The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew20:29–34

The Blind Men by the Road

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Matthew 20:29–34 — The Blind Men by the Road. 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.

29

As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai autōn ekporeuomenōn apo Ierichō polys ochlos ēkolouthēsen autō

Word by word9 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
αὐτῶνautōn[As] theyG846
√ 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 Plural
ἐκπορευομένωνekporeuomenōnwere leavingG1607
√ ἐκπορεύομαι — to depart, be discharged, proceed, projectVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Plural
ekporeuomai: to depart, proceed, be discharged A genitive absolute pins the miracle to a moment of motion rather than to a spot on the map, which is exactly where the synoptic difficulty lies. Matthew and Mark place the healing at the exit from Jericho, Luke at the approach; Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit, Gill and Poole each offer a different reconciliation, and Cambridge is willing to say plainly that “the only other solution is to suppose an inaccuracy in an unimportant detail.”
ἀπὸapo. . .G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
ἸεριχὼIerichōJerichoG2410
√ Ἱεριχώ — Jericho, a place in PalestineNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Ierichō: Jericho, a place in Palestine A rare lexeme (six verses) carrying enormous freight. Barnes records that it was the first city taken by Joshua, destroyed to its foundation under a curse, later the seat of a school of the prophets, and the place where Elisha sweetened its bitter water. Pulpit draws the line the geography invites: Joshua's march entered the land here to conquer it, and Jesus passes through here to win an inheritance by another kind of sword.
πολύςpolysa largeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὄχλοςochloscrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ochlos: a throng, as borne along The crowd is a character in this scene, not scenery: in v. 31 it becomes the obstacle.
ἠκολούθησενēkolouthēsenfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
akoloutheō: to be in the same way with, to follow The unit opens and closes on this verb, and the change is the whole point. Here a crowd follows because something is happening; at v. 34 two men follow because something has happened to them. Matthew Henry presses the distinction: “None follow Christ blindly.”
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ 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
30

And there were two blind men sitting beside the road. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai idou dyo typhloi kathēmenoi para tēn hodon akousantes hoti Iēsous paragei ekraxan legontes Kyrie huios Dauid eleēson hēmas

Word by word19 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἰδοὺidouthere wereG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: used as imperative, lo! The one imperative in the verse is aimed at the reader, not at Jesus. Matthew plants it before the two men so that the audience is looking at the roadside before the crowd notices anything there at all.
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
τυφλοὶtyphloiblind [men]G5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
typhlos: opaque, as if smoky Strong's root sense is not “eyeless” but clouded, smoky, opaque. Two such men sit where the caravan passes. Pulpit observes that they were beggars (Mark 10:46) whose attention was caught by the tread of many feet, so that hearing was the only door faith could come through.
καθήμενοιkathēmenoisittingG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveNominative Masculine Plural
kathēmai: to sit, be seated Sitting is posture and condition together; it is also the exact word used of Matthew at the tax booth when Jesus was passing by (Matthew 9:9).
παρὰparabesideG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
ὁδόνhodonroadG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounAccusative Feminine Singular
ἀκούσαντεςakousantesWhen they heardG191
√ ἀκούω — to hear (in various senses)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
παράγειparageiwas passing byG3855
√ παράγω — to lead near, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
paragō: to lead near, to pass by A rare verb (ten verses) and, in the Gospels, a loaded one: Jesus is παράγων when he calls Matthew from the toll booth (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14) and when he sees the man blind from birth (John 9:1). Here the blind men cannot see him pass; they hear that he is passing, and that hearing is enough.
ἔκραξανekraxanthey cried outG2896
√ κράζω — properly, to "croak" (as a raven) or scream, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
λέγοντεςlegontes. . .G3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
υἱὸςhuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios Dauid: son of David The confession the crowd will try to suppress. Barnes: this was the name by which the Messiah was commonly known, the illustrious descendant of David in whom the promises centred. Cambridge reads the appeal as the very note of this stage of the ministry, the Son of David entering upon his kingdom. Note the lexicon spells the name Δαβίδ (G1138) while the interlinear surface here reads Δαυίδ; the difference is orthographic, not lexical.
ΔαυίδDauidof DavidG1138
√ Δαβίδ — Dabid (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐλέησονeleēsonhave mercy onG1653
√ ἐλεέω — to compassionate (by word or deed, specially, by divine grace)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
eleeō: to compassionate, especially by divine grace An aorist imperative addressed to a man walking past: not “be merciful in general” but “have mercy now.” They ask for mercy before they ask for sight, and Pulpit notes that only at v. 33 do they name what mercy should do.
ἡμᾶςhēmasusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Plural
31

The crowd admonished them to be silent, but they cried out all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho ochlos epetimēsen autois hina siōpēsōsin de hoi ekraxan meizon legontes Kyrie huios Dauid eleēson hēmas

Word by word17 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ὄχλοςochloscrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπετίμησενepetimēsenadmonishedG2008
√ ἐπιτιμάω — to tax upon, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epitimaō: to tax upon, to charge, to rebuke The verb of rebuke that Jesus uses on the storm and on demons is here turned by the crowd on two beggars. Whether the motive was reverence or resentment the commentators cannot agree: Gill allows that the rebukers may have been either friends of Christ sparing him trouble or enemies displeased at the titles “Lord” and “Son of David,” and Pulpit, noting no hostility elsewhere in the scene, prefers the gentler reading.
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
σιωπήσωσινsiōpēsōsinto be silentG4623
√ σιωπάω — properly, muteness, iVerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
siōpaō: muteness, to be silent A rare verb (ten verses). The Verifier finds the pair ἐπιτιμάω plus σιωπάω again at Mark 4:39, where Jesus rebukes the sea into silence, and σιωπάω with κράζω at Luke 19:40, where he says that if his own fall silent the stones will cry out. The crowd is attempting on the road to Jerusalem what Luke says cannot be done.
δὲdebutG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἔκραξανekraxanthey cried outG2896
√ κράζω — properly, to "croak" (as a raven) or scream, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
krazō: to croak as a raven, to scream The repetition is the argument: the same verb, the same words, only greater. Henry: “Cold desires beg denials.”
μεῖζονmeizonall the louderG3173
√ μέγας — big (literally or figuratively, in a very wide application)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter SingularComparative
megas: big, in a very wide application A comparative adverb doing the work of a whole clause. Poole draws the pastoral point from the delay itself: God sometimes tries faith by delays, but never frustrates it.
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
υἱὸςhuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
ΔαυίδDauidof DavidG1138
√ Δαβίδ — Dabid (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐλέησονeleēsonhave mercy onG1653
√ ἐλεέω — to compassionate (by word or deed, specially, by divine grace)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
ἡμᾶςhēmasusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Plural
32

Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai ho Iēsous stas ephōnēsen autous Ti thelete poiēsō hymin kai eipen

Word by word12 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
στὰςstasstoppedG2476
√ ἵστημι — to stand (transitively or intransitively), used in various applications (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
histēmi: to stand, transitively or intransitively The halt is the answer before the answer. Pulpit reads the stop as acknowledgement: since the blind men could not come to him, he acknowledged the title they had given him and stopped his progress.
ἐφώνησενephōnēsen[and] calledG5455
√ φωνέω — to emit a sound (animal, human or instrumental)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
phōneō: to emit a sound Matthew's verb makes the summons come from Christ's own voice, and Geneva's gloss fastens on it: “Himself, not by the means of other men.” Mark's account, as Ellicott notes, has him bid others call the man, and the message relayed was “Be of good cheer, arise; He calleth thee.” Both stand in the record; the difference is real and should not be harmonised away.
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ 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 Plural
ΤίTiWhatG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
θέλετεtheletedo you wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
thelō: to determine, as an active option Strong's root is deliberate choosing, not mere wishing. The question puts their will on record.
ποιήσωpoiēsōMe to doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active1st Person Singular
poieō: to make or do An aorist subjunctive in the first person: “what am I to do for you?” Gill states the reason plainly, that the question was put not because Christ was ignorant of their desires but so that his power and their faith should both be made manifest, and Pulpit generalises it: God knows all our necessities before we ask, yet will have our prayers.
ὑμῖνhyminfor youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εἶπενeipenHe askedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
33

“Lord,” they answered, “let our eyes be opened.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kyrie Legousin autō hina hēmōn hoi ophthalmoi anoigōsin

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority A true vocative this time, and the sources split over how much it carries. Pulpit holds that at v. 30 the address is only the usual respectful word of an inferior to one in higher station, and that the weight sits entirely on “Son of David”; Henry reads the same word as confession, saying it was surely by the Holy Ghost that they called Jesus Lord. The Greek alone cannot settle it, since κύριος serves for “sir” and for the divine name in the Greek Old Testament alike. What is not in doubt is the order of their words: they name him Lord before they name their want, and Ellicott records that Mark, after his manner, preserves the Aramaic word Rabboni that the man actually uttered.
ΛέγουσινLegousinthey answeredG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautō. . .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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἵναhinaletG2443
√ ἵνα — compare G3588 (ὁ))Conjunction
hina: in order that The same conjunction the crowd's demand used in v. 31 (“that they might be silent”) is now the blind men's own word for what they want instead. The crowd's purpose clause and theirs stand opposed across three verses, and the second one is granted.
ἡμῶνhēmōnourG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 1st Person Plural
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμοὶophthalmoieyesG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ophthalmos: the eye, literally or figuratively The common word, and deliberately so: they name the plain physical want. Pulpit draws the lesson that they first asked vaguely for mercy and now pray definitely for sight.
ἀνοιγῶσινanoigōsinbe openedG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Plural
anoigō: to open up, literally or figuratively The aorist passive leaves the agent unnamed, which is how Scripture usually speaks of what only God does. Gill notes that these men may well have known Isaiah 35:5 and that the prophecy was an encouragement to their faith; if so, the request is a citation of the Messiah's job description back to the Messiah.
34

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and at once they received their sight and followed Him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Splanchnistheis ho Iēsous hēpsato autōn tōn ommatōn kai eutheōs aneblepsan kai ēkolouthēsan autō

Word by word14 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΣπλαγχνισθεὶςSplanchnistheisMoved with compassionG4697
√ σπλαγχνίζομαι — to have the bowels yearn, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
splanchnizomai: to have the bowels yearn A passive participle: the compassion happens to him. Ellicott makes the sharp point that it was not Christ's purpose to meet the popular demand for signs, and that compassion drew from him a work of power he would otherwise have shrunk from here. Whatever one makes of Ellicott's reserve, the grammar agrees that the healing begins in the yearning and not in the crowd's appetite for wonders.
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἥψατοhēpsatotouchedG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
haptomai: to attach oneself to The middle voice makes the touch reflexive: he joins himself to what he heals. Pulpit reasons from the pattern (Matthew 9:29; Mark 8:23; John 9:6) that the healing touch of the man accompanied the word of the God, and concludes that the flesh taken into the Godhead is itself life-giving.
αὐτῶνautōntheirG846
√ 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 Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
ὀμμάτωνommatōneyesG3659
√ ὄμμα — a sight, iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
omma: a sight, an eye Two verses in the whole Greek New Testament carry this word, and both are Christ touching blind eyes (here and Mark 8:23). Matthew has just used the common ὀφθαλμοί in the blind men's own mouths; the rare word arrives with the hand.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐθέωςeutheōsat onceG2112
√ εὐθέως — directly, iAdverb
eutheōs: directly, at once No interval, no process, no medicine. Gill presses the inference: the cure was wrought at once, which he takes as proof of omnipotence.
ἀνέβλεψανaneblepsanthey received their sightG308
√ ἀναβλέπω — to look upVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
anablepō: to look up, to see again The verb that ends their sitting. Gill records that the other synoptists have Christ add “thy faith hath made thee whole,” and is careful about the mechanism: the healing virtue came not from the act of faith but from its object.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, to be in the same way with The unit's last verb answers its first. Henry: “None follow Christ blindly. He first by his grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after him.” Cambridge adds the sober detail that Jesus himself leads the procession, and Pulpit that one of these men, Bartimaeus, seems to have become known in the early church as a devoted follower, which is why a name survived at all.
αὐτῷautōHimG846
√ 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

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. Out of Jericho, on the last road up — 20:29

⚙ Matthew dates the scene by a movement, not a place: a genitive absolute, αὐτῶν ἐκπορευομένων ἀπὸ Ἰεριχὼ, “they going out from Jericho.” Cambridge identifies the crowd concretely as the Passover caravan of Galileans, travelling in numbers because the defiles up to the capital were dangerous, and Barnes fills in the road itself as the most forbidding in Palestine. Barnes also supplies what the name Jericho carries: the first city taken by Joshua, levelled under a curse, later the seat of a school of the prophets, the place where Elisha healed the bitter water. Pulpit turns that history into a comparison and states it as his own: Joshua had set forth to conquer the promised land, and Jesus sets forth to win his promised inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. Ellicott's contribution is a reconstruction rather than a datum: assuming a crossing at the ford near Jericho, he hears in v. 22 the memory of one baptism and the shadow of another. The one thing the text itself insists on is the verb ἠκολούθησεν, singular for a collective crowd, which will return plural in the last clause of the unit for two men.

ii. The cry the crowd tried to silence — 20:30-20:31

⚙ The ἰδοὺ of v. 30 is an imperative aimed at the reader: look at the roadside. Pulpit notes that these beggars, cut off from sight, had their attention caught by the tread of many feet and asked the bystanders what it meant, so that faith came to them by hearing; and he records that to call Jesus “Son of David” was to confess him Messiah, the one whom the prophets said would open blind eyes (Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 35:5). Barnes agrees on the title's weight, tracing it to the promises to David. Ellicott, more cautiously, thinks they may simply have echoed the crowd's whispers and appealed as beggars to the pity of the King. Then the crowd turns on them with ἐπετίμησεν ... ἵνα σιωπήσωσιν, and Benson insists on the harder rendering: “charged them to hold their peace.” The motive is genuinely disputed. Gill leaves both options open, friends sparing Christ trouble or enemies resenting the messianic titles; Pulpit, finding no hostility elsewhere in the scene, prefers the charitable reading. What the Greek adds is that the crowd's verb pair, rebuke plus be silent, is the pair used of the storm at Mark 4:39, and that the blind men answer it with the same words only μεῖζον, greater. Gill's formulation is the best of the comments here: faith often grows bolder by opposition and trials.

iii. He took his stand and asked them what they wanted — 20:32-20:33

⚙ στὰς is not “stopped” but “having taken his stand,” and a whole festival caravan halts with him. Pulpit reads the halt as acknowledgement of the title just shouted at him. Matthew then says he called them with his own voice, ἐφώνησεν, and the Geneva gloss fastens on precisely that: himself, not by the means of other men. Ellicott honestly records the divergence, that Mark has him bid others call, with the relayed message and the flung-off cloak; Barnes reports the same detail and reads the discarded garment as haste. The question that follows, Τί θέλετε ποιήσω ὑμῖν, is a bare deliberative subjunctive, and Gill explains it as neither ignorance nor ceremony but disclosure, so that Christ's power and their faith should both be seen. Pulpit generalises it: God knows our necessities before we ask, yet will have our prayers. Their reply is grammatically incomplete, a purpose clause with no verb of asking, ἵνα ἀνοιγῶσιν, in the passive. Gill notes that the opening of blind eyes was prophesied as the work of the Messiah and cites Isaiah 35:5, so the request may be the prophecy handed back to the one it describes.

iv. The touch, the looking up, the following — 20:34

⚙ Three words carry the verse. Σπλαγχνισθεὶς is passive and visceral, the inward parts yearning; Gill keeps the body in it, saying his bowels moved towards them as a man and that he showed it by look or gesture. ἥψατο is middle: he attached himself to their eyes, with his bare hand, as Gill notes, without instrument or medicine. And the noun he touches is not the ὀφθαλμοί the men had named but ὀμμάτων, a word the Verifier finds in only two verses of the Greek New Testament, the other being Mark 8:23, where again Christ's hand is on a blind man's eyes. Pulpit, weighing the touch across all the healings of blindness, concludes that the flesh taken into the Godhead is itself life-giving and remedial, and that the touch also ruled out deceit or collusion; Barnes makes the same evidential case at length, that the men were known, strangers to Jesus, and examined by a crowd with every interest in detecting a fraud. Then ἀνέβλεψαν, they looked up, and ἠκολούθησαν, they followed, the same verb as v. 29 now in the plural. Henry states the difference the Greek makes: none follow Christ blindly; he first by his grace opens men's eyes, and so draws their hearts after him. Gill puts it in two registers, that at the same moment Christ restored bodily sight he gave a spiritual sight to look to him and follow him.

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

⚙ Offered to be tested, not asserted. Read this as Matthew's own composition rather than as a stray miracle, and the frame is the verb ἀκολουθέω: a crowd follows in v. 29, two men follow in v. 34, and between the two the crowd tries to shut the two men up. The crowd has eyes and uses them to watch a spectacle; the blind have only hearing, and what they hear is enough to produce the one confession in the chapter that Jesus stops for. The crowd's demand and the blind men's request use the same conjunction, ἵνα: the crowd wants a purpose clause of silence, the blind men want a purpose clause of opened eyes, and the Lord grants the second against the first. The place presses the same point. Jericho, as Barnes and Poole both record, was the city whose walls fell to Joshua and whose water Elisha healed. Christ goes out from it toward Jerusalem carrying no ram's horn and no curse, and the first thing he does on leaving is halt his own march for two beggars, which is the shape of the ransom he had just described in v. 28. Where this reading could be wrong: the frame depends on the repeated verb bearing theological weight rather than being ordinary narrative vocabulary, and on Matthew having intended the shift from ὀφθαλμοί to ὄμμα, which may be nothing more than stylistic variation. We do not claim a quotation of Isaiah here, because the text gives no citation formula; only that the men ask the Messiah for the sign the prophets assigned to him, and he gives it, and the crowd's objection dies in the road.

The crowd could see and wanted quiet; the blind could only hear, and would not stop asking. (A machine reading, not Scripture.)

⚙

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.

ὄμμα: the rare word for eyes that appears only where Christ's hand does verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ In v. 33 the men ask for their ὀφθαλμοί to be opened, the ordinary word. In v. 34 Matthew writes that Jesus touched their ὀμμάτων (ὄμμα, G3659), and the Verifier finds that lexeme in only two verses of the Greek New Testament. The other is Mark 8:23, the blind man of Bethsaida, where Jesus again puts his hands on the eyes. Both scenes also share τυφλός (G5185). We claim no quotation and no dependence between the two passages; we record that the unusual word occurs twice and both times in the same gesture.

Mark 8:23

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3659 ὄμμα (in 2 vv, rare) and G5185 τυφλός (in 46 vv). The rare lexeme is the recorded basis; this is a verbal link, not a quotation, and no literary dependence is asserted.

Rebuked into silence: the crowd uses the verbs that belong to Christ and the storm verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ The crowd's action in v. 31 is ἐπετίμησεν (G2008) with the purpose ἵνα σιωπήσωσιν (G4623), and the blind men answer by crying out, ἔκραξαν (G2896). The Verifier finds the same rebuke and silence pair at Mark 4:39, where Jesus rebukes the wind and tells the sea to be still, and finds silence set against crying out at Luke 19:40, on this same journey, where Jesus says that if his own hold their peace the stones will cry out. σιωπάω stands in only ten verses, which is what makes the contact a real verbal one rather than a mood. Benson draws the pastoral edge and we record it as his: the crowd will rebuke all who begin to cry after the Son of David, and the answer is to cry the more.

Mark 4:39 · Luke 19:40

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4623 σιωπάω (in 10 vv, rare) with G2008 ἐπιτιμάω (in 29 vv) at Mark 4:39, and G4623 σιωπάω with G2896 κράζω (in 54 vv) at Luke 19:40. All refs are Greek New Testament, so shared Strong's numbers are a valid basis; no quotation is claimed.

Sitting beside the road when Jesus was passing by verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Three words set this scene: καθήμενοι (G2521, sitting), παράγει (G3855, is passing by), ἠκολούθησαν (G190, they followed). The Verifier finds all three together at Matthew 9:9 and Mark 2:14, where Jesus is passing by, sees a man sitting at the toll booth, and the man follows him; παράγω stands in only ten verses. It appears again with τυφλός at John 9:1, where Jesus passing by sees the man blind from birth. Matthew appears to be using a settled vocabulary of calling: a man is sitting, Christ passes, the man follows. What is distinctive here is that the sitting men cannot see him pass, and are told.

Matthew 9:9 · Mark 2:14 · John 9:1

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3855 παράγω (in 10 vv, rare) with G2521 κάθημαι (in 89 vv) and G190 ἀκολουθέω (in 86 vv) at Matthew 9:9 and Mark 2:14; G3855 παράγω with G5185 τυφλός at John 9:1. Rare lexeme, all within the Greek New Testament; a shared vocabulary of calling, not a quotation.

Matthew's own refrain: “Son of David, have mercy on us” structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ This is the third time in Matthew that the cry Δαυίδ plus ἐλέησον reaches Jesus from people with no standing: two blind men at Matthew 9:27, the Canaanite woman at Matthew 15:22, and these two here. Pulpit makes the connection explicitly, naming Matthew 9:27 and Matthew 15:22 as the earlier instances, and Ellicott notes that these men used the title as the Canaanite woman had. The shared lexemes are common ones, so we tier this as a pattern in Matthew's arrangement rather than a verbal citation.

Matthew 9:27 · Matthew 15:22

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G1138 Δαβίδ (in 54 vv) and G1653 ἐλεέω (in 29 vv), with G1417 δύο at Matthew 9:27 and G2400 ἰδού at Matthew 15:22. The lexemes are too common to carry a verbal tier; the link is Matthew's repeated pattern, named also by Pulpit and Ellicott.

The sign the prophets assigned to the kingdom: blind eyes opened structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The blind men ask that their eyes be ἀνοιγῶσιν, aorist passive, and Gill states that the opening of blind eyes was prophesied as the Messiah's own work, citing Isaiah 35:5; Pulpit cites Isaiah 29:18 and Isaiah 35:5 to the same end, adding that to name Jesus “Son of David” was to confess him the one who would do it. No citation formula appears in the text, and because these links cross from Greek into Hebrew, no shared Strong's number can be computed for them, so we claim motif and not quotation. The Psalms add the same note of the LORD opening the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8).

Isaiah 35:5 · Isaiah 29:18 · Isaiah 42:7 · Psalm 146:8

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible and no verbal tier is available. Recorded basis: the motif of opened blind eyes as a mark of the coming kingdom, cited to these verses by Gill (Isaiah 35:5) and Pulpit (Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 35:5). The BSB text carries no quotation formula.

Why the title is a claim: the promise sworn to David structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The men shout υἱὸς Δαυίδ, with the nominative standing where address belongs. Barnes gives the reason the title mattered and supplies the texts: Jesus was the illustrious descendant of David in whom the promises especially centred, citing Psalm 132:11-12 and Psalm 89:3-4, and adding that it was the universal opinion of the Jews that the Messiah would be David's descendant. The oath itself stands at 2 Samuel 7:12-16, and the shoot from the stump at Isaiah 11:1. Again the link crosses testaments and languages, so it is tiered by motif and by the commentators' own citations, not by shared lexemes.

2 Samuel 7:12-16 · Psalm 89:3-4 · Psalm 132:11-12 · Isaiah 11:1

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot apply, so no verbal tier. Recorded basis: the Davidic dynastic promise, with Psalm 132:11-12 and Psalm 89:3-4 cited here by Barnes and 2 Samuel 7:12-16 and Isaiah 11:1 supplied as the underlying oath and shoot; no quotation is claimed.

Jericho: the first city taken, the last city left typological

⚙ Jericho is named in only six verses of the Greek New Testament, and one of them is Hebrews 11:30, the falling of its walls by faith. Barnes and Poole both rehearse the Old Testament history from Joshua 6 onward, including the curse and Elisha's healing of the city's bitter water (2 Kings 2:21). Pulpit states the figural reading directly: Joshua set forth from here to conquer the promised land, and Jesus sets forth to win his inheritance by the sword of the Spirit. Cambridge quotes Smith's Bible Dictionary that this was the city which had exceptionally contributed to Christ's own ancestry and the first to fall before the captain of the LORD's host. We mark this typological rather than verbal: the Hebrews link shares the rare lexeme, but the Joshua reading is a figural one, held by these commentators and standing on the shared name of Joshua and Jesus, and we do not claim the text argues it.

Joshua 6:1-21 · Hebrews 11:30 · 2 Kings 2:19-22

basis: Widely-held figural reading, not a quotation. The Hebrews 11:30 contact is Verifier-confirmed by the rare shared lexeme G2410 Ἱεριχώ (in 6 vv); the Joshua 6 and 2 Kings 2 contacts are cross-Testament, where shared Strong's numbers cannot apply, and rest on the history supplied by Barnes and Poole and the Joshua-to-Jesus figure stated by Pulpit and Cambridge.

One blind man or two, entering Jericho or leaving: the synoptic divergence flagged: verify source

⚙ This is the unit's real uncertainty and we flag it rather than resolve it. Matthew has two blind men and a departure from Jericho; Mark has one, named Bartimaeus, and a departure; Luke has one and an approach. The commentators in the brief do not agree. Cambridge allows that Luke may narrate a separate miracle and says plainly that the only other solution is to suppose an inaccuracy in an unimportant detail. Ellicott suggests Luke was misinformed or left to conjecture by local inquiry, and even that Luke's local inquiries may have made his narrative the more accurate. Gill concludes there were three blind men in all, one before the city and two after. Pulpit lists the harmonisations, including Augustine, Lightfoot and Greswell's two or three distinct events, and then says that inspiration extends not to petty circumstances. Poole holds that Mark and Luke name one because only one name was known. The verbal contacts themselves are solid; what is contested is what they mean.

Mark 10:46 · Luke 18:35 · Luke 19:1

basis: The lexical basis is Verifier-confirmed and all refs are Greek (Mark 10:46: G2410 Ἱεριχώ in 6 vv, G1607 ἐκπορεύομαι in 33 vv, G3793 ὄχλος; Luke 18:35: G2410 Ἱεριχώ, G5185 τυφλός; Luke 19:1: G2410 Ἱεριχώ). Flagged because the harmonisation is disputed in the sources themselves: Cambridge, Ellicott, Gill, Pulpit and Poole give five different accounts of the number of men and the direction of travel. No harmonisation is asserted here.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son of David halts on the road to his throne ancient/widely-held

⚙ The title the crowd tried to suppress is the one Jesus stops for. Cambridge reads the appeal as the very note of this stage of the ministry, the Son of David entering upon his kingdom; Pulpit says the halt itself was his acknowledgement of the title; Barnes establishes that the name simply meant Messiah, the heir of the promises to David. What the sequence then shows is what kind of king he is. He had just said that the Son of Man came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28, immediately before this unit); on the next page of Matthew he enters the city. Between the two he stops a festival procession, on the last road of his life, because two beggars will not be quiet. Poole draws exactly this inference and we record it as his: our Lord presently gives his disciples a demonstration of what he had said, that he came to minister, to serve even the poorest and most despicable creatures. This is the apostolic and widely-held reading of the title, recorded by Barnes, Cambridge, Pulpit and Poole alike.

2 Samuel 7:12-16 · Isaiah 11:1 · Matthew 15:22 · Matthew 9:27

The hand on the eyes: the light of the world touching what it made ancient/widely-held

⚙ The healing is not done at a distance. The middle voice ἥψατο has Christ attaching himself to their eyes, and the rare noun ὄμμα appears in the Greek New Testament only here and at Mark 8:23, both times under his hand. Pulpit gathers the pattern across Matthew 9:29, Mark 8:23 and John 9:6 and concludes that the healing touch of the man accompanied the word of the God, so that his flesh taken into the Godhead is itself life-giving and remedial. Geneva's marginal note on v. 29 makes the same claim in one line, that by healing these blind men with a single touch Christ shows himself the only light of the world. Gill reads the double gift, bodily sight and a spiritual sight to look to him and follow him as the light of the world. The reading is ancient and widely held, and its ground here is the text's own detail: the passive request that eyes be opened is answered by a hand.

Mark 8:23 · John 9:1 · Isaiah 35:5

Compassion as the engine: the inward parts before the miracle novel

⚙ Matthew does not say Jesus decided, or that the crowd persuaded him, or that the men's persistence earned it. He writes a passive participle of the verb for the bowels yearning, Σπλαγχνισθεὶς, and then the touch. Ellicott presses the point that it was not Christ's purpose to meet the popular demand for signs and wonders, and that compassion drew from him a work of power he would otherwise have shrunk from here. Gill keeps the body in the word: his bowels moved towards them as a man. Read with the ransom saying that stands immediately before this unit, the same word describes the motive of the cross as describes the motive of the touch, which is why the two beggars are not an interruption of the journey to Jerusalem but a miniature of it. The lexical observation is sourced; the reading of this scene as a miniature of the passion is our own inference and should be weighed as such.

Mark 8:23 · Matthew 9:27

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)
  • 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. Text. The Greek surface forms, glosses, Strong's numbers and parses above are the Berean interlinear as supplied; the English is BSB. Two details in the interlinear are worth naming: ἰδοὺ at 20:30 is parsed as an aorist imperative active, second person singular, which is the standard treatment of a frozen particle rather than a live command; and υἱὸς at 20:30 and 20:31 is parsed nominative where the vocative υἱέ would be expected in address. We have not checked manuscript variants for that form and do not claim there are none. The lexicon entry for G1138 is spelled Δαβίδ while the interlinear surface reads Δαυίδ; the difference is orthographic. Variants recorded by the sources. Gill reports that the words rendered “their eyes” at 20:34 are absent from some copies and from the Vulgate, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, so that the line reads “immediately they saw”; that the Ethiopic at 20:29 reads “as they went out from Jerusalem,” contrary to all copies; and that some copies add at 20:34 a clause apparently drawn from Matthew 9:29. We pass these on as Gill's reports and have not verified them. Sources. JFB supplies no exposition for this passage at all, referring the reader to Luke 18:35-43, and Poole's single note sits at 20:34 and covers 20:29 to 20:34, so his voice is cited from there. Henry's entry is one block for 20:29 to 20:34 and therefore repeats under each verse in the brief. The Barnes entry at 20:29 and 20:34 and the Pulpit entry at 20:29 were capped in the brief; we did not open their full text, so anything in the omitted remainder is not represented here. Geneva's contribution is a marginal gloss of a few words, not an exposition. What is uncertain. The number of blind men and the direction of travel are genuinely disputed within these sources, and we have taken no side; see the flagged thread. The synthesis layer's own inferences, marked ⚙, include the reading of ἀκολουθέω at 20:29 and 20:34 as a deliberate frame, the opposed ἵνα clauses of 20:31 and 20:33, the weight put on the shift from ὀφθαλμοί to ὄμμα, and the reading of this scene as a miniature of the ransom saying. Each could be ordinary narrative variation instead, and each is offered to be tested.

✦ = 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)