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Bible Dictionaries
Ephphatha
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or EPHPHATHA . Mark 7:34 , where Jesus says to a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ The word is really Aramaic, and if we transliterate it as it stands we obtain eppattach or epp e thach . Both these forms are contracted: the former for ithpattach , the latter for ithp e thach , which are respectively second sing, imperative Ithpaal and Ithpeal of the verb p e thach , ‘to open.’ Some Gr. MSS present ephphetha , which is certainly Ithpeal, whereas ephphatha may be Ithpaal. Jerome also reads ephphetha .
It is not certain whom or what Jesus addressed when He said ‘Be opened.’ It may be the mouth of the man as in Luke 1:64 (so Weiss, Morison, etc.); or the ear , as in Targ. of Isaiah 50:5 (so Bruce, Swete, etc.); or it may be the deaf man himself . One gate of knowledge being closed, the man is conceived of as a bolted room, and ‘Jesus said to him . Be thou opened.’
J. T. Marshall.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Ephphatha'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/e/ephphatha.html. 1909.
