He Heals a Deaf Man, a Blind Man

 

These two healings are so similar that some scholars think they are different accounts of the same event.

And Jesus returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.

And they brought him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged him to lay his hands on him. And he took him aside, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into the man’s ears, and spat and touched the man’s tongue; and looking up into the sky, Jesus sighed, and said to him, “Ethpatakh!” (which means, “Be opened!”). And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. And the people were exceedingly astonished.

 

And a woman in the crowd called out to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked.”

And Jesus said, “No: blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

 

Another time, in Bethsaida, they brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and he spat into his eyes, and laid his hands on them, and asked him, “Can you see anything?”

And he looked up and said, “I see men, like trees walking.”

And Jesus again laid his hands on his eyes, and the man looked, and his sight was restored, and he could see everything distinctly.

 

sources: Mark 7:31-35,37; Luke 11:27f.; Mark 8:22-25; Mark 9:17f