4:11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave 3 a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 4 4:12 So now go, and I will be with your mouth 5 and will teach you 6 what you must say.” 7
35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
the mute tongue will shout for joy;
for water will flow 8 in the desert,
streams in the wilderness. 9
11:14 Now 17 he was casting out a demon that was mute. 18 When 19 the demon had gone out, the man who had been mute began to speak, 20 and the crowds were amazed.
1 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Then.”
2 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
3 tn The verb שִׂים (sim) means “to place, put, set”; the sentence here more precisely says, “Who put a mouth into a man?”
4 sn The final question obviously demands a positive answer. But the clause is worded in such a way as to return to the theme of “I AM.” Isaiah 45:5-7 developed this same idea of God’s control over life. Moses protests that he is not an eloquent speaker, and the
5 sn The promise of divine presence always indicates intervention (for blessing or cursing). Here it means that God would be working through the organs of speech to help Moses speak. See Deut 18:18; Jer 1:9.
6 sn The verb is וְהוֹרֵיתִיךָ (vÿhoretikha), the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive. The form carries the instructional meaning because it follows the imperative “go.” In fact, there is a sequence at work here: “go…and/that I may teach you.” It is from יָרָה (yara), the same root behind תּוֹרָה (torah, “law”). This always referred to teaching either wisdom or revelation. Here Yahweh promises to teach Moses what to say.
7 tn The form is the imperfect tense. While it could be taken as a future (“what you will say”), an obligatory imperfect captures the significance better (“what you must say” or “what you are to say”). Not even the content of the message will be left up to Moses.
8 tn Heb “burst forth” (so NAB); KJV “break out.”
9 tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT “desert.”
10 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Grk “his”; the referent (the deaf man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 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.
13 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
14 sn The author’s parenthetical note gives the meaning of the Aramaic word Ephphatha.
15 tn Grk “his”; the referent (the man who had been a deaf mute) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn 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.”
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
18 tn The phrase “a demon that was mute” should probably be understood to mean that the demon caused muteness or speechlessness in its victim, although it is sometimes taken to refer to the demon’s own inability to speak (cf. TEV, “a demon that could not talk”).
19 tn Grk “And it happened that when.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated. Here δέ (de) has not been translated either.
20 sn This miracle is different from others in Luke. The miracle is told entirely in one verse and with minimum detail, while the response covers several verses. The emphasis is on explaining what Jesus’ work means.