Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 8:24
And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
24. as trees, walking ] He had not been born blind. He remembered the appearance of natural objects, and in the haze of his brightening vision he saw certain moving forms about him, “trees he should have accounted them from their height, but men from their motion.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I see men, as trees, walking – I see men walking, but see them so indistinctly that, but for their motion, I could not distinguish them from trees. I cannot distinctly see their shapes and features. Probably our Lord did not at once restore him fully to sight, that he might strengthen his faith. Seeing that Jesus had partially restored him, it was evidence that he could wholly, and it led him to exercise faith anew in him, and to feel more strikingly his dependence on him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. I see men as trees, walking.] His sight was so imperfect that he could not distinguish between men and trees, only by the motion of the former.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
24. And he looked up, and said, Isee men as trees, walkingThis is one of the cases in which oneedition of what is called the received text differs from another.That which is decidedly the best supported, and has also internalevidence on its side is this: “I see men; for I see [them] astrees walking”that is, he could distinguish them from treesonly by their motion; a minute mark of truth in the narrative, asALFORD observes,describing how human objects had appeared to him during that gradualfailing of sight which had ended in blindness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he looked up,…. This is omitted in the Arabic and Persic versions. The sense is, that he opened his eyelids, and lifted up his eyes, to try if he could see, and he could, and did see again; his sight was returned again, though very imperfectly as yet:
and said, I see men, as trees, walking: he saw some objects at a little distance from him, which, by their motion, he supposed to be men; otherwise his sight was so imperfect, that he could not have distinguished them from trees: he was capable of discerning the bulk of their bodies, and that they walked, or moved forward; but he could not distinguish the particular parts of their bodies; they seemed to be like trunks of trees, in an erect posture, and which he should have took for such, had it not been for their walking. As this man immediately, upon Christ’s putting spittle on his eyes, and laying his hands on him, had sight given him, though it was very obscure and glimmering; so, as soon as ever the Gospel comes with power, it dispels the darkness of the mind, and introduces light; though at first it is but very small; it is let in gradually: the sinner is first convinced of the evil of his actions, and then of the sinfulness of his nature; he first sees the ability and suitableness of Christ as a Saviour, and after that his willingness, and his interest in him as such; and all this is commonly before he is so well acquainted with the dignity and infiniteness of his person, as the Son of God: and it is some time before he has his spiritual senses exercised to discern between good and evil, between truth and error; or arrives to a clear and distinct knowledge of Gospel truths, and a stability in them. Hence it is, that such are greatly harassed with Satan’s temptations; are disquieted in their souls; are filled with doubts and fears, and are in danger of being imposed upon by false teachers.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I see men, for I behold them as trees walking ( ). A vivid description of dawning sight. His vision was incomplete though he could tell that they were men because they were walking. This is the single case of a gradual cure in the healings wrought by Jesus. The reason for this method in this case is not given.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I see men as trees walking (following the reading, Blepw touv ajnqrwpouv wJv dendra peripatountav). The Rev. reads, following the amended text, I see men, for [] I behold [] them as trees, walking. He saw them dimly. They looked like trees, large and misshapen; but he knew they were men, for they were walking about.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1)“And he looked up, and said,” (kai anablepsas elegen) “And looking up he said,” the blind man said, looking up (Gk. ana), in a tentative manner, of a blind person,
2) “I see men as trees, walking,” (blepo tous anthropous hoti has dendra horo peripatountas) “I see men, that as trees, I observe they are walking,” He had seen men walking, was not born blind. By the indistinctly upright walking objects, he knew they were men, not trees.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mar 8:24
. I see men. Our Lord had put the question to the blind man for the sake of his disciples, to inform them that the man had received something, but that hitherto nothing more than a slight commencement of the cure had been effected. The reply is, that he sees men, because he perceives some persons walking who are upright like trees By these words he acknowledges that his sight is not yet so clear as to distinguish men from trees, but that he has already obtained some power of seeing, because he conjectures from the motion that those whom he perceives to be in an erect posture are men; and it is in this respect that he says they are like trees We see then that he speaks only by conjecture when he says that he sees men
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) I see men as trees, walking.The better MSS. give two words expressing different forms of perception, I behold men, for I see them walking as trees. His sight was not yet clear, but he interpreted what it told him rightly. The naturalness of this description of the first impression of the restored sense strikes every reader. From the point of view which looks on our Lords miracles as having a symbolic character, and being, as it were, acted parables, we may see in it that which represents an analogous stage in the spiritual growth of men, when truths for which before they had no faculty of vision are seen for the first time, but are not as yet apprehended in their full or definite proportions. They need a second touch of the Divine Hand, the passing away of another film of ignorance or prejudice, and then they too see all things clearly.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Men as trees, walking Had the man been born blind he would not have recognized either men or trees as such. One who has received his sight for the first time would not know a circle from a square, or identify any visible form as being what he had heretofore known.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I behold them as trees, walking”.’
The healing was only partial. The eyes that had been opened were still dim, just as with the disciples spiritually. The Greek brings out the excited state of the man. The picture is vivid ‘men as trees, walking’, his sight was still dim and distorted.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
Ver. 24. I see men as trees, walking ] This was done, saith an expositor, to the end that Christ’s power might be the more distinctly known; as also to instruct men in their degrees and progresses of spiritual illumination, to give God the glory wholly, both for the beginning and for the accomplishment. He is author and finisher of our faith, Heb 12:2 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] I see men, because I see them walking as it were trees ; i.e. not distinct in individual peculiarity, but as trees in the hedge-row flit by the traveller. It is a minute mark of truth, that he describes the appearance of persons as he doubtless had often had occasion to do during the failing of sight which had ended in his blindness. By no possibility can the words convey, as Wordsw., three different stages of returning vision: “I see men. I see them standing still, and dimly, as trees. I see them walking.” For thus the is altogether passed over, and taken out of its government, and most unnaturally made into a sentence by itself.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 8:24 . : the narrative contains three compounds of ( , , ); the first denotes looking up in the tentative manner of blind men, the second looking through (a mist as it were) so as to see clearly, the third looking into so as to see distinctly, as one sees the exact outlines of a near object ( cf. Mar 14:67 ). , as trees, so indistinct was vision as yet; yet not trees, but men because moving (“non arbores, quia ambulent,” Bengel). He knew what a man is like, therefore he had once seen, not born blind.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
looked up. App-133.
I see men, &c = I see the men [men they must be] for [I see them] as trees, walking.
men. Greek. anthropos. App-123.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] I see men, because I see them walking as it were trees; i.e. not distinct in individual peculiarity, but as trees in the hedge-row flit by the traveller. It is a minute mark of truth, that he describes the appearance of persons as he doubtless had often had occasion to do during the failing of sight which had ended in his blindness. By no possibility can the words convey, as Wordsw., three different stages of returning vision: I see men. I see them standing still, and dimly, as trees. I see them walking. For thus the is altogether passed over, and taken out of its government, and most unnaturally made into a sentence by itself.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 8:24. , ,[1] as trees, walking) The blind man says, that it is by this alone [their walking] that he knows they are men, not trees, viz. because they walk.
[1] The fuller reading, , was preferred by the margin of the Ed. Maj., but the Ed. 2 and Vers. Germ. agree with the Gnomon.-E. B. ABC corrected later GLX, have and . But Dabc omit both. Vulg., homines velut arbores. The Elzevir Rec. Text omit both.-ED. and TRANSL.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
I see: Jdg 9:36, Isa 29:18, Isa 32:3, 1Co 13:9-12
Reciprocal: Joh 3:9 – How
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE GRADUAL MIRACLE
I see men as trees, walking.
Mar 8:24
This particular miracle is the parable of our times.
I. It is so in reference to the things of God.We pray indeed for grace to live as we ought, in the careful avoidance of known sin, and the diligent discharge of known duty; but do we seriously expect an answer to this prayer? Do we believe that an influence, a guidance, a control, a suggestion, a presencecall it what you willis vouchsafed, is maintained, is continued day by day and through each day, as the direct reply of God to this petition? What can we say more, in regard to all these things, than that at best we see men as trees, walking? that we have a dim, dull, floating impression of there being something in them, rather than a clear, bold, strong apprehension of what and whom and why we have believed?
II. It is so in reference to the things of men, to our views of life, and to the relations in which we stand to those fellow-beings with whom the Providence of God brings us into contact. The blind man must come to Jesus, and come in faith; and which of all of us has done so? It needs a desire to be saved, and it needs a willingness to be saved in Christs way, and it needs a consciousness of deep defilement, and it needs a conviction that His blood cleanseth from all guilt, and that His Holy Spirit can set us free from all sin, to bring a man under the healing touch even once. Power out of weakness, peace out of warfare, light out of darkness, sight out of dim, groping, creeping blindnessthis it is to be the subject of the first healing. God grant us all grace to come for it to Him Who is still on His throne of grace to grant repentance and to grant forgiveness.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration
The mans answer is in accord with later scientific discovery. What we call the act of vision is really a twofold process; there is in it the report of the nerves to the brain, and also an inference, drawn by the mind, which previous experience has educated to understand what that report implies. In want of such experience an infant thinks the moon as near him as the lamp, and promptly reaches out for it. And when science does its Masters work by opening the eyes of men who have been born blind, they do not know at first what appearances belong to globes and what to flat and square objects. It is certain that every image conveyed to the brain reaches it upside down, and is corrected there. When Jesus, then, restored a blind man to the perfect enjoyment of effective intelligent vision He wrought a double miracle; one which instructed the intelligence of the blind man as well as opened his eyes. This was utterly unknown to that age.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4
Men looked like trees walking to this man; that is, he saw that much but the vision was indistinct.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 8:24. I see the men; for I behold them as trees walking. The first exclamation is one of joyous surprise: I see the men, i.e., the men who were near, the disciples and perhaps the mans friends. But the cure was not complete, and, as he had been asked to tell what and how he saw, he adds: because as trees, i.e., indistinctly, I behold them (the men, not trees, as some infer from the common version) walking. Perhaps his friends, or even the disciples, were restlessly moving about, awaiting the result. The mention of men and trees suggests that the man had once had his eyesight.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 24
Forms indistinct,–men appearing like trees, except that they were moving.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
8:24 And he looked up, and said, I {f} see men as trees, walking.
(f) He perceived men moving but at the same time could not discern their bodies.