Bible Study series. Mark 7:31-37. The crowds were amazed. But Jesus worked the miracle to help the man, not to amaze the crowds.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
If you would like to see the original Greek, please click here:
At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 7:31-37
31 And again leaving the region of Tyre, he went through Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee and up to the area of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to him a deaf and mute man and begged him that he would lay his hand on him. 33 And after he took him aside from the crowd, by themselves, he placed his fingers in his ears and, after spitting, touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and said to him, “Ephphatha!” which means, “Open up!” 35 And immediately his hearing opened up and the bond on his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. 36 He ordered them that they must not tell anyone. But the more he ordered them, the more profusely they proclaimed it. 37 The people were utterly astonished, saying, “He does all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!” (Mark 7:31-37)
Comments:
31:
“Lake of Galilee”: it is most often translated as “sea,” because of the Greek word, but the Shorter Lexicon offers the option of “lake.” And since the body of water in Galilee is a lake, I chose this term. The old traditional title, “The Sea of Galilee,” to modern readers makes no sense when they see it on an online map; the term is inaccurate. He went north towards Sidon, and then went towards the Decapolis, which is on the eastern side of the lake. So apparently Jesus passed on the northside of the lake and traveled southward towards the Decapolis. It was a region of ten cities, which changed in numbers over the centuries, and was primarily Gentile.
One thing is certain: he is expanding his ministry beyond the western shore of the Lake of Galilee because he went north to Tyre, and now south and east towards the Decapolis. Soon he will tell his disciples to go to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
This carries on the theme of this chapter that not only food is clean, but also Gentiles will be accepted before God and are ceremonially clean.
You can google Bible maps and Decapolis at the time of Jesus for a clear picture of where he was. He had to be in shape to walk such a long distance.
32:
Even in the Decapolis they had heard of Jesus. Recall that the man delivered from a legion of demons proclaimed his deliverance done by Jesus. Now the Lord’s reputation preceded him. I like their faith. All he had to do was lay hands on him. But he’s about to do more than lay hands on the mute and deaf man.
33-34:
In these two verses, Jesus takes action to solve the problem.
“Ephphatha”: it is an Aramaic loanword, which Mark translates for us. Please don’t turn it into a magical word or an incantation.
There was some special need in the man for Jesus to go to all the trouble. He put his fingers in his ear for physical contact and to symbolize the opening, and he spit on his fingers, probably his index finger, and put it on the man’s tongue. This is recorded in a sequential manner: (1) place his fingers in the man’s ears, (2) spit on his own finger, and (3) place his finger on the man’s tongue, (4) sigh, (5) and finally command.
For more exegesis, see this post:
Deaf and Mute Man Healed in Unusual Way
Apparently the third step was also for contact between Jesus and the man. Jesus will once again spit in Mark 8:23 and John 9:4-5. This was unusual for his ministry. No one can box God in. Also, there was a belief in the ancient world that saliva had a spiritual component to it, so Jesus was momentarily and occasionally fitting in to his culture. But please don’t build an entire healing system on spitting! Remember, the Bible was not written to us, but for us and for people of all generations, past and future, after proper interpretation and exegesis is done. The real cause of healing was found in the command and in Jesus’s faith and probably the man’s faith too.
But why sigh?
It is the Greek verb can mean “sigh” and “groan” or “burden” or “grumble.” It is used six times, as follows. In Rom. 8:23, it means that we ourselves groan inwardly, waiting for our ultimate redemption. In 2 Cor. 5:2, 4, we groan, waiting for our new bodies in our present “tents” or the bodies we have now. In Heb. 13:17, church goers are not to “burden” the leaders or make them “groan” because the church members are high maintenance. They should be cooperative. In Jas. 5:9, we are not to grumble against each other. No sighing loudly in frustration, please, when people don’t do what you say or you don’t get your way.
So why sigh? Evidently, Jesus was burdened by all the human degradation that his people had to put up with. Call it an “action parable,” in which he acted out his burden for broken humanity.
Don’t be afraid to command a disease or brokenness to go from a person. Command the deafness and muteness or a demon or a fever or any other disease.
Please note: an authoritative command is not the same as decreeing things out of your own mind, forcing God’s hand.
Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?
God’s hand shall not be forced by arrogant followers of his Son. He leads. They follow.
35:
In this verse the answer comes. The man is set free. The hearing or ears were opened. And the bond or fetter attached to the tongue, so to speak, was loosed. The Greek noun for “bond” or “fetter” and can also mean “imprisonment” or “prison.” The Greek indicates that he was not completely mute, but just could not enunciate clearly, due to his deafness. In any case, the man’s tongue was in prison. All this deliverance and healing from a command and physical contact! Wonderful.
Commentator Lane writes of Jesus’s use of spittle after taking the man aside and getting into his mental world:
Jesus took the man aside from the crowd in order to establish contact with him. He regarded the personal relationship between himself and the sick to be of supreme importance, and in this instance all of his actions are intelligible in the light of communicating with a person who had learned to be passive in life. Through touch and the use of spittle Jesus entered into the mental world of the man and gained his confidence. He stretched open his ears and made it clear to him that he wished to make his tongue alive with his own life. Jesus prayed with him and for him and openly expressed the strong emotion he seems to have always felt in the presence of the ravages of demonic possession and disease. The sequence of actions indicated to the man that he was to expect healing from the one who stood before him. The act of healing itself was accomplished with the word of liberation addressed not to the defective auditory organs but the man as a whole person: “Be opened.” (pp. 266-67)
The long excerpt is very moving. First, establish a relationship with the sick person, to get into his mental world. Second, through touch and spittle Jesus entered into the mental world.. Third, the man’s mental world, a man who was passive, required Jesus to gain his respect. Fourth, the spittle was a message that Jesus was about to turn the man’s tongue alive. Jesus prayed with and for him to counter the ravages of demonic oppression and disease. Fifth, Jesus spoke the word of liberation to the man as a whole person: “Be opened!” (I demur gently because I believe Jesus did speak to the ears.)
36-37:
These final two verses are about the response of the people.
The people said he does all thing well. Some commentators say this reflects Gen. 1:31, which says that God saw all that he made, and it was good. Jesus is bringing to earth a “new creation” in his preaching the kingdom and his healing ministry and expelling demons.
He told them not to broadcast this healing to the masses. Why? First, Jesus simply wanted to spread the message his way without the false expectations from noninformed people. Second, the exuberant expectation from the masses may spark an insurrection, which would hinder his message and his mission: to proclaim the kingdom of God, backed up by signs and wonders. People had to learn about his Messiahship through their thirst and hunger for the knowledge of God. They had to connect the dots. This is one of the purposes of teaching in parables. Only the hungry seekers could understand.
Let’s talk about the signs of the Messiah or the Messianic Age, to find out which dots they had to connect without a loudspeaker blasting it.
As I note in various places throughout the commentary on the Gospels, one sign of the Messianic Age was the healing of diseases and broken bodies. Is. 35 describes this age. After God comes with a vengeance to rescue his people, these things will happen:
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is. 35:5-6).
Is. 26:19 says of the Messianic Age: “But your dead will live, LORD, their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout with joy” (Is. 26:19, NIV).
The phrase “in that day” refers to the age that the Messiah ushers in: “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll and out of gloom and darkness the eyes will see” (Is. 29:18, NIV).
The Lord’s Chosen Servant will do many things. Here are some: “I am the LORD: I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for my people, a light for the nations, to open they eyes that are blind, to bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is. 42:6-7, ESV). Is. 42:18 connects hearing and seeing with walking in God’s ways, and deafness and blindness with national judgment. As for leprosy, Jesus referred to the time when Elijah the prophet healed Namaan the Syrian of his skin disease, and the return of Elijah was a sign that the Messiah was here (Mal. 4:5-6; Luke 9:28-36).
The people in vv. 36-37 did not obey Jesus’s command not to talk about it. Mark in fact says that the more he told them not to, the more they did just the opposite. Why did Jesus command the man’s friends not to tell others? He did not want to excite popular hysteria about his miraculous works. Jesus downplayed the miracles (Luke 4:35, 41; 8:56; Matt. 9:30; 12:16; Mark 1:34; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). His main goal was teaching, not just wonder-working.
GrowApp for Mark 7:31-37
1. What great miracle has God done for you? Has he healed you of shyness and a refusal to listen? Has he healed you physically?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 