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Did Jesus heal a blind man at Bethsaida or in Jerusalem, and did he spit on his eyes or make clay?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
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At Bethsaida Jesus leads a blind man out of the town, spits on his eyes and lays his hands on him twice, and the man sees clearly.
And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
In Jerusalem Jesus makes clay with spittle for a man blind from birth and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, …
The objection
Mark tells of a blind man healed at Bethsaida, in Galilee, when Jesus spat on his eyes and laid his hands on him. John tells of a blind man healed in Jerusalem, by clay made with spittle and a washing in the pool of Siloam. Critics ask where, and how, Jesus healed the blind man.
The answer
These are two different miracles, and neither writer suggests they are the same. They differ in almost every detail. Mark’s healing takes place at Bethsaida, a town at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. People bring the man to Jesus, who leads him out of the town, and the healing comes in two stages: first the man sees “men as trees, walking”, then he sees “every man clearly” (Mark 8:24–25). He is sent home and told not to go into the town. Barnes notes that this healing is recorded only by Mark.
John’s healing takes place in Jerusalem, well over a hundred kilometres to the south, on a sabbath (John 9:14). The man is a beggar who has been blind from birth; no one brings him, but Jesus sees him as he passes by. Jesus makes clay, and the man is healed when he goes and washes in the pool of Siloam. A long dispute with the Pharisees follows (9:13–34).
The Gospels say that Jesus healed many blind people: two blind men in Galilee (Matthew 9:27–30), a man both blind and dumb (Matthew 12:22), the blind who came to him in the temple (Matthew 21:14), and Bartimaeus at Jericho (Mark 10:46–52). He could sum up his work with the words “the blind receive their sight” (Matthew 11:5). Nor did he keep to one method: sometimes he spoke a word (Mark 10:52), sometimes he touched, and sometimes he used spittle.
Other answers Christians give
Why spittle?
Some ancient writers thought spittle good for the eyes, and Jesus may have used it as a sign a blind man could feel. Barnes stresses that the power was not in the spittle; it was a sign that the healing came from Jesus.
From the classic commentators
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.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Mark 8:23 (1832)
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Mark 8 (1832), at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: John 9 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub