Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
July 19, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(324)
1901 ASV
7:31 And again he went out from the borders of Tyre, and came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis.
7:32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to lay his hand upon him.
7:33 And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;
7:34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
7:35 And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
7:36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it.
7:37 And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
- I. The Departure Of Jesus From "The Regions of Tyre".
- A. This declaration puts the focus of "the regions of Tyre" entirely upon the record of the "Greek, Syrophoenician Woman" and her successful request of Jesus for her demoniac "young daughter".
- 1. This cannot be the only event that transpired "in the regions of Tyre" unless Jesus was more successful at His search to be "hidden" than the record implies.
- 2. Whatever other "events" that transpired in those regions, Mark considered that only the one record -- regarding the non-Jewish woman -- to be necessary to establish his point. This is not unlike His exorcism of the demoniac of the Gerasenes in that He got out of the boat to cast the demons out of the man and then got back into the boat and left to go to Capernaum.
- 3. Mark's placement of this record, in the greater "literary design" of his Gospel, fits a pattern that we have already seen.
| Introduction |
6:14-29 | Leaven of Herod | 7:1-23 | leaven of Pharisees (from 8:15) |
| Inverted Pattern |
6:30-44 | Feeding of 5,000 | 7:24-30 | power story (exorcism) |
6:45-52 | "exceedingly astonished" | 7:31-37 | "utterly astonished" |
by reason of His walk on water | by reason of His healing of a deaf mute |
because of "no insight" | because of His "doing all things well" |
6:53-56 | power story | 8:1-9 | Feeding of 4,000 (healings) |
- 4. This "pattern" is deliberately planned as the lead into the record of the feeding of the 4,000.
- a. Mark's point seems to be that Jesus, as the compassionate Shepherd, has, once again, established Jesus' "credentials" as "The Son Of The God" whose major characteristic in this Gospel is that of "The Servant Of The Father" and "The Provider For The Sheep".
- b. Thus, the record shows that Jesus is not unwilling to heal the deaf mute, but He is not doing this for "personal recognition" reasons: He "orders them not to tell anyone".
- c. This record is an integral aspect of the "problem" of "leaven"; either in the form found in Herod, or in the form found in the Pharisees.
- 5. This "pattern" is set within the fact that Jesus has departed from Galilee and is moving through non-Jewish territories.
- II. The Progress Through Sidon.
- A. There is no "story" of some "event" in Sidon.
- B. There is only the fact that Jesus is still not in "Judaism".
- III. The Entrance Into The Regions Of Decapolis.
- A. This "entrance" is related to The Sea of Galilee, but is "above the midst of the regions of Decapolis".
- 1. The prepositions in 7:31 are "out of the midst" (ex/ek) of the regions of Tyre; "through" (dia) Sidon; "into" (eis) The Sea of Galilee; "above" (ana) the midst of the regions of Decapolis.
- 2. This is a particular description of His journey outside of "Jewry" from the regions of Tyre to the regions of Decapolis.
- 3. The issue of Decapolis is that of the record of the exorcism of more than 5,000 demons and the death of more than 2,000 pigs being raised by reprobates in Gadara: Jesus sent this man to Decapolis to proclaim "what great things The Lord/Jesus had done for him".
- 4. Now the people are being confronted by Jesus' "private" healing of a deaf mute.
- a. In the above mentioned "pattern", this healing is set alongside Jesus' walk upon the water after the feeding of the 5,000. In this record, Jesus "does all things well", before the feeding of the 4,000.
- b. On the face of it, Jesus' walk upon the water is not obviously comparable to His healing of a deaf mute, but both cases are situations in which Jesus' dominion over the elements of creation is established beyond dispute.
- c. Since both "feedings" occur in spite of a radical absence of "food", Jesus' production of an over-abundance from an almost nonexistent provision is simply a great demonstration of His ability to provide for "life" at the level of "man shall live by bread".
- 1) In the records omitted by Mark are the details of the temptation of Jesus by "Satan".
- 2) The "temptation" to turn stones into bread was, specifically, the temptation to put "physical life" above "the pursuit of the will of God at all cost" for the purpose of "Living" on the level of "relational Life".
- 3) When Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the first issue was that the fruit appeared to be good for food. The backdrop was two-fold: she had no "need" to eat something for food (as though there was nothing else available); and she had the demand/warning of God to not eat that "food". Alternatively, when Jesus was tempted to eat, there was nothing available but stones, and the only thing that Jesus had to resist was His awareness that, if the Father wanted Him to eat, He would have answered His prayer to "give Me this day My daily bread".
- 4) Thus, both "feedings" were massive demonstrations of a lack of any need to pervert the Love of God by pushing a "need for life" ahead of the "need to Live".
- d. The "privacy" issue is another example by Mark of Jesus' absorbance of "recognition for the purpose of self-exaltation".
- 1) Jesus' desire to "not be known" in the regions of Tyre combines with His insistence on this occasion to "tell no one" (just as in Mark 1:44 and in 5:43).
- 2) This is distinctly contrary to His command to the demoniac to "go and tell..."(5:19).
- e. Thus, by reason of the "pattern", we can conclude that Mark's intention here is to tie the lesser "demonstrations of dominion over the physical universe" to the greater (feeding thousands effortlessly without visible "resources"). The larger "point" is that Jesus is powerfully capable of providing for the experience of "Life" in the face of the backdrop of the environment of death that the Sea of Galilee represented.
- B. Jesus' "method" is unusual and, technically, unnecessary as a "method", but is deliberately appropriate to emphasize His healing of both ears and tongue.