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Mar_8:22-26 are found in Mark only.
It is not the Bethsaida situated on the western shore of the lake (Mar_6:45) that is here meant (Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Heumann, Heupel, Köstlin, Holtzmann; comp. Bleek and several others), but the north-eastern Bethsaida, completed by the tetrarch Philip (called also Julias, in honour of the daughter of Augustus; see Josephus, Bell. ii. 9. 1, iii. 3. 5; Antt. xviii. 2. 1, xviii. 4. 6; Plin. N. H. v. 15; Wieseler, chronol. Synopse, p. 273 f.; Robinson, Pal. III. p. 566 f.; Ritter, Erdk. XV. p. 280.; Ritter, Erdk. XV. p. 280; Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 46), from which Jesus goes forth and comes northwards into the region of Caesarea-Philippi (Mar_8:27); see Mar_8:13. The weakly-attested reading Βηθανίαν (D, Cod. It.) is an ancient alteration, from geographical ignorance of any other Bethsaida than the western one. Ewald, indeed, following Paulus, has again (Gesch. Chr. p. 378) preferred this reading, because Bethsaida Julias was not a κώμη , Mar_8:26; but it was Philip who first raised it to the rank of a city, and hence its designation as a village may still have been retained, or may have been used inaccurately by Mark.
The blind man was not born blind. See Mar_8:24.
Mar_8:23. ἐξήγαγεν ] see on Mar_7:33.
The spitting is to be apprehended as at Mar_7:33. As in that place, so here also, Jesus held it as necessary to do more than had been prayed for.
Mar_8:24. ἀναβλέψας ] after he had looked up (Mar_6:41, Mar_7:34). Erasmus erroneously interprets it: to become seeing again (Mar_10:51), which is only conveyed in καὶ ἀποκατεστ . κ . τ . λ .
According to the reading ὅτι ὡς δένδρα ὁρῶ περιπατοῦντας (see the critical remarks): I see the men, for like trees I perceive persons walking about, I observe people walking who look like trees (so unshapely and large). This was the first stage of seeing, when the objects appeared in vague outline and enlarged. More harsh is Ewald’s construction, which takes ὅτι as the recitative, that indicates a new commencement of the discourse.
We cannot decide why Jesus did not heal the blind man perfectly at once, but gradually. But it is certain that the agency does not lose, by reason of its being gradual, the character of an instantaneous operation. Comp. Holtzmann, p. 507; Euthymius Zigabenus: ἀτελῶς δὲ τὸν τυφλὸν τοῦτον ἐθεράπευσεν ὡς ἀτελῶς πιστεύοντα · διὸ καὶ ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτὸν , εἴ τι βλέπει , ἵνα μικρὸν ἀναβλέψας ἀπὸ τῆς μικρᾶς ὄψεως πιστεύσῃ τελεώτερον , καὶ ἰαθῇ τελεώτερον · σοφὸς γάρ ἐστιν ἰατρός . Comp. Victor Antiochenus and Theophylact. So usually. According to Olshausen, a process too much accelerated would have been hurtful to the blind man. This is an arbitrary limitation of the miraculous power of Jesus (see, on the other hand, Strauss, II. p. 66). According to Lange, Jesus desired in this quiet district, and at this momentous time, “to subdue the powerful effect of His miracles.” As though the miracle would not even as it occurred have been powerful enough. According to Strauss, the gradual character is merely part of Mark’s effort after vividness of representation.[114] A notion unwarranted in itself, and contrary to the analogy of Mark’s other narratives of miracles.
Mar_8:25. καὶ διέβλεψεν (see the critical remarks): and he looked stedfastly (Plato, Phaed. p. 86 D; comp. on Mat_7:5), and was restored. This stedfast look, which he now gave, so that people saw that he fixed his eyes on definite objects, was the result of the healing influence upon his eyes, which he experienced by means of this second laying on of hands, and which the restoration immediately followed.
καὶ ἐνέβλεπεν (see the critical remarks) ΤΗΛΑΥΓῶς ἍΠΑΝΤΑ ] Notice the imperfect, which defines the visual activity from this time continuing; and how keen this was! He saw everything from afar, so that he needed not to come close in order to behold it clearly. ἐμβλέπειν , intueri, see Xen. Mem. iii. 11. 10, al. In the classical writers used with τινί (Cyrop. i. 3. 2; Plat. Pol. x. p. 609 D), but also with τινά (Anthol. xi. 3). ΤΗΛΑΥΓῶς (far-shining) with ἐμβλέπειν denotes that the objects at a distance shone clearly into his eyes. Comp. Diod. Sic. i. 50: ΤΗΛΑΥΓΈΣΤΕΡΟΝ ὉΡᾶΝ , Suidas: ΤΗΛΑΥΓΈς , ΠΌῤῬΩΘΕΝ ΦΑῖΝΟΝ .
Mar_8:26. ΕἸς ΟἾΚΟΝ ΑὐΤΟῦ ] He did not dwell in Bethsaida, but was from elsewhere, and was brought to Jesus at Bethsaida. See the sequel.
ΜΗΔῈ ΕἸς Τ . ΚΏΜΗΝ Κ . Τ . Λ .] This ΜΗΔΈ is not wrong, as de Wette and Fritzsche judge, under the impression that it ought to be ΜΉ only; but it means: not even: so now Winer also, p. 434 [E. T. 614]. The blind man had come with Jesus from the village; the healing had taken place outside in front of the village; now He sends him away to his house; He desires that he shall not remain in this region, and says: not even into the village (although it is so near, and thou hast just been in it) enter thou. The second μηδέ is: nor yet.
The second clause, μηδέ εἴπῃς κ . τ . λ ., is no doubt rendered quite superfluous by the first; but Fritzsche pertinently remarks: “Jesu graviter interdicentis cupiditatem et ardorem adumbrari … Non enim, qui commoto animo loquuntur, verba appendere solent.” Grotius, Calovius, Bengel, Lange, and various others take ΤΙΝῚ ἘΝ Τ . ΚΏΜῌ to mean: to one of the inhabitants of the village (who may meet thee outside). A makeshift occasioned by their own addition. And why should not Mark have simply written τινι ἐκ τῆς κώμης ? As to the prohibition in general, comp. on Mar_5:43.
[114] In fact, Baur, Markusev. p. 58, thinks that thereby the writer was only making a display of his physiological knowledge on the theory of vision. And Hilgenfeld says, that Mark desired to set forth the gradual transition of the disciples from spiritual not-seeing to seeing primarily in the case of one corporeally blind. Thus the procedure related by Mark would be invented by Mark!