And he sent him away to his house, saying,
Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
All Commentaries on Mark 8:26 Go To Mark 8
Jerome
AD 420
Mystically, however, Bethsaida is interpreted, ‘the house of the valley’, that is, the world, which is the vale of tears. Again, they bring to the Lord a blind man, that is, one who neither sees what he has been, what he is, nor what he is to be. They ask Him to touch him, for what is being touched, but feeling compunction?.
And He brings him out of the town, that is, out of the neighborhood of the wicked; and He puts spittle into his eyes, that he may see the will of God, by the breath of the Holy Ghost; and putting His hands upon him, He asked him if he could see, because bythe works of the Lord His majesty is seen.
Or else, he sees men astrees, because he thinks all men higher than himself. But He put His hands again upon his eyes, that he might see all things clearly, that is, understand invisible things by visible, and with the eye of a pure mind contemplate, what the eye hath not seen, the glorious state of his own soul after the rust of sin. He sent him to his home, that is, to his heart; that he might see in himself things which he had not seen before; for a man despairing of salvation does not think that he can do at all what, when enlightened, he can easily accomplish.
And He says to him, “Ifthou enter into the town, tell it not to any one,” that is, relate continually to thy neighbours thy blindness, but never tell them of thy virtue.
