And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said unto him,
Ephphatha,
that is,
Be opened.
All Commentaries on Mark 7:34 Go To Mark 7
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And looking up to heaven (because from thence come words to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, healing for all infirmities, says Bede), He groaned; both because He sympathised with the misery of the deaf and dumb Prayer of Manasseh , as because in groaning He prayed and obtained healing for him from God.
Ephpheta, which Isaiah , Be thou opened, ie, which so signifies. "Where," says Bede, "the two natures of the one and the same Mediator between God and man are plainly set forth. For, looking up to heaven as Prayer of Manasseh , He groaned, being about to pray to God; presently by a single word, as having the power of Divine Majesty, He healed." For we all have eyes, but the blind have theirs shut and closed, which in the Syriac idiom are elegantly said to be opened when their shutters are unclosed, as Angelus Caninius says (in Nom. Heb. c10). Moreover, the Heb. patach signifies to open. From whence is the imperative passive, or Niphal, hippateach, by crasis hippatach, for which the Syrians use Ephpheta, be open.
