They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly.
Deafness can be cured by inserting fingers into the patient's ears and applying saliva to their tongue.
Medicine
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The cited passage
What current science says
Deafness is caused by damage to the tiny hair cells in the cochlea, problems with the ear bones, auditory nerve damage, or brain processing issues. These are structural problems — bent or dead hair cells, calcified bones, severed nerves. Sticking fingers in someone's ears does nothing to repair damaged cochlear hair cells (of which you have only about 15,000 per ear, and they don't regenerate in humans). And saliva on the tongue has zero connection to hearing. Modern solutions include hearing aids and cochlear implants — actual engineering, not spit.
What the text says
This comes from Mark 7:32-35. The text describes putting fingers in a deaf man's ears, then spitting and touching his tongue — and the man was immediately able to hear and speak clearly.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.