Mark 7:33 — Community Reflections

MARK 7:33 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;”

After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue — the privacy of the healing (took him aside, away from the crowd) is consistent with the Messianic Secret pattern. The physical actions — fingers in ears, spit, touching the tongue — are accommodations to the man's condition: a deaf man who cannot understand spoken communication receives the communication through touch. Jesus meets the man in the modality available to him. The spit was used in ancient healing practice and appears again in the healing of the blind man (Mark 8:23).

Church Fathers on Mark 7:33

The Lord did not wish to stay in the parts of the Gentiles, lest He should give the Jews occasion to say, that they esteemed Him a transgressor of the law, because He held communion with the Gentiles, and therefore He immediately returns.
Theophylact · 11th century

Decapolis is a region of ten cities, across the Jordan, to the east, over against Galilee [ed. note: It appears, however, from Reland, Pales. v.1, p198, that a portion of Decapolis, including its metropolis, Scythopolis, was on this side Jordan, and therefore this text of St. Mark may be taken literally.] When therefore it is said that the Lord came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis, it does not mean that He entered the confines of Decapolis…
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 2, 31

A city, however, placed on a hill cannot be hid, and lowliness always comes before glory.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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