Mark 8:25 — Community Reflections

MARK 8:25 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly — the second touch produces the complete healing: his eyes were opened (full opening of perception), his sight was restored (vision normalized), and he saw everything clearly (precision vision, not blurred). The two-stage healing is the narrative picture of the disciples' situation — they have partial sight (they see the miracles, know the facts) but not yet clear sight (they do not understand who Jesus is). The full sight will come in stages, reaching clarity after the resurrection.

Church Fathers on Mark 8:25

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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