Mark 7:34

And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. AND LOOKING UP TO HEAVEN - ever acknowledging His Father, even while the Healing was seen to flow from Himself (see the note at ), "he sighed" - `over the Wreck,' says Trench, 'which sin had brought about, and the malice of the devil in deforming the fair features of God's original creation.' But, we take it, there was a yet more painful impression of that "evil thing and bitter" whence all our ills have sprung, and which, when Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (), became mysteriously His own. `In thought of these His brows benign, Not even in healing, cloudless shine.' (-KEELE) AND SAITH UNTO HIM, EPHPHATHA, THAT IS, BE OPENED. Our Evang...

31-37 Here is a cure of one that was deaf and dumb. Those who brought this poor man to Christ, besought him to observe the case, and put forth his power. Our Lord used more outward actions in the doing of this cure than usual. These were only signs of Christ's power to cure the man, to encourage his faith, and theirs that brought him. Though we find great variety in the cases and manner of relief of those who applied to Christ, yet all obtained the relief they sought. Thus it still is in the great concerns of our souls....

Verse 34. _EPHPHATHA_] _Ethphathach_, [Syriac] Syriac. It is likely that it was in this language that our Lord spoke to this poor man: and because he had pronounced the word _Ephphathach_ with peculiar and _authoritative_ emphasis, the evangelist thought proper to retain the original word; though the last letter in it could not be expressed by any letter in the Greek alphabet....

LOOKED UP TO HEAVEN - To lift up the eyes to heaven is an act imploring aid from God, and is an attitude of prayer, Psalms 121:1; Mark 6:41; John 11:41. HE SIGHED - Pitying the sufferings of the man who stood before him. EPHPHATHA - This word is “Syriac,” the language which our Lord used in addressing the man, and means “Be opened.”...

EXPOSITION MARK 7:1, MARK 7:2 These verses, according to the Greek construction, should run thus: AND THERE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER UNTO THE PHARISEES, AND CERTAIN OF THE scribes, WHICH HAD COME FROM JERUSALEM, AND HAD SEEN THAT SOME OF HIS DISCIPLES ATE THEIR BREAD WITH DEFILED, THAT IS, UNWASHEN, HANDS. The word (ἐμέμψαντο) translated in the Authorized Version, "they found fault," does not appear in the best authorities. It seems to have been interpolated to help the construction. St. Mark explains the meaning of the word κοιναῖς_ _(literally, common), by the word (ἀνίπτοις) "unwashen." The disciples, doubtless, washed their hands, but they abstained from the multiplied ceremonial washings of the Pharisees, wh

AND LOOKING UP TO HEAVEN,.... To his Father there, by whom he was sent, and from whom, as man, he received his authority and power; though this was not for assistance in the working of this miracle, which he had power to do of himself; nor do we find that he put up any request to his Father: but he seems to have made use of this motion, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the man: to teach him, that every good gift, blessing, mercy, and favour, and so this he was about to partake of, was from above: HE SIGHED; not as unequal to the work of healing the man, or as despairing of doing it; but as commiserating the case of the poor man, and reflecting with concern upon his sin, that had been the occasion of it. These actions of looking up to heaven and sighing, as they may be understood in a spiritual sense, or with relation to the spiritual healing of a sinner, may show that such a bl...

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Opposition of the Pharisees. (Mark 7:1 .Matthew 15:1)_ 2. Grace shown to the Syrophenician Woman. (Mark 7:24. Matthew 15:21) 3. The healing of the deaf man. (Mark 7:31. Matthew 15:29 .) 1. THE OPPOSITION OF THE PHARISEES. Mark 7:1 This paragraph is of much importance. The scope of the analysis forbids a full annotation, but we refer th

THE HEALING OF A DEAF-MUTE. The cure of the Syro-Phœ nician woman's daughter threatens the privacy Jesus sought in Tyre. He therefore withdraws to Decapolis (another Gentile district, Matthew 4:25 *), going northward through Sidon, and presumably reaching Decapolis by a circuitous route which avoided Galilee. (Wellhausen's conjecture, Bethsaida for Sidon, is unnecessary.) The incident that follows is peculiar to Mk. Jesus heals a deaf-mute, by means not unusual in that age (_cf._ account of healings by Vespasian in Tacitus, _Hist._ iv. 81). Mt. omits this story, perhaps because the methods employed (cf. Mark 8:23) savour of magic. Mk., a popular writer, is interested in the details and in the actual word used. The rare word _mogilalos,_ with an impediment in his speech, recalls...

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN (Mark 7:1-4)...

HEAVEN. the heaven. Singular. See note on Matthew 6:9; Matthew 6:10 SIGHS. groaned. EPHPHATHA. An Aramaic word. See App-94....