Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
July 26, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(326)
1901 ASV
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 Specific Details.
- A. The "problem".
- 1. "They are bringing to Him...": present tense used in historical narrative.
- 2. A "deaf man": literally, kofon; one who cannot hear because his ears did not function correctly.
- a. This word is used in both Matthew (multiple references) and Luke (1:22 and 11:14) to refer to someone who could not speak; i.e., a "mute". However, both use the term to refer to someone who could not hear; a condition that could easily have resulted in an inability to speak. Several times the word is used of one who, when the condition was resolved, was able to "hear".
- b. Mark used the word three times.
- 1) In 7:32 it was used to refer to a condition that was attended by a lack of ability to speak plainly.
- 2) In 7:37 (at the end of this paragraph) the people used the term to describe one who could not "hear" (akouo).
- 3) In 9:25 the condition is attributed to the presence of an unclean spirit.
- 3. A "man who had great difficulty in making his sounds into understandable words".
- a. The word is mogilalon and Mark is the only who used it in the entire New Testament and he used it only here.
- b. In the description of this part of the problem (7:35) Mark said that the "bond of his tongue" was removed and the outcome was that the "speechless" (alalous) could "speak" (laleo).
- B. The resolution of the problem.
- 1. "...they are calling for Jesus to 'come alongside'" (so that He might take action).
- a. The "calling" is parakaleo; it means "to call alongside" and, in this text, it signifies the attitude of the "they" who "brought to Him" and "called Him alongside".
- 1) Mark employed this verb in nine texts where his record was of someone who "desperately wanted".
- a) The beginning of his use is in 1:40 where a leper was seriously in want of a deliverance from leprosy.
- b) The text before us is the eighth of the nine uses.
- c) The prior uses (5:10,12,17,18 and 6:56) include the serious wants even of demons.
- d) The appeals all have one thing in common: they express the longing for something that has taken hold of them at the highest levels of their "agape" systems. The ones making the appeals have very little understanding of what is really "valuable".
- 2) The immediately prior use (6:56) is in reference to those dwelling in Gennesaret, whose "values" were so out of whack that Jesus "got up and went away from there to the regions of Tyre...Sidon...the Sea of Galilee...the area just above the regions of Decapolis".
- 3) Clearly, those who brought this man to Jesus wanted him to be able to hear and speak. There is no indication of why this was so important to them; only that it was at the highest levels of their "wants".
- b. The request was that Jesus "lay upon him His hand".
- 1) In the regions of Gennesaret, they wanted to be able to touch the fringe of His cloak. This was a copy cat behavior of the initial issue in Mark regarding "touching" that was the "faith" of the woman with the issue of blood in 5:27-28.
- 2) In this case, they are calling for Him to place His hand upon him.
- a) In Mark 1:31 and 41, Jesus used His hand to touch for healing.
- b) In Mark 3:1, 3, and 5 it is remarkable that Jesus refrained from touching the hand of the man whose hand was withered.
- c) But, in Mark 5:23 Jairus wanted Jesus to "lay your hands" (epitithemi; the same verb as in our current text) upon his dying daughter.
- d) In 6:2 the people were "astonished" and wondered about His ability to "perform" such miracles "by His hands".
- 2. Jesus, "...having taken him from the presence of the crowd according to the standard of 'aloneness', cast His fingers into his ears and, having spat, He took hold of his tongue...".
- a. Jesus removed both Himself and the deaf mute from the presence of the crowd (so they could not witness what He did).
- b. He "cast" His fingers into his ears.
- c. He, having spat, "touched" his tongue.
- 3. Then He, "having looked up into the heaven", groaned (this word is used six times in the New Testament, but only once by Mark) with some level of displeasure. This verb indicates a situation wherein the one "groaning" is not happy about what is going on.
- a. The "look into the heaven" probably, then, means that He is following His father's will, but not "happily".
- b. Mark, once again, presents Jesus acquiescing to people whose "values" are not in a legitimate order.
- 1) The perennial problem with the Jews in that situation is that their focus upon the "outer man" has blinded their minds to the real issues of "Life".
- 2) Jesus acquiesces, but knows how little difference His response to their "begging" for His action is going to accomplish.
