Bible Commentaries
Mark 8

Verses 1-38

Feeding the Four Thousand. The Sign from Heaven. Healing of a Blind Man. Confession of Peter

1-10. Feeding the four thousand (Matthew 15:32). See on Mt.

11-13. A sign from heaven sought (Matthew 16:1). See on Mt.

14-21. A warning against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod (Matthew 16:4). See on Mt.

22-26. A blind man healed at Bethsaida (peculiar to Mk, and selected, like the healing in Mark 7:32, for its unusual features). The man was healed in stages, probably because his faith was imperfect. Jesus first strengthened his faith by partly healing him, and then, when his faith was adequate, completed the cure.

22. Bethsaida] see on John 1:49.

23. Spit] see on Mark 7:33. put his hands] cp. Mark 9:18.

24. I see, etc.] RV ’I see men; for I behold them as trees walking.’ Medical testimony agrees with the process here described. Cheselden says of a patient of his who, having been born blind, recovered his sight, ’When he first saw, he knew not the shape of anything, nor any one thing from another, however different in shape or magnitude.’

26. Neither go, etc.] RV ’Do not even enter into the village.’

27-9:1. Confession of Peter (Matthew 16:13; Luke 9:18). See on Mt.