to throw (in various applications · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
fingers
δακτύλουςdaktulous
G1147
a finger · noun — accusative plural masculine
into
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
his
αὐτοῦ,autou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
ears
ὦταōta
G3775
the ear (physically or mentally) · noun — accusative plural neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
spit
πτύσαςptusas
G4429
to spit · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
touched
ἅπτομαιháptomai
G680
properly
his
αὐτοῦ,autou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
tongue
γλώσσηςglōssēs
G1100
the tongue · noun — genitive singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Mark 8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked h…
John 9:6-7 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
Mark 5:40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with…
1 Kings 17:19-22 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon h…
2 Kings 4:33-34 He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD.
2 Kings 4:4-6 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt s…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Mark 7:31–end
Our Lord Jesus seldom staid long in a place, for he knew where his work lay, and attended the changes of it. When he had cured the woman of Canaan's daughter, he had done what he had to do in that place, and therefore presently left those parts, and returned to the sea of Galilee, whereabout his usual residence was; yet he did not come directly thither, but fetched a compass through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, which lay mostly on the other side Jordan; such long walks did our Lord Jesus take, when he went about doing good.
Now here we have the story of a cure that Christ wrought, which is not recorded by any other of the evangelists; it is of one that was deaf and dumb.
I. His case…
And he spit, and touched his tongue - This place is exceedingly difficult. There is scarcely an action of our Lord's life but one can see an evident reason for, except this. Various interpretations are given of it - none of them satisfies my mind. The Abbe Giradeau spiritualizes it thus: -
1. He took him aside from the multitude - When Christ saves a sinner, he separates him from all his old evil companions, and from the spirit and maxims of an ungodly world.
2. He put his fingers in his ears - to show that they could be opened only by the finger, i.e. the power, of God, and that they should be shut to every word and voice, but what came from him.
3. Spitting out he touched his tongue - to…
And he took him aside from the multitude,.... To shun all appearance of ostentation and vain glory:
and put his fingers into his ears; the finger of his right hand into his left ear, and the finger of his left hand into his right ear:
and he spit and touched his tongue; that is, either he spit upon his tongue, for so the Vulgate Latin renders it, "spitting he touched his tongue"; and the Persic version thus, "he cast his spittle on his tongue"; or rather, he spit on his finger, and touched his tongue with it. These actions were not done as means of healing, or as having any natural virtue, or tendency in them, to effect a cure; but to show the power of Christ, that by the mere touch of his…
The Church Fathers
Further, he who obtains healing is always drawn aside from turbulent thoughts, disorderly actions, and incoherent speeches. And the fingers which are put into the ears are the words and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of whom it is said, This is the finger of God. (Exod. 8:19) The spittle is heavenly wisdom, which loosens the sealed lips of the human race, so that it can say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, and the rest of the Creed.
What is designated by the fingers of the Redeemer except the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Hence, when in another place He had cast out a demon, He said: "If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has surely come upon you." Concerning which matter He is described by another Evangelist as having said: "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." From both these passages it is gathered that the finger of God is called the Spirit. Therefore to put fingers into the ears is to open the mind of the deaf person to obedience through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) He takes the deaf and dumb man who was brought to Him apart from the crowd, that He might not do His divine miracles openly; teaching us to cast away vain glory and swelling of heart, for no one can work miracles as he can, who loves humility and is lowly in his conduct. But He puts His fingers into his ears, when He might have cured him with a word, to show that His body, being united to Deity, was consecrated by Divine virtue, with all that He did. For since on account of the transgression of Adam, human nature had incurred much suffering and hurt in its members and senses, Christ coming into the world showed the perfection of human nature in Himself, and on this account opened ears with His fingers, and gave the power of speech by His spittle. Wherefore it goes on, And spit, and touched his tongue.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Galilee, Sea of — (Matt. 4:18; 15:29), is mentioned in the Bible under three other names. (1.) In the Old Testament it is called the “sea of Chinnereth” (Num. 34:11; Josh. 12:3; 13:27), as is supposed from its…
Miracles Of Christ, The · The deaf and dumb cured — The deaf and dumb cured
Spitting · Jesus used spittle for healing — Jesus used spittle for healing
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Mark 7:31-37
Matthew 15:29-39
Mark 7:31-37
29. And Jesus departing thence, came near the sea of Galilee, and he went up into the mountain, and sat down there. 30. And great multitudes came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and laid them at the feet of Jesus; and he cured them: 31. So that the multitudes wondered, when they perceived the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, the blind to see; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32. And Jesus, having called his disciples to him, said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now remained with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and I do not choose to…
The healing was performed privately (7:33; see 5:40-43; 8:23) to prevent the spread of messianic fervor (see 3:11-12; cp. John 6:15). • Jesus also used saliva in a healing at Mark 8:23, where he spit on a man’s eyes in curing his blindness. The medicinal use of saliva in ancient times is well documented.
