Mk 7:31-37
31Again [Jesus] left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. 32And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; 34then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) 35And [immediately] the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. 36He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. 37They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and [the] mute speak.”
EPHPHATHA, BE OPENED! Jesus finds himself in the district of the Decapolis, literally “ten cities.” The term refers to a region in northern Palestine and southern Syria composed of a number of Hellenistic cities. When Pompey established Roman authority over the region in 63 BC, the Decapolis cities were given their autonomy and were attached to the province of Syria.
The references to Jesus’ presence in the Decapolis or its regions are intended to emphasize that Jesus has crossed into Gentile territory. In the preceding episode, Jesus goes to the district of Tyre and cures the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman. Now, while still in a Gentile territory, Jesus works yet another miracle: he gives hearing to a deaf man and also cures the man’s speech impediment. He does this by taking the man aside and going through a ritual: he puts his fingers into the man’s ears, touches his tongue, looks up to heaven in prayer, groans in compassion, and utters the healing command in Aramaic. The gestures are sacramental, symbolic of the cure that takes place.
The story of the deaf-mute looks ahead to that of the blind man (Mk 8:22-26). Both the deaf-mute and the blind man are brought to Jesus by others. Both times Jesus takes the men away from the crowd and touches them, using spittle to heal them. The evangelist uses the parallels to show that Jesus fulfills the prophecies of Isaiah. He is the promised Servant of God (Messiah) who heals the deaf, the mute, and the blind (Is 35:5-6; Mk 7:37).