[3505] In St. John ix. 6 it is really application of clay.
[3506] stenzo occurs only here in the Gospels. Otherwise it occurs in Rom. viii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 2, 4; Hebr. xiii. 17; James v. 9; the substantive in Acts vii. 34; Rom, viii. 26.
[3507] So literally.
[3508] Kulls means here incurvatus, and not as in ix. 43 mutilatus.
[3509] Kulls means here incurvatus, and not as in ix. 43 mutilatus.
[3510] St. Mark vii. 31-37.
[3511] Shabb. 108 b; Pliny, H. N. xxviii. 7; Suet. Vesp. 7.
[3512] Wünsche (ad. loc.) is guilty of serious misapprehension when he says that the Talmud condemns to eternal punishment those who employ this mode of healing. This statement is incorrect. What it condemns is the whispering of magical formulas over a wound (Sanh. 90 a), when it was the custom of some magicians to spit before (Sanh. 101 a), of others after pronouncing the formula (Jer. Sanh. 28 b). There is no analogy whatever between this and what our Lord did, and the use of saliva for cures is universally recognised by the Rabbis.
[3513] phphath = {hebrew}
[3514] So literally, or rather hearings' - in the plural.
[3515] St. Mark viii. 22-26.
[3516] Most commentators regard this as the eastern Bethsaida, or Bethsaida-Julias. The objection (in the Speaker's Commentary) that the text speaks of a village' (vv. 23, 26) is obviated by the circumstance that similarly we read immediately afterwards (ver. 27) about the villages of Cæsarea Philippi.' Indeed, a knowledge of Jewish law enables us to see here a fresh proof of the genuineness of the Evangelic narrative. For, according to Meg. 3 b the villages about a town were reckoned as belonging to it, while, on the other hand, a town which had not among its inhabitants ten Batlanin (persons who devoted themselves to the worship and affairs of the Synagogue) was to be regarded as a village. The Bethsaida of ver. 22 must refer to the district, in one of the hamlets of which the blind man met Jesus. It does not appear, that Jesus ever again wrought miracles, either in Capernaum or the western Bethsaida, if, indeed, He ever returned to that district. Lastly, the scene of that miracle must have been the eastern Bethsaida (Julias), since immediately afterwards the continuance of His journey to Cæsarea Philippi is related without any notice of crossing the Lake.
[3517] The better reading of the words is given in the Revised Version.
[3518] Jer. Shabb. xiv. 4; Baba B. 126 b.
[3519] Jer. Sot. 16 d, about the middle.
[3520] Comp. St. Mark viii. 24.
[3521] ver. 26.
[3522] St. Matt. ix. 27-31.
[3523] Thus, the healing recorded immediately after this history, in St. Matt. ix. 32-35, belongs evidently to a later period. Comp. St. Luke xi. 14.
[3524] I admit that especially the latter argument is inconclusive, but I appeal to the general context and the setting of this history. It is impossible to regard St. Matt. ix. as a chronological record of events.
[3525] He is addressed as Son of David,' in this passage, by the Syro-Phoenician woman (St. Matt. xv. 22), and by the blind men near Jericho (St. Matt. xx. 30, 31; St. Mark x. 47, 48; St. Luke xviii, 38, 39), and proclaimed as such by the people in St. Matt. xii. 23; xxi. 9, 15.
[3526] mbrimomai - the word occurs in that sense only here and in St. Mark i. 43; otherwise also in St. Mark xiv. 5, and in St. John xi. 33, 38.
[3527] St. Mark i. 40, 41.
[3528] It should be borne in mind, that the country, surroundings, &c., place these men in a totally different category from the Syro-Phoenician woman.
[3529] St. Mark i. 45.
[3530] Roman Catholic writers mostly praise, while Protestants blame, their conduct. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XXXV. THE TWO SABBATH-CONTROVERSIES - THE PLUCKING OF THE EARS OF CORN BY THE DISCIPLES, AND THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND