Bible Commentaries
Mark 7

Introduction

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

1 The Pharisees find fault at the disciples for eating with unwashen hands.

8 They break the commandment of God by the traditions of men.

14 Meat defileth not the man.

24 He healeth the Syrophenician woman’s daughter of an unclean spirit,

31 and one that was deaf, and stammered in his speech.

Verse 1

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem. — See notes on Matthew 15:1, &c.

Verse 2

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Defiled hands. — Κοινος , common; that is, when opposed to holy; ritually polluted or defiled.

Verse 3

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Except they wash their hands oft. — Εαν μη πυγμη νιψωνται τας χειρας , has been translated, up to the elbow, up to the wrist, with the fist, and, as by our translators, following the Vulgate, oft; or, as the Syriac, diligently. Wetstein takes the sense to be, “with as much water, at least, as they can hold in the hollow of the hand, the fingers being gathered up,” for πυγμη signifies the fist. None of these senses are very satisfactory, and the ancient interpreters appear to have been as perplexed with the expression as the modern. The allusion appears to be to some peculiar mode of washing the hands, among the Jews, which is now unknown; save that they have still curious rules for washing up to the elbow, or to the wrist, or to the joints of the fingers.

Verse 4

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Except they wash. — Thinking that they might contract impurity from accidental contact with impure persons in the throng of a market, they ate not except they baptized, meaning, probably, bathed themselves; but this will not prove that to baptize always signifies to immerse inasmuch as the bathing or washing of the whole body might be performed by affusion, and no doubt often was; and we read also, in what follows, of the Pharisees holding the washing, baptism, of cups and pots, and brazen vessels, and of tables, κλινων , the couches on which they reclined at meals, and which scarcely appear proper subjects for immersion: although it must be acknowledged that in the rules of the more modern Jews, in these matters, the couches are directed to be taken in pieces and dipped. Cups, pots, and other vessels, might be polluted by a person, unclean by the law, having touched them, and the couches by such persons having reclined upon them. Persons legally unclean were not permitted to come into society until they were purified, as those who had touched a dead body, &c.; but these washings appear to have proceeded from over scrupulosity, lest any such defilement had accidentally taken place, unknown to the master of the house.

Verses 9-23

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Ye reject the commandment of God, &c. — See the notes on Matthew 15:3-20. To the enumeration of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man, as given by St. Matthew, St. Mark adds covetousness, wickedness, πονηρια , which is sometimes taken generally in the sense of vice, vitiositas, sometimes for a species of it, as malevolence. The plural form being here used may, however, lead to the more general sense, vice of every kind and degree. Deceit, δολος , fraud, and guile; lasciviousness; an evil eye, οφθαλμος πονηρος is φθονος , envy; pride; foolishness, αφροσυνη , which is probably to be taken as often in the Old Testament for abandoned wickedness and impiety. Whether we regard the thirteen evils enumerated by St. Mark as proceeding from the human heart, or the seven by St. Matthew, a sufficiently awful picture is drawn of fallen human nature; and yet in neither have we a complete catalogue of the vicious affections which break forth into the various evils and crimes which disorder and pollute society. It is here also to be noted that this is not a description of the heart of some one individual, nor of a class of men in some particular place or age; but of the heart of man: and so it is the picture of all the unregenerate, and proves the absolute necessity of the renewing grace of God in the case of every man; for, in this his natural state of pollution and defilement, no man can enter into “the kingdom of God.” Our Lord’s words place the accurate and superstitious care of the Pharisees to avoid fancied defilements, in the strongest contrast with their disregard of the state of their hearts, and of the mass of corruption which was accumulated there, and from its bad fountain was sending forth such noxious streams; and the great lesson which it is intended to teach all is the utter futility of a ceremonial religion, however scrupulous, if purity of heart be neglected.

Verse 25

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

For a certain woman, &c. — See notes on Matthew 15:22-28.

Verse 32

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

One that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. — Μογιλαλος is taken by some, improperly, for dumb. — Had he been deaf from his birth, he would probably have been dumb; but that he spake before he was cured, appears from verse 35, where it is said, he spake plain, which is never used of those dumb persons who were restored to the use of speech by our Lord. The word signifies a stammerer, or tongue-tied person; and this infirmity would be exasperated by the loss of his hearing. He appears to have been an object more pitiable than a person born deaf, and therefore entirely dumb, as being more sensible of his privations.

Verses 33-37

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Took him aside from the multitude &c. — In this case our Lord entirely departed from his usual method of performing a cure. He takes him aside, puts his fingers in his ears, touches his tied tongue with spittle, looks up to heaven, sighs, as oppressed with these spectacles of human suffering, and says, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Dr. Graves observes, “There are two instances beside this in which our Saviour, in performing a miracle, made use of a deliberate external application to the part which he intended to cure; and in all these the reason for employing it seems to have been one and the same, even to convey to the individuals on whom the miracles were performed a clear assurance that Jesus was the person at whose command and by whose agency the cure was wrought and to enable them to state to others the grounds of this assurance fully and circumstantially.” But we may add to this, what is perhaps a more satisfactory reason, that he thereby taught us that his Divine power operates not only immediately but often through instruments: which instrumentality ought, however, so far from turning our thoughts away from him to the creature, to impress us with a deeper sense of his power, who so often makes dull and insensible creatures the means of producing such powerful effects upon our health, happiness, and interests. The very means resorted to here were of a kind which particularly illustrated the Divine power of Christ; and therefore, though the people saw that he put his fingers into his ears, and applied spittle to his tongue, they had no lower a sense of the character of the miracle on that account, but were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. The power was not in the means employed, but in the mighty word EPHPHATHA, Be opened; for then straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And though it is true that sometimes God accomplishes his purposes by means and instruments which appear to have a natural fitness and adaptation to produce the end; yet let it be remembered that all such fitness, where even it is real, is appointed by him, and depends for its efficiency entirely upon him; and that natural powers are heightened or weakened in their efficacy under his blessing or frown, as food to nourish us or medicine to heal us, or the contrary; and that it is still God that worketh all and in all. He therefore ought to be our supreme trust; and for the good done upon earth he alone has a right to the praise.