“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).
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
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