Peculiar to this history is the testing question of Christ, whether they really believed what their petition implied, that He was able to restore their sight; and, again, His stern, almost passionate, insistence [3526] on their silence as to the mode of their cure. Only on one other occasion do we read of the same insistence. It is, when the leper had expressed the same absolute faith in Christ's ability to heal if He willed it, and Jesus had, as in the case of those two blind men, conferred the benefit by the touch of His Hand. [3527] In both these cases, it is remarkable that, along with strongest faith of those who came to Him, there was rather an implied than an expressed petition on their part. The leper who knelt before Him only said: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean;' and the two blind men: Have mercy on us, Thou Son of David.' Thus it is the highest and most realising faith, which is most absolute in its trust and most reticent as regards the details of its request.
But as regards the two blind men (and the healed leper also), it is almost impossible not to connect Christ's peculiar insistence on their silence with their advanced faith. They had owned Jesus as the Son of David,' and that, not in the Judaic sense (as by the Syro-Phoenician woman [3528] ), but as able to do all things, even to open by His touch the eyes of the blind. And it had been done to them, as it always is - according to their faith. But a profession of faith so wide-reaching as theirs, and sealed by the attainment of what it sought, yet scarcely dared to ask, must not be publicly proclaimed. It would, and in point of fact did, bring to Him crowds which, unable spiritually to understand the meaning of such a confession, would only embarrass and hinder, and whose presence and homage would have to be avoided as much, if not more, than that of open enemies. [3529] For confession of the mouth must ever be the outcome of heart-belief, and the acclamations of an excited Jewish crowd were as incongruous to the real Character of the Christ, and as obstructive to the progress of His Kingdom, as is the outward homage of a world which has not heart-belief in His Power, nor heart-experience of His ability and willingness to cleanse the leper and to open the eyes of the blind. Yet the leprosy of Israel and the blindness of the Gentile world are equally removed by the touch of His Hand at the cry of faith.
The question has been needlessly discussed, [3530] whether they were to praise or blame, who, despite the Saviour's words, spread His fame. We scarcely know what, or how much, they disobeyed. They could not but speak of His Person; and theirs was, perhaps, not yet that higher silence which is content simply to sit at His Feet. __________________________________________________________________
[3498] For the Rabbinic views of the boundaries of Palestine see Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' ch. ii.
[3499] The correct reading of St. Mark vii. 31, is through Sidon.' By the latter I do not understand the town of that name. which would have been quite outside the Saviour's route, but (with Ewald and Lange) the territory of Sidon.
[3500] The fullest notice of the Ten Cities' is that of Caspari, Chronolog. Geogr. Einl. pp. 83-91, with which compare Menke's Bibel-Atlas, Map V.
[3501] Comp. Schürer, pp. 382, 383.
[3502] St. Matt xv. 29-31.
[3503] mogillos or mongillos does not mean one absolutely dumb. It is literally: difficulter loquens. The Rabbinic designation of such a person would have been Cheresh (Ter. i. 2) although different opinions obtain as to whether the term includes impediment of speech (comp. Meg. ii. 4; Gitt. 71 a).
[3504] St. Mark viii. 23.