Mark 7
DOYLY— the more — they published it.] They thought, it appears, their obligation to extol the goodness of the Lord so indispensable, that even a peremptory command to the contrary was not sufficient to excuse their omission of it. If they must seem to offend, they chose this as the more pardonable method, and preferred the breach of a particular injunction to that of gratitude in general, which nature dictates to all mankind. This example should render us past all excuse, if we, who lie under no such command, should be wanting in the expression of our warmest thankfulness for the great and various mercies which we daily and hourly receive at the hands of God. Dean Stanhope.
Mark 7:32
- — had an impediment &c.] He was a stammerer, or tongue-tied; or else, it means that he was totally speechless, as may be collected from the words of the Jews, ver. 37, “He maketh the dumb to speak.” Dr. Hammond.
Mark 7:33
- — put his fingers into his ears.] Although He could have cured him merely by a word, or without any outward action, yet He chose on this, as on many other occasions, to represent the invisible efficacy of His power by outward signs. Dr. S. Clarke.
There are two instances besides this, (see Mark viii. 23—26; John ix. 1—7,) 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. Dr. Graves.
Mark 7:34
- — looking up to heaven.] In order to shew the man that he ought to acknowledge all benefits, as proceeding from thence. Dr. S. Clarke.
— he sighed.] In earnest mental prayer that the man might be restored. See Rom. viii. 26. Abp. Newcome.
Mark 7:36
- — charged them that they should tell no man.] See notes at Matt. viii. 4; Mark i. 44. The probable reasons for our Saviour’s giving these injunctions of secrecy were, His wish to avoid, as much as possible, the envy and opposition of the Pharisees, which might have proceeded so far as to cause attempts upon His life, before the purposes for which he came into the world were accomplished, and the scheme ordained by Divine wisdom
Mark 7:37
- — were beyond measure astonished.] The Evangelist does not tax their astonishment with extravagance, but only intimates that it was justly carried to a height which no astonishment could exceed. It was not the astonishment of ignorance, it was an astonishment upon principle and reason. It was not the astonishment of persons who saw a thing done which they thought utterly unaccountable; they knew how to account for it; they knew that the finger of God Himself was the efficient cause of what they saw; and to that cause they, without hesitation, yet not hastily and by surprise, but upon the most solid principles of belief, referred it. Bp. Horsley.
— He hath done all things well.] He hath done all things in that perfect manner, which we expected beforehand that He should do, who was to come to us in the character of our Messiah. Bp. Horsley.
Christ warneth his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees. Anno DOMINI 32.