23rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B)

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

MK 7:31-37

v. 31. Again he left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis.

The reference to Decapolis is somewhat strange. Literally the words mean “in the middle of the Decapolis district”. Whatever the exact sense, the point of this reference is probably not so much to suggest that the deaf-mute was a Gentile as to provide a Gentile setting for the feeding in 8:1ff.

v. 32. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him.

Lay his hands upon him: i.e. heal him. The gesture so frequently accompanied the act of healing that it came to be used as a metaphor for it.

v. 33. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue.

v. 34. Then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)

He took him off by himself away from the crowd: On the original motive for such privacy see on 5:43; but St Mark may have interpreted it here with reference to the messianic secret.

The order and character of the gestures vary slightly in different MSS. and versions; in any case, all of them are known to have formed part of the healing technique of contemporary wonder-workers. Touching, and manipulation of the affected organ, are too obvious to need comment; the use of saliva is widely attested (cf. John 96 and the story of Vespasian healing by means of his saliva in Tacitus, History, IV, 81): so are ‘the look towards heaven', which sought and obtained power, and the sigh, or groan (v. 34), which is recommended in several magical texts as a potent action. 

On the motives of preserving the operative word, Ephphatha, in the original tongue: Ancient wonder-workers often used formulas in a foreign tongue and Origen tells us that such words lose their power if translated into another tongue.

The vividness with which the act is described may well suggest that St Mark had seen patients treated in this way by Christian healers (cf. 1 Cor. 12:9) and it was perhaps for the guidance of such healers that the details were preserved in the tradition.

v. 35. And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.

His speech impediment was remove: Literally, 'the fetter on his tongue was loosed'. Does this way of speaking imply an understanding of the story according to which the man was ‘bound' by demonic powers (a common idea in the ancient world)? Such an understanding would certainly be in line with St Mark's understanding of Jesus as battling with the powers of evil in order to release their prisoners.

v. 36. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.

They proclaimed it: The Greek word refers in Mark, directly or indirectly to the Messiahship of Jesus.

v. 37. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.

Exceedingly astonished: As described in the Greek the emotion is so very strong that something more than one successful act of healing would have been required to provoke it.

See First Reading: Is 35:4-7a

 A point to notice is the relation of the story to certain Old Testament passages and particularly to Isa. 35:5-6. The last sentence v. 37 seems a clear allusion to that passage and it has even been suggested that the comment “He has done all things well” means "He exactly he fulfills the prophecies!” 

The story has been affected by the Isaiah passage in another, and more subtle, way. The phrase in v. 32 “had a speech impediment” represents the exceedingly rare Greek adjective (mogilalos), which means literally 'speaking with difficulty’ or ‘hardly able to speak’. St Mark almost certainly derived the word from the only other place where it occurs in the Greek Bible, Isa. 35:6 where it translates a Hebrew word meaning ‘dumb'. Then, seeing the incident as the fulfillment of the prophecy, and influenced by the literal meaning of the Greek word, he took the miracle to consist making the man speak plainly (v. 35). No doubt the original story told of a deaf-mute who, before the miracle, could not speak at all (cf. dumb v. 37).