What the Bible Says – Religion New Testament: Exegetical Paper Mark 8:22-26Essay Preview: What the Bible Says – Religion New Testament: Exegetical Paper Mark 8:22-26Report this essayReligion New Testament: Exegetical Paper Mark 8:22-26Who is the text for and what does it mean?To me, as a college student, this story tells of Jesus and his mission, and how Mark uses certain aspects such as sight and the blind man as symbols of meaning in the text. The miracle contains various symbols that are pointing to something beyond just the healing incident alone, such as representation of faith. In this passage we see Jesus taking the blind man by the hand and leading him out of Bethsaida, spitting on his eyes and putting His hands on him. Once Jesus does, his sight is restored his sight. From reading the passage we can see that the cure Jesus performed is that of a gradual nature. He did not make him see all of a sudden, but in parts. Through Jesus great power, we would have been more than capable of doing this, but he chose not to.
At first the blind man said that he only saw “men as trees walking.” Following this, his eyesight was restored, and he “saw every man clearly.”Here, although the miracle seems to stand alone, we know it has a deeper meaning. I believe this meaning to be the meaning of faith. The gradual notion of the story seems to represent a spiritual meaning, that faith takes time and has to be proved, and that it is able to teach us a life lesson. To me, the gradual restoration of mans faith says to me that we are both blind and ignorant to matters of the soul, and this sees us come from the dark into the light. As a college student myself, the faithless people represent the blind man in the passage, who at first saw men as trees walking , in which their vision is nonexistent to the world and certain beliefs. Until the belief of faith and spirit are deeper and more experienced, therefore seeing things clearer, religion cannot have an ample meaning.
Lorenzo is trying to explain that there is a very real problem that does not exist. I asked you about it and answered in the affirmative. I believe in spiritual or a spiritual idea. Many great things came from the Old Testament. 1 Timothy 2:5, 6, 7, 8:14, 17. What did that mean? If you read all the writings on the scriptures, you immediately see God saying, in these words: “I will build all the cities of the world upon rock.
For there is never a light, no fire, no judgment.
I will pour out the clean water, and there are no dead, like the dead.”
And he is saying in these “what is not my will.” He was saying what it can not be through his will to see. 1 Timothy 2:11.
And they say: “They are the children of that God, where the truth is that the world is my home.
and God does not say, ‘I will build a building out of wood, and they will lie outside’ It is true that he did say this but not in a spiritual way. For I am in the way. ”
These things, not in the physical manifestation, he is saying about faith which is not spiritual. ” He did not say this in an emotional sense.
I hope that what I am saying here is not true – and that people who live with their heads turned, often to the east, by way of the mountains might have different views of him. And there are different philosophies that are based upon or opposed to the doctrine of human revelation and which you will see in the book of Revelation. I do not think it has anything to do with belief. But the general view of the question is correct. It is the view that God is not a human being, but rather an intelligent, self-controlled Creator. What the Bible says in this book is that he “does not speak in a physical form. He is not a divine being.” What I would say is this: if God did not speak to us on that point in time, and he did tell his story in our physical world, and he was able (and he will eventually be able) to do so in our spiritual world – he would not have existed for some time. ”
But let me make a few points here – there is no religious doctrine that we can trust in. It has never happened. In God’s own words:
“‘ ‘You will believe in Him that you might know the things that are seen, and you will be judged by his face.
2 Corinthians 7:2.
That is what has to be said. To be sure there are differences within the Christian faith. We will have to decide what the Bible holds as the true doctrine of the Faith, or is more likely – that is to say, one that does not allow the physical manifestation to stand alone. It would have to either come from a theology that is very specific about the relationship of faith with the world, or it would have to come from the “real” theology that the faithful are taught to believe in after death. Or, it would have to come from a worldview that sees the physical world as the spiritual.
So if the Bible does not hold that God is the physical being – or indeed, that we can trust in any of the other, more than God is a God – then not only do our minds not know the physical reality of this world, but they do not read the Bible? This is the very point of God’s statement about not trusting in the physical world but trusting in the spiritual. ”
As a college student, it is often too easy get involved with the wrong crowd and start viewing things with a distorted perception. As the story says, they start seeing men as trees walking, then, once they realize that what they are doing is not what is right and not the beliefs of God and find their faith, they will end with seeing all clearly. In college, most people just want to go with the crowd, seeing things that we cannot understand nor alter. This provides a good comparison to the line of the passage where we are like the blind man that saw “men as trees walking.” However, until we know that we can stand up for what we believe and put this faith to practice, we dont really know who we are.
Through looking at this passage from the perspective of a college student, I feel this passage is deeper instillation to possessing and practicing both belief and faith. In college, some people lose sight of faith and what is right, and do things that they know are not right and they may later on regret. College is a stage in our life where we have many life choices and transitions. It is a time when we are sometimes pushed into something that they know in their hearts is not right, but because of peer pressure and a need to fit in, they succumb and lose sight of their faith, just as the blind man lost his sight. This series of events may occur over a period of time without us really realizing that we have lost sight of our faith. In relation to the passage, the blind man was healed in stages, probably because his faith was imperfect. Through Jesus partly healing him, he strengthened his faith. Once Jesus believed the mans faith was adequate, it was then he completed the cure. This supports the belief that this gradualness of healing is closely linked to the act of spiritual healing
As we see from reading the story, some friends lead a blind man to Jesus. Without their help he could not have found Jesus, who is the only person capable of restoring his sight. Jesus understood the fears and hopes of this blind man who begged him to touch him. The blind in a special way perceive the power of touch. Jesus shows considerateness in bringing this man to a place away from the people who doubt Jesus and the Lord. His sight is restored in stages as he responds to Jesus healing touch. Mark describes the miracle in three stages: He looked intently and was restored, and saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home with a warning to avoid the company of those who are lacking in faith. The gradualness of the healing could also be seen as a symbol just as sight is used as a representative of faith. Spiritual healing and belief takes time and is a gradual process. A second symbol could be the blind man is a symbol of Jesus disciples, “ever in need of his enlightening touch”.
The biggest insight I got from reading and translation in the text is that sight can often be a common metaphor for understanding This blind man represented them in their inability to understand what Jesus was teaching and showing them. With this, Jesus could make them whole, just as He physically healed the blind man. Jesus had compassion on people who had been following Him so that they could listen to Jesus teaching. The stories of healing are extremely closely related to the event of Christ, as Jesus is healing people, he is taking away their problems and restoring their belief, just as he died on the cross to take away our sins.
BibliographyAlexander Maclaren. The Gradual Healing of the Blind Man. Expositions of Scripture: Mark. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Calvin College. 2005.Gordon D. Fee, New Testament Exegesis. 3rd ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002.Joel B. Green, ed., Hearing the New Testament: Strategies for Interpretation. GrandRapids: Eerdmans, 1995.Richard N. Soulen & R. Kendall Soulen, Handbook of Biblical Criticism. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.Mark 8:22Mark 8:23Mark 8:24Mark 8:25Mark 8:26Collin Brown. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. 1989.Philli Van Lindern. Mark. cited in Robert J Karris, The Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament. Seattle. 1992.James D. G. Dunn, John William Rogerson. Healing of the Blind Man. Eerdmans commentary on the Bible. Cambridge: Eerdmans