Mark 7:31

The Healing of one Deaf and Dumb

31. the coasts A misleading archaism is this word for "border" or "region." No allusion is made, in the original word to the sea-board. Thus we are told that Herod "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coaststhereof," though Bethlehem was not near the sea; and again we read of "the coasts" (=borders) of Judæa in Matthew 19:1; comp. Mark 10:1, where there is no sea-coast at all; of the coasts(=borders) of Gadara in Mark 5:17; "the coastsof Decapolis" in this verse; of "the coasts" (=regions) of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:50). Comp. 1 Samuel 5:6. The word comes from the Latin costa, "a rib," "side," through Fr. "coste." Hence it = "a border" generally, though now applied to the sea-coast only. Wyclif translates it here "bitwix be Endis(or coostis) of Tire, be myddil endisof Decapoleos."

and Sidon The preferable reading here, supported by several MSS. and found in several ancient versions, is, And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre, He came through Sidon unto the Sea of Galilee. This visit of the Redeemer of mankind to the city of Baal and Astarte is full of significance.

he came unto the sea of Galilee The direction of the journey appears to have been (1) northward towards Lebanon, then (2) from the foot of Lebanon through the deep gorge of the Leontes to the sources of the Jordan, and thence (3) along its eastern bank into the regions of Decapolis, which extended as far north as Damascus, and as far south as the river Jabbok.