Mark 7:33

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

And, taking him away from the multitude apart, he thrust his fingers into his ears, and, spitting, touched his tongue;

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Jesus led the man away from the people to be alone with him. He put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit on a finger and put it on the man's tongue.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And he toke him asyde from ye people and put his fyngers in his eares and dyd spyt and touched his tounge

International Standard Version
JesusHe">[fn] took him away from the crowd to be alone with him. Putting his fingers into the man'shis">[fn] ears, he touched his tongue with saliva.Mark 8:23; John 9:6;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers in his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;

New Century Version
Jesus led the man away from the crowd, by himself. He put his fingers in the man's ears and then spit and touched the man's tongue.

Update Bible Version
And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;

Webster's Bible Translation
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue.

Amplified Bible
Jesus, taking him aside by himself, away from the crowd, put His fingers into the man's ears, and after spitting, He touched the man's tongue [with the saliva];

English Standard Version
And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

World English Bible
He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And taking him aside from the multitude, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, touched his tongue.

Weymouth's New Testament
So Jesus taking him aside, apart from the crowd, put His fingers into his ears, and spat, and moistened his tongue;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he took hym asidis fro the puple, and puttide hise fyngris in to hise eris; and he spetide, and touchide his tonge.

English Revised Version
And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;

Berean Standard Bible
So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man's ears. Then He spit and touched the man's tongue.

Contemporary English Version
After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd, he stuck his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit and put it on the man's tongue.

American Standard Version
And he took him aside from the multitude privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue;

Bible in Basic English
And he took him on one side from the people privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he put water from his mouth on the man's tongue with his finger;

Complete Jewish Bible
Taking him off alone, away from the crowd, Yeshua put his fingers into the man's ears, spat, and touched his tongue;

Darby Translation
And having taken him away from the crowd apart, he put his fingers to his ears; and having spit, he touched his tongue;

Etheridge Translation
And he took him aside from the crowd by himself, and put his fingers in his ears, and spat, and touched his tongue.

Murdock Translation
And he led him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and spit, and touched his tongue,

King James Version (1611)
And he tooke him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his eares, and he spit, and touched his tongue,

New Living Translation
Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man's tongue.

New Life Bible
Jesus took him away from the other people. He put His fingers into the man's ears. He spit and put His finger on the man's tongue.

New Revised Standard
He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then hee tooke him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers in his eares, and did spit, and touched his tongue.

George Lamsa Translation
So he drew him aside from the people, and put his fingers into his ears, then he spat, and touched his tongue;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears: and spitting, he touched his tongue.

Revised Standard Version
And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And when he had taken hym asyde from the people, he put his fyngers into his cares, and dyd spyt, and touched his tongue,

Good News Translation
So Jesus took him off alone, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man's ears, spat, and touched the man's tongue.

Christian Standard Bible®
So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue.

Hebrew Names Version
He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.

King James Version
And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

Lexham English Bible
And he took him away from the crowd by himself and put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.

Literal Translation
And taking him away from the crowd privately, He put His fingers into his ears; and spitting, He touched his tongue;

Young's Literal Translation
And having taken him away from the multitude by himself, he put his fingers to his ears, and having spit, he touched his tongue,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And he toke him a syde from the people, and put his fyngers in his eares, and dyd spyt, and touched his tonge,

Mace New Testament (1729)
Jesus taking him aside from the crowd, spit upon his fingers, and applied them to the ears and to the tongue of the deaf man.

New English Translation
After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man's ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.

New King James Version
And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Jesus took him off to the side and put his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit on his own fingers and touched the mute man's tongue.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;

Legacy Standard Bible
And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue;

Contextual Overview

³¹ And, again coming forth out of the bounds of Tyre, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the bounds of Decapolis. ³² And they bring to him one deaf and stammering, and beseech him that he would lay upon him his hand. ³³ And, taking him away from the multitude apart, he thrust his fingers into his ears, and, spitting, touched his tongue; ³⁴ and, looking up into the heaven, sighed deeply, and saith unto him - Ephphatha! that is, Be opened! ³⁵ and his ears opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, - and he was speaking correctly. ³⁶ And he charged them that they should be telling, no one, - but, as much as to them he gave charge, they, exceeding more abundantly, were making proclamation. ³⁷ And, superabundantly, were they being struck with astonishment, saying - Well, hath he, all things, done, - both, the deaf, he causeth to hear, and, the dumb, to speak.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he took: Mark 5:40, Mark 8:23, 1 Kings 17:19-22, 2 Kings 4:4-6, 2 Kings 4:33, 2 Kings 4:34, John 9:6, John 9:7

put: This was clearly a symbolical action; for these remedies evidently could not, by their natural efficacy, avail to produce so wonderful an effect. As the ears of the deaf appear closed, he applies his fingers to intimate that he would open them; and as the tongue of the dumb seems to be tied, or to cleave to the palate, he touches it, to intimate he would give loose and free motion to it. He accommodated himself to the weakness of those who might not indeed doubt his power, but fancy some external sign was requisite to healing. It was also thus made manifest, that this salutiferous power came from Himself, and that He who by one word, וצצבטב [Strong's G2188], had healed the man, must be Divine.

Reciprocal: Exodus 29:20 - put it upon the tip 2 Kings 6:6 - he cut down Isaiah 38:21 - For Isaiah Matthew 20:34 - touched

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he took him aside from the multitude,.... To shun all appearance of ostentation and vain glory:

and put his fingers into his ears; the finger of his right hand into his left ear, and the finger of his left hand into his right ear:

and he spit and touched his tongue; that is, either he spit upon his tongue, for so the Vulgate Latin renders it, "spitting he touched his tongue"; and the Persic version thus, "he cast his spittle on his tongue"; or rather, he spit on his finger, and touched his tongue with it. These actions were not done as means of healing, or as having any natural virtue, or tendency in them, to effect a cure; but to show the power of Christ, that by the mere touch of his finger, and by the spittle of his mouth, as well as by laying on of hands, as was desired, and by a word speaking, he could at once remove this, or any such disorder. The taking this man aside from the multitude, is an emblem of the Lord's separating his people from the rest of the world, when he calls them by his grace; for as they are distinguished from others, in the choice of them in Christ, and in redemption by him; so in the effectual calling, they are bid to come out from among them, and by the power of divine grace, they are brought out from among them, and give up themselves to Christ, and to his churches: and Christ's putting his fingers into the ears of this man, represents the exertion of his power, and his removing by the finger of his Spirit, the obstructions of spiritual hearing; or rather, the planting of the spiritual ear, or forming a principle ot spiritual nearing in the soul: and his touching his tongue with the spittle of his mouth, may lead us to observe the application of his word, through the efficacy of his grace, as a means of loosing his tongue and opening his lips to show forth his praise.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he took him aside from the multitude - Why this was done we have no means of information. It might have been to conceal from the multitude everything respecting the “manner” of cure, in order that none might attempt to cure in a similar way.

And he put his fingers into his ears ... - Why this was done it has been found exceedingly difficult to explain. Jesus had power at once to open his ears and loose his tongue, but for some cause he chose to accompany it with a sign. This was intended, probably, simply to denote that the power of healing came from him; to satisfy the man by the touch that he had this power, and that it could come from no other quarter. Our Saviour often used signs in this way to denote his power to heal. See Mark 8:23; John 9:6.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 33. And he spit, and touched his tongue — This place is exceedingly difficult. There is scarcely an action of our Lord's life but one can see an evident reason for, except this. Various interpretations are given of it-none of them satisfies my mind. The Abbe Giradeau spiritualizes it thus: -

1. He took him aside from the multitude - When Christ saves a sinner, he separates him from all his old evil companions, and from the spirit and maxims of an ungodly world.

2. He put his fingers in his ears - to show that they could be opened only by the finger, i.e. the power, of God, and that they should be shut to every word and voice, but what came from him.

3. Spitting out he touched his tongue - to show that his mental taste and relish should be entirely changed: that he should detest those things which he before esteemed, and esteem those which he before hated.

4. Looking up to heaven - to signify that all help comes from God, and to teach the new convert to keep continually looking to and depending upon him.

5. He groaned - to show the wretched state of man by sins and how tenderly concerned God is for his present and eternal welfare; and to intimate that men should seek the salvation of God in the spirit of genuine repentance, with strong crying and tears.

6. He said, Be opened - Sin is a shutting of the ears against the words of God; and a tying of the tongue, to render it incapable of giving God due praise. But when the all-powerful grace of Christ reaches the heart, the ear is unstopped, and the man hears distinctly-the tongue is unloosed, and the man speaks correctly.

After all, it is possible that what is attributed here to Christ belongs to the person who was cured. I will give my sense of the place in a short paraphrase.

And Jesus took him aside from the multitude: and [the deaf man] put his fingers into his ears, intimating thereby to Christ that they were so stopped that he could not hear; and having spat out, that there might be nothing remaining in his mouth to offend the sight when Christ should look at his tongue, he touched his tongue, showing to Christ that it was so bound that he could not speak: and he looked up to heaven, as if to implore assistance from above: and he groaned, being distressed because of his present affliction, and thus implored relief: for, not being able to speak, he could only groan and look up, expressing by these signs, as well as he could, his afflicted state, and the desire he had to be relieved. Then Jesus, having compassion upon him, said, Be opened: and immediately his ears were opened, so that he could hear distinctly; and the impediment to his speaking was removed, so that he spake properly. The original will admit of this interpretation; and this, I am inclined to believe, is the true meaning of this otherwise (to me and many others) unaccountable passage.