The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew9:27–34

Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute

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Matthew 9:27–34 — Jesus Heals the Blind and Mute. 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.

27

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai tō Iēsou paragonti ekeithen dyo typhloi ēkolouthēsan autō krazontes kai legontes Eleēson hēmas huios Dauid

Word by word16 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAsG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦIēsouJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounDative Masculine Singular
παράγοντιparagontiwent onG3855
√ παράγω — to lead near, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveDative Masculine Singular
paragō: to lead near, pass by A rare-ish verb (10 verses). The Verifier ties it to Matthew 20:30, the Jericho blind men, where the same participle and the same cry recur. Pulpit lists the overlap word by word and still concludes, honestly, that these are two distinct occurrences whose oral forms drifted toward each other.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom thereG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
δύοdyotwoG1417
√ δύο — "two"AdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
τυφλοὶtyphloiblind [men]G5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
typhlos: opaque, blind Cambridge (citing Trench) notes the sheer frequency of blindness in the East, from dust, flying sand, and sleeping in the open air. This is not a rare stage-prop affliction but the commonest misery in the street, and it is the one Isaiah 35:5 made the signature of the age to come.
ἠκολούθησανēkolouthēsanfollowedG190
√ ἀκολουθέω — properly, to be in the same way with, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
akoloutheō: to follow, be in the same way with The aorist reports a completed act of following that precedes any cure. They follow before they see. Benson presses the point: being blind, they could have no evidence of the miracles from their own senses, so they believed “on the testimony of others who had seen them.”
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
κράζοντεςkrazontescrying outG2896
√ κράζω — properly, to "croak" (as a raven) or scream, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
krazō: to croak, scream The participle is present and the shout is sustained. Matthew Henry reads the delay as design: Christ “would try their faith, and would teach us always to pray, and not to faint, though the answer does not come at once.”
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
λέγοντεςlegontesG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἘλέησονEleēsonHave mercy onG1653
√ ἐλεέω — to compassionate (by word or deed, specially, by divine grace)VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
eleeō: to show mercy, compassionate Aorist imperative, second person singular: one decisive act of mercy asked of one person. The petition names no disease. Poole: “their petition is general, though without doubt they had a particular respect to their want of sight.” They ask for the man before they ask for the eyes.
ἡμᾶςhēmasusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Plural
υἱὸςhuiosSonG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounNominative Masculine Singular
huios: son The title, not the request, is the theological centre of the verse. Ellicott: the address expressed “the popular belief that He was the expected Christ.” Barnes calls it “a profession of belief, on the part of these blind men, of the Messiahship of Jesus.” Pulpit observes the striking pattern in Matthew: the Galilean crowds only float the possibility (12:23), and the only people who say it to his face are a Canaanite woman and blind men.
ΔαυίδDauidof DavidG1138
√ Δαβίδ — Dabid (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Dauid: David The genitive that binds the healer to the covenant promise of an everlasting throne. Cambridge adds the historical cost of the confession: under the Asmoneans and the Herods the Davidic expectation had been badly obscured, so “To have clung to it was an act of faith.”
28

After Jesus had entered the house, the blind men came to Him. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” He asked. “Yes, Lord,” they answered.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Elthonti eis tēn oikian hoi typhloi prosēlthon autō Pisteuete hoti dynamai poiēsai touto kai ho Iēsous legei autois Nai Kyrie Legousin autō

Word by word23 · parsed
δὲdeAfterG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ἘλθόντιElthonti[Jesus] had enteredG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveDative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisG1519
√ 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
οἰκίανoikianhouseG3614
√ οἰκία — properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
oikia: residence, abode The house is the hinge of the narrative. Gill: “he took no notice of them by the way... which he did, partly to avoid the populace, and that he might not be seen by men... and partly to try their faith.” The silence in the street is not indifference; it is the same testing Henry reads in the delay.
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
τυφλοίtyphloiblind [men]G5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
προσῆλθονprosēlthoncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
proserchomai: to approach, come to Aorist: they crossed the threshold. Barnes: “They showed a determination to persevere until they obtained what they asked.” Pulpit renders the force of the verb as coming close. Blind men do not wander into the right house; someone guided them, and they came anyway.
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
ΠιστεύετεPisteueteDo you believeG4100
√ πιστεύω — to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), iVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
pisteuō: to have faith, entrust oneself The question asks for what the cry in the street had already implied, now said out loud. Gill: the question is put “not as being ignorant of, or as doubting their faith in him,” but “for the further trial of their faith, and to bring them to a more open profession of it.” Pulpit is cooler about the quality of that faith, since verse 31 shows it “was none too perfect.”
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
δύναμαιdynamaiI am ableG1410
√ δύναμαι — to be able or possibleVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive1st Person Singular
dynamai: to be able, to have power Present tense, middle/passive in form: ability that is his now and inherently, not power borrowed for the occasion. Poole draws the careful pastoral line: for temporal goods “it is enough for us in those cases to believe that God is able to do the thing, and that he will do it if he seeth it be for our good; he only therefore questions their faith as to his power.”
ποιῆσαιpoiēsaito doG4160
√ ποιέω — to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
τοῦτοtoutothisG3778
√ οὗτος — the he (she or it), iDemonstrative PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
The bare demonstrative touto, “this,” with no noun. Neither the disease nor the cure is named aloud in the house.
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
ἸησοῦςIēsous[He]G2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeiaskedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ 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
ΝαίNaiYesG3483
√ ναί — yesParticle
ΚύριεKyrieLordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounVocative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, lord Vocative. In the street they said “Son of David,” a covenant title; indoors they say Kyrie, the word the Greek Old Testament uses for the divine Name. Barnes notes that the miracle rests on nothing more than this profession, “as it is on the simple profession of our faith that our souls will be saved.”
ΛέγουσινLegousinthey answeredG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
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
29

Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote hēpsato autōn tōn ophthalmōn legōn Kata hymōn tēn pistin genēthētō hymin

Word by word12 · parsed
ΤότεToteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
ἥψατοhēpsatoHe touchedG680
√ ἅπτομαι — properly, to attach oneself to, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
haptomai: to fasten to, take hold of Ellicott observes that this is the first recorded instance of what became Christ's habitual method with the blind and the deaf (compare Matthew 20:34; John 9:6). His reasoning is humane: others had their faith strengthened by seeing sympathy in the face of the Healer, and the blind, shut out from that, were given touch instead. Gill agrees that no touch was needed for power, only for kindness.
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 Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμῶνophthalmōneyesG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounGenitive Masculine Plural
λέγωνlegōn[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ΚατὰKataAccording toG2596
√ κατά — (prepositionally) down (in place or time), in varied relations (according to the case (genitive, dative or accusative) with which it is joined)Preposition
ὑμῶνhymōnyourG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive 2nd Person Plural
τὴνtēnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
πίστινpistinfaithG4102
√ πίστις — persuasion, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
pistis: persuasion, faith The noun is accusative after kata, the standard by which the thing is measured out. The unit will test this word twice more: the crowds who marvel in verse 33 do not have it, and the Pharisees in verse 34 look at the same evidence and call it sorcery.
γενηθήτωgenēthētōwill it be doneG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbAorist Imperative Passive3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be, be generated A passive imperative with no named agent: the divine passive. He does not say “I heal you”; he commands the event into being and leaves the Actor unnamed, exactly as verse 30 will say the eyes “were opened” without saying by whom. Gill guards the grammar against a false inference: faith is not “the cause or condition of this cure,” only the measure the word answers to.
ὑμῖνhyminto youG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounDative 2nd Person Plural
30

And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one finds out about this!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai autōn hoi ophthalmoi ēneōchthēsan kai ho Iēsous enebrimēthē autois legōn Horate mēdeis ginōsketō

Word by word14 · parsed
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
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
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὀφθαλμοίophthalmoieyesG3788
√ ὀφθαλμός — the eye (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἠνεῴχθησανēneōchthēsanwere openedG455
√ ἀνοίγω — to open up (literally or figuratively, in various applications)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
anoigō: to open up The verb of Isaiah's promised age and of the Psalms: the LORD opens the eyes of the blind (Psalm 146:8). Benson lists the prophecies (Psalm 146:8; Isaiah 35:5; 42:7) and calls this “the first instance recorded by the evangelists in which Jesus proved himself to be the Messiah, by fulfilling those predictions.” That claim is Benson's reading of the Gospel order, not a statement Matthew makes.
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
ἐνεβριμήθηenebrimēthēwarned them sternlyG1690
√ ἐμβριμάομαι — to have indignation on, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
embrimaomai: to snort, be indignant at A genuinely rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only five verses in the New Testament, and the other four are Mark 1:43 (the cleansed leper, also told to be silent), Mark 14:5 (the disciples' anger at Bethany), and John 11:33, 38 (Jesus at the grave of Lazarus). Ellicott calls it “one of the strongest used by the New Testament writers.” Benson, citing Hammond, pulls the other way: “It signifies a rational, not a passionate earnestness and vehemence.” The lexical range genuinely allows both, and the commentators divide.
αὐτοῖςautois. . .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 Plural
λέγωνlegōnG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὉρᾶτεHorateSee thatG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbPresent Imperative Active2nd Person Plural
horaō: to see, attend to The irony is unavoidable in Greek and invisible in most English: the first word he says to two men who have just received sight is the verb to see.
μηδεὶςmēdeisno oneG3367
√ μηδείς — not even one (man, woman, thing)AdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
γινωσκέτωginōsketōfinds out about thisG1097
√ γινώσκω — to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications (as follow, with others not thus clearly expressed)VerbPresent Imperative Active3rd Person Singular
ginōskō: to know The command is about publicity, not secrecy of fact. Henry gives the standard reason: Christ “would not indulge the conceit which prevailed among the Jews, that their Messiah should be a temporal prince.” Gill adds a second, that the miracle might “irritate the resentments of some persons against him.” Pulpit adds a third, drawn from Origen: that recital of mercies received is apt to degenerate into display.
31

But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout the land.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de hoi exelthontes diephēmisan auton en holē ekeinē tē gē

Word by word10 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἐξελθόντεςexelthontesthey went outG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
exerchomai: to issue, go out The same verb recurs in the genitive absolute of verse 32, so that their going out is also the doorway of the next miracle. The narrative gives them no interval in which to reconsider.
διεφήμισανdiephēmisanand spread the newsG1310
√ διαφημίζω — to report thoroughly, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
diaphēmizō: to report thoroughly, blaze abroad Three verses hold this word: here, Mark 1:45 (the cleansed leper, who also disobeys a command to silence and makes open ministry impossible), and Matthew 28:15 (the soldiers' bribed report that the disciples stole the body). The Verifier's frequency count is what makes the link real rather than thematic. The same rare verb serves grateful disobedience and deliberate lie, which is itself a caution against reading a word's morality out of its dictionary entry.
αὐτὸνautonabout 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 PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἐνenthroughoutG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ὅλῃholē. . .G3650
√ ὅλος — "whole" or "all", iAdjectiveDative Feminine Singular
ἐκείνῃekeinē. . .G1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounDative Feminine Singular
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
γῇgēlandG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounDative Feminine Singular
gē: soil, land, region Not Israel as a nation (contrast Israēl in verse 33) but the local countryside. The fame is regional, and Pulpit notes the wording may recall Mark 1:45.
32

As they were leaving, a demon-possessed man who was mute was brought to Jesus.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Autōn exerchomenōn idou daimonizomenon anthrōpon kōphon prosēnenkan autō

Word by word9 · parsed
δὲdeAsG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΑὐτῶνAutōntheyG846
√ 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
ἐξερχομένωνexerchomenōnwere leavingG1831
√ ἐξέρχομαι — to issue (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Plural
exerchomai: to issue, go out The genitive absolute welds the two episodes into one afternoon. Gill sees the seam as deliberate, showing “how busy Christ was... that as soon as one work of mercy was over, another offered.”
ἰδοὺidouG2400
√ ἰδού — used as imperative lo!VerbAorist Imperative Active2nd Person Singular
idou: behold! Formally an imperative, functionally a stage direction; untranslated in BSB.
δαιμονιζόμενονdaimonizomenona demon-possessedG1139
√ δαιμονίζομαι — to be exercised by a dæmonVerbPresent Participle Middle or PassiveAccusative Masculine Singular
daimonizomai: to be exercised by a demon Ellicott, cautious, describes the presenting phenomena as “catalepsy, or of insanity showing itself in obstinate and sullen silence,” and insists that “The dumbness was a spiritual disease, not the result of congenital malformation.” That distinction is Ellicott's diagnosis laid over the text, which says only that the man was mute and demonized; but it does agree with verse 33, where removing the demon removes the muteness.
ἄνθρωπονanthrōponmanG444
√ ἄνθρωπος — from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι))NounAccusative Masculine Singular
κωφὸνkōphonwho was muteG2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
kōphos: blunted, dull (of hearing or speech) A word in only twelve verses, and it covers deaf as well as mute. Gill spells out the ordinary connection: those deaf from birth cannot learn to speak, and he cites the rabbinic category of the deaf-mute who “can neither hear nor speak.” He then argues this man was an exception, mute not by nature but by the suppression of his speech. The same adjective stands in the credential list of Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22.
προσήνεγκανprosēnenkanwas broughtG4374
√ προσφέρω — to bear towards, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
prospherō: to bear towards, to offer Third person plural with no antecedent: somebody carried him. Poole builds a small taxonomy out of it, distinguishing those who came to Christ of their own accord, those who could not come and were willingly brought, those he met by chance, and those “brought without their consent,” which is this man's case. Poole's conclusion is the theological weight of the verb: Christ “did not always stay for people's voluntarily offering him occasions... to show the freeness of his grace.”
αὐτῷautōto [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 PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
33

And when the demon had been driven out, the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai tou daimoniou ekblēthentos ho kōphos elalēsen kai hoi ochloi ethaumasan legontes Oudepote houtōs ephanē en tō Israēl

Word by word18 · parsed
καὶkaiAnd whenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
δαιμονίουdaimonioudemonG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ἐκβληθέντοςekblēthentoshad been driven outG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle PassiveGenitive Neuter Singular
ekballō: to eject, throw out The verb the Pharisees will pick up in verse 34 and use twice. Matthew narrates the exorcism in a single participle and spends his sentence on the reactions instead: JFB notes that “The particulars in this case are not given”, the object being the restored faculty, the popular astonishment, and “the very different effect of it upon another class.”
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
κωφόςkōphos[man]G2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐλάλησενelalēsenbegan to speakG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
laleō: to talk, utter Benson: the dumb spoke “readily, distinctly, rationally, and fluently.” Henry states the principle the miracle embodies: Christ's cures “strike at the root, and remove the effect by taking away the cause; they open the lips, by breaking Satan's power in the soul.”
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
ἐθαύμασανethaumasanwere amazedG2296
√ θαυμάζω — to wonderVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
thaumazō: to wonder, marvel Ellicott weighs this reaction precisely, and the weighing is the point of the verse: the multitude's wonder, “though it did not actually amount to faith, was yet one step towards it.” Verse 34 supplies the contrast, men who did not deny the facts but had “their own solution of them.”
λέγοντεςlegontes[and] saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
ΟὐδέποτεOudepoteNothingG3763
√ οὐδέποτε — not even at any time, iAdverb
οὕτωςhoutōslike thisG3779
√ οὕτω — in this way (referring to what precedes or follows)Adverb
ἐφάνηephanēhas ever been seenG5316
√ φαίνω — to lighten (shine), iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
phainō: to shine, be shown A passive again, like the opened eyes of verse 30: something was made to appear, and the sentence does not say by whom. JFB hears a guarded Messianic hint, the crowd indicating “as far as they thought it safe to do so, their inclination to regard Him as the promised Messiah.”
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῷtōG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἸσραήλIsraēlIsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounDative Masculine Singular
Israēl: Israel Not the local gē of verse 31 but the covenant people across its whole history. Barnes reads the claim as literally true of the scale of what had just happened; Gill lists the earlier wonder-workers the crowd implicitly measures against, Moses, Elijah and Elisha, and says the crowd is comparing this one afternoon with all of them.
34

But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that He drives out demons.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hoi Pharisaioi elegon En tō archonti tōn daimoniōn ekballei ta daimonia

Word by word12 · parsed
δὲdeButG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ΦαρισαῖοιPharisaioiPhariseesG5330
√ Φαρισαῖος — a separatist, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἔλεγονelegonsaidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
epō / legō: to say The imperfect makes this a refrain rather than an outburst. Poole lists its recurrences, Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22, Luke 11:15, and Ellicott adds Matthew 10:25, which shows the charge was already current before the mission of the Twelve.
ἘνEn[It is] byG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
en: in, by, among The preposition carries the whole accusation. Pulpit notes the Revised Version margin reads “in” as more literal and presses it toward the charge of union, not mere instrumentality. Read that way, the Pharisees are not calling him a magician who borrows power; they are saying that what stands in him is the ruler of demons.
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ἄρχοντιarchontiprinceG758
√ ἄρχων — a first (in rank or power)NounDative Masculine Singular
archōn: a first in rank or power Ellicott notes that the name Beelzebub is attached to this title only at Matthew 12:24, and that Matthew defers the refutation to that passage; Cambridge and Barnes both send the reader there as well. This unit records the charge and leaves it standing unanswered, which is part of why Pulpit suspects the verse of having migrated here from chapter 12.
τῶνtōnofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
δαιμονίωνdaimoniōndemonsG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounGenitive Neuter Plural
ἐκβάλλειekballei[that] He drives outG1544
√ ἐκβάλλω — to eject (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ekballō: to eject, throw out Gill measures exactly what the accusation concedes: “they could not deny matter of fact, that he had cast out a devil; nor could they say he had done an ill thing in so doing... but that Christ might not have the glory of the action... foolishly impute it to a diabolical influence.” The verb is the same one the narrator used; the fact is agreed, and only the source is in dispute.
τὰtaG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
δαιμόνιαdaimoniademonsG1140
√ δαιμόνιον — a dæmonic beingNounAccusative Neuter Plural

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. Two men who cannot see name him rightly — 9:27

The unit opens in motion. παράγοντι is a present participle: Jesus is still walking past when two blind men attach themselves to him with the discipleship verb ἠκολούθησαν, screaming (κράζοντες, properly to croak) a title nobody else in Galilee will say to his face. Ellicott records that “Son of David” was the phrase “which expressed the popular belief that He was the expected Christ,” and Barnes calls the cry “a profession of belief... of the Messiahship of Jesus.” Cambridge supplies the historical weight: under the Asmoneans and the Herods that expectation had been badly obscured, so “To have clung to it was an act of faith.” Benson notices the sharpest thing about these particular witnesses: being blind, they had no sensory evidence of any miracle at all, and believed “on the testimony of others who had seen them.” ⚙ The evangelist has arranged the irony: the men with no eyes give the correct christological title, and the men with eyes will call the same power demonic in seven verses.

ii. The silence in the street and the question in the house — 9:28

He does not answer them outdoors. Gill states the reading plainly: “he took no notice of them by the way,” partly to avoid the crowd and partly “to try their faith, and the constancy of it”; JFB says the same, “To try their faith and patience, He seems to have made them no answer.” Henry turns it pastoral: he “would teach us always to pray, and not to faint, though the answer does not come at once.” Indoors, the Greek shifts to historic presents, λέγει and Λέγουσιν (Pulpit: “The evangelist uses the more vivid present whenever he can”), and the question is put in the plural: Πιστεύετε, do you two, now, believe that I am able. Poole notices exactly what is and is not asked: “he only therefore questions their faith as to his power.” Their answer moves the title from the covenant to the throne, from Son of David in the street to Kyrie in the house. ⚙ Ellicott's guess that the house is Peter's at Capernaum is a guess; the article alone tells us only that it was a known house.

iii. Touch, fiat, and the growl that follows — 9:29-9:30

He fastens on their eyes (ἥψατο, middle voice, “to attach oneself to”) and speaks a third-person aorist imperative, γενηθήτω: let it come to be. JFB draws the distinction the preposition demands: “not, Receive a cure proportioned to your faith, but, Receive this cure as granted to your faith,” and Gill blocks the other error, that faith was “the cause or condition of this cure.” Ellicott explains the touch as accommodation to men who cannot see a face. Then the register breaks. ἐνεβριμήθη is the hardest word in the unit: Cambridge gives the root sense “to roar,” Pulpit quotes Westcott's “coercion springing out of displeasure,” Ellicott calls it “one of the strongest” verbs in the New Testament, while Benson, following Hammond, insists it means “a rational, not a passionate earnestness.” ⚙ The commentators divide because the lexicon genuinely allows both; what is not in doubt is that the same verb describes Jesus at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:33, 38). The first word he speaks to men who can now see is Ὁρᾶτε, see to it.

iv. The command broken, and a man who has no voice to break it with — 9:31-9:32

They leave and immediately publish him (διεφήμισαν, a verb the Verifier finds in only three verses). Pulpit: “The very moment that they left the house... they disobeyed him.” The old commentators will not tidy this. Ellicott reports the confessional split, most patristic and Roman Catholic writers approving the zeal, most Protestants faulting the disobedience, and comes down for obedience: “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Gill splits it: the motive was gratitude, but “not our affection, but Christ's will, is to be the rule of our actions.” Poole simply admits the wall: “we are not able, either to give a just account why or how Christ commanded them, nor how they published the things, or were excusable in doing of it.” ⚙ Matthew then sets beside these two loud men a man who cannot speak at all and is carried in by others, δαιμονιζόμενον, being demonized. Benson, following Erasmus, supposes he could not even ask; Gill, that the enemy's whole object was that he should “not be able to say anything to the glory of God.” Two men were told to be quiet and would not be. One man could not speak and is given a tongue.

v. One sign, two verdicts — 9:33-9:34

The demon is thrown out in a genitive absolute (ἐκβληθέντος) and the mute man speaks. The crowds land on a superlative: Οὐδέποτε ἐφάνη οὕτως ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ, never did it appear thus in Israel. Barnes: “Never was there in our land... such a succession of wonders.” JFB reads the phrase as reaching back over the whole chapter, “all those miraculous displays of healing power which seemed to promise a new era in the history of Israel,” and suspects the crowd is signalling, as far as it dared, its inclination to call him Messiah. Benson cites Doddridge on the scale of it. Then the same evidence produces the opposite verdict. The Pharisees say (imperfect ἔλεγον, they kept saying) that he casts out in the ruler of the demons; Pulpit presses the preposition, that they charge not only instrumentality but “union with him.” Gill's summary is exact: they could not deny the fact, could not call the deed evil, could not contradict the crowd, and so attacked the source. Ellicott sets the two verses deliberately against each other: wonder that “did not actually amount to faith, was yet one step towards it,” over against men “not denying the facts, but having their own solution of them.” ⚙ Henry's line is the unit's epigram: “Of the two, better a dumb devil than a blaspheming one.”

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

⚙ Fallible, offered to be tested. Read the eight verses as one argument about evidence and the will. Matthew gives four groups the same Jesus. Two blind men, who have no evidence at all except hearsay, get the title right and are healed. A mute man, who cannot ask and cannot testify, is healed because other people carried him. The crowds, who see everything, produce admiration without faith, which Ellicott rightly calls a step toward faith and not faith. The Pharisees, who see exactly the same thing, concede the fact and reassign the power. So the chapter quietly denies that sight is what makes believers. The men who could not see confessed; the men who could see blasphemed; and between them lies a man who was given speech by someone else's faith and never speaks a recorded word of his own. The command in verse 30 then reads less like a strategy and more like a warning that evidence, published loudly, does not compel anyone: the fame these two spread through that whole land is the same fame that verse 34 turns into an accusation. If that is right, the unit does not ask us to be impressed. It asks whether, having heard only the testimony of others, we will call him by his covenant name and go into the house after him.

Not Scripture, a fallible synthesis: the blind confessed, the seeing accused, and the mute was saved by other men's legs.

⚙

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.

Blazed abroad: the three verses that hold this verb verbal / quotation: confirmed

διεφήμισαν (diaphēmizō, G1310) occurs in only three verses in the New Testament. At Mark 1:45 the cleansed leper, likewise charged to silence, publishes it so widely that Jesus can no longer openly enter a city. At Matthew 28:15 the same verb carries the soldiers' bribed story that the disciples stole the body, a report the evangelist says was still circulating when he wrote. (Those two verses lie outside this unit's brief, so their wording is described here, not quoted.) Pulpit already suspected that the phrasing of our verse owes something to Mark 1:45. ⚙ The word itself is morally neutral: it serves grateful disobedience in one place and paid falsehood in another. What it always means is that a report about Jesus got past every attempt to contain it.

Mark 1:45 · Matthew 28:15

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1310 διαφημίζω, which occurs in only 3 verses in the New Testament (Matthew 9:31; Mark 1:45; Matthew 28:15). A rare shared lexeme, all within the Greek New Testament; not a quotation of one text by another.

The roar: where else Jesus snorts with indignation verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἐνεβριμήθη (embrimaomai, G1690) appears in five verses. Mark 1:43 is the closest parallel in content as well as form: the cleansed leper is “straitly charged” with the same verb and told to say nothing, and he too publishes it. At Mark 14:5 it is the company at Bethany growling at the woman with the ointment. At John 11:33 and 11:38 it is Jesus himself at the grave of Lazarus, and Cambridge lists that usage as “to groan in the spirit.” Pulpit borrows Westcott's definition from that very passage: “coercion springing out of displeasure... something seen in another which moves to anger rather than to sorrow.” ⚙ The overlap with Mark 1:43 is the strongest link in this unit: same rare verb, same charge of silence, same disobedience, same consequence of uncontrollable fame.

Mark 1:43 · Mark 14:5 · John 11:33 · John 11:38

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G1690 ἐμβριμάομαι, in only 5 verses (Matthew 9:30; Mark 1:43; Mark 14:5; John 11:33, 38). A rare shared lexeme across Greek texts; the Mark 1:43 pairing also shares the silence-charge structure. No text quotes another.

The blind see, the mute speak: the credential list structural / thematic: confirmed

When John's disciples ask whether he is the coming one, the answer at Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22 is a list, and the Verifier finds both of this unit's key words, τυφλός and κωφός, standing in it. Matthew 15:30-31 repeats the pairing when the crowds see the mute speaking and the blind seeing and glorify the God of Israel, which is close to the crowd's reaction here. ⚙ This is a shared motif carried by shared vocabulary, not a citation: Matthew 9 makes no reference to Matthew 11, and Matthew 11 names no earlier episode. The connection is that the evangelist has just narrated, in order, the two items that will head the list.

Matthew 11:5 · Luke 7:22 · Matthew 15:30 · Matthew 15:31

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G5185 τυφλός (in 46 vv) and G2974 κωφός (in 12 vv) across Matthew 9:27-33, Matthew 11:5, Luke 7:22 and Matthew 15:30-31. Real verbal overlap inside a shared motif; deliberately not tiered verbal, since neither passage quotes the other.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened structural / thematic: confirmed

Every commentator in this brief reaches for Isaiah 35:5-6, where the eyes of the blind are opened and the tongue of the dumb sings, and the pairing of those two clauses is exactly the pairing of this unit. Gill makes it the reason Matthew joined the two episodes: as it was foretold that the eyes of the blind should be opened, “so likewise, that the tongue of the dumb should sing.” JFB puts it as a question about the blind men's own motive. Poole adds Isaiah 42:7, Benson adds Psalm 146:8. ⚙ Honesty requires the downgrade: Matthew supplies no citation formula here (contrast his explicit “that it might be fulfilled” elsewhere), and a Greek text and a Hebrew text cannot share a Strong's number, so no verbal basis can be computed. The link is a motif the commentators unanimously recognise, and the crowd's “never so in Israel” is consistent with it, but the claim is inference, not quotation.

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

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek New Testament to Hebrew Old Testament): shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition, so no verbal tier is available. Basis is the shared two-part motif (blind eyes opened, mute tongue loosed) unanimously recorded by Ellicott, Benson, JFB, Gill and Poole, with no citation formula in Matthew's text.

Two blind men at Jericho: the same words, a different road verbal / quotation: confirmed

Matthew 20:30 has Jesus passing by (παράγω, a verb in only ten verses), two blind men, the same cry for mercy, and the same title. Pulpit states flatly, “The words are identical in Matthew 20:30,” then lists five points of agreement and five of difference (Galilee against Jericho, indoors against roadside, a question about faith against a question about desire), and concludes “that we have, in fact, narratives of two distinct occurrences,” while allowing that oral transmission assimilated their wording. ⚙ The honest position is Pulpit's: the verbal overlap is real and measurable, the identity of the events is not established, and the direction of any assimilation is a judgement call he himself hedges.

Matthew 20:30 · Matthew 20:34

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3855 παράγω (in only 10 vv), G5185 τυφλός (46 vv) and G1653 ἐλεέω (29 vv); Pulpit independently reports the clauses as identical in Greek. Rare shared lexeme plus verbatim clause overlap, both Gospel texts; this is literary parallel, not one text citing another.

By the prince of the demons: the charge that hardens into a formula structural / thematic: confirmed

The accusation of verse 34 is not a single outburst. It recurs at Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22 and Luke 11:15, each time after an exorcism, each time in the same shape: he casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons. Poole lists the parallels; Cambridge and Barnes both send the reader forward to Matthew 12:25-30 for the answer, which this unit conspicuously does not give. Pulpit sets out the phrases common to Matthew 9:32-34 and Matthew 12:22-24 word by word, including “But the Pharisees, He casteth out the devils by... the prince of the devils.” JFB calls this “the first muttering of a theory of such miracles which soon became a fixed mode of calumniating them.” ⚙ Note what the charge concedes: the exorcism happened.

Matthew 12:22 · Matthew 12:24 · Mark 3:22 · Luke 11:15 · Luke 11:14

basis: Verifier: Luke 11:14 shares G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (212 vv) and G2974 κωφός (12 vv); Matthew 12:22 shares G5185 τυφλός (46 vv) and G5119 τότε (158 vv). Deliberately NOT tiered verbal: every computed shared lexeme here is common, and no text cites another. The near-identical clause (ἄρχων τῶν δαιμονίων with ἐκβάλλω), which Pulpit sets out as wording common to Matthew 9:32-34 and Matthew 12:22-24, is recorded as a literary parallel inside a recurring accusation, not as a quotation.

Is verse 34 original here? flagged: verify source

Pulpit flags a textual problem: verse 34 is wanting, he says, in D, the Old Latin manuscripts a and k, and in Hilary and Juvencus (his text prints the name with an OCR slip), and it is bracketed by Westcott and Hort as perhaps a Western non-interpolation; he adds an internal argument, that the section ends more naturally with the crowd's wonder, since no opposition has been mentioned since the start of the chapter. Gill independently reports that “In Beza's most ancient manuscript, and in some others, this whole verse is wanting,” and notes that Christ gives no answer to the charge here, whereas at Matthew 12:24 he does. ⚙ The verse stands in BSB and is treated as text throughout this unit; the doubt is recorded, not resolved, and the two witnesses to the doubt are independent of each other.

Matthew 12:24 · Luke 11:15

basis: Provenance of Matthew 9:34 itself is contested: omitted by Codex Bezae (D), Old Latin a and k, Hilary and Juvencus per Pulpit, who reports Westcott and Hort bracketing it as a possible Western non-interpolation; Gill independently reports the omission in Beza's manuscript. Flagged rather than tiered, since the question is textual, not exegetical.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Son of David who does the Son of David's work ancient/widely-held

The title in verse 27 is a covenant claim, not a courtesy. Barnes: “By the Son of David the Jews meant the Messiah,” pointing to Isaiah 9:7 and Luke 1:32. Poole: “nor can any reason be given, why they called him the Son of David, but this their belief that he was the true Messias,” and he notes their courage, since by John 9:22 the confession carried a cost. Ellicott traces the same title to the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22) and the blind at Jericho (Matthew 20:30-31). ⚙ What the blind men do is press the title for the specific deed the prophets attached to the Davidic age: mercy that opens eyes. Benson calls this the first recorded case in which Jesus proved his Messiahship by fulfilling those predictions, and that ordering is Benson's own; but the association of the Davidic king with sight for the blind is not his invention, and it is precisely what Jesus will send back to John in Matthew 11:5. This is the ancient and widely held reading, carried here by Ellicott, Benson, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and Pulpit alike.

Isaiah 35:5 · Matthew 11:5 · Matthew 20:30 · Luke 1:32

Let it come to be: the creative imperative in a Galilean house novel

The word that heals is γενηθήτω, a third-person aorist imperative of ginomai, “let it come to be,” the grammar of a fiat rather than a petition, and the eyes are then said to have “been opened up” in a passive with no agent named. Gill is careful that faith is not the cause; JFB is careful that the cure is granted to faith and not measured out against it. ⚙ Put those two together and the sentence makes a christological claim by its syntax: the man who speaks the imperative is the unnamed agent of the passive. In Psalm 146 it is the LORD who opens the eyes of the blind, and the psalm's point is precisely that no son of man can save. Here a son of David says “let it be” and it is. The commentators in this brief make the Messianic identification explicitly; the reading of the grammar as itself a divine claim is ⚙ synthesis and should be weighed as such.

Psalm 146:8 · Genesis 1:3 · Matthew 8:3

The mouth the enemy shut, and the mouth the Word opens ancient/widely-held

Gill reads the demoniac's affliction with unusual precision: the speech was suppressed “out of pure malice and ill will, that he might not have the benefit of conversation with men, nor be able to say anything to the glory of God.” Benson, following Erasmus, adds that such a man could not even ask, and “needed to be brought to the Saviour by others.” Geneva calls the episode “An example of that power that Christ has over the devil,” and Henry says his cures “strike at the root... they open the lips, by breaking Satan's power in the soul.” ⚙ The redemptive-historical shape is plain enough: the last thing Satan takes from a man is his praise, and the first thing Christ gives back is his voice. That the man is carried in by friends and contributes nothing is not incidental to the picture. The reading is Henry's and Geneva's before it is ours; what is added here is only the observation that Matthew has framed this silent man between two men who were told to be silent and would not be.

Matthew 12:22 · Luke 11:14 · Isaiah 35:6

Never so in Israel: the verdict the crowd could not finish ancient/widely-held

The crowd's Οὐδέποτε ἐφάνη οὕτως ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ uses the passive of phainō, to shine or be shown. JFB hears in it a cautious Messianic signal: the wonders “seemed to promise a new era in the history of Israel,” and the people meant, as far as they thought it safe, to say who he was. Pulpit observes that by Matthew 12:23 the crowds have advanced a stage and actually name the Son of David. Ellicott judges the wonder honestly: it “did not actually amount to faith, was yet one step towards it.” ⚙ Read redemptive-historically, the crowd states the right premise and stops short of the conclusion that the two blind men reached before they were healed. Israel's whole history is the measure they use, and the measure is exceeded; what they will not yet say is by whom.

Matthew 12:23 · Matthew 11:5

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)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbering; all parses, glosses and lexeme frequencies above come from that apparatus and from the Verifier, not from this synthesis. Both episodes in this unit (9:27-31 and 9:32-34) are peculiar to Matthew, as Ellicott, JFB, Cambridge, Poole and Pulpit all state; there is no Synoptic control on the wording.

Three specific uncertainties are recorded rather than resolved. (1) Verse 34 is textually doubtful: Pulpit reports it wanting in D, the Old Latin a and k, Hilary and Juvencus, and bracketed by Westcott and Hort as perhaps a Western non-interpolation, while Gill independently reports its absence in Beza's oldest manuscript. It is retained here because BSB retains it. (2) The force of ἐνεβριμήθη in verse 30 is genuinely disputed among the sources in this brief: Ellicott, Cambridge and Pulpit press the sense of indignation or roaring, Benson (citing Hammond) insists that “It signifies a rational, not a passionate earnestness and vehemence.” Both readings are inside the lexical range; the synthesis reports the split instead of choosing. (3) The relation of 9:27-31 to Matthew 20:29-34, and of 9:32-34 to Matthew 12:22-24 and Luke 11:14-15, is a literary question Pulpit discusses at length and settles only provisionally; his conclusion that these are distinct events with assimilated wording is his judgement, and his own guess about the direction of assimilation is hedged in his own text.

Links to Isaiah 35:5-6, Isaiah 42:7 and Psalm 146:8 are drawn by Benson, JFB, Gill and Poole and are reported as their readings. Matthew supplies no citation formula in these verses, and a cross-Testament link cannot be given a computed verbal basis, so those threads are tiered structural, not verbal. The Geneva note identifying Christ as “the light of the world” is a figural gloss on the episode, not a statement of Matthew's text. Anything marked ⚙ is fallible machine synthesis and is offered to be tested against the Word.

✦ = 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)