Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 20:33
They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Verse 33. That our eyes may be opened.] He who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, has no great need of a prompter in prayer. A hungry man can easily ask bread; he has no need to go to a book to get expressions to state his wants in; his hunger tells him he wants food, and he tells this to the person from whom he expects relief. Helps to devotion, in all ordinary cases, may be of great use; in extraordinary cases they can be of little importance; the afflicted heart alone can tell its own sorrows, with appropriate pleadings.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. That is, that their sight might be restored to them; for being deprived of that, it was all one as if their eyes were so closed, that they could not open them; and so the recovery of it is expressed by an opening of them. The opening of the eyes of the blind was prophesied of, as what should be done in the days of the Messiah, and by him, as an evidence of his being that person,
Isa 35:5 which prophecy these blind men might be acquainted with, and be an encouragement to their faith to expect a cure from him. They do not ask for alms, but for the recovery of their sight; which being granted, they would be able to get their bread in another way; for they were not like some idle persons that choose rather to be under such a calamity, or any other, that they might not be obliged to work with their hands for a livelihood. Their request shows, that they made no doubt of it, but firmly believed that Christ was able to do this for them, though the thing was impossible to be done by man; who therefore must conclude that he was not a mere man, but the Son of the living God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(33) Lord.St. Mark (Mar. 10:51, in the Greek), after his manner, gives the Hebrew word, Rabboni (comp. Joh. 20:16), which Bartimus actually uttered.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
33. That our eyes may be opened Our eyes are thirsty for the light. Long years, perhaps, have passed, and the wonderful realities of creation that surround us have been to us a dark and dismal blank. Thine is the power that can again reveal them like a new creation to our view. How many are the confessions that the blind men make of Jesus as Lord, Son of David, the King that should come, author of mercy, possessor of power divine. So can sorrow make us humble and docile to the truth. Had Israel, her priesthood, her religionists, her rulers, but been blind, physically blind, needing the Saviour’s restoring power, how quickly would they have yielded their faith to receive their sight. So truly is wicked unbelief the offspring of a proud and wicked will.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘They say to him, “Lord, that our eyes may be opened.” ’
Their request was simple, that their eyes might be opened. The idea of the ‘opening of the eyes’ has a double meaning. It could signify the making of a blind man to see, especially as a Messianic sign (Mat 11:5 with Isa 35:5), but it could also signify the opening of spiritually blind eyes to the truth (Isa 42:7; Act 26:18; Eph 1:18). They were actually asking the easier option, but Jesus gave them both.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 20:33 f. , . . .] answering the above question in terms of the object aimed at in the cry, , of which ., . . . is the continuation.
] different from Mark and Luke, who represent Jesus as healing merely by the power of His word .
(see critical notes), used for variety, being, as far as the meaning is concerned, the same as . Comp. Xen. Mem . i. 4. 17; Plat. Alc . I. p. 133 B.
. . .] their eyes recovered the power of seeing ; navely told.
. ] we cannot tell whether they followed him permanently, though this seems probable from Mar 10:46 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Ver. 33. Lord, that our eyes might be opened ] “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun,” Ecc 11:7 , and yet how little is this mercy prized, because common. Our corrupt natures heed nothing that we enjoy, as the eye seeth nothing that lies on it, but things at a distance it discerns clearly. Bona a tergo formosissima. Copy of good things breeds satiety, and makes them no dainties, till God for our folly many times makes us see the worth of them by the want of them, and so commends and endears his favours to us. But what a blindness is this, worse than that of Bartimeus, never to see the face but the back only of benefits.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 20:33 . . They desire the greater benefit, opening of their eyes, which shows that the eyes of their mind were open as to Christ’s power and will. , 2nd aorist subjunctive, for which the T. R. has the more common 1st aorist.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Lord: Psa 119:18, Eph 1:17-19
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
0:33. A man’s eyesight is one of the most precious faculties he possesses, and it was the one thing that was uppermost in the minds of these unfortunates.