Cornelius a Lapide

And taking the blind man by the hand, He led him out of the town , i.e ., outside of Bethsaida, as is plain from ver. 22. He led him forth for the same reason that when He was about to 412 S. MARK, C. VIII. heal the deaf and dumb man He took him aside from the multitude. This was, ist. For the sake of prayer, that, being alone. He might collect His thoughts, and unite Himself wholly to God, and pray the more intently and collectedly, and. To fly from the applause of men, and teach us to do the same. 3rd. Because the citizens of Bethsaida were unworthy of the miracle of Christ ; for although they had seen Him work so many miracles, they would not believe in Him. And spitting upon his eyes . Fasting spittle does good to the purblind, but does not illuminate those who have actually lost their sight. The saliva, therefore, of Christ was not a natural but a supernatural remedy for blindness, being the instrument by which Christ’s Godhead wrought S. Hilarion imitated this miracle by which Christ gave sight to a blind man, as S. Jerome relates in his Life . “A blind woman was brought to B. Hilarion, who said that she had expended all her substance upon physicians. Hilarion said to her, If thou hadst given to the poor what thou hast thrown away upon physicians, Christ the true Physician would have healed thee.” Laid His hands , i.e., when He had placed His hands upon the eyes of the blind man, and again removed them. For that is improbable which the Scholiast in S. Chrysostom says, that this blind man saw people (ver. 24) when Christ’s hands were over his eyes. For this would have been a new and uncalled-for miracle