memorable journey, and it rejoices one to think that Jesus Himself preached to Gentiles and to heathens. No record of the preaching has been preserved for us, and yet there are hints that it met with abundant success, for in after days Jesus quoted the reception given to Him in Tyre and Sidon as a melancholy and damning contrast to the unbelief of the cities of Galilee.
At Decapolis.
It was apparently not in Galilee, but in the borders of Decapolis, that our Lord performed the miracle we now are to consider. It was not by any means the only miracle He performed on His way back. Matthew tells us that “there came unto Him great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at His feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing: and they glorified the God of Israel” (Mat 15:30-31). You notice that last phrase, “they glorified the God of Israel.” It implies that many of those present were heathens. It is the confession forced from pagan lips and pagan hearts by the sight of the Lord’s mighty works that the God of Israel was the King above all gods. And it exactly suits such a half heathen region as we know Decapolis to have been.
A Striking Change.
Now the fact that such multitudes crowded upon Christ in Decapolis is very significant. It argues such a change of temper and feeling. For Christ had been into the borders of Decapolis before. In Mark v. we have His visit to Gerasa, which He signalised by restoring to his right mind the man who had the legion. But the story of that visit ends with these words, “they began to beseech Him to depart from their borders” (Mar 7:17). They were eager to get rid of Christ. They were impatient to see the last of Him. But it was a very different reception He met with on this second passing visit. There was immense excitement and enthusiasm. Wherever He went the crowds followed. And all that they saw constrained them to glorify God.
Its Cause.
Now what accounts for this startling and radical change of manner? What is the reason for this so-different reception? I think I have discovered the reason for it. When Jesus was saying “good-bye” to Gerasa, the healed demoniac wanted, you remember, to go with Him. But Jesus would not permit him, but said to him, “Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how He had mercy on thee. And he went his way,” I read, “and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel” (Mar 7:19-20). You notice, the healed man did not confine his witness to his own house and his own friends. He took a wider circuit. He published his wonderful news throughout the whole district of Decapolis. Into every one of the ten cities he went. And everywhere he told the same marvellous story. He told them how Jesus had found him a naked and untameable maniac, a terror to the whole country-side, and how by a word He had reinstated wisdom on her throne, and made a man out of a mere wreck. He spoke, that is, of the healing and saving power of Christ, and clinched and proved his speech by saying, “He healed and saved me.” The result was, all Decapolis was on tip-toe of expectation. All Decapolis, especially the sick and maimed and the distressed of Decapolis, longed that Jesus would visit them. And so it came to pass that when Jesus took Decapolis on His way back to Galilee, the first intimation of His approach brought the crowd into His presence. The healed demoniac had been a most effective preacher. His witness to the healing and saving power of Christ made others eager to try Christ too.
The Need of Witnessing.
In all of this there is an obvious lesson for us. We complain oftentimes of the indifference of our time. People nowadays do not seem to care for Christ. They show no eagerness to come to Him. They do not seem to think He can do anything for them. I wonder whether the indifference may not largely be our fault. Have we borne our witness to Christ’s healing and saving power? Have we told them what great things the Lord hath done for us, and how He had mercy on us? Have we told them how He brought us pardon, peace, joy, and immortal hope? The witness of Christian people does infinitely more for the truth than any amount of preaching. Only the life must confirm the witness. That is to say, when you bear your witness that Christ has brought you pardon and peace and joy and hope, your lives must obviously be seen to be full of the pardon, peace, and joy of which you speak.
Are we witnesses?
Do we bear that witness? Do we rejoice to tell people what Christ has done? And do our lives show that they are great things which He has done? Do you think, if men really knew that Jesus bestowed these great gifts they would remain indifferent and unconcerned? As a matter of fact, these are just the gifts men most deeply crave. For men are burdened by sin, they are harassed by fear, and they want forgiveness, peace, a settled hope. If only they saw that we obviously possessed these things, if they only saw that Christ really had bestowed them upon us, they too would turn to the Lord with eager hearts, saying, “Be merciful to me, and bless me also, Thou Son of God.” The healed demoniac turned hundreds to the Lord. There is nothing still so potent to make men seek the Saviour as the testimony of the saved man.
The Deaf and Dumb Man.
Now, out of this multitude of acts of grace done upon the sick and the suffering of Decapolis Mark selects one for full and detailed description. It was the case of a deaf-stammerer. And I suppose that the reason why Mark picks out this particular miracle for detailed treatment is, as Archbishop Trench says, because it was signalised by some incidents which had not occurred on any previous occasion. It is really the conduct of Jesus Christ that the Evangelist wishes to emphasise. The miracle is not recorded-if I may so put it-because it was such a wonderful miracle. Christ did many a deed far more startling and amazing than that. The healing of this deaf and partially dumb man, from the point of mere wonderfulness, was not to be compared with the stilling of the storm or the feeding of the 5000, or the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead. No; this miracle is recorded, not for the greatness of the act itself so much as for the conduct of Jesus. That is what has stamped itself indelibly upon the memory of Peter. He can recall every detail of what happened. He can remember how Christ took the man aside privately; how He put His fingers in his deaf ears; how He spat and touched his tongue; how He looked up to heaven, and then groaned in spirit, and how finally He spoke that word of command, Ephphatha, “Be opened,” and how as a result the man’s “ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”
Different Cases, Different Treatment.
Now, if it be true, as it probably is, that this incident has been preserved for us because of a certain peculiarity in Christ’s treatment of this deaf and dumb man, then that very fact has a lesson of quite infinite importance to teach, viz., this: different men require different treatment. Christ Himself was never tied down to one stereotyped method. The friends of this deaf and dumb man take upon themselves to suggest a method to Jesus. They beseech Him that “He would lay His hand upon him.” That-shall I say?-was the regulation and usual method of conveying visible power. Christ Himself occasionally employed it. “He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them” (vi. 5). But this time Jesus will not adopt that method. There was something about this man that required different treatment. I suppose, if, like Jesus Himself, we knew what was in man, we should see the reason why He employed varieties of methods in dealing with different persons-why, for instance, the woman with the issue of blood was healed in the crowd, and made to declare herself before the crowd; while this deaf and dumb man was taken aside privately to be healed; why the nobleman’s servant was healed at a distance and by a word, while He laid His hand upon the leper and touched him; why He volunteered help in the case of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, and in the case of the Syro-Phnician woman had to be appealed to again and again; why in the majority of cases He employed nothing but word or touch, while in the case of the man born blind He sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash, and in the case of this deaf and dumb man He touched his tongue with His own saliva.
-With good Reasons.
If, I say, we knew everything about man, we should know why Jesus used a particular method in any particular case. For we may be quite sure of this-that the particular method was adopted not through whim or caprice, but because in some deep way it met the special need of the particular case. We may think we see the reason in this case and that; we may think we know why He volunteered help to the impotent man; we may think we know why He made the shrinking woman declare herself; we may think we know why He “touched” the leper. But whether we know or do not know the reason, we are sure there was one. We are quite sure, if we knew everything, we should see in the special method adopted in each particular case evidence of the wisdom of God.
The Lord’s Diversities of Operation.
But the main point for us to notice is that Christ has not one stereotyped method of bringing His gifts of healing and grace to men. He has diversities of operation. He adapts His method to the special case. He studies the individual soul. I wonder sometimes whether we do not forget this simple truth. In some quarters there is a tendency to limit and narrow the workings of Christ, to say that only in this way and that can He approach the soul. There are those who seem to think that Christ can only confer His blessing through one particular Christian communion; that He has only one “channel of grace”; and that only through that one channel can His healing and saving power be conveyed to the individual soul. So also there are those who seem to think that Christ has only one particular method of saving souls-that a man must have a kind of volcanic experience, a sudden upheaval of the whole nature, such as, let us say, Paul had on the way to Damascus, or the jailor had in Philippi, or Colonel Gardiner had in Paris, or the multitudes had who listened to John Wesley’s and George Whitefield’s preaching. They are inclined to doubt the reality of the salvation of the man who had never had any such revolutionising experience, who, as Dr. Campbell Morgan once said, cannot remember having been born again.
-But the same Spirit.
The Example to be followed.
What we need to learn is, that Christ has more than one method of dealing with souls. There are twelve gates into the Kingdom-three on the north, three on the south, three on the east, three on the west, and by differing paths men may meet at last in the same beautiful city of God. To forget this, and to deny this, is to limit the Holy One of Israel. Christ, we may be sure, is just as much at home, and can confer His saving grace just as truly in the Salvation Army barracks, or the Quakers’ meeting-house, as in a stately cathedral. Christ can save the soul just as surely by the gracious ministries of the home, as by the tumultuous or subduing experiences of a revival meeting. There are diversities of operations; but it will be well for us when we recognise that in and through them all worketh one of the same Spirit If we are ourselves to deal wisely and successfully with men, we must, like our Lord, adapt our method to the special requirements of the case. We are fishers of men. And any man who wishes to become an expert fisherman must, according to Isaak Walton, “study his fish.” We, too, must study men, if we are to catch men. All men are not to be won in the same way. What appeals to one does not appeal to another. Well-intentioned but tactless dealing may often repel instead of winning souls. That is what gave Henry Drummond his marvellous power over the students in Edinburgh. He knew student nature. He touched just those chords he knew would respond in every young student’s heart, and so he turned hundreds to righteousness. That is the reason why in these days men are beginning to study boy and child nature in connection with our Sunday Schools. They are beginning to realise that the man’s way is not the child’s way-that if the child’s soul is to be won, they must find the right avenue, and tread it. We need to be wise to win souls, to be expert in the human heart. And if we say such wisdom is not ours, if we ask, God will give it liberally to us.
Christ’s Treatment.
The Symbolic Actions.
And now note two points in Christ’s special treatment of this case. “And He took him aside from the multitude privately, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spat, and touched his tongue” (Mar 7:33). There are two points to notice-(1) The privacy, and (2) our Lord’s symbolic actions. Let us take that second point first, as it can be dismissed in a word or two. Why did our Lord put His fingers in this man’s ears, and then touch his tongue with the moisture from His own mouth? To quicken and arouse faith. This was the only way Christ could communicate with the man. Deaf as the man was, our Lord could only speak to him by signs. And so He put His fingers into his ears, as if to bore through any obstacle there might be to hearing; and then touched his tongue, as if to convey to it the faculty of His own. And so He quickened expectation and faith, which was an indispensable condition of His every act of power.
The Privacy.
-And its Value.
And why did He withdraw him from the crowd? Not to avoid observation, as some suggest. Not that He Himself might be the more free to pray, as others say; but, as Archbishop Trench says, that the man himself might be more receptive of deep and lasting impressions. This leads me to say that Jesus takes us aside for the very same purpose still. In the din and clamour of the crowded street Christ cannot speak to us: the rush and pressure of life are prone to obliterate and efface the impressions of religion-indeed, often prevent any impression being made at all. And so sometimes our Lord takes us aside into the sick-room, into which the tumult of the world cannot come; into the loneliness and solitude of bereavement, into the wilderness of sorrow, in order that He may speak His words of healing and life to us. We shrink from being taken aside like that; but it is worth while being laid aside from the rush and toil of life, if our ears become opened to heavenly harmonies, and we see the King in His beauty. Sorrow often leaves its blessing behind, in a healed and saved soul. In the meantime let us not wait for sickness or sorrow to draw us aside. Day by day let us draw aside of our own accord, that every day our souls may be refreshed, so that renewed we may go from strength to strength.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
1
Decapolis was a region on the east side of the Jordan. So Jesus left the western part of Palestine, crossed the country and over Jordan and on to the coast of the Sea of Galilee.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THE first thing that demands our notice in these verses, is the mighty miracle that is here recorded. We read that they brought unto our Lord “one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech,” and besought Him that He would “put His hand upon him.” At once the petition is granted, and the cure is wrought. Speech and hearing are instantaneously given to the man by a word and a touch. “Straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.”
We see but half the instruction of this passage, if we only regard it as an example of our Lord’s divine power. It is such an example, beyond doubt, but it is something more than that. We must look further, deeper, and lower than the surface, and we shall find in the passage precious spiritual truths.
Here we are meant to see our Lord’s power to heal the spiritually deaf. He can give the chief of sinners a hearing ear. He can make him delight in listening to the very Gospel which he once ridiculed and despised.
Here also we are meant to see our Lord’s power to heal the spiritually dumb. He can teach the hardest of transgressors to call upon God. He can put a new song in the mouth of him whose talk was once only of this world. He can make the vilest of men speak of spiritual things, and testify the Gospel of the grace of God.
When Jesus pours forth His Spirit, nothing is impossible. We must never despair of others. We must never regard our own hearts as too bad to be changed. He that healed the deaf and dumb still lives. The cases which moral philosophy pronounces hopeless, are not incurable if they are brought to Christ.
The second thing which demands our notice in these verses, is the peculiar manner in which our Lord thought good to work the miracle here recorded. We are told that when the deaf and dumb person was brought to Jesus, “He took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed”-and then, and not till then, came the words of commanding power, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened.”
There is undoubtedly much that is mysterious in these actions. We know not why they were used. It would have been as easy to our Lord to speak the word, and command health to return at once, as to do what He here did. His reasons for the course He adopted are not recorded. We only know that the result was the same as on other occasions-the man was cured.
But there is one simple lesson to be learned from our Lord’s conduct on this occasion. That lesson is, that Christ was not tied to the use of any one means in doing His works among men. Sometimes He thought fit to work in one way, sometimes in another. His enemies were never able to say, that unless He employed certain invariable agency He could not work at all.
We see the same thing going on still in the Church of Christ. We see continual proof that the Lord is not tied to the use of any one means exclusively in conveying grace to the soul. Sometimes He is pleased to work by the word preached publicly, sometimes by the word read privately. Sometimes He awakens people by sickness and affliction, sometimes by the rebukes or counsel of friends. Sometimes He employs means of grace to turn people out of the way of sin. Sometimes He arrests their attention by some providence, without any means of grace at all. He will not have any means of grace made an idol and exalted, to the disparagement of other means. He will not have any means despised as useless, and neglected as of no value. All are good and valuable. All are in their turn employed for the same great end, the conversion of souls. All are in the hands of Him who “giveth not account of His matters,” and knows best which to use, in each separate case that He heals.
The last thing which demands our notice in these verses, is the remarkable testimony which was borne by those who saw the miracle here recorded. They said of our Lord, “He hath done all things well”!
It is more than probable that those who said these words were little sensible of their full meaning, when applied to Christ. Like Caiaphas, they “spoke not of themselves.” (Joh 11:51.) But the truth to which they gave utterance is full of deep and unspeakable comfort, and ought to be daily remembered by all true Christians.
Let us remember it as we look back over the days past of our lives, from the hour of our conversion. “Our Lord hath done all things well.” In the first bringing us out of darkness into marvelous light-in humbling us and teaching us our weakness, guilt, and folly-in stripping us of our idols, and choosing all our portions-in placing us where we are, and giving us what we have-how well everything has been done! How great the mercy that we have not had our own way!
Let us remember it as we look forward to the days yet to come. We know not what they may be, bright or dark, many or few. But we know that we are in the hands of Him who “doeth all things well.” He will not err in any of His dealings with us. He will take away and give-He will afflict and bereave-He will move and He will settle, with perfect wisdom, at the right time, in the right way. The great Shepherd of the sheep makes no mistakes. He leads every lamb of His flock by the right way to the city of habitation.
We shall never see the full beauty of these words till the resurrection morning. We shall then look back over our lives, and know the meaning of everything that happened from first to last. We shall remember all the way by which we were led, and confess that all was “well done.” The why and the wherefore, the causes and the reasons of everything which now perplexes, will be clear and plain as the sun at noon-day. We shall wonder at our own past blindness, and marvel that we could ever have doubted our Lord’s love. “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now we know in part, but then shall we know even as we are known.” (1Co 13:12.) [Footnote: The reason why our Lord made use of the previous actions recorded in this miracle-spitting, looking up to heaven, and sighing-is a question that has often perplexed commentators. Some observations of Luther, quoted by Stier, are worth reading:
“This sigh was not drawn from Christ on account of the single tongue and ear of this poor man; but it is a common sigh over all tongues and ears, yea over all hearts, bodies, and souls, and over all men from Adam to his last descendant.”
“Our beloved Lord saw well what an amount of suffering and sorrow would be occasioned by tongues and ears. For the greatest mischief which has been inflicted on Christianity, has not arisen from tyrants (with persecution, murder, and pride against the word), but from that little bit of flesh which abides between the jaws. This it is that inflicts the greatest injury upon the kingdom of God.”]
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mar 7:31. And came through Sidon. Not the city, but the district thus termed. The course was first northward, then eastward, then southward or southwestward, through the midst of the region of Decapolis (the northern part) to the eastern shore of the sea of Galilee. See map of Decapolis, p. 271. In making this circuit, our Lord was seeking needed retirement.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See here, 1. The bitter fruits and sad effects of sin, which has brought deafness, dumbness, and blindness, upon the human nature. As death, so all diseases entered into the world by sin; sin first brought infirmitities and mortality into our natures, and the wages of sin are diseases and death.
Observe, 2. That the blessing of bodily health and healing is from Christ; who by his divine power, as he was God, miraculously and immediately healed them that were brought unto him.
Observe, 3. The actions and gestures which our Saviour used in healing this deaf person. He puts his finger into his ears, he spit, and touched his tongue. Not that these were means or natural causes effecting the cures for there was no healing virtue in the spittle; but only outward signs, testimonies, and pledges, of Christ’s divine power and gracious readiness to cure the person in distress.
Observe, 4. How Christ withdrew the person from the multitude, whom he was about to help and heal. Teaching us, In all our good works to avoid all shew and appearance of ostentation and vain-glory: to set God’s glory before our eyes, and not to seek our own praise.
Observe, 5. The effect which this miracle had upon the multitude; it occasioned their astonishment and applause: They were astonished, and said, He hath done all things well. It becomes us both to take notice of the wonderful works of God, and also to magnify and extol the author of them. This is one way of glorifying our Creator.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mar 7:31-36. He came unto the sea of Galilee, &c. See note on Mat 15:29-31. They bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment, &c. Greek, : He was not absolutely dumb, but stammered to such a degree, that few understood his speech, Mar 7:35. However, the circumstance of his being able to speak in any manner, shows that his deafness was not natural, but accidental. He had heard formerly, and had learned to speak, but was now deprived of hearing, perhaps, through some fault of his own, which might be the reason that Jesus sighed for grief when he cured him. And they beseech him to put his hand upon him His friends interceded for him, because he was not able to speak for himself, so as that any one could understand him. His desire of a cure, however, may have prompted him to do his utmost in speaking, whereby all present were made sensible of the greatness of the infirmity under which he laboured. Our Lords exuberant goodness easily prompted him to give this person the relief which his friends begged for him. Yet he would not do it publicly, lest the admiration of the spectators should have been raised so high as to produce bad effects; for the whole country was now following him, in expectation that he would soon set up his kingdom. Or, as Gadara, where his miracle upon the demoniacs had been so ill received, was part of this region, (see on Luk 8:26,) he might shun performing the miracle publicly, because it would have no effect upon so stupid a people. Whatever was the reason, he took the man with his relations aside from the crowd; and, because the deaf are supposed to have their ears shut, and the dumb their tongues so tied, or fastened to the under part of their mouth, as not to be able to move it, (see Mar 7:35,) he put his fingers into the mans ears, and then touched or moistened his tongue with his spittle, to make him understand that he intended to open his ears, and loose his tongue. Macknight. This, perhaps, was the only reason for these symbolical actions, or our Lord might have other reasons for doing them, of which we are ignorant. If any should ask, says Dr. Doddridge, why our Lord used these actions, when a word alone would have been sufficient; and such means (if they may be called means) could in themselves do nothing at all to answer the end, I frankly confess I cannot tell, nor am I at all concerned to know. Yet I am ready to imagine it might be intended to intimate, in a very lively manner, that we are not to pretend to enter into the reasons of all his actions; and that where we are sure that any observance whatever is appointed by him, we are humbly to submit to it, though we cannot see why it was preferred to others, which our imagination might suggest. Had Christs patients, like Naaman, (2Ki 5:11-12,) been too nice in their exceptions on these occasions, I fear they would have lost their cure; and the indulgence of a curious or a petulant mind would have been but a poor equivalent for such a loss. And looking up to heaven That the deaf man whom he could not instruct by words might consider from whence all benefits proceed; he sighed Probably the circumstances above mentioned, or some others, to us unknown, made this dumb person a peculiar object of pity. Or by this example of bodily deafness and dumbness, our Lord might be led to reflect on the spiritual deafness and dumbness of men. But whatever was the cause, Christs sighing on this occasion evidently displayed the tender love he bore to our kind. For certainly it could be nothing less which moved him to condole our miseries, whether general or particular, in so affectionate a manner. And saith unto him, Ephphatha This was a word of SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to heal. Such an address was needless, for Christ had a perpetual fund of power residing in himself, to work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the raising of the dead, Joh 5:21; Joh 5:26. And straightway his ears were opened The word had an immediate effect, and all obstructions to his hearing distinctly, and speaking articulately and plainly, were instantly removed. And, as those bodily impediments vanished before the word of Christs power, the impediments of the mind to spiritual acts and duties are removed by the Spirit of Christ. He opens the internal ear, the heart, as he did Lydias, to understand and receive the word of God; and opens the mouth in prayer and praise. And he charged them that they should tell no man When Jesus formerly cured the demoniac in this country, he ordered him to return to his own house, and show, namely, to his relations and friends, how great things God had done for him. But, at this miracle, the deaf and dumb mans relations seem to have been present. Wherefore, as they had no need to be informed of the miracle, he required it to be concealed, probably for the reasons assigned in the note on Mar 5:43. Neither the man, however, nor his friends, obeyed Jesus in this; but the more he charged them To conceal it; so much the more they published it So greatly were they struck with the miracle, and so charmed with the modesty and humility which Christ manifested, especially the man, who, having the use of his speech given him, was very forward to exercise it in praise of so great a benefactor.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LXVIII.
ANOTHER AVOIDING OF HEROD’S TERRITORY.
aMATT. XV. 29; bMARK VII. 31.
b31 And aJesus bagain went out. aAnd departed thence, bfrom the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon, aand came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; bthrough the midst of the borders of Decapolis. aand he went up into a mountain, and sat down there. [From Tyre Jesus proceeded northward to Sidon and thence eastward across the mountains and the headwaters of the Jordan to the neighborhood of Damascus. Here he turned southward and approached the Sea of Galilee on its eastern side. Somewhere amid the mountains on the eastern side he sat down; i. e., he ceased his journeying for some days.] [402]
[FFG 402]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
DEAF & DUMB HEALED
Mat 15:29-31; Mar 7:31-37. And again having gone out from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, He came to the Sea of Galilee, in the midst of the coasts of Decapolis; this word is from deka, ten, and polis, city. There is no city by the name of Decapolis, as the word literally means ten cities, and is the name of a region southeast of the Galilean Sea, in which there were ten prominent cities. I saw it in my recent visit. When our Savior left His retirement up in Phoenicia, He journeyed southward, leaving the Sea of Galilee on His left, preaching along through Galilee, and entering Decapolis. They bring Him a dummy, stammering a little, and entreat Him that He may put His hand on him. And taking him from the crowd into privacy, He put His fingers into his ears, and spitting, touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, groaned, and says to him, Ephphatha, which is, Be thou opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the bridle of his tongue was loosed, and he continued to speak correctly. And He commanded them that they must tell no one; but the more He charged them, the more abundantly they proclaimed it abroad. And they are astonished exceedingly, saying, Truly, He hath done all things well; He both maketh the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Matthew: Many multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and threw them down at the feet of Jesus, and He healed them, so that the multitudes were astonished, seeing the dumb speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking round, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. When the news of His presence flies on the wings of the wind to the ten prominent cities representing that great east country, known in history as Perea, constituting a part of King Herods dominion, the multitudes come pouring from every point of the compass, bringing with them the lame, that their feet and limbs might be restored; the maimed i.e., the people whose hands and arms were crippled, so they could not use them; the deaf, the dumb, the blind. O what sensations sweep the multitude, like cyclones, as they see the clubfooted, withered-limbed, reel-footed, broken-legged, all running foot-races, leaping, and jumping, their old crutches all stacked up in a pile, as I saw in Brother Simpsons Berachah Home in New York; the people who hadnt been able to use their hands and arms in a score of years, piling rocks, climbing trees, and performing a diversity of gymnastic, dumb-bell exercises, demonstrating to the multitude the perfect restoration of their hands and arms; the dumb singing the good old songs of Zion, shouting the praises of God, and testifying like apostles; and the deaf so delighted with the musical voices ringing in their ears on all sides! In vain does Jesus charge them not to publish His mighty works, lest they arouse the multitude to come and crown Him King, as they were about to do but a month ago, when he fed the hungry multitudes in Galilee. The news is too good to keep. These hundreds and thousands of beneficiaries are bound to tell His wonderful benefactions, miraculously healing them, to the unutterable surprise of all their friends, who now rejoice with them, making many homes vocal with the praises of Israels God, who has sent among them a Mighty Prophet, having power over all physical ailments and spiritual derangements, everywhere healing diseases and ejecting demons.
This Hebrew word ephphatha, which means be thou opened, has a beautiful application throughout the gracious economy. You will never hear the Word of the Lord to spiritual edification unless Jesus touches the ear of your soul and says, Ephphatha. It is equally true that you will never see the deep things of God, and the Bible, and the beauty of holiness in His kingdom, unless He touch your spiritual eye, and say, Ephphatha.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 7:31-37. The Healing of a Deaf-Mute.The cure of the Syro-Phnician womans daughter threatens the privacy Jesus sought in Tyre. He therefore withdraws to Decapolis (another Gentile district, Mat 4:25*), going northward through Sidon, and presumably reaching Decapolis by a circuitous route which avoided Galilee. (Wellhausens conjecture, Bethsaida for Sidon, is unnecessary.) The incident that follows is peculiar to Mk. Jesus heals a deaf-mute, by means not unusual in that age (cf. account of healings by Vespasian in Tacitus, Hist. iv. 81). Mt. omits this story, perhaps because the methods employed (cf. Mar 8:23) savour of magic. Mk., a popular writer, is interested in the details and in the actual word used. The rare word mogilalos, with an impediment in his speech, recalls Isa 35:5 f., and the conclusion, He hath done all things well, possibly means, How exactly He fulfils the prophecy! It is Messiahs part to loose bonds, i.e. restraints imposed by demonic power (cf. Luk 13:16). The desire of Jesus to do this miracle privately and keep it secret is intelligible, and need not be traced to any dogmatic presupposition of Mk. The failure of His wishes is also intelligible.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 31
Decapolis was a retired district on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. In going there, our Savior seems to have intended to avoid those regions about the lake which he had previously visited.
Mark 7:33,34. Commentators have been unable to assign any sufficient reason for the ceremonies which Jesus, in some cases like this, performed upon those whose diseases he cured.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published [it]; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
The American Standard Version as well as others show Him leaving Tyre and going through Sidon and to the Sea of Galilee by way of Decapolis. Now, Decapolis is to the southwest and southeast of the Sea so His route is of interest. The majority is on the east of Jordan. It is a group of ten towns and their surrounding areas.
Evidently He was trying to avoid crowds or at least the Jewish leadership so was not traveling the normal point to point route. It is also possible that he was ministering as he went since Sidon is north of Tyre.
From the map the most logical route would have been to travel south from Sidon past the towns and then east into Decapolis then north to the Sea of Galilee. To have gone east from Sidon would have taken Him out of the way to get to the Sea via Decapolis. Robertson agrees that Christ approached the Sea from the southwest when he makes note that Christ avoided the area east of the Sea due to the ruler over that area.
Further information that may relate comes from Matthew when he mentions that Christ went up into the mountain after the trip in Mat 15:29. Mt Tabor is just southwest of the Sea.
Christ encounters another in need of His miracle power.
One might assume that the speech impediment might have been due to the deafness and this might well be so. The deaf have a hard time learning to speak due to the lack of being able to hear how words are formed. The text mentions that the man spoke plainly thus there was a double miracle. There was the miracle of healing his hearing and the other miracle in allowing him to be able to speak normally. A deaf person that begins to hear must learn to speak plainly it is not automatic.
The people asked Christ to touch the man, evidently knowing that this was a possibility with the Lord’s healing abilities. Indeed, we know that Christ could speak or will someone healed but in this case He chose to go through another method. He chose to take the man aside and then touch him in two different ways. It is of interest that Christ spoke to one of the Trinity during this healing. It is recorded “And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.” Gill and Matthew Henry understand this to have been the Father, however I would lean toward it being the Spirit the power behind the miracles of the Lord.
Wesley takes it completely different – that it was not a request but that “This was a word of SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to heal: such an address was needless; for Christ had a perpetual fund of power residing in himself, to work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the raising the dead, Joh 5:21, Joh 5:26.”
Robertson mentions that “Ephphatha” was an Aramaic word brought into the Greek that related to being unbarred. It has the idea of be opened thoroughly and it is a passive indicating that the opening would come from without.
It mentions that He again wanted little notoriety over the occurrence. Verse 36 tells us “And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;”
It would seem from the wording that Christ spoke to them more than once indicating a length of time that He was around the man and his acquaintances.
We have no further information relating to this incident since Mark is the only one to record it for us.
Now to the part that everyone is looking for an answer for. Well relax as there will be no answer here either. Why Christ touched the man’s ears and touched his tongue after spitting on His finger is unknown to me as well as all others that read the passage. We just are not told so we are left to speculation.
If I were to speculate it was a form of nonverbal communication. This man was brought to the Lord for healing even though the man had no faith, nor knowledge of the person he was taken too. Now Christ knew this and so He would have wanted to put the man at ease. How would you put a man at ease, by gestures that were non-threatening. By touching his ears before there was hearing would have drawn the man’s attention to something relating to his ears and might have softened the shock of hearing sound all of a sudden. Why touch his tongue? Which man’s tongue was touched. My guess would be that Christ spit and touched His own tongue. This might have signified to the man that Christ was getting rid of something distasteful from the tongue such as the impediment.
Some feel that saliva was thought to have had medicinal effects in this time of history. One commentary mentioned that cultic healers used saliva in their incantations. I suspect it was just how Christ communicated with the man to the man’s benefit.
Some feel Christ took the man aside as something secretive, yet if Christ knew of this man’s uneasiness He may have taken him aside just as a calming effect.Just as an aside, we tried a new church recently and the special music was introduced. The pastor stepped to a boom box stereo and turned it on. A heavy set teen was at the front by then. As the music began the girl began to sign. Now the first thing that struck me was that no one or at least few in the congregation knew signing so there was absolutely no edification. Further, as the music got to rockin and the girl got to swayin, I noticed I could not make out the words to the music due to the loudness of the loud instruments.
Result of the “special music” – we were treated to seeing an overweight young woman swaying to a rock beat in the middle of worship. Edification? Not so much. Now I trust that this might sharpen the pastor’s resolve to create a music policy for his church that states that he will clear all music performed in the church.
One last point to the section – the man was deaf and dumb so most likely knew little of Christ or what/who He was. He probably did not know much, if anything about Judaism either. Why make such points? Because many of the phony “Faith Healers” when they cannot heal someone suggest that the person did not have enough faith to be healed. This is not so. In this case there most likely was no faith on the part of the man.
Healing in the time of Christ due to the gift of healing was a gift, not dependent upon the faith of the person healed but simply the power of God manifested through the gift. In James it mentions prayer in relation to healing. Again it seems that the faith is on the part of others praying for the sick. The one healed does not necessarily need to have the faith. Jam 5:14-16 “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
We have seen much of the Lord’s work and of His travels to reach others with His message. We have seen His compassion for the plight of others. We have seen His power presented before multitudes, yet He is still not seen as the one that He truly is, the Lamb of God present to take away the sins of the world. He presented Himself and all the people were interested in was the hype and show of the miracles that could benefit them.
It is sure that the apostles and some of the followers were learning of Him, but as to recognizing Him as the supreme sacrifice, no they did not. They had no concept that He was there to die, that He was there to suffer. They were still looking for Him to make political hay and set the Jews free of their oppressors.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
7:31 {7} And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of {q} Decapolis.
(7) As the Father created us to this life in the beginning in his only son, so does he also in him alone renew us into everlasting life.
(q) It was a little country, and it was so called because it consisted of ten cities under the jurisdiction of four surrounding governments; Pliny, book 3, chap. 8.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
5. The healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment 7:31-36
Mark was the only evangelist to record this miracle. He apparently included it in his Gospel because it is another instance of Jesus healing a Gentile. This particular miracle is also significant because it prefigured Jesus opening the spiritual ears of His disciples. From Mar 6:31, the beginning of the second withdrawal and return, to Mar 7:37, Jesus had been revealing Himself with increasing clarity to the disciples but with little response. A repetition of some of these lessons followed culminating in the disciples’ confession of Jesus as the divine Messiah (Mar 8:1-30).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Jesus seems to have traveled north toward Sidon, which stood about 20 miles north of Tyre, and then eventually back to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. He penetrated deeply into Gentile territory. The Decapolis region was also primarily Gentile (cf. Mar 5:1-20). Evidently Jesus looped around northern Palestine and approached the Sea of Galilee from the north or east. This trip may have taken several weeks or even months. [Note: Blunt, p. 192.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER 7:31-37 (Mar 7:31-37)
THE DEAF AND DUMB MAN
“And again He went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to lay His hand upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude privately, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And He charged them that they should tell no man: but the more He charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: He maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” Mar 7:31-37 (R.V.)
THERE are curious and significant varieties in the methods by which our Savior healed. We have seen Him, when watched on the sabbath by eager and expectant foes, baffling all their malice by a miracle without a deed, by refusing to cross the line of the most rigid and ceremonial orthodoxy, by only commanding an innocent gesture, Stretch forth thine hand. In sharp contrast with such a miracle is the one which we have now reached. There is brought to Him a man who is deaf, and whose speech therefore could not have been more than a babble, since it is by hearing that we learn to articulate; but of whom we are plainly told that he suffered from organic inability to utter as well as to hear, for he had an impediment in his speech, the string of his tongue needed to be loosed, and Jesus touched his tongue as well as his ears, to heal him.
It should be observed that no unbelieving theory can explain the change in our Lord’s method. Some pretend that all the stories of His miracles grew up afterward, from the sense of awe with which He was regarded. How does that agree with effort, sighing, and even gradation in the stages of recovery, following after the most easy, astonishing and instantaneous cures? Others believe that the enthusiasm of His teaching and the charm of His presence conveyed healing efficacy to the impressible and the nervous. How does this account for the fact that His earliest miracles were the prompt and effortless ones, and as time passes on, He secludes the patient and uses agencies, as if the resistance to His power were more appreciable? Enthusiasm would gather force with every new success.
All becomes clear when we accept the Christian doctrine. Jesus came in the fullness of the love of God, with both hands filled with gifts. On His part there is no hesitation and no limit. But on the part of man there is doubt, misconception, and at last open hostility. A real chasm is opened between man and the grace He gives, so that, although not straitened in Him, they are straitened in their own affections. Even while they believe in Him as a healer, they no longer accept Him as their Lord.
And Jesus makes it plain to them that the gift is no longer easy, spontaneous and of public right as formerly. In His own country He could not do many mighty works. And now, returning by indirect routes, and privately, from the heathen shores whither Jewish enmity had driven Him, He will make the multitude feel a kind of exclusion, taking the patient from among them, as He does again presently in Bethsaida (Mar 8:23). There is also, in the deliberate act of seclusion and in the means employed, a stimulus for the faith of the sufferer, which would scarcely have been needed a little while before.
The people were unconscious of any reason why this cure should differ from former ones. And so they besought Jesus to lay His hand on him, the usual and natural expression for a conveyance of invisible power. But even if no other objection had existed, this action would have meant little to the deaf and dumb man, living in a silent world, and needing to have his faith aroused by some yet plainer sign. Jesus therefore removes him from the crowd whose curiosity would distract his attention — even as by affliction and pain He still isolates each of us at times from the world, shutting us up with God.
He speaks the only language intelligible to such a man, the language of signs, putting His fingers into his ears as if to bread a seal, conveying the moisture of His own lip to the silent tongue, as if to impart its faculty, and then, at what should have been the exultant moment of conscious and triumphant power, He sighed deeply.
What an unexpected revelation of the man rather than the wonder worker. How unlike anything that theological myth or heroic legend would have invented. Perhaps, as Keble sings, He thought of those moral defects for which, in a responsible universe, no miracle may be wrought, of “the deaf heart, the dumb by choice.” Perhaps, according to Stier’s ingenious guess, He sighed because, in our sinful world, the gift of hearing is so doubtful a blessing, and the faculty of speech so apt to be perverted. One can almost imagine that no human endowment is ever given by Him Who knows all, without a touch of sadness. But it is more natural to suppose that He Who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and Who bare our sickness, thought upon the countless miseries of which this was but a specimen, and sighed for the perverseness by which the fullness of His compassion was being restrained. We are reminded by that sigh, however we explain it, that the only triumphs which made Him rejoice in Spirit were very different from displays of His physical ascendancy.
It is interesting to observe that St. Mark, informed by the most ardent and impressible of the apostles, by him who reverted, long afterwards, to the voice which he heard in the holy mount, has recorded several of the Aramaic words which Jesus uttered at memorable junctures. “Ephphatha, Be opened,” He said, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and his speech, hitherto incoherent, became plain. But the Gospel which tells us the first word he heard is silent about what he said. Only we read, and this is suggestive enough, that the command was at once given to him, as well as to the bystanders, to keep silent. Not copious speech, but wise restraint, is what the tongue needs most to learn. To him, as to so many whom Christ had healed, the injunction came, not to preach without a commission, not to suppose that great blessing required loud announcement, or unfit men for lowly and quiet places. Legend would surely have endowed with special eloquence the lips which Jesus unsealed. He charged them that they should tell no man.
It was a double miracle, and the latent unbelief became clear of the very men who had hoped for some measure of blessing. For they were beyond measure astonished, saying He doeth all things well, celebrating the power which restored the hearing and the speech together. Do we blame their previous incredulity? Perhaps we also expect some blessing from our Lord, yet fail to bring Him all we have and all we are for blessing. Perhaps we should be astonished beyond measure if we received at the hands of Jesus a sanctification that extended to all our powers.