The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark8:22–26

The Blind Man at Bethsaida

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Mark 8:22–26 — The Blind Man at Bethsaida. 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.

22

When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai erchontai eis Bēthsaidan Kai pherousin autō typhlon kai parakalousin auton hina hapsētai autou

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKai[When]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔρχονταιerchontaithey arrivedG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ἔρχομαι: to come or go Present tense used for past narrative, Mark's signature. The plural subject (with Pulpit's preferred reading, ἔρχονται for ἔρχεται) carries the whole travelling company in, so the half seeing disciples are standing in the frame for the miracle that follows. The Verifier's list of the seven Bethsaida verses shows Mark naming the town only twice, at 6:45 and here, so this visit is the last the Gospel gives it.
εἰςeisatG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ΒηθσαϊδάνBēthsaidanBethsaidaG966
√ Βηθσαϊδά — fishing-houseNounAccusative Feminine Singular
Βηθσαϊδά: fishing-house The name means the place of fish (Pulpit). Ellicott, JFB and Cambridge all identify it here as Bethsaida Julias on the northeastern shore, distinguishing it from the Galilean Bethsaida; JFB anchors the judgment in the route to Caesarea Philippi in verse 27. Benson, Poole and Gill add the weight the geography carries: this is a town already named in a woe for seeing many mighty works without repenting (Matthew 11:21).
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
φέρω: to bear or carry The verb of bearing a burden, not of guiding a companion. The man arrives as freight in other people's hands, and the only faith on display is theirs. Henry: “Therein appeared the faith of those that brought him.”
αὐτῷautōG846
√ 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
τυφλὸνtyphlona blind [man]G5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
τυφλός: opaque, as if smoky Strong's root image is not empty sockets but a smoked over lens. Gill presses it: “he had no natural sight at all; he could see nothing; he had not the least glimmering of any thing, until he was touched by Christ.” The adjective stands alone, with no noun: the man is named by his darkness.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παρακαλοῦσινparakalousinbeggedG3870
√ παρακαλέω — to call near, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
παρακαλέω: to call near Strong's root sense is to call someone to one's side, which is why the word covers entreaty, exhortation and comfort alike. Present tense and plural: the calling is done by the bystanders and is aimed at a specific favour, a touch. It is worth noticing that the only petition in this account is made by people who are not the patient, and that Jesus answers it by removing the patient from them. The Verifier also pairs the lexeme with Hebrews 13:19, but at 105 verses it is far too common to carry a link, and we decline it.
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
ἵναhinatoG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
ἅψηταιhapsētaitouchG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Middle3rd Person Singular
ἅπτομαι: to attach oneself to Aorist subjunctive middle. The crowd prescribes the method as well as the outcome. Pulpit catches the presumption: “They seem to have imagined that the healing virtue could not go forth from Christ except by actual contact.” Jesus grants the contact and then does far more with it than they asked, twice.
αὐτοῦautouhimG846
√ 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
23

So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai epilabomenos tou typhlou tēs cheiros exēnenken auton exō tēs kōmēs kai ptysas eis autou ta ommata epitheis tas cheiras autō Ei blepeis ti epērōta auton

Word by word26 · parsed
καὶkaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐπιλαβόμενοςepilabomenosHe tookG1949
√ ἐπιλαμβάνομαι — to seize (for help, injury, attainment, or any other purposeVerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιλαμβάνομαι: to seize, for help or attainment Aorist middle participle. The word can be used of arrest; here it is used of rescue, and the hand that grips is the hand the crowd asked for. Gill reads the gesture as the shape of conversion: Christ “becomes their guide and leader,” bringing them “by a way they know not.”
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
τυφλοῦtyphloublind [man]G5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveGenitive Masculine Singular
τῆςtēsby theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
χειρὸςcheiroshandG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
ἐξήνεγκενexēnenken[and] led himG1627
√ ἐκφέρω — to bear out (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐκφέρω: to bear out A relatively rare compound (8 verses). Benson sees the removal as judgment on the town rather than mere privacy: “had our Lord herein only designed privacy, he might have led him into a house, or into an inner chamber, and have cured him there.” Pulpit offers two other reasons, prayer and the avoidance of vain glory, and Poole says plainly the inhabitants were “not worthy to see a miracle.”
αὐτὸνautonG846
√ 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
ἔξωexōoutG1854
√ ἔξω — out(-side, of doors), literally or figurativelyPreposition
τῆςtēsof theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
κώμηςkōmēsvillageG2968
√ κώμη — a hamlet (as if laid down)NounGenitive Feminine Singular
κώμη: a hamlet, as if laid down Mark calls Bethsaida a village even though, as Pulpit notes, Philip had raised it to the rank of a city. The word returns as the last word of the unit: the man is carried out of the κώμη in verse 23 and forbidden to re-enter the κώμη in verse 26.
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πτύσαςptysasHe spitG4429
√ πτύω — to spitVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
πτύω: to spit A rare verb, in only three verses of the New Testament: here, Mark 7:33 (the deaf and dumb man) and John 9:6 (the man born blind). Ellicott counts it “one of the links that connect St. Mark with the fourth Gospel.” Barnes is careful about the mechanism: “It was evidently not intended to perform the cure by any natural effect of the spittle,” but a sign to a man who could not see a gesture and could only feel one.
εἰςeisonG1519
√ 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
ὄμματαommataeyesG3659
√ ὄμμα — a sight, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ὄμμα: a sight A two verse word in the whole New Testament, shared only with Matthew 20:34, where Jesus touches the eyes of two blind men outside Jericho. Mark's later shift to ὀφθαλμούς (verse 25) means the unit uses two different words for the same organ, the rarer one for the half cure and the common one for the finished cure.
ἐπιθεὶςepitheis[and] placedG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιτίθημι: to impose Aorist participle, the first of the two impositions Cambridge counts: the Lord “lays His hands upon him twice (Mark 8:23; Mark 8:25).” Pulpit infers from verse 25 that the hands were laid on the eyes themselves and withdrawn before the question.
τὰςtas[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheirashandsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
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
ΕἴEivvvG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
βλέπειςblepeisCan you seeG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Singular
βλέπω: to look at Second person singular present. This is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus asks a patient for a progress report. Maclaren compares a physician “trying the experiment of a drug,” and says the answer, that “some mitigation is realised,” is what prompts the second application.
τιtianythingG5100
√ τὶς — some or any person or objectInterrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐπηρώταepērōtaHe askedG1905
√ ἐπερωτάω — to ask for, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπερωτάω: to ask for, to enquire Imperfect, not aorist: “he was asking him,” a question held open rather than fired once. The tense is the grammatical shape of the whole miracle, a work that takes time on purpose.
αὐτόνautonG846
√ 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
24

The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai anablepsas elegen Blepō tous anthrōpous hoti horō hōs dendra peripatountas

Word by word11 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναβλέψαςanablepsas[The man] looked upG308
√ ἀναβλέπω — to look upVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀναβλέπω: to look up The compound carries both senses at once, to look upward and to recover sight, and Greek usage lets the one word do the work of both. The Verifier links it to Matthew 20:34, where blind men receive sight after Jesus touches their ὄμματα, so the two uncommon words of this unit both surface in that single verse. Grammatically this participle is the first act the man performs himself: until now he has been carried, led out, spat upon and handled, all in the passive or as an object, and now he lifts his head.
ἔλεγενelegen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
λέγω / ἔπω: to say Imperfect, “he was saying,” matching the imperfect of Jesus' question in verse 23. Two durative tenses frame the half cure: a question being asked, an answer being given, nothing yet finished.
ΒλέπωBlepōI can seeG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
βλέπω: to look at He answers Jesus' verb with the same verb, and it is a true answer: he does see. The tragedy of the sentence is not falsehood but insufficiency, and it is the exact charge Jesus has just laid on the disciples a few verses earlier, that they have eyes and do not see.
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀνθρώπουςanthrōpouspeopleG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ὅτιhoti[but]G3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ὁρῶhorōthey lookG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ὁράω: by extension, to attend to The second verb of perception. Strong's root sense reaches past optics to attention, which is precisely what this man lacks: shapes register, meanings do not. Geneva's marginal gloss is exact: “He perceived men moving but at the same time could not discern their bodies.”
ὡςhōslikeG5613
√ ὡς — which how, iAdverb
δένδραdendratreesG1186
√ δένδρον — a treeNounAccusative Neuter Plural
δένδρον: a tree The comparison proves something about the man's history. Cambridge: “He had not been born blind. He remembered the appearance of natural objects.” Benson reasons the same way, that he “might have retained the idea both of men and trees,” which is why he can name the wrong category rather than no category.
περιπατοῦνταςperipatountaswalking aroundG4043
√ περιπατέω — to tread all around, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
περιπατέω: to tread all around Present participle, accusative masculine plural: the case and gender pin the walking to the men. Only motion tells him they are human, which is JFB's “minute mark of truth in the narrative.” The half healed eye can register movement and not form.
25

Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Eita palin epethēken tas cheiras epi autou tous ophthalmous kai dieblepsen kai apekatestē kai eneblepen hapanta tēlaugōs

Word by word17 · parsed
ΕἶταEitaOnce againG1534
√ εἶτα — a particle of succession (in time or logical enumeration), then, moreoverAdverb
εἶτα: a particle of succession Marks stage two of a two stage work. Maclaren calls this gradualness the feature “in which it stands absolutely alone” among the miracles.
πάλινpalin. . .G3825
√ πάλιν — (adverbially) anew, iAdverb
ἐπέθηκενepethēken[Jesus] placedG2007
√ ἐπιτίθημι — to impose (in a friendly or hostile sense)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τὰςtas[His]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Plural
χεῖραςcheirashandsG5495
√ χείρ — the hand (literally or figuratively (power)NounAccusative Feminine Plural
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, 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
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμοὺςophthalmouseyesG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμός: the eye Mark now uses the common word (85 verses) where verse 23 used the rare ὄμματα (2 verses). The same organ, named ordinarily once it works ordinarily. Gill infers the sequence of gestures from this verse: the spittle first, then the hands, and the hands alone the second time.
καὶkaiand whenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
διέβλεψενdieblepsenhe opened themG1227
√ διαβλέπω — to look through, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
διαβλέπω: to look through A three verse word, and its other two occurrences are the Lord's demand that the man with a beam in his eye first “see clearly” to help his brother (Matthew 7:5; Luke 6:42). Here the seeing through is given, not demanded. Note that the brief's parse tag reads third person plural for a form that is singular in shape; we follow the brief and flag the discrepancy in the apparatus rather than silently correcting it.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπεκατέστηapekatestē[his sight] was restoredG600
√ ἀποκαθίστημι — to reconstitute (in health, home or organization)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀποκαθίστημι: to reconstitute in health, home or organization The word of restoration, in only eight New Testament verses, and three of them are the withered hand made whole (Mark 3:5; Matthew 12:13; Luke 6:10). Its range covers restoration to home as well as to health, which is quietly answered in the next verse when Jesus sends the man to his house. JFB: “It is the only recorded example of a progressive cure.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐνέβλεπενeneblepenhe could seeG1689
√ ἐμβλέπω — to look on, iVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐμβλέπω: to look on, to look into Imperfect: not one clear glance but a continuing gaze. Mark has now used five different verbs of seeing across four verses (βλέπω, ὁράω, ἀναβλέπω, διαβλέπω, ἐμβλέπω), which is itself the argument of the passage.
ἅπανταhapantaeverythingG537
√ ἅπας — absolutely all or (singular) every oneAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
ἅπας: absolutely all The intensive form of “all.” Ellicott notes the better manuscripts read “all things” rather than “every man,” so the object of the finished sight is not just faces but everything in view.
τηλαυγῶςtēlaugōsclearlyG5081
√ τηλαυγῶς — in a far-shining manner, iAdverb
τηλαυγῶς: in a far-shining manner An adverb built on distance and radiance, used nowhere else in the New Testament. The cure ends not in adequacy but in brightness, and Barnes draws the analogy honestly as analogy: the believer at last “will see all things clearly, and the universe will appear to be filled with one broad flood of light.”
26

Jesus sent him home and said, “Do not go back into the village.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai apesteilen auton eis autou oikon legōn Mēde eiselthēs eis tēn kōmēn

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπέστειλενapesteilen[Jesus] sentG649
√ ἀποστέλλω — set apart, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἀποστέλλω: to set apart, send forth Strong's root is “set apart, send forth,” and this is the verb behind the noun apostle: it names a commissioned going, not a dismissal. Mark uses it here for a sending home, with the commission bounded in the same breath by a prohibition. Ellicott reads the restraint as discipline rather than secrecy alone, since “the work that had been done called for prayer for the right use of the new, or the restored, power,” and warns against “the hasty utterances of the excitement of the new-born life.” The man who now sees far and clearly is given no errand but his own house.
αὐτὸνautonhimG846
√ 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
εἰςeisvvvG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
αὐτοῦautouvvvG846
√ 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
οἶκονoikonhomeG3624
√ οἶκος — a dwelling (more or less extensive, literal or figurative)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
οἶκος: a dwelling, literal or figurative The word answers ἀποκαθίστημι in verse 25, whose range includes restoration to home as well as to health. He is given back his eyes and given back his house in two consecutive verses.
λέγωνlegōn[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ΜηδὲMēdevvvG3366
√ μηδέ — but not, not evenConjunction
μηδέ: but not, not even One of the few genuine function words in the unit that carries weight: the “not even” is what makes this a closed door rather than a caution.
εἰσέλθῃςeiselthēsDo not go backG1525
√ εἰσέρχομαι — to enter (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active2nd Person Singular
εἰσέρχομαι: to enter, literally or figuratively Aorist subjunctive of prohibition. Gill reads the whole command as judicial, a withdrawal of privilege from a town that had seen much and repented of nothing, and he gathers Isaiah 5:6 and Revelation 2:5 to that reading. Henry says it in one line: “Slighting Christ's favours is forfeiting them.”
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ 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
κώμηνkōmēnvillageG2968
√ κώμη — a hamlet (as if laid down)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
κώμη: a hamlet, as if laid down The unit's last word, and the same word as in verse 23. The man's story begins by being carried out of the village and ends by being forbidden it: the seeing man's road runs away from the place that would not see.

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. Carried in, and the cure dictated — Mark 8:22

Three Greek presents open the scene: ἔρχονται, φέρουσιν, παρακαλοῦσιν. They come, they carry, they beg. Pulpit notes that this plural “they come” is the better reading and that “St. Mark is fond of the graphic present.” Everything in the verse is done to the blind man and nothing by him: Benson observes that “the man himself did not show that earnest desire for, or expectation of, a cure, that many others did,” while Henry and Gill both put the faith on the friends' side, Gill adding that the unregenerate “do not, of themselves, seek for a deliverance out of it.” The petition even specifies the method, that he might ἅψηται, lay hold of him; Pulpit calls this “something almost like dictating the mode of cure,” imagining that healing “could not go forth from Christ except by actual contact.” The place matters as much as the request. Ellicott, JFB and Cambridge identify this Bethsaida as Bethsaida Julias on the northeastern shore; Gill, dissenting, takes it for the fishing town of Andrew, Peter and Philip. Either way Benson and Poole name the same shadow over it: this is a town where Jesus “had done many mighty works, without their producing the desired effect,” one of the cities upbraided in Matthew 11:21.

ii. The hand, the spittle, and a question no other miracle contains — Mark 8:23-24

Jesus grants the touch and then dismantles the terms of it. He ἐπιλαβόμενος, lays hold of the man himself: JFB records Bengel exclaiming “great humility” that He did it “rather than employing another.” Then ἐξήνεγκεν, he carries him out, the same root by which the crowd carried him in, and the better attested reading according to Pulpit. Why out? Benson answers that privacy alone would have been served by a house or an inner chamber, so the removal is a verdict on the town; Pulpit offers prayer and the avoidance of vain glory; Poole says the inhabitants were “not worthy to see a miracle”; Maclaren, reading it more gently, sees Christ “isolating the man that He would heal.” Then the spitting, πτύσας, a verb in only three verses of the New Testament (here, Mark 7:33, John 9:6). Barnes insists the means were not the cause but a sign, “an evidence that it was the power of Jesus,” and Gill agrees that spittle “can have no causal influence” on blindness; Pulpit goes the other way and calls it “the instrument by which his Deity operated.” We record the disagreement without settling it. Then the thing that makes this passage unique: He asks. ἐπηρώτα, imperfect, he was asking, “If you see anything?” Maclaren compares “a physician trying the experiment of a drug.” And the answer is the most humanly exact sentence in Mark: Βλέπω τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὅτι ὡς δένδρα ὁρῶ περιπατοῦντας, two different verbs of perception, as Ellicott notes, and (Pulpit is emphatic on the grammar) it is the men who walk, not the trees, since περιπατοῦντας is masculine and δένδρα is neuter. JFB calls the detail “a minute mark of truth in the narrative”; Cambridge and Benson both conclude from it that the man had not been born blind but remembered what trees looked like.

iii. The second touch, the far-shining sight, and the closed road back — Mark 8:25-26

Εἶτα πάλιν: then, again. The hands go on a second time, and now Mark switches from the rare ὄμματα of verse 23 to the ordinary ὀφθαλμούς. Three verbs finish the work: διέβλεψεν, he looked through; ἀπεκατέστη, he was restored, the man himself as the subject; ἐνέβλεπεν ἅπαντα τηλαυγῶς, he kept looking into everything far shiningly. Cambridge presses that last adverb: it “literally = ‘far-shining,’ ‘far-beaming.’ The man meant that he could now see clearly far and near,” though Ellicott cautions that the reading implying distance may not be the true one. On the slowness itself the older voices are nearly unanimous, and unanimously allegorical: JFB, “It is the only recorded example of a progressive cure”; Poole, that it was “a true pattern of his healing spiritual blindness”; Henry, that knowledge at first is confused “but, like the light of the morning, it shines more and more to the perfect day”; Benson and Gill in nearly the same words; Geneva, that it is “a true image of our regeneration”; Pulpit citing Bede, and Cornelius a Lapide's image of wine poured too fast into a narrow necked vessel. Barnes is the one who marks his own analogy as analogy: he grants that our Lord did not “probably” intend to teach any such lesson. Then the sending: ἀπέστειλεν, the apostolic verb, but pointed at a house and away from a village, Μηδὲ εἰς τὴν κώμην εἰσέλθῃς, do not even enter. Cambridge and Pulpit both deduce that the man did not live there. Gill reads the prohibition as judgment on Bethsaida's contempt; Ellicott reads it as discipline for the newly healed man, who needs prayer before speech; Geneva says simply that “Christ will not have his miracles to be separated from his doctrine.” Pulpit's text ends the verse at the prohibition, without the received text's extra clause about telling anyone in the town.

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

⚙ Read where Mark put it, this is not primarily a lesson about how conversion feels. It is placed immediately after Jesus charges the Twelve with having eyes and not seeing, and immediately before Peter half sees at Caesarea Philippi, confessing the Christ and then rebuking the cross. Between those two panels Mark sets a man who sees men as trees walking. Our fallible reading, offered to be tested: the miracle is Mark's diagnosis of his own disciples, acted out on a stranger's body, and its comfort is not that partial sight is acceptable but that partial sight is not abandoned. Notice what the Greek gives the reader and English tends to hide. The man is carried in by others and carried out by Christ, the same root both times; the request specifies a touch and receives two; the verb of restoration takes the man as its subject, not his eyesight; and the account ends with the word village in a prohibition, so that the healed man's road runs away from the place that had watched many mighty works without repenting. That is a hard mercy: Bethsaida gets no sign, and the one man who receives one is sent home and silenced. We hold two things loosely. First, the older voices are right that this cure is uniquely gradual, and right that a figural reading of it is natural (Poole, Henry, Benson, Gill, Geneva, Ellicott, Pulpit all take it so, and Barnes, more cautious, grants the analogy without claiming Christ intended it). Second, Mark himself draws no moral. The text tells us that Christ was willing to ask a half healed man what he could see, and to lay hands on him again when the answer was not enough. That willingness, not the allegory, is what the passage actually says.

Christ asked a half healed man what he could see, and touched him again when the answer was not enough. (a fallible reading, not a verse)

⚙

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.

Spittle and the hand: the deaf man of the previous chapter verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 7:33 is this unit's nearest kin, and the connection is lexical, not merely thematic: the rare verb πτύω (G4429, in only three verses of the New Testament) and ἅπτομαι (G680) are shared, and the Verifier records both. Maclaren names the family likeness from the other side: the two miracles share privacy, “an abundant use of the same singular means,” and an injunction of secrecy. Ellicott and Cambridge both send the reader from this verse back to Mark 7:33 for the method; JFB does the same twice. The difference is the one Maclaren isolates: only here does the cure come in stages.

Mark 7:33

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4429 πτύω (rare, in 3 verses) and G680 ἅπτομαι (in 33 verses). Greek to Greek within Mark; the rare G4429 carries the link. No quotation is claimed, only genuine verbal contact.

The third use of a three verse word: clay on the eyes in John 9 verbal / quotation: confirmed

The only other place in the New Testament where πτύω (G4429) occurs is John 9:6, where the Lord spits on the ground, makes clay, and anoints the eyes (ὀφθαλμός, G3788, also shared) of the man born blind. Ellicott treats this as evidence of literary kinship: the spitting is “one of the links that connect St. Mark with the fourth Gospel (John 9:6).” JFB observes the difference of approach between the two cases, that here the patient is brought to the Physician while in John the Physician comes to the patient. Both accounts also bind the healing to a sending: out of the village here, to Siloam there.

John 9:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4429 πτύω (rare, in 3 verses total, so this is its third and last occurrence) and G3788 ὀφθαλμός (in 85 verses). Greek to Greek; the rarity of G4429 is the whole basis, and no citation is claimed.

ὄμμα and ἀναβλέπω: the blind men outside Jericho verbal / quotation: confirmed

Two of this unit's uncommon words meet in a single other verse. ὄμμα (G3659) occurs in only two verses of the New Testament, here and Matthew 20:34, where Jesus touches the ὄμματα of two blind men and they immediately ἀνέβλεψαν (G308, the participle of Mark 8:24) and follow him. ἅπτομαι (G680) is shared as well. The contrast is instructive rather than harmonizing: at Jericho the touch is immediate and complete and the healed men follow; at Bethsaida the touch is repeated, the sight comes in two stages, and the healed man is sent away.

Matthew 20:34

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3659 ὄμμα (very rare, in 2 verses, so this is the only other occurrence), G308 ἀναβλέπω (in 23 verses), G680 ἅπτομαι (in 33 verses). Greek to Greek; the two verse lexeme G3659 is the recorded basis. Not a quotation.

διαβλέπω: seeing clearly, demanded and given verbal / quotation: confirmed

διέβλεψεν (G1227, “to look through”) occurs in only three verses of the New Testament. The other two are Matthew 7:5 and Luke 6:42, where the Lord commands the man with a beam in his own eye (ὀφθαλμός, G3788, also shared) to “see clearly” before he removes the speck from his brother's. The Verifier records both pairings. We claim no allusion: the same rare verb is used in two quite different settings, one an imperative about self knowledge, the other a narrative of gift. What the shared word does show is that the vocabulary of clear sight in the Gospels is small and specific, and that this unit uses its sharpest term.

Matthew 7:5 · Luke 6:42

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1227 διαβλέπω (rare, in 3 verses; these are the other two), plus G3788 ὀφθαλμός (85 verses) and G991 βλέπω (117 verses). Greek to Greek. Verbal contact only, with no claim of literary dependence in either direction.

ἀποκαθίστημι: the word for a hand made whole structural / thematic: confirmed

ἀπεκατέστη (G600) appears in only eight verses of the New Testament, and three of them are one incident: the withered hand restored in the synagogue (Mark 3:5; Matthew 12:13; Luke 6:10), where χείρ (G5495) is shared with this unit as well. The Verifier records all three. The overlap is more than mechanical: in Mark 3 the restoring of a hand exposes hearts that will not see, and in Mark 8 the hands of Christ restore a man two towns away from disciples who have eyes and do not see. Strong's root sense of G600 also covers restoration to home as well as to health, which the next verse quietly performs when Jesus sends the man to his house.

Mark 3:5 · Matthew 12:13 · Luke 6:10

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G600 ἀποκαθίστημι (in 8 verses) and G5495 χείρ (in 168 verses). Greek to Greek, Synoptic. Deliberately downgraded from verbal: at 8 verses G600 is uncommon but not rare enough to carry a quotation-level claim, and what the two scenes actually share is a pattern of restoration by the hand of Christ before unseeing witnesses, not a citation.

Bethsaida, the town that saw and did not repent structural / thematic: confirmed

The proper name Βηθσαϊδά (G966, “fishing-house”) occurs in only seven verses, and the Verifier gathers all of them: Mark 6:45, Matthew 11:21, Luke 9:10, Luke 10:13, John 1:44, John 12:21. Two of those are the woe: “Woe unto thee, Bethsaida.” Benson, Poole and Gill all read this unit against that woe, Benson saying Jesus “had done many mighty works” there “without their producing the desired effect,” and Poole that its inhabitants were “not worthy to see a miracle.” Gill, differing, reads John 1:44 and calls it the city of Andrew, Peter and Philip. We tier this deliberately low: a shared place name is a shared setting, not a verbal allusion, and the moral link runs through the commentators' inference rather than through Mark's own words.

Matthew 11:21 · Luke 10:13 · Mark 6:45 · John 1:44

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G966 Βηθσαϊδά (in 7 verses). Deliberately under-claimed: a shared proper name establishes common setting, not quotation or verbal allusion, so the tier is structural rather than verbal even though the lexeme is rare.

The promise that eyes of the blind would be opened structural / thematic: confirmed

The opening of blind eyes is Israel's prophetic hope before it is a Galilean event: Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 29:18, Isaiah 42:7 and Psalm 146:8, that the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. Isaiah 42:16 is the closest structural match to this unit's peculiar shape, the blind led by a way they did not know, which is exactly what happens when Christ takes the man's hand and carries him out of the village. No formal quotation occurs here, and no commentator in this brief cites these texts at this verse; the link is a motif, not a citation. It is also, by its nature, unverifiable by lexeme, since the Gospel is Greek and the promise is Hebrew.

Isaiah 35:5 · Isaiah 29:18 · Isaiah 42:16 · Psalm 146:8

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek Gospel to Hebrew prophets), so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier is available. The Verifier returned no Hebrew candidates for this unit. Basis is a shared motif, the opening of blind eyes as a divine act, with Isaiah 42:16 matching the narrative detail of leading the blind by an unknown way. Mark makes no citation, so nothing stronger than a thematic tier is honest.

Groping at noonday: half sight in the covenant curses typological

The state the man describes, shapes without form, motion without recognition, is the condition Scripture elsewhere assigns to judgment: Deuteronomy 28:29, groping at noonday as the blind grope in darkness, and Isaiah 59:10, where the people grope for the wall. Mark has just charged the disciples in the same key, that they have eyes and do not see, which is the language of Isaiah 6:9-10. Our reading, offered as inference and not as fact: Mark places a man in the middle of that indictment whose half sight is cured rather than condemned. This is a figural reading of the narrative against the prophets, it is not stated by Mark, and it cannot be verified lexically across the two languages.

Deuteronomy 28:29 · Isaiah 59:10 · Isaiah 6:9-10

basis: Cross-Testament, so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and a verbal tier is excluded. The link is figural: the half sight and groping of the covenant curses read as the condition the two stage cure answers. Novel as a connected reading in this form; the underlying observation that Mark 8 indicts partial sight is widely held, the pairing with Deuteronomy 28:29 and Isaiah 59:10 is ours.

Naaman and the method the patient did not choose typological

Cambridge sends the reader from this cure to Naaman: “Comp. the cure of Naaman, 2 Kings 5:10-11; 2 Kings 5:14,” having just quoted Lange to the effect that “to this demand for an instant act followed by an instant cure, the Lord opposed His own slow and circumstantial method of procedure.” The parallel is in the shape, not the words: a prescribed expectation of how healing should work, refused, and a staged obedience substituted for it. Cross-Testament and figural; there is no lexical basis to appeal to, and the comparison is Cambridge's and Lange's, which is why we record it under their names.

2 Kings 5:10-11 · 2 Kings 5:14

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is available and no verbal tier is possible. The basis is a figural parallel of method, cited in this brief by Cambridge quoting Lange. Widely-held as a commentator's comparison, not as an apostolic reading.

The silencing, and a clause whose text is disputed flagged: verify source

The command of verse 26 belongs with Mark's other injunctions to silence (Mark 1:44; Mark 7:36, the latter in the twin miracle Maclaren pairs with this one). But the wording several of our voices comment on is textually insecure. JFB, Barnes and Gill all expound a longer reading, “nor tell it to any in the town,” while Pulpit states that “according to the best reading” the verse runs “And he sent him away to his home, saying, Do not even enter into the village,” and the interlinear in this brief carries only the shorter form. Readers should know that the moralizing many commentators build on the clause about telling rests on text those same commentators' editions supplied. The thread itself is a motif link with no computed lexical basis, so we flag it.

Mark 1:44 · Mark 7:36

basis: The Verifier returned no candidate and therefore no shared lexeme basis for either reference; the link is a motif of imposed silence only. Independently, the provenance of the clause commented on by JFB, Barnes and Gill (“nor tell it to any in the town”) is disputed: Pulpit prefers a shorter reading and the brief's interlinear has the shorter text.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The hand that opens blind eyes ancient/widely-held

⚙ The act itself is the claim. In Israel's Scriptures the opening of blind eyes is not one benefaction among many but a work reserved to the LORD and promised for his coming (Psalm 146:8; Isaiah 35:5; Isaiah 42:7), and here a man from Galilee performs it with his own hands in a field outside a village. Barnes gathers the apostolic reading of blindness as the natural human condition (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 2:11; John 9:39) and says the effect of the Spirit's work “is to open the eyes, to show the sinner his condition and his danger, and to lead him to look on him as a Saviour.” Ellicott links the spitting here to John 9:6, where the same act belongs to the one who calls himself the light of the world. We claim no citation formula in Mark, only the identity of the work: the hands that touch these eyes are doing what the Psalm says the LORD does.

Psalm 146:8 · Isaiah 35:5 · John 9:39 · 2 Corinthians 4:4

The physician who asks, and touches again ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unique feature of this miracle is not the spittle but the question. Jesus stops in the middle of a work, asks what the man can see, hears an answer that is true and insufficient, and lays hands on him a second time. Maclaren reads it as “Christ making His power work slowly, to keep abreast of the man's slow faith”; Pulpit, following Bede, that he “might administer his power in increasing measures, as the faith of the recipient waxed stronger”; Poole, Henry, Benson, Geneva and Gill all take the staged cure as the pattern of the way Christ heals spiritual blindness, gradually, and perfects it at last. Barnes is the honest outlier, granting the analogy while doubting the intention. Ellicott states the pastoral upshot at verse 24: such people “need a second touch of the Divine Hand.” What is beyond dispute in the text is the disposition: the Christ of this passage is not embarrassed by a half healed man and does not leave him at half sight.

Mark 8:23 · Mark 8:25

Carried out of the village: mercy that moves away from the unrepentant town novel

⚙ Set in Mark's sequence, the geography preaches. Bethsaida stands under a woe for seeing signs without repenting (Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13), and in this account the Christ who enters it takes one man by the hand, carries him outside it, heals him there, and forbids him to go back. Benson and Poole both read the removal as verdict; Gill extends it to whole cities and to the church at Ephesus, that Christ withdraws the light from those who despise it. Our own reading, offered as inference: the pattern is the one Isaiah 42:16 describes, leading the blind by a way they did not know, and its comfort is severe. The man is not restored to the crowd that carried him, he is restored to his own house, and the sight he is given points him away from the place that would not see. We mark this as a novel synthesis: the individual observations belong to the commentators, the shape we draw from them does not.

Matthew 11:21 · Isaiah 42:16 · Mark 8:26

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 Mark 8:22-26. Text. This unit sits on more textual variation than most, and the variation touches almost every clause our commentators discuss. Pulpit prefers ἔρχονται (plural) over ἔρχεται in verse 22 and ἐξήνεγκεν over ἐξήγαγεν in verse 23, and reads verse 25 as simply καὶ διέβλεψε rather than the Authorized Version's “made him look up”; Ellicott reports that the better manuscripts give a direct question in verse 23 and “all things” rather than “every man” in verse 25, and warns that the received text's word for “clearly” implies distance as well as clarity. In verse 26 the received text's clause “nor tell it to any in the town,” on which JFB, Barnes and Gill all comment, is absent from the reading Pulpit prefers and from the interlinear in this brief. Where a commentator's exposition depends on a reading the brief's text does not carry, we have said so rather than quietly harmonizing.

Parse. The brief's parse tag for διέβλεψεν (verse 25, index 10) reads third person plural although the form is singular in shape and the context has a single subject. We have followed the brief's data as given and flagged the discrepancy here rather than correcting a sourced field.

Sources. Every quotation is a verbatim contiguous excerpt from the named public-domain commentary in the brief. Maclaren's entry is capped in the brief and we quoted only from the portion supplied. Several voices quote authors at second hand: JFB cites Alford and Bengel, Cambridge cites Lange and Wyclif, Pulpit cites Bede and Cornelius a Lapide, and we have attributed those judgments to the commentator who reports them rather than treating them as independent witnesses.

What is uncertain. The identity of this Bethsaida (Julias on the northeastern shore, per Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge and Pulpit, against Gill's reading of John 1:44) is probable, not settled. Whether the spittle was a mere sign (Barnes, Gill) or an instrument (Pulpit) is disputed among our own voices. The figural reading of the two stage cure as the pattern of spiritual illumination is held by nearly every voice here, but Mark himself draws no such moral and Barnes explicitly doubts that Christ intended one; we have kept that caution in front of the reader. The cross-Testament threads to Isaiah, the Psalms and Deuteronomy carry no lexical basis at all, since a Greek text and a Hebrew text cannot share Strong's numbers, and the Verifier returned no Hebrew candidates for this unit; they are motif and figural readings only, and are tiered accordingly. The Verifier also offered Hebrews 13:19 and Luke 15:22 as candidates; both rest on lexemes too common to carry a link (παρακαλέω in 105 verses, χείρ in 168), and we have declined them.

✦ = 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)