The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark7:31–37

The Deaf and Mute Man

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Mark 7:31–37 — The Deaf and Mute Man. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

31

Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai palin exelthōn ek tōn horiōn Tyrou ēlthen dia Sidōnos eis tēn thalassan tēs Galilaias ana meson tōn horiōn Dekapoleōs

Word by word20 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάλινpalin. . .G3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
palin: again, anew The adverb ties this verse back to 7:24, where He first went into these borders. Mark is keeping count of the crossings.
ἐξελθὼνexelthōn[Jesus] leftG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐκek. . .G1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
ὁρίωνhoriōnregionG3725
√ ὅριον — a boundary-line, iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
horion: a boundary-line, a frontier The word occurs twice in this single verse (indices 5 and 18), bracketing the journey between two frontiers. Cambridge traces the English "coast" to Latin costa, "a rib, side," and shows the word used of inland Bethlehem and Judaea. The point Mark is making is geographical and theological at once: the Healer is working the margin, outside the settled ground of Israel.
ΤύρουTyrouof TyreG5184
√ Τύρος — TyreNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Tyros: Tyre Cambridge calls this visit to the city of Baal and Astarte "full of significance." Ellicott is more cautious, marking it "the extreme limit of our Lord's journeyings" while refusing to call it a preaching mission, since nothing in the text says He heralded there.
ἦλθενēlthen[and] wentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
ΣιδῶνοςSidōnosSidonG4605
√ Σιδών — Sidon (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanSeaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
thalassa: the sea The Sea of Galilee, Tiberias, which Barnes notes He reaches by the retired regions rather than by Capernaum, "to avoid the designs of the Pharisees."
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasof GalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἀνὰana[and] intoG303
√ ἀνά — properly, upPreposition
μέσονmeson. . .G3319
√ μέσος — middle (as an adjective or (neuter) noun)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
τῶνtōntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
ὁρίωνhoriōnregionG3725
√ ὅριον — a boundary-line, iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
ΔεκαπόλεωςDekapoleōsof [the] DecapolisG1179
√ Δεκάπολις — the ten-city regionNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Dekapolis: the ten-city region A rare proper noun, appearing in only three verses in the whole New Testament (the Verifier counts Mark 5:20, Mark 7:31, Matthew 4:25). Geneva, citing Pliny, calls it a little country of ten cities under four surrounding jurisdictions. Mark alone of the evangelists uses this Roman name, and Ellicott flags that habit; the ground is largely Gentile, which is why the miracle that follows takes place with almost no crowd of Israel watching.
32

Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai pherousin autō kōphon kai mogilalon kai parakalousin auton hina epithē tēn cheira autō

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
φέρουσινpherousin[Some people] broughtG5342
√ φέρω — to "bear" or carry (in a very wide application, literally and figuratively, as follows)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
κωφὸνkōphona man who was deafG2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
kōphos: blunted, dull Pulpit derives it from κόπτω, to strike or blunt, and observes that the word can serve for either deafness or dumbness, though in Mark it means deafness as distinguished from dumbness. Gill records the Jewish distinction between one born deaf, who therefore never speaks, and one who lost hearing later and kept speech: this man is plainly the second kind.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μογιλάλονmogilalonhardly able to speakG3424
√ μογιλάλος — hardly talking, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
mogilalos: hardly talking, speaking with difficulty A very rare compound. Ellicott's observation that the Greek Old Testament uses it at Isaiah 35:6 is the single most load-bearing lexical fact in the unit: the evangelist reaches for the prophet's own word for the tongue that will sing. Benson, quoting Macknight, infers from the man's residual speech that the deafness was accidental rather than congenital; Cambridge cites Tyndale's "one that was deffe and stambred in hys speche."
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παρακαλοῦσινparakalousinthey beggedG3870
√ παρακαλέω — to call near, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτὸνauton[Jesus]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἐπιθῇepithēto placeG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Singular
epitithēmi: to impose, to lay upon Aorist subjunctive after ἵνα: the content of their request. Barnes notes that blessings were commonly imparted by laying on the hands, and Poole that they asked it because they had watched Him use that rite often. They prescribe the method; JFB observes that He will deal with this case in His own way, and in fact He never does lay on the hand here.
τὴνtēn[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
χεῖραcheirahandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
cheir: the hand, and so power The requested instrument. What He actually uses is fingers and spittle (v. 33), which is why Gill and Pulpit both read the substituted actions as deliberate signs rather than as means.
αὐτῷautōon himG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
33

So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai apolabomenos auton kat’ idian apo tou ochlou ebalen autou tous daktylous eis autou ta ōta kai ptysas hēpsato autou tēs glōssēs

Word by word22 · parsed
ΚαὶKai[So]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπολαβόμενοςapolabomenos[Jesus] took himG618
√ ἀπολαμβάνω — to receive (specially, in full, or as a host)VerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
apolambanō: to receive, to take apart to oneself (middle) The withdrawal is the first of five distinct stages Cambridge enumerates in this cure. Cambridge lists three proposed reasons, preferring the third "far more probably," that apart from the interruptions of the crowd the man might be more recipient of deep and lasting impressions. Gill reads the separation as an emblem of the Lord calling His people out from among the rest.
αὐτὸνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
κατ’kat’asideG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
ἰδίανidianprivatelyG2398
√ ἴδιος — pertaining to self, iAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀπὸapoaway fromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
ὄχλουochloucrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἔβαλενebalen[and] putG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ballō: to throw, to cast The startling verb of the unit. Pulpit hears in it a spoken sentence the deaf man could not have heard: I am about to open a passage for hearing through these ears. Because words cannot reach him, the action has to carry the promise; Ellicott says the act came in to fill up the void where the pitying voice could not reach.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
δακτύλουςdaktylousfingersG1147
√ δάκτυλος — a fingerNounAccusative Masculine Plural
daktylos: a finger Gill specifies a finger of each hand into the opposite ear. The finger of God is elsewhere the instrument of divine power, and Gill draws that line himself, reading the gesture as the finger of the Spirit removing obstructions.
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautou[the man’s]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὦταōtaearsG3775
√ οὖς — the ear (physically or mentally)NounAccusative Neuter Plural
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πτύσαςptysasHe spitG4429
√ πτύω — to spitVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ptyō: to spit Rare: three verses in the New Testament, all of them acts of Jesus, and the Verifier confirms Mark 8:23 and John 9:6 as the only parallels. JFB reads it as moistening the parched tongue "thus indicating the source of the healing virtue to be His own person." Gill is emphatic that the spittle had no natural virtue; the sign locates the power, it does not supply it.
ἥψατοhēpsato[and] touchedG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῦautou[the man’s]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
γλώσσηςglōssēstongueG1100
√ γλῶσσα — the tongueNounGenitive Feminine Singular
glōssa: the tongue Here in the genitive as the object of the touch; in v. 35 it will be the thing whose bond is loosed. Maclaren hears the gesture as moistening the stiff tongue "that it might move more freely in the parched mouth."
34

And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”).

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai anablepsas eis ton ouranon estenaxen kai legei autō Ephphatha ho estin Dianoichthēti

Word by word13 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναβλέψαςanablepsaslooking upG308
√ ἀναβλέπω — to look upVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anablepō: to look up Cambridge places this upturned look alongside the blessing of the loaves (Matthew 14:19, Mark 6:41), the raising of Lazarus (John 11:41), and the high-priestly prayer (John 17:1), and reads it as prayer and as acknowledgment of oneness with the Father. Barnes cites Psalm 121:1-2 for the posture. Gill, who holds that Christ needed no assistance and that no request is recorded, takes the look as done for the man's sake: a sign to one who could not be taught by words that every good gift is from above.
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνtonG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
οὐρανὸνouranonheavenG3772
√ οὐρανός — the skyNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐστέναξενestenaxenHe sighed deeplyG4727
√ στενάζω — to make (intransitively, be) in straits, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
stenazō: to be in straits, to groan The theological centre of the verse. JFB quotes Trench on the groan "over the wreck" that sin brought about, and adds that there was a yet more painful sense of the evil which, when He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17), became mysteriously His own. Cambridge calls it the sigh of the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29). Pulpit asks the honest question, why sigh at the moment of giving the gift, and answers from the comprehensive view of human misery. Maclaren confesses he does not know why this one sufferer struck so hard on Christ's pitying heart.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγειlegeisaidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτῷautōto himG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἘφφαθάEphphathaEphphathaG2188
√ ἐφφαθά — be opened!VerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
ephphatha: be opened One of the few Aramaic words Mark preserves. Ellicott and Cambridge both link it to Talitha cumi (Mark 5:41) as evidence of eye and ear witnesses; Pulpit says the actual word that passed the Saviour's lips is handed on. Gill documents from Gittin and Yebamot that the rabbis regularly described a deaf man restored to hearing as one who is "opened," so the term is native idiom, not coinage.
ὅho(whichG3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounNominative Neuter Singular
ἐστινestinmeansG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΔιανοίχθητιDianoichthētiBe openedG1272
√ διανοίγω — to open thoroughly, literally (as a first-born) or figuratively (to expound)VerbAorist Imperative Passive2nd Person Singular
dianoigō: to open thoroughly The intensive compound of ἀνοίγω, which is the simple verb used of the ears in v. 35. Passive imperative: the man is commanded to undergo an opening he cannot perform. Poole draws the right conclusion about the grammar, that by the same word of power by which He made the world He restores any decayed part of it: He speaks, and it is done.
35

Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai euthys autou hai akoai ēnoigēsan kai autou glōssēs ho desmos tēs elythē kai elalei orthōs

Word by word16 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐθὺςeuthysImmediatelyG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
eutheōs: directly, immediately Mark's signature adverb. JFB: "The cure was thus alike instantaneous and perfect." Set against the deliberately slow, staged approach of vv. 33 and 34, the speed is the point: the process was for the man, the power needed no process.
αὐτοῦautou[the man’s]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
αἱhaiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Feminine Plural
ἀκοαίakoaiearsG189
√ ἀκοή — hearing (the act, the sense or the thing heard)NounNominative Feminine Plural
akoē: hearing, the sense or the thing heard Mark does not repeat οὖς (G3775, the ear) from v. 33; he switches to ἀκοαί (G189), the faculty itself, and puts it in the plural. Ellicott and Gill both insist on the literal "his hearings." The shift matters: the fingers went into the physical ears, but what is reported as opened is the capacity to receive, and G189 is the same noun the New Testament uses for a report or message heard. The organ restored is the organ of reception.
ἠνοίγησανēnoigēsanwere openedG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
anoigō: to open up Aorist passive plural, answering the singular passive imperative Διανοίχθητι of v. 34 with the simple verb in place of the compound. JFB notes the hearing is mentioned first "as the source of the other derangement," and Gill that such power went along with the word that the man heard as quickly as ever he had before.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτοῦautouhisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
γλώσσηςglōssēstongueG1100
√ γλῶσσα — the tongueNounGenitive Feminine Singular
ὁhovvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
δεσμὸςdesmosvvvG1199
√ δεσμόν — a band, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
desmon: a band, a fetter A single-word diagnosis: the tongue was not absent but chained. Benson, citing Macknight, and Gill both describe a tongue tied or cleaving to the roof of the mouth. Ellicott refuses the anatomical reading and keeps the word at the level of what confined the speech. In a Gospel where Jesus binds and looses nothing by ritual, the loosing here is done by a word.
τῆςtēsvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐλύθηelythēwas releasedG3089
√ λύω — to "loosen" (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
lyō: to loosen The second divine passive of the verse. Gill: "easily," as the Syriac renders the result, without difficulty to himself and readily understood by others.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐλάλειelaleihe began to speakG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
laleō: to talk, to speak Imperfect, not aorist: he began and kept on speaking. BSB's "he began to speak" catches the inceptive force; the tense also leaves the speech running on past the end of the sentence.
ὀρθῶςorthōsplainlyG3723
√ ὀρθῶς — in a straight manner, iAdverb
orthōs: in a straight manner, rightly Rare (four verses). The Verifier finds its only parallels at Luke 7:43, Luke 10:28 and Luke 20:21, where in every case it qualifies a right answer or right judgment rather than a clear sound. Mark's ear is on plain speech; the word he chose can bear rightly-directed speech as well, and the crowd's next words will in fact be rightly aimed.
36

Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai diesteilato autois hina legōsin mēdeni de hoson autois diestelleto autoi perissoteron mallon ekērysson

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διεστείλατοdiesteilato[Jesus] orderedG1291
√ διαστέλλομαι — to set (oneself) apart (figuratively, distinguish), iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
diastellomai: to set apart, to charge distinctly The middle voice makes the order personal and emphatic. Cambridge identifies "them" as the friends who had accompanied the man; Pulpit extends it to the healed man as well. Barnes gives the political reason, that much talk of His cures would excite the jealousy of the Pharisees and endanger His life; JFB notes the sharp contrast with Mark 5:19, where in this same Decapolis He commanded a healed man to publish what the Lord had done, the difference being that He had then left the region and now is staying in it.
αὐτοῖςautoisthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἵναhinaG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
λέγωσινlegōsinnot to tell anyoneG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
legō: to lay forth, to say Present subjunctive after ἵνα, with the negation carried by the dative μηδενὶ: the prohibition is on the telling, continuously.
μηδενὶmēdeni. . .G3367
√ μηδείς — not even one (man, woman, thing)AdjectiveDative Masculine Singular
mēdeis: not even one Absolute. Poole is candid that he can neither satisfy himself nor find satisfaction in others as to the reason for this charge and its breach, which is the most honest sentence any commentator writes on this verse.
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὅσονhosonthe moreG3745
√ ὅσος — as (much, great, long, etcPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisHeG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
διεστέλλετοdiestelletoorderedG1291
√ διαστέλλομαι — to set (oneself) apart (figuratively, distinguish), iVerbImperfect Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
αὐτοὶautoithemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
περισσότερονperissoteronthe more widelyG4053
√ περισσός — superabundant (in quantity) or superior (in quality)Adverb
perissos: superabundant Comparative adverb, stacked with μᾶλλον. The same root will return intensified in v. 37 as ὑπερπερισσῶς: the excess of their talking and the excess of their astonishment are built from one word.
μᾶλλονmallon. . .G3123
√ μᾶλλον — (adverbially) more (in a greater degree)) or ratherAdverb
ἐκήρυσσονekēryssonthey proclaimed [it]G2784
√ κηρύσσω — to herald (as a public crier), especially divine truth (the gospel)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
kēryssō: to herald as a public crier, especially the gospel Mark's own word for gospel preaching (compare Mark 1:45, where a healed man's blazing abroad shut Jesus out of the towns). Pulpit records Augustine's reading, that by the restraint He taught how much more fervently those commissioned to preach ought to preach, when those who were forbidden could not be silent. JFB is blunter: the prohibition seemed only to whet their determination.
37

The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai exeplēssonto hyperperissōs legontes pepoiēken panta Kalōs poiei kai tous kōphous akouein kai tous alalous lalein

Word by word16 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐξεπλήσσοντοexeplēssonto[The people] were utterly astonishedG1605
√ ἐκπλήσσω — to strike with astonishmentVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ekplēssō: to strike out with astonishment Imperfect and passive: the crowd is acted upon. Gill widens the subject to the healed man, those who brought him, and the whole multitude, noting from Matthew 15:30 that other miracles were wrought at the same time. Benson reads their astonishment as double, at the deed and at the temper of the doer.
ὑπερπερισσῶςhyperperissōs. . .G5249
√ ὑπερπερισσῶς — superabundantly, iAdverb
hyperperissōs: superabundantly, beyond measure A New Testament hapax by Cambridge's count, and built on the same περισσ- root as the doubled comparative of v. 36. The silencing command produced abundance of talk; the abundance of talk is matched by abundance of amazement. Mark is measuring the failure of the secret in one repeated root.
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
πεποίηκενpepoiēkenHe has doneG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPerfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
poieō: to make or do Perfect indicative. The perfect states a standing verdict rather than a single event, which is why Barnes glosses it "all things in a remarkable manner" and Gill extends it across the whole work of Christ, before the world, in the covenant, in the incarnation, in redemption and in intercession.
πάνταpantaall thingsG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ΚαλῶςKalōswellG2573
√ καλῶς — well (usually morally)Adverb
kalōs: well, and usually morally well The adverb is not merely "skilfully." JFB, following Trench, hears in "He hath done all things well" the words of the first creation at Genesis 1:31 in the Greek Old Testament, and concludes that Christ's work is in the truest sense a new creation. Poole notes soberly that astonishment and the confession that what He did was well done was the common effect of Christ's preaching and miracles upon most people, and no more than that.
ποιεῖpoieiHe makesG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
καὶkaievenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
κωφοὺςkōphousdeafG2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
kōphos: deaf, blunted Now plural and generalised: the crowd turns one man into a class. The Verifier finds the same adjective paired with ἀναβλέπω at Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22, where Jesus answers the Baptist by listing exactly these restored faculties.
ἀκούεινakoueinhearG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbPresent Infinitive Active
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀλάλουςalalousmuteG216
√ ἄλαλος — muteAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
alalos: mute, speechless Rare: three verses in the New Testament, the others being Mark 9:17 and Mark 9:25, both of the spirit that makes a boy speechless. The crowd's imprecise word is the one Mark reserves elsewhere for a bondage deeper than an impediment, which sharpens rather than weakens their confession.
λαλεῖνlaleinspeakG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbPresent Infinitive Active
laleō: to talk, to speak Present infinitive, matching ἀκούειν: hearing and speaking as continuing capacities, not single events. The pair of infinitives closes the unit on the two faculties named in v. 32.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The long way round: a Healer on the frontier — 7:31

⚙ Mark spends one verse on a journey that the first evangelist compresses into a phrase, and he uses the word ὅριον (G3725, border, frontier) twice in it. Ellicott notes that Matthew says simply "He departed thence, and came by the Sea of Galilee," and that Mark's Decapolis is another instance of his Roman nomenclature. Whether the route ran through Sidon is a genuine textual question: Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge and Pulpit all prefer that reading, JFB conceding "there is certainly a difficulty in the supposition of so long a detour without any missionary object," while Gill marshals the Syriac and Persic versions against it on the ground that Christ never left the land of Israel. Cambridge reconstructs a three-stage arc north to Lebanon, down the Leontes gorge, then south along the eastern Jordan; Pulpit adds Damascus. What the commentators agree on, they agree on cautiously: Ellicott calls this "the extreme limit of our Lord's journeyings" and refuses to call it a preaching tour, and Barnes says plainly that the retired route was taken "to avoid the designs of the Pharisees, who sought his life." Cambridge alone risks the theological reading, that this visit of the Redeemer of mankind to the city of Baal and Astarte is full of significance. The Verifier confirms that Δεκάπολις is one of the rarest proper nouns in the Gospels, standing in three verses only.

ii. A prescribed cure and a refused method — 7:32

⚙ The friends bring a man and they bring a method: ἵνα ἐπιθῇ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτῷ, that He might lay the hand on him. Poole explains why they asked for that particular rite, "from their observation of him very often to use that rite in his healing sick persons"; Barnes agrees that blessings were commonly imparted by laying on the hands. JFB judges them "somewhat too officious" and observes that He will deal with this case in His own way, and the narrative bears him out, for the hand is never laid. Cambridge places the scene in a small company, "one of the few instances where the friends of the sufferer brought the sick man to Christ," beside the paralytic of Mark 2 and the blind man of Mark 8. The decisive philological fact belongs to Ellicott: μογιλάλος (G3424, hardly speaking) is the word that stands for "dumb" in the Greek of Isaiah 35:6, "and may therefore have been used by him to connect the miracle which he describes with that prophecy." Pulpit and Cambridge insist on the precision of the term, the man was not ἄλαλος but μογιλάλος; Gill supplies the rabbinic distinction between the born-deaf, who never speak, and the later-deafened, who keep speech. Benson, quoting Macknight, presses the inference further than the text allows, guessing at "some fault of his own" behind the deafness. Mark says nothing of the kind.

iii. Fingers, spittle, and a sentence the deaf man could see — 7:33

⚙ Five things happen in slow order, and Cambridge is the one who counts them: taken aside, fingers into the ears, tongue touched with the moisture of His mouth, a look to heaven, a groan, then one word. Mark's verb for the fingers is ἔβαλεν (G906, to throw or cast), which Pulpit renders "literally, cast or thrust" and then turns into speech: "It was as though he said, I am about to open a passage for hearing through these ears." Ellicott names the reason a gesture was needed at all: "Here the man could not find in the pitying tones of the voice of the Healer that on which his faith could fasten, and the act came in to fill up the void." Gill is the firmest on what the acts were not, "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." JFB reads the same intention in the saliva, "thus indicating the source of the healing virtue to be His own person." Barnes, characteristically, declines to explain, and Benson relays Doddridge's frank "I cannot tell, nor am I at all concerned to know." Maclaren draws the pastoral moral, that here "the miracle is a process rather than an act," conformed in appearance to human works of mercy that must creep to their goal by persevering toil. Pulpit records the later liturgical borrowing of the gesture at baptism; that is church history, not exegesis, and should be read as such. The Verifier confirms πτύω (G4429) in only three verses of the New Testament: here, Mark 8:23, John 9:6.

iv. The look, the groan, and the one word — 7:34

⚙ Three gestures of the Healer's own person, and the commentators divide honestly over the first. Cambridge and Barnes read the upward look as prayer, Cambridge lining it up with Mark 6:41, John 11:41 and John 17:1, Barnes with Psalm 121:1-2. Gill resists: Christ had the power of himself, no request is recorded, and "he seems to have made use of this motion, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the man." Both readings can stand on the text; neither can be proved from it. On the groan, ἐστέναξεν (G4727, to be in straits), the witnesses converge. JFB quotes Trench on the groan "over the wreck, which sin had brought about," then presses past Trench to "that evil thing and bitter" which, when He took our infirmities, "became mysteriously His own," citing Matthew 8:17. Cambridge calls it the sigh of the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29), attesting that the human sympathies of the Saviour were co-extensive with human suffering. Pulpit asks the question that makes the verse strange, why sigh when you are about to give the gift, and Maclaren admits he does not know why this one sufferer struck so hard. Then the word: Ἐφφαθά, Aramaic, preserved in Greek letters because, as Pulpit says, the actual word that passed the Saviour's lips was to be handed on. Gill's rabbinic citations from Gittin and Yebamot show that "opened" was the ordinary Jewish idiom for a restored ear, so Jesus is not inventing a formula but speaking plain Aramaic with authority. The Greek gloss Διανοίχθητι is passive imperative: the man is commanded into something done to him. Poole draws the only conclusion the grammar permits: "By the word of his power he made the world ... He speaks, and it is done."

v. Immediately: two passives and a running verb — 7:35

⚙ After all that slowness, εὐθὺς. JFB states the double result exactly, "the cure was thus alike instantaneous and perfect," and notes that the hearing is named first "as the source of the other derangement." Both verbs are passive, ἠνοίγησαν and ἐλύθη, and the third is not: ἐλάλει is imperfect active, he kept on speaking. Ellicott corrects two English habits here at once, that ἀκοαί (G189) is hearings and not ears, and that δεσμός (G1199) is "bond, that which confined and hampered his speech," with no anatomical sense intended. Gill records the effect in the plainest terms, that such power went along with the word that the man's hearing came to him as quickly as ever, and that he spoke "easily," as the Syriac renders it. Henry, whose note covers the whole passage as one block, makes the summary judgment: "Our Lord used more outward actions in the doing of this cure than usual." The adverb ὀρθῶς (G3723) is worth a moment: the Verifier finds it in four verses only, and its three other homes (Luke 7:43, Luke 10:28, Luke 20:21) are all about answering or judging rightly. Mark means plainly. The word he used can also mean truly.

vi. The charge that failed, and the verdict that followed — 7:36-7:37

⚙ The same verb twice, aorist then imperfect: διεστείλατο, then διεστέλλετο, and Pulpit is right that it is strong, "he gave them clear and positive orders." Against it stands a piled-up comparative, which Cambridge tells us to notice, and an imperfect ἐκήρυσσον, Mark's own verb for gospel heralding put to work in an act of disobedience. Barnes gives the prudential motive, danger from the Pharisees; JFB the sharpest contrast, that in this very Decapolis He had once sent a healed man out to proclaim what the Lord had done for him (Mark 5:19), the difference being only that He had then left the region and was now staying in it. Poole refuses to pretend: "I can neither satisfy myself in the reason from my own thoughts, nor from what I read in others." Pulpit hands us Augustine's turn of the difficulty, that the restraint teaches how much more fervently those commissioned to preach ought to preach, "when they who were forbidden could not be silent." Then the verdict, in a hapax: ὑπερπερισσῶς, they were struck out of themselves beyond all measure. Their words are a perfect tense and then a present, πεποίηκεν ... ποιεῖ: a finished record and a continuing practice. JFB, following Trench, hears the first creation behind "He hath done all things well," with Genesis 1:31 in the Greek Old Testament, and calls Christ's work "in the truest sense a new creation." Ellicott notices what the crowd loses in the telling: they say ἀλάλους, speechless, where Mark had said μογιλάλον, and that is "the less precise language of popular amazement." Poole's caution is the right last word from the ✦ layer: astonishment and the confession that what He did was well done "was the common effect of Christ's preaching and miracles upon the most." It is not yet faith.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Read the unit as one sentence and its subject is a mouth. Mark chose, for a stammering man on Gentile ground, the exact Greek word that the old translators used for the tongue in Isaiah's promise (Ellicott's observation, and the most consequential fact in the brief), and then he ended the episode with a crowd saying that the deaf hear and the speechless speak. In between, everything is done to the man: he is carried, taken aside, thrust at, spat for, groaned over, commanded in a language of grammar he cannot resist, since Διανοίχθητι is passive. He contributes nothing, not even a request; his friends do the asking and they ask for the wrong method. Then the only active verb he owns is that he kept on speaking. And the moment he can speak, the first thing said in this account is said by other people, and the first thing he is told is to say nothing. That is where the unit turns strange, and no commentator in the brief makes it come out even. Poole says so outright. What can be said without invention is that two mouths are opened in this passage and only one of them was healed: the man's, by a word, and the crowd's, against a command. Mark reports the one that obeyed nothing and the one that could not have resisted, and lets the reader feel which is the greater wonder. The groan holds the two together. A Healer who could have spoken once from a distance instead put His fingers in a ruined ear, looked up, and was in straits about it, which is Cambridge's point about sympathies co-extensive with suffering and JFB's harder point that the sicknesses became mysteriously His own. If that is right, then the slowness of this cure is not pedagogy for the man only. It is the shape of how God chooses to save: near, costly, hand in the wound, and in no hurry. The pullquote below is our own line, not Scripture.

Two mouths are opened here, and only one of them was healed.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The spittle: three verses in the whole New Testament verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ πτύω (G4429, to spit) is one of the rarest verbs in the Gospels, and every occurrence is an act of Jesus. At Mark 8:23 He spits on the eyes of the blind man of Bethsaida and lays hands on him, again outside a town, again in stages; at John 9:6 He makes clay with the spittle. Cambridge groups the passages himself, as does Barnes ("See Mark 8:23; John 9:6") and JFB ("For similar actions, see Mr 8:23; Joh 9:6"). The Verifier also finds ἐπιτίθημι (G2007, laying on) and χείρ (G5495) shared with Mark 8:23, which is the very method this man's friends requested and did not get. The pattern is consistent: where the sufferer cannot hear a word, the sign is put where the ruin is.

Mark 8:23 · John 9:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4429 πτύω, a rare word occurring in only 3 verses (Mark 7:33, Mark 8:23, John 9:6); Mark 8:23 additionally shares G2007 ἐπιτίθημι (38 vv) and G5495 χείρ (168 vv). Greek to Greek within the New Testament, and the rarity of G4429 carries the verbal tier. No quotation is claimed, only a shared and distinctive vocabulary.

ἄλαλος: the crowd's word is Mark's word for a bound spirit verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The crowd in v. 37 says ἀλάλους (G216, speechless), which Ellicott flags as less precise than Mark's own μογιλάλον in v. 32. The Verifier shows why the imprecision is interesting: G216 stands in only three verses of the New Testament, and the other two are Mark 9:17 and Mark 9:25, where a father brings his son who has a speechless spirit and Jesus addresses the spirit directly. Mark 9:25 also shares κωφός (G2974) and ὄχλος (G3793) with our unit, and Mark 9:17 shares φέρω (G5342), the very verb of bringing used in 7:32. So the same three-word cluster, bringing, crowd, speechlessness, recurs at the next such scene in Mark. Nothing here licenses reading a demon into 7:32; the link is lexical and structural, and the difference between the two cases is exactly what Mark's careful vocabulary preserves.

Mark 9:17 · Mark 9:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G216 ἄλαλος, rare at 3 verses (Mark 7:37, Mark 9:17, Mark 9:25); Mark 9:25 also shares G2974 κωφός (12 vv), G3793 ὄχλος (170 vv), G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (212 vv), and Mark 9:17 shares G5342 φέρω (60 vv), G3793 ὄχλος. Greek to Greek within one book; the rare G216 carries the verbal tier. No quotation claimed.

Decapolis: told to proclaim, then told to be silent verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The Verifier pairs this unit with Mark 5:20 on two lexemes at once: Δεκάπολις (G1179), which stands in only three verses in the New Testament, and κηρύσσω (G2784), the herald's verb. At Mark 5:20 the healed demoniac goes off and heralds through the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, under commission. In our unit, in the same territory, He forbids exactly that, and they herald anyway, ἐκήρυσσον, in the same verb. JFB sees the tension and resolves it by geography: in the earlier case He had left the region, whereas now He was sojourning in it. Matthew 4:25 is the third Decapolis verse, and the Verifier attaches it here too, on G1179 with Γαλιλαία (G1056) and ὄχλος (G3793).

Mark 5:20 · Matthew 4:25

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1179 Δεκάπολις, rare at 3 verses (Matthew 4:25, Mark 5:20, Mark 7:31), plus G2784 κηρύσσω (60 vv) and G3745 ὅσος (100 vv) with Mark 5:20, and G1056 Γαλιλαία (60 vv) with Matthew 4:25. Greek to Greek; the rare place-name carries the verbal tier. The reversal of command is our own observation on top of the confirmed shared vocabulary.

Isaiah's unstopped ears and the singing tongue structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Ellicott's note is the hinge: the word Mark chooses for this man, μογιλάλος, is the word that stands for "dumb" in the Greek version of Isaiah 35:6, "and may therefore have been used by him to connect the miracle which he describes with that prophecy." Gill independently records the same fact, that the term "is sometimes used by the Septuagint for one that is entirely dumb, as in Isaiah 35:6." Isaiah 35:5-6 promises that the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped and the tongue of the mute shall sing; Isaiah 29:18 and Isaiah 32:3-4 hold the same pair of faculties. Mark makes no citation formula, quotes nothing, and never names the prophet here. So this is a motif and a translator's vocabulary, not a quotation, and the link cannot be verbal in the Verifier's sense at all: Isaiah is Hebrew and Mark is Greek, and no Strong's lexeme can be shared across them. What can be said is that a Greek-reading evangelist reached for the Greek Old Testament's own word.

Isaiah 35:5-6 · Isaiah 29:18 · Isaiah 32:3-4

basis: Cross-Testament, Hebrew to Greek, so no shared Strong's number is possible and a verbal tier is excluded by definition. The recorded basis is a sourced lexical observation by Ellicott and independently by Gill, that the Greek Old Testament uses μογιλάλος (G3424) at Isaiah 35:6; plus the shared motif of unstopped ears and loosed tongue across Isaiah 29:18, 32:3-4 and 35:5-6. Mark gives no citation formula.

"He has done all things well" and the sixth day structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ JFB, following Trench, hears in Καλῶς πάντα πεποίηκεν the wording of the first creation at Genesis 1:31 in the Greek Old Testament, "upon which we are thus not unsuitably thrown back, for Christ's work is in the truest sense a new creation." Geneva's marginal note on this passage runs in the same direction from a different angle: as the Father created us to this life in His only Son, so in Him alone He renews us to everlasting life. This is a real resonance in the Greek adverb καλῶς, and it is an echo the crowd could hardly have intended. It is also cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's number is available, and the resonance depends on a translation of Genesis rather than on the Hebrew. Tiered structural for that reason, and the burden of the claim is carried by Trench and JFB, not by us.

Genesis 1:31

basis: Cross-Testament, Hebrew to Greek: no shared Strong's lexeme is possible, so a verbal tier is excluded. Basis is the sourced observation of Trench as reported by JFB, that the Septuagint wording of Genesis 1:31 stands behind καλῶς πάντα πεποίηκεν (G2573 with G4160), together with Geneva's creation-and-renewal gloss on this same passage. No quotation formula appears in Mark.

Who made the mouth: the answer given at the bush typological

⚙ At Exodus 4:11 the LORD asks Moses who makes a man mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind, and answers His own question. The crowd at Mark 7:37 answers the same question about Jesus and does not notice what it has said: He makes the deaf hear and the speechless speak. Poole moves in this direction from the grammar rather than the cross-reference, arguing from the bare effectiveness of Ἐφφαθά that the word which made the world is the word which restores any decayed part of it. Read as a figure, the Decapolis frontier is the place where the God who claimed the making of ears is found unstopping one with His fingers. This is our figural reading, widely held in substance but not asserted by any brief voice in these terms, and it can be resisted: Mark draws no line to Exodus.

Exodus 4:11

basis: Cross-Testament, Hebrew to Greek: no shared Strong's lexeme possible, so never verbal. A figural reading, ancient in substance (the divine prerogative over the senses applied to Jesus) but drawn by us here, supported from within the brief only by Poole's argument from the creative word. Offered as testable, not as demonstrated.

The list Jesus sent back to John structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The Verifier pairs our unit with Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22 on two shared lexemes: κωφός (G2974), the word for the deaf man in vv. 32 and 37, and ἀναβλέπω (G308), which in Mark 7:34 is what Jesus does with His eyes and in those verses is what the blind are given. In both parallel passages Jesus answers the Baptist's messengers by reciting the restored faculties, in language soaked in Isaiah 35. So the Gospel writers themselves tie the deaf and the mute to the prophetic list; our unit is one instance of the very evidence Jesus offers. The shared lexemes are not rare (12 and 23 verses), so this is not tiered verbal: a shared vocabulary of healing categories is not a quotation.

Matthew 11:5 · Luke 7:22

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2974 κωφός (12 vv) and G308 ἀναβλέπω (23 vv) with both Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22. Greek to Greek, but neither lexeme is rare enough to carry a verbal tier, and no quotation of our unit is involved; the link is a shared list of restored faculties within one prophetic motif. Downgraded deliberately.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The word of power, spoken in Aramaic on Gentile ground ancient/widely-held

⚙ Everything in this cure that looks like means is denied by the commentators to be means. Gill: the 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." JFB: the saliva indicated "the source of the healing virtue to be His own person." What remains is a passive imperative, Διανοίχθητι, and Poole draws the inference the grammar demands: "By the word of his power he made the world, and by the word of his power he upholds it, and by the same word of his power he restoreth any lapsed or decayed part of it. He speaks, and it is done." JFB and Trench complete the arc at v. 37, where the crowd's Καλῶς πάντα πεποίηκεν throws the reader back on Genesis 1:31, "for Christ's work is in the truest sense a new creation." Geneva's marginal note on this very passage says the same in covenantal terms: as the Father created us to this life in His only Son, so in Him alone He renews us into everlasting life. This reading is not a novelty of ours; it is what the named voices in the brief actually say.

Genesis 1:31 · Mark 5:41

The groan that became His own sickness ancient/widely-held

⚙ ἐστέναξεν (G4727) is built on being hemmed in, in straits, and it is the one detail in this passage that no theory of pedagogy explains. Pulpit puts the difficulty honestly: we might almost have expected joy from Him at the moment of restoring these instruments of thought and action, and instead He groaned. JFB takes it furthest, past Trench's "wreck" that sin had wrought, to "that evil thing and bitter whence all our ills have sprung, and which, when Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses (Mt 8:17), became mysteriously His own." Cambridge names Him here the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29), whose human sympathies are co-extensive with human suffering, and points to the groaning at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:33). Maclaren, who admits he cannot say why this one man's case pressed so hard, reads the heavenward look and the groan as the cost at which all true service is done. So the redemptive-historical line runs from a sigh over one ruined ear to the bearing of sicknesses at the cross: He does not heal from above the misery, He heals from inside it. This is the apostolic reading, recorded here by JFB, Cambridge, Pulpit and Maclaren alike.

Matthew 8:17 · Isaiah 53:4 · John 11:33 · Romans 8:29

Ephphatha and the Servant whose own ear was opened novel

⚙ This is our own reading and should be tested as such. The one thing this man cannot do is hear, and so the one thing he cannot do is obey; and when the hearing is given, the first command he receives is the one command the passage records as broken. Set against that, Isaiah 50:4-5 describes a Servant whose ear the Lord God opens morning by morning, and who is not rebellious. If the frontier Healer who says Ἐφφαθά to another man's ears is Himself the one whose ear was opened to the Father, then the unit shows both sides of the same gift: the opened ear that at once disobeys, and the opened ear that hears and does not turn back. The brief supports the two halves separately, Cambridge and Barnes reading the upward look as prayer and communion with the Father, Poole confessing that the disobedience of the charge defeats every explanation he has found. It does not join them; we do, and the join is figural, not stated by Mark.

Isaiah 50:4-5 · Mark 7:36

Other sheep, not of this fold ancient/widely-held

⚙ Ellicott is careful to deny that the northern journey was a preaching tour, and equally careful to add that we may "perhaps, trace the feeling which prompted the visit" in "It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon" (Luke 10:14) and in "Other sheep, not of this fold" (John 10:16). Cambridge goes further, calling the visit to the city of Baal and Astarte full of significance. Gill flatly denies that Christ ever left the land of Israel, so the voices are not agreed and the geography itself rests on a textual decision. What is not in dispute is that this deaf man is healed in the Decapolis, that Matthew's parallel closes the day with the crowds glorifying "the God of Israel" (JFB's citation of Matthew 15:31), and that the report spreads through territory where Israel's God was not the God being named. The redemptive-historical weight is modest and should be stated modestly: the ministry has reached the border, and the sign given there is the sign Isaiah attached to the day when the deaf would hear.

John 10:16 · Luke 10:13-14 · Matthew 15:31

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (c. 1905)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) Text of v. 31. There is a real variant. Ellicott ("The better MSS. give ..."), JFB ("very strong claims to be regarded as the true text"), Cambridge and Pulpit all prefer from the borders of Tyre, He came through Sidon, which is what BSB renders and what our literal follows. Gill argues the other way from the Syriac and Persic versions and from his conviction that Christ did not leave the land of Israel; the Vulgate, Arabic and Ethiopic readings he cites disagree among themselves. JFB himself concedes the difficulty of so long a detour with no recorded ministry. Readers should know the itinerary is a critical judgment, not a settled fact.

⚙ (2) Ephphatha. Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit and Gill variously call the word Syriac, Syro-Chaldaic, or Aramaic, and Gill records the transliteration "Ethphatha, or Ephphatha." We have followed the brief's Greek surface Ἐφφαθά and the parse given (aorist imperative passive) without adjudicating the underlying Aramaic form.

⚙ (3) Interlinear gaps. In the Berean data for v. 35, the glosses for indices 9, 10 and 11 (ὁ δεσμὸς τῆς) are placeholders rather than English words, because BSB renders "his tongue was released" without a separate noun for the bond. Our note on index 10 supplies the lexicon gloss (G1199, a band or fetter) and Ellicott's correction; nothing has been inferred about the Greek text itself, which is not in doubt there.

⚙ (4) Uncertain matters we have not resolved. Why the symbolic actions were used: Barnes says "it has been found exceedingly difficult to explain"; Benson relays Doddridge's "I frankly confess I cannot tell." Why the silence was commanded and why it failed: Poole says he can satisfy neither himself nor his sources. Whether the upward look was petition (Cambridge, Barnes) or sign for the man's sake (Gill). We have recorded the disagreements rather than picking winners.

⚙ (5) Inferences in the sources, flagged. Benson, quoting Macknight, suggests the deafness came "perhaps, through some fault of his own," and offers this as a reason for the sighing. Mark says nothing of the man's fault, and that guess should not be read as exegesis. Maclaren's framing of the scene as "half-heathen ground, where aids to faith were much needed" is likewise his inference. Pulpit's report of the Latin baptismal rite using saliva is church history, not a comment on Mark's meaning.

⚙ (6) Thread tiers. Three threads are tiered verbal, and each rests on a rare shared Greek lexeme within the New Testament as computed by the Verifier (G4429, G216, G1179), not on any quotation. Every link to the Old Testament in this unit is tiered structural or typological, because a Hebrew text and a Greek text cannot share a Strong's number and because Mark uses no citation formula anywhere in vv. 31 to 37. The Isaiah 35 connection, strong as it is, is carried by a translator's vocabulary (Ellicott, Gill) rather than by a quotation, and the Genesis 1:31 echo by Trench and JFB reading the Greek Old Testament. The Exodus 4:11 and Isaiah 50 readings are ours, marked typological and novel respectively. Our own layer throughout is fallible and marked ⚙.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)