Jesus uses spittle in three healings in the gospel tradition: here,
8:23, and in John 9:6. The text does not say why Jesus spit or whether he spit
into his hands before touching the man’s tongue (cf. 8:23, where he spits into
the man’s eyes). Spittle was commonly viewed in the ancient world as having
medicinal and/or magical powers, and the saliva of an important person was
considered to be particularly powerful. Both Tacitus and Suetonius relate an
account of a blind man who approached the emperor Vespasian in Alexandria,
Egypt, and begged to be healed by his saliva. While the use of spittle was
rejected by some rabbis as magical, others accepted its medicinal value. Touching
the tongue, like touching the ears, is probably meant both to demonstrate
compassion and to transfer Jesus’ healing power. (Mark L.
Strauss, Mark [Zondervan Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2014], 322)
The use of spittle seems to us strange and repulsive and unhygienic;
but in the ancient world it was quite common. Spittle, and especially the
spittle of some distinguished person, was believed to possess certain curative
qualities. Tacitus tells how, when the Roman emperor Vespasian visited
Alexandria, there came to him two men, one with diseased eyes and one with a
diseased hand, who said that they had been advised by their god to come to him.
The man with the diseased eyes wished Vespasian ‘to moisten his eye-balls with
spittle’; the man with the diseased hand wished Vespasian ‘to trample on his
hand with the sole of his foot’. Vespasian was very unwilling to do so but was
finally persuaded to do as the men asked. ‘The hand immediately recovered its
power; the blind man saw once more. Both facts are attested to this day, when
falsehood can bring no reward, by those who were present on the occasion’
(Tacitus, Histories, 4:81).
Pliny, the famous Roman collector of what was then called scientific
information, has a whole chapter on the use of spittle. He says that it is a
sovereign preservative against the poison of serpents; that it is a protection
against epilepsy; that lichens and leprous spots can be cured by the
application of fasting spittle; that ophthalmia can be cured by anointing the
eyes every morning with fasting spittle; that carcinomata and crick in the neck
can be cured by the use of spittle. Spittle was held to be very effective in
averting the evil eye. Persius tells how the aunt or the grandmother, who fears
the gods and is skilled in averting the evil eye, will lift the baby from his
cradle and ‘with her middle finger apply the lustrous spittle to his forehead and
slobbering lips’. The use of spittle was very common in the ancient world. To
this day, if we burn a finger, our first instinct is to put it into our mouth;
and there are some who believe that warts can be cured by licking them with
fasting spittle.
The fact is that Jesus took the methods and customs of his time and
used them. He was a wise physician; he had to gain the confidence of his
patient. It was not that he believed in these things, but he kindled
expectation by doing what the patient would expect a doctor to do. After all,
to this day the efficacy of any medicine or treatment depends to a certain
extent on the patient’s faith in it as well as in the treatment or the drug
itself. (William Barclay, The Gospel of John, 2 vols. [The New
Daily Study Bible; Louisville, Ky.: Edinburgh, 2001], 2:48-49)
