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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The story of the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida forms a pair with that of the deaf man recorded slightly earlier in the Markan narrative (Mark 7.31–37). In both cases the healings appear to have been accomplished only with difficulty and again in both cases physical means were used in the cure. Further, both stories were closely linked to miracles of feeding. This paper, however, does not address itself, in the first place, to the theological interpretation of the story, but sets out to consider the meaning of the odd response of the blind man to his first glimmerings of sight in the context of the healing as a whole.
page 163 note 1 See the comments of Cranficld, C. E. B., St Mark in The Cambridge Greek New Testament Commentary (Cambridge, University Press, 1963), pp. 253 5 and 263 4.Google Scholar
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page 165 note 6 Note the Talmudic saying, ‘The saliva of an older son has curative powers for the eye’ (Baba Bathra 126b). The various classical allusions to saliva are probably of little relevance to a Palestinian situation although often quoted. They merely indicate that such views were widespread in the ancient world.
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