Blindness Common in the East
Mark 8:22-26
And he comes to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man to him, and sought him to touch him.…


Blindness was and is more common in Egypt and Syria than in any other part of the world. The glare of light, the dust which is produced by a dry season, extending from May to November, in which rain rarely falls, and the fruit of the newly ripe fig, all tend to produce inflammation of the eyes, and this, when severe or repeated, produces blindness. One-tenth of the population of Joppa today are blind. In a neighbouring town, Lydda, a traveller, probably exaggerating, said every other person was blind of one or both eyes. In Cairo, a city of 250,000 inhabitants, there are 4,000 blind. Accordingly, this was one of the commonest ills which the Saviour had to treat.

(R. Glover.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.

WEB: He came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him, and begged him to touch him.




Analogy to Spiritual Cures
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