Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ feeds four thousand men with seven loaves. Second, at verse 15, He teaches that one must beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Third, at verse 22, He heals a blind man, who saw men as trees walking. Fourth, at verse 31, He foretells His own passion and death, and rebukes Peter, who was resisting Him, as though he were Satan. Finally, at verse 33, He commands each one to take up his cross and save his soul.
Vulgate Text: Mark 8:1-39
1. In those days again, when there was a great crowd, and they had nothing to eat, calling His disciples together, He said to them: 2. I have compassion on the crowd, for behold, they have now been with Me three days, and they have nothing to eat, 3. and if I send them away fasting to their homes, they will faint on the way, for some of them came from afar. 4. And His disciples answered Him: How can anyone fill these with bread here in the wilderness? 5. And He asked them: How many loaves do you have? They said: Seven. 6. And He commanded the crowd to recline on the ground. And taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people, and they set them before the crowd. 7. And they had a few small fish: and He blessed them and ordered them to be set before them. 8. And they ate and were filled, and they took up seven baskets of what remained of the fragments. 9. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand: and He dismissed them. 10. And immediately embarking in a boat with His disciples, He came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11. And the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, tempting Him. 12. And groaning in spirit, He said: Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen I say to you, a sign shall not be given to this generation. 13. And sending them away, He embarked again in the boat, and went across the strait. 14. And they had forgotten to take bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15. And He charged them, saying: See, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 16. And they were reasoning with one another, saying: It is because we have no bread. 17. Knowing this, Jesus said to them: Why do you reason that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still blinded? 18. Having eyes do you not see? And having ears do you not hear? Nor do you remember, 19. when I broke the five loaves for five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments you took up? They said to Him: Twelve. 20. And when the seven loaves for four thousand: how many baskets of fragments did you take up? And they said to Him: Seven. 21. And He said to them: How is it that you still do not understand? 22. And they came to Bethsaida, and they brought to Him a blind man, and begged Him to touch him. 23. And taking the blind man by the hand, He led him outside the village; and spitting into his eyes, laying His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24. And looking up, he said: I see men like trees walking. 25. Then He laid His hands again upon his eyes; and he began to see, and was restored so that he saw all things clearly. 26. And He sent him into his house, saying: Go into your house; and if you enter the village, tell no one. 27. And Jesus and His disciples went out into the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked His disciples, saying to them: Whom do men say that I am? 28. Who answered Him, saying: John the Baptist; others Elijah; but others, as one of the prophets. 29. Then He said to them: But whom do you say that I am? Peter, answering, said to Him: You are the Christ. 30. And He rebuked them, that they should tell no one of Him. 31. And He began to teach them, that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the Scribes, and be killed; and after three days rise again. 32. And He spoke the word openly. And Peter, taking Him aside, began to rebuke Him. 33. Who, turning and seeing His disciples, rebuked Peter, saying: Go behind Me, Satan, because you do not savor the things that are of God, but the things that are of men. 34. And calling the crowd together with His disciples, He said to them: If anyone wishes to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel will save it. 36. For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 38. For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. 39. And He said to them: Amen I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death, until they see the kingdom of God coming in power.
Verse 10: Dalmanutha
10. DALMANUTHA. — Matthew, chapter 15:39, has "Magedan," because namely these two places were near each other, as I have said there.
Verse 15: Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and the Leaven of Herod
15. BEWARE OF THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND THE LEAVEN OF HEROD. — "Leaven" is the doctrine by which the Pharisees taught sons to say to their parents "corban" and other things contrary to the law of God. "The leaven of Herod" is the doctrine of the Sadducees; for with these the latest dispute and contention of Christ had taken place, as appears from Matthew, chapter 16, verses 1 and 12. For Herod, like many of the leading men at that time, was a Sadducee, as Josephus testifies, Antiquities Book 18, chapter 2, who denied the immortality of the soul and lived almost as atheists, just as Herod lived in adultery, killed John, and committed other crimes, living without the fear of the divinity. For although he himself, at chapter 6:16, supposed that John had risen again in Christ; yet that opinion was not so much his own as that of the crowd, nor was it expressed and wrung from him so much by faith as by fear. Finally, to John, as a most holy man, he granted the resurrection, but denied the same to himself and those like him, so that he might freely indulge the pleasures of the flesh. Others, following Origen and Saint Jerome, by "leaven" understand the sect of the Herodians, who flattering Herod, said that he was the Messiah. But this sect was of Herod of Ascalon, not of Antipas, of whom we speak here, as I have said at Matthew 22:16.
Verse 22: They Brought Him a Blind Man and Begged Him to Touch Him
22. THEY BROUGHT HIM A BLIND MAN AND BEGGED HIM TO TOUCH HIM. — "Knowing," says Bede, "that the touch of the Lord, just as it could cleanse a leper, so also could give light to the blind."
Verse 23: And Taking the Blind Man by the Hand, He Led Him Outside the Village
23. AND TAKING THE BLIND MAN BY THE HAND, HE LED HIM OUTSIDE THE VILLAGE. — Outside Bethsaida, as is clear from verse 22, outside of which He led him for the same reason as in chapter 7:33, when about to heal the mute and deaf man, He separated him from the crowd; namely first, for the sake of prayer, so that gathering His mind alone, He might unite Himself wholly to God, and pray more intensely and attentively; second, that He might flee the empty glory and applause of men, and teach us to avoid it; third, because the citizens of Bethsaida were unworthy of this miracle of Christ: for having seen so many of His signs, they had refused to believe in Him. Thus Theophylact and Euthymius. See Matthew 11:21.
Mystically: The Scholiast in Saint Jerome: "Christ leads the sinner out of the village, that is," he says, "out of the company of the wicked. For evil conversations corrupt good morals."
AND SPITTING INTO HIS EYES. — Morning saliva purges bleary eyes, but it does not give sight to the blind. Therefore Christ's saliva was for the blind man a medicine not natural, but supernatural, because it was the instrument of Christ's divinity.
Saint Hilarion imitated this miracle of Christ enlightening the blind, as Saint Jerome testifies in his Life of him, whom hear: "A blind woman was brought to blessed Hilarion, who said that she had spent all her substance on physicians. To whom he replied: If what you lost on physicians you had given to the poor, the true physician Jesus would have cured you. When she cried out and begged for mercy, he spat into her eyes; and immediately the same power followed the Savior's example."
Tropologically: "Saliva is the grace of the Holy Spirit," says Bede: "this enlightens men, so that they may see the will of the Lord through the breath of the Holy Spirit," says the Scholiast in Saint Jerome.
LAYING HIS HANDS UPON HIM. — That is, when He had laid His hands upon the blind man's eyes, and then had removed them from his eyes. For it is improbable, as the Scholiast in Saint Chrysostom says, that this blind man saw men through Christ's hands laid upon his own eyes, at verse 24, for this would have been a new and irrelevant miracle.
Tropologically: The Scholiast in Chrysostom: "Christ," he says, "spits and lays on hands, wishing to show that the divine word joined to operation works wonderfully."
Verse 24: And Looking Up, He Said: I See Men Like Trees Walking
24. AND LOOKING UP, HE SAID: I SEE MEN LIKE TREES WALKING. — As if to say: I see something obscurely and confusedly, not clearly and distinctly: for I see men walking, in such a way that I cannot distinguish whether they are men or trees — as it often happens to us when viewing men from a distance, when we cannot easily distinguish whether they are men or trees (says Bede), except by their motion, because men walk while trees do not: for "walking" must be referred to the men, not to the trees, as is clear from the Greek. Nevertheless in the Latin text it could also be referred to the trees, in this sense, as if to say: I see men as it were forked trees and as it were two-legged, and therefore walking. Therefore this blind man, while still half-blind, saw men as if through a mist and fog, in which the densened images represented men larger than they really were, namely thick and tall like trees, just as through a spyglass letters appear larger than they really are.
Moreover, man is similar to a tree: first, in height and tallness; second, in uprightness; third, in rotundity; fourth, in bark and foliage — for what in a tree is bark and leaves, in man is skin and hair; fifth, in branches — for a man with outstretched arms is like a tree with outstretched branches; sixth, in life and veins — for as man lives and is nourished by food, chyle and blood distributed through the veins into the whole body, so a tree lives and is nourished by sap distributed through its fibers into every part; seventh, a tree gradually grows from a small shrub to a great height, and so too man "grows like a tree with hidden age;" and so just as man has his infancy, adolescence, manhood, old age, and death, so also does a tree; eighth, a good tree produces good fruits, a bad tree bad ones — so a good man brings forth good works, a bad man bad ones; wherefore as a tree is known by its fruits, so is a man by his works, as Christ teaches at Matthew 7:17. Finally, trees, like animals, have their own skin, blood, flesh, sinews, veins, bones, and marrow, says Pliny, Book 16, chapter 38. Whence also experience establishes that animals are born from trees, and especially ducks, on the islands near Scotland.
Moreover, trees seem to walk on islands and forests which move and float on a river or sea, such as may be seen at Saint-Omer in Belgium. The same happens when they are shaken by winds. Trees now rejoice in the north wind, and by it are strengthened and germinate best; but with the south wind's caresses they grow weary, says Pliny, Book 17, chapter 2. So men by adversities are strengthened in virtue and make progress, by prosperity they are loosened and fall away.
Pliny adds, in Book 13, chapter 4, that trees, especially palms, have sex like men, so that some are male, others female: "The male," he says, "flowers on the branch, the female without flower germinates only after the manner of a thorn." The same, Book 17, chapter 24, asserts that trees like men suffer from hunger, indigestion, plague and other diseases. The same, Book 17, chapter 25, teaches that trees have from time to time spoken like men; but this is either fictitious, or was brought about by angels or demons. The same, Book 23, chapter 1, teaches that man's first food, prepared and unlabored, was from trees, and that thus men were led to behold heaven; wherefore he introduces a tree speaking thus: "The greatest of man's pleasure is from me: I beget the juice of wine, the liquid of oil; I produce palms and fruits and so many varieties, and not — as the earth must be plowed by bulls with toil — but from me are all things prepared, offering themselves freely, and even falling down if one should disdain to touch them." Deservedly, then, this blind man just beginning to see, said: "I see men as trees walking."
In a similar way Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, fleeing the persecution of Decius, retired with a Deacon onto a hill; and when a certain traitor had reported this to the persecutors, and they were searching the whole hill to arrest Gregory, he himself with great faith in God stood praying with unmoved eyes and outstretched hands: wherefore God struck the persecutors with aorasia or blindness. For when they returned, they said that they had seen nothing on the hill except two trees a little distance apart; and when they had departed, the traitor, climbing the hill, saw not two trees but two men, namely Gregory and the Deacon. Whereupon, recognizing that this was done by divine power, so that they should appear as trees to their pursuers, he fell at his feet, and from a traitor became a confessor of the faith. So Saint Gregory of Nyssa in his Life.
Finally, that well-worn saying of the Philosopher is apt: "What is man? He is an inverted tree," because he sends his feet downward like branches, but his head and brain upward like a root, inasmuch as man ought to lead a heavenly life from heaven and bring forth heavenly fruits of the virtues.
Mystically: The Scholiast in Saint Jerome: "The blind man," he says, "that is, the penitent sinner, sees men as trees walking, because he deems all men superior to himself, judging himself unworthy, like David, to be called a man, reckoning himself a dead dog and a single flea, 2 Samuel 24. Hence such a one through his humility deserves to be enlightened and exalted."
Verse 25: Then He Again Laid His Hands Upon His Eyes
25. THEN HE AGAIN LAID HIS HANDS UPON HIS EYES; AND HE BEGAN TO SEE, AND WAS RESTORED SO THAT HE SAW ALL THINGS CLEARLY. — Christ wished to enlighten this blind man perfectly not suddenly, but gradually: first, so that He might produce miracles of every kind; second, that the miracle might be valued more highly; third and chiefly, that He might accommodate Himself to the imperfect faith of the blind man and of those presenting him, growing gradually with the miracle, and might kindle in them more the faith, hope, and desire of perfecting it. "First, He cured this blind man imperfectly," says Euthymius, "as one imperfectly believing, so that he who still saw but little might through that small sight believe more perfectly, and be healed more perfectly: for He was a wise physician." And shortly after: "The increase of faith merited the increase of healing." And Victor: "The very increase and accession of his sight," he says, "confirms the increase and accession of his faith."
Tropologically: Christ wished to teach us that the unbeliever and sinner are enlightened gradually by God, and therefore he must advance gradually in the knowledge and worship of God. "In order to show the magnitude," says Bede, "of human blindness, which as it were step by step, and through certain degrees of advancement, is wont to come to the light of divine vision (knowledge)." For, as the Scholiast in Saint Chrysostom says: "They are advances of knowledge, nor can anyone know perfect wisdom in one hour; only after much time can one arrive at perfect knowledge." We experience this in children and students, who must be taught and instructed step by step; otherwise if a master impatient of delay and labor wishes to deliver everything to them at once, he will overwhelm their mind and memory so that they grasp nothing; just as when wine is poured into a narrow-mouthed vessel, if it is all poured at once, scarcely any goes in, but it is practically all spilled. Well known is that Italian saying: Piano piano si va lontano — "slowly, slowly one goes far." And that saying of the Philosopher: "Motion comes about successively."
Symbolically: The Scholiast in Saint Jerome: "Christ laid His hands upon his eyes," he says, "that he might see all things clearly, that is, through visible works he might understand invisible things, and things which eye has not seen; and clearly behold the state of his own soul after the rust of sin, with the eye of a clean heart: for 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'"
Verse 26: And If Into the Village
26. AND IF INTO THE VILLAGE, — that is, into the city Bethsaida, which was small like a village or hamlet, from which, at verse 23, He had led him; unless you prefer to take "village" as the suburb, or a village attached or adjacent to Bethsaida.
Verse 34: Let Him Deny
34. LET HIM DENY, — that is, "Let him deny himself," as the Interpreter translates at Matthew 16:24.
Verse 38: For Whoever Is Ashamed of Me
38. FOR WHOEVER IS ASHAMED OF ME. — The Greek, ἐπαισχυνθῇ, that is, shall have blushed, namely at Me and My doctrine, life, and profession of poverty, humility, and the cross.
IN THIS ADULTEROUS GENERATION — of the wicked Jews, who are faithful and children of God, but not genuine, but spurious and adulterine, because they have degenerated from the faith of their fathers and Patriarchs, when they refuse to receive Me as the Messiah promised to them: and therefore they are the children not so much of God as of the devil. In Hebrew they are called בני נכר bene nechar, that is, sons of a stranger, namely of a father, that is, begotten of a stranger and adulterer, and therefore degenerate from the true Father, that is, from God, and dissimilar to Him in their ways. See the things said at Matthew 10:33.
Verse 39: The Kingdom of God
39. THE KINGDOM OF GOD, — that is, the glory of the kingdom of God, soon to come to pass in My transfiguration.
COMING, (that is, appearing and showing Himself to Peter, James, and John) IN POWER. — that is, with great might, efficacy, brightness, splendor, and majesty.