In | Workbook: Two Parallel Healing Narratives in Mark

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[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

There are two accounts of healing in the middle of Mark’s Gospel that are extremely similar. The healing of the deaf man and the healing of the blind man are nearly identical in their narrative pattern. Each opens with a description of a trip and each mirrors the other in the phases of the story.

Mark 7:31-37	Mark 8:22-26
Description of a trip	Description of a trip
and they brought him a deaf man	and they brought him a blind man
and they beseeched him that he lay his hand on him	and they beseeched him that he touch him
and taking him away from the crowd privately	and taking his hand he led him out of the village
he put his fingers into his ears and spitting he touched his tongue	and spitting on his eyes, he put his hands on him
And looking up to heaven he [Jesus] said …	And looking up he [the blind man] said …
“Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”)	“I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Healing takes place	Healing takes place
and he commanded them not to tell anyone.	and he sent him back to his house saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

Source: Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A new translation with introduction and commentary, 2000, p. 476.

The common element in these two accounts can be understood in light of an Old Testament echo. Read Isaiah 35:2 and explain how Jesus’ healing ministry may be understood figuratively and theologically, and not just literally.

Assessments

In | Main Transition in the Gospel of Mark

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