THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK - Chapter 8 - Verse 23

Verse 23. Led him out of the town. Why this was done the sacred writers have not told us. It might have been to avoid the collecting of a multitude, and thus to have escaped the designs of the Pharisees who were attempting to take his life, and chiefly on a charge of sedition, and of exciting the people. On this account Jesus chose to perform the miracle alone; thus showing, that while he did good he desired to do it in such a way as to avoid the appearance of evil, and to prevent, at the same time, ostentation, and the malice of his enemies.

Spit on his eyes. Why this was done is not known. It was evidently not intended to perform the cure by any natural effect of the spittle. It was to the man a sign, an evidence, that it was the power of Jesus. The eyes were probably closed. They were perhaps "gummed," or united together by a secretion that had become hard. To apply spittle to them— to wet them would be a sign, a natural expression of removing the obstruction and opening them. The power was not in the spittle, but it attended the application of it.

Saw ought. Saw anything.

{d} "spit" Mr 7:33