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MARK 7:34 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 7:33Mark 7:35
“And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.”
He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, Ephphatha! (which means, be opened!) — the looking up to heaven communicates prayer and divine petition. The deep sigh (anastenaxas) may express Jesus' emotional engagement with the suffering he is about to heal — the same kind of compassion response as in chapter 6. Ephphatha (Aramaic for be opened) is another preserved Aramaic word in Mark, characteristic of the eyewitness tradition. The single Aramaic word addressed to the man's closed ears and tongue — be opened — is the command of creation applied to the limitations of disability.

Church Fathers on Mark 7:34

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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