Mark 8:22 — Community Reflections

MARK 8:22 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.”

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him — the blind man of Bethsaida is one of the most theologically significant healing narratives in Mark precisely because it happens in two stages — a unique occurrence in Jesus' healing ministry. The request is for touch — the same faith-expectation as the Gennesaret crowd (Mark 6:56). Bethsaida was the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter (John 1:44), and a town that Jesus had condemned for its failure to respond to his miracles (Matthew 11:21).

Church Fathers on Mark 8:22

Knowing that the touch of the Lord could give sight to a blind man as well as cleanse a leper.
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 2, 34

For Bethsaida appears to have been infected with much infidelity, wherefore the Lord reproaches it, 'Woe to thee, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.' [Matt. 11, 21] He then takes out of the town the blind man, who had been brought to Him, for the faith of those who brought him was not true faith.
Theophylact · 11th century

Mystically, however, Bethsaida is interpreted, 'the house of the valley', that is, the world, which is the vale of tears. Again, they bring to the Lord a blind man, that is, one who neither sees what he has been, what he is, nor what he is to be. They ask Him to touch him, for what is being touched, but feeling compunction?
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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