Mark 7:33

7:33 After Jesus ¹  took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s ²  ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. ³ 

Mark 8:23

8:23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then ⁴  he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes ⁵  and asked, “Do you see anything?”

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

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

³ sn 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.

⁴ tn Grk “village, and.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁵ tn Grk “on him,” but the word πάλιν in v. 25 implies that Jesus touched the man’s eyes at this point.