Isaiah 43:8

The Lord Declares His Sovereignty

43:8 Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes,

those who are deaf, even though they have ears!

Mark 7:32-37

7:32 They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. 7:33 After Jesus¹ took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s² ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.³ 7:34 Then⁴ he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”).⁵ 7:35 And immediately the man’s⁶ ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly. 7:36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anything. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more.⁷ 7:37 People were completely astounded and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²tn Grk “his”; the referent (the deaf man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³sn After spitting, he touched his tongue. It was not uncommon in Judaism of the day to associate curative powers with a person’s saliva. The scene as a whole reflects Jesus’ willingness to get close to people and have physical contact with them where appropriate. See W. L. Lane, Mark (NICNT), 267 n. 78.

⁴tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

⁵sn The author’s parenthetical note gives the meaning of the Aramaic word Ephphatha.

⁶tn Grk “his”; the referent (the man who had been a deaf mute) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷tn Grk “but as much as he ordered them, these rather so much more proclaimed.” Greek tends to omit direct objects when they are clear from the context, but these usually need to be supplied for the modern English reader. Here what Jesus ordered has been clarified (“ordered them not to do this”), and the pronoun “it” has been supplied after “proclaimed.”