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The deaf-mute man (Ephphatha)

Mark 7:31–37 · Later ministry in Galilee

Scripture

Mark 7:31–37

nd again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

King James Version · public domain

Marku 7:31–37

dhe përsëri dolli nga sinorët’ e Tyrës’ e të Sidhonësë, edhe erdhi ndaj detit të Galilesë ndëpër mest të sinorëvet të Dhekapolësë. 32Edhe i sjellënë një të-shurdhërë belbacuk, edhe i lutenë të vërë dorënë mbi atë. 33Edhe ay e mori prej gjindjesë veçanë, edhe vuri gishtërit’ e ti ndë veshët t’ati, edhe si pshtyti, i preku gjuhënë; 34Edhe si ngriti sytë ndë qiellt, psherëtiti, edhe i thotë ati, Effatha, që do me thënë, Hapu. 35Edhe për-një-here uhapnë veshët’ e ati, edhe usgith të-lidhurit’ e gjuhës’ s’ati, edhe fliste drejt. 36Edhe i porositi të mos i thonë asnjeriu; po sa më tepërë i porositte ay, kaqë më tepërë ata e lëçitninë. 37Edhe çuditeshinë fort tepërë e thoshinë, Mirë i ka bërë të-gjitha; edhe të-shurdhërit’ i bën të dëgjonjënë, edhe memecëtë të flasënë.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

Christ leads the man apart from the crowd and condescends to him through signs he can feel: He puts His fingers into his ears, touches his tongue with spittle, looks up to heaven, and sighs. Because the man could neither hear words nor easily grasp them, the Lord teaches him through the body what He intends for the soul, and the Fathers note that the saliva from His own mouth carries a healing power proper to His flesh. He lifts His eyes to heaven not because He lacks power, but to lead the man and the onlookers to the Father as the source of every good, and to teach us to look upward before we act. The sigh the tradition reads as His compassion, a groaning over the misery sin has worked in human nature, which left man deaf to the word of God and mute in confessing Him.

The word Ephphatha, "Be opened," the Church carried into the rite of Baptism, as St. Ambrose witnesses in his teaching on the sacraments, where the priest touches the ears and the nostrils so that Christ may open the ears to hear the faith and the tongue to confess it. The Fathers see here the whole work of salvation in small: man comes to Christ closed against God and goes away both hearing and speaking rightly, the pattern of one who is catechized and then baptized.

On the moral level the man stands for every soul deafened by passions and tongue-tied in prayer, healed only when Christ draws it aside from the world and lays His hand on it. The crowd's wonder, "He has seed all things well," the tradition hears as an echo of creation, where God saw all He had made was good: the One who first formed man now restores him, opening again the senses that sin had shut.

In their own words

Christ made use of this mystery in the Gospel, as we read, when He healed him who was deaf and dumb.

St. Ambrose of Milan, On the Mysteries (The Book Concerning the Mysteries), Chapter I, section 4. NPNF2 Vol. 10.

The Deaf-Mute Man, "Ephphatha" (Mark 7:31–37)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

Departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, Christ comes to the Sea of Galilee through the midst of Decapolis. They bring Him a man who is deaf and has an impediment in his speech, and beg Him to lay His hand on him. He takes the man aside from the crowd, puts His fingers into his ears, spits and touches his tongue, looks up to heaven, sighs, and says, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened." At once his ears are opened, the string of his tongue is loosed, and he speaks plainly. Christ charges the crowd to tell no one, but the more He charges them, the more they publish it, saying, "He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."

This miracle is recorded only by Mark. Because Matthew and Luke both omit it, there is no homily on it from Chrysostom's series on Matthew, nor from Cyril's on Luke. The verbatim patristic witnesses below are therefore drawn from the Catena Aurea, the "Golden Chain" compiled by St. Thomas Aquinas, which gathers comments of the Fathers on each verse. Each is quoted exactly as it appears in J. H. Newman's 1841 English translation (public domain). The Latin commentary of Bede and the Greek commentary of Theophylact are the underlying sources; the English wording is Newman's.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Mark 7, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain. Full text: https://ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena2/catena2.iii.vii.html

On His looking up to heaven and His sighing:

He looked up to heaven, that He might teach us that thence is to be procured speech for the dumb, hearing for the deaf, health for all who are sick. And He sighed, not that it was necessary for Him to be any thing from His Father with groaning, for He, together with the Father, gives all things to them who ask, but that He might give us an example of sighing, when for our own errors and those of our neighbours, we invoke the guardianship of the Divine mercy.

On the word "Ephphatha" and what it opens:

But that which He says, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened," belong properly to the ears, for the ears are to be opened for hearing, but the tongue to be loosed from the bonds of its impediment, that it may be able to speak.

On the two natures shown in one act:

Where each nature of one and the same Christ is manifestly distinct, looking up indeed into Heaven as man, praying unto God, He groaned, but presently with one word, as being strong in the Divine Majesty, He healed.

On who is spiritually deaf and dumb:

Or he is deaf and dumb, who neither has ears to hear the words of God, nor opens his mouth to speak them, and such must be presented to the Lord for healing, by men who have already learned to hear and speak the divine oracles.

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055–1107)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Mark 7, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain.

On why He did not linger among the Gentiles:

The Lord did not wish to stay in the parts of the Gentiles, lest He should give the Jews occasion to say, that they esteemed Him a transgressor of the law, because He held communion with the Gentiles, and therefore He immediately returns.

On why He healed with His own spittle:

That He might shew that all the members of His sacred body are divine and holy, even the spittle which loosed the string of the tongue. For the spittle is only the superflous moisture of the body, but in the Lord, all things are divine.

On the charge to silence, and the lesson it teaches us:

By this we are taught, when we confer benefits on any, by no means to seek for applause and praise; but when we have received benefits, to proclaim and praise our benefactors, even though they be unwilling.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Mark 7, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain.

On why He forbade what He knew would be proclaimed:

If however He, as one Who knew the present and the future wills of men, knew that they would proclaim Him the more in proportion as He forbade them, why did He give them this command? If it were not that He wished to prove to men who are idle, how much more joyfully, with how much greater obedience, they whom He commands to proclaim Him should preach, when they who were forbidden could not hold their peace.

Note on sources and other Fathers

The Fathers here read both the deed and its manner. Bede dwells on the gestures: Christ looks to heaven to teach us where every healing comes from, and sighs not from need but to give us an example of compunction when we plead for ourselves and our neighbours; and in the single act the two natures stand plain, the man who looks up and groans, the God who heals with one word. Theophylact draws out why Christ used His own fingers and spittle rather than a bare word, namely that "in the Lord, all things are divine," and turns the charge of silence into a rule for us, to seek no praise for the good we do while gladly praising those who do good to us. Augustine, on the same charge, finds in the people's irrepressible preaching a rebuke to the idle, for those who were forbidden could not keep silent.

The Catena also carries comments here under the names of Pseudo-Chrysostom (the catena of Victor of Antioch on Mark) and Pseudo-Jerome, including the allegory of the spittle as heavenly wisdom and the fingers as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Because their attributions are not secure, they are noted here but not quoted as the words of Chrysostom or Jerome. For a continuous verbatim treatment in the public domain, the Catena's excerpts from Bede and Theophylact are the most substantial, with Augustine's harmonizing remark drawn from his work on the agreement of the Evangelists.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Ambrose, On the Sacraments / Mysteries (CCEL)