Ephphatha

Overview

• Testament: New
• Book: Mark
• Chapters: Mark 7:31–37
• Summary: Jesus heals a deaf man with a speech impediment in the Decapolis, using touch and the Aramaic command “Ephphatha, Be opened,” and the people are astonished beyond measure.

Details

After ministering in the region of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus returned through the Decapolis — Gentile territory. A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hand on him. What follows is one of the most physically detailed healing accounts in the Gospels, found only in Mark: Jesus took the man aside privately from the crowd, put his fingers into his ears, spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha” — an Aramaic word meaning “Be opened.” Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue loosed, and he spoke plainly.

The intimacy of the account is distinctly Markan. Jesus touches the man at the exact points of his disability — fingers in the ears, spit on the tongue — and the Aramaic word is preserved untranslated, recalling eyewitness vividness (traditionally attributed to Peter’s account). The sigh toward heaven suggests not reluctance but the deep engagement of the one who feels as well as heals; he bears the weight of human brokenness even as he undoes it.

The response of the crowd is the strongest verbal superlative in the synoptics: “they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak” (7:37). The language echoes Genesis 1:31 — “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Mark quietly positions the healing as an act of new creation, fulfilling Isaiah’s vision: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5).

Jesus commanded them to tell no one — the Messianic Secret pattern — but the more he commanded silence, the more widely they published it.

Key People Involved

• Jesus Christ — healer; uses touch, saliva, and spoken Aramaic word
• The Deaf-Mute — unnamed; brought by others; in Gentile territory

Key Places

• Decapolis — predominantly Gentile region east of the Jordan; ten cities; Jesus’s ministry extending beyond Israel

Important Verses

“And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.” — Mark 7:33–34

“And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” — Mark 7:37

Cross-References

• Related theme: Messianic Secret — command to silence after healing
• OT Fulfillment: Isaiah 35:5-6 — “ears of the deaf shall be unstopped”; “tongue of the dumb sing”
• Related: First Miracles — earlier Galilean healings
• Context: Mark 7:24-30 — Syrophoenician woman immediately before; both in Gentile territory