Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

This Sunday's Gospel reading is from Mark 7:31-37 in which Jesus cures a deaf man,

"Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decap′olis.  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him.  And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue;  and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, 'Eph′phatha,' that is, 'Be opened.'  And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, 'He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.'”

This healing appears just after the record of Jesus healing the Syrophoenician woman. This makes one wonder to which nationality or religious group the deaf man belonged.

While most of my readers will hear some sort of sermon based on the miracle, I would like to draw your attention to Jesus' travels through the coastal region of what is now part of Lebanon in which he would naturally come into contact with a large population of non-Jews like the Syrophoenician woman who was possibly a follower of the Greek religion and the deaf man whose religion and background are unknown.

From Land of the Bible.com we learn about the Decapolis,

"The Decapolis (deka for 'ten' and polis for 'cities' in Greek) is only mentioned three times in the New Testament, but this league of 10 Greco-Roman cities had a lasting impact in Israel. After Alexander the Great’s death in 323 B.C., his four generals carved his empire into four kingdoms, two of which shared a contested border with Judea:
• Ptolemy ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt (305-30 B.C.)
• Seleucus ruled the Seleucid Kingdom in Syria/Persia (312-63 B.C.)
They continued Alexander’s dream to Hellenize the world, and set up these ten cities for Greek settler-soldiers to live in. They had their own court system, currency, temples, theaters, and armies, but they clashed with the Hebrew populace, whom they considered beneath their civilized society (circumcision was considered barbaric and monotheism absurd). The Jews were equally repulsed by their pagan worship and unbiblical sexual practices, and resisted their cultural intrusion into Israel. It was oil and water from the start.
Things came to a head in 167 B.C., when Antiochus sacrificed a pig on an altar to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem. This act set off the powder keg that became the Maccabean Revolt (this Jewish victory is still celebrated today with Hanukkah). Although some Jews did become Hellenized, like Timothy (Acts 16:1) and the Sadducees, animosities continued to simmer between the two cultures for the next 100 years.
In 63 B.C., Pompey took Judea for Rome, and with it the Greeks in the Decapolis cities (who inspired and shared Roman customs). This was a relief to the Greeks, who resented the Jewish Hasmonean Kingdom that had been in charge in Israel. These 10 semi-autonomous Gentile cities would now enjoy the protection and sophistication of Rome, in an otherwise backward (in their minds) Judea. In return, they would help Rome protect her lucrative trade routes on the Empire’s eastern frontier. Rome did little to ease the tensions between the Greeks and Jews, and it would eventually erupt in Caesarea with the Great Revolt in 66 A.D. When it spilled into Jerusalem, Rome would take drastic measures with catastrophic results.
Only one of these 10 cities was on the western side of the Jordan River, Beth Shean (where King Saul’s headless body was strung up on the city gate by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 31:8-10). The Greeks renamed it Scythopolis, and it may be this “distant country” that Jesus referenced in his Prodigal Son parable when the son “fed the swine” (Greeks ate pork and used pigs in sacrifices). “Riotous living” was also commonplace in Scythopolis (Luke 15:11-32).
Besides Scythopolis, Hippos is the only other Decapolis city in modern Israel today. The rest were too far east, now in Jordan (Pella, Gadara, Dion, Gerasa, Canatha, and Raphana), and Syria (Damascus and Philadelphia).
Several significant New Testament events happened by a Decapolis city:
• Jesus cast out demons into pigs, His first trip to a Gentile area in Gadara (Mark 5:9-20).
• Jesus healed a deaf mute (Mark 7:31-35).
• Jesus had huge crowds of followers here (Matthew 4:24-25).
Eventually earthquakes, Rome’s fall, and multiple Muslim invasions led to the abandonment or destruction of the Decapolis league, except for Damascus and Philadelphia (Amman today). Scythopolis and Hippos, the two best-preserved Roman cities in Israel, are a definite top ten stop for your itinerary."

From biblearchaeology.org we learn about Sidon and Tyre,

"By virtue of its submission to Alexander, Sidon under the Greeks enjoyed relative freedom and an advanced cultural life. In the early days of the Roman Empire, Sidon even had enough autonomy to have its own senate and mint its own coins. Unfortunately for archaeologists, the area of ancient Sidon remains occupied today and only minimal archaeological evidence for New Testament Sidon is available.
Meanwhile, Tyre also recovered from Alexander’s devastation. In 126 BC, now a peninsula extending into the Mediterranean, Tyre became a Roman province and later the capital of Rome’s Syria-Phoenician province.
The site of the ancient mainland city became a large and ornate Roman necropolis. Here also was built a typical Roman hippodrome, the best preserved in the world today. An east-west colonnaded street, a huge triple-bay triumphal arch and a water aqueduct also extended from this area toward the sea.
On the island of Tyre, near the site of the ancient Egyptian (southern) port today sits impressive ruins from the Roman and Byzantine periods. These include a western extension of the colonnaded street from the mainland site, the agora (market place), an unusual arena, and a huge bathhouse.
Thus, New Testament Tyre and Sidon were prosperous Roman port cities. Yet there was great spiritual hunger in the region. Early in Jesus’ ministry, people from Sidon and Tyre heard about the things He did. They came to see Him (Mk 3:8) and be healed by Him (Lu 6:17).
Later in His ministry, Jesus visited the region of Sidon and Tyre. There He healed the Canaanite (Syrophoenician) woman’s daughter (Mt 15:21–28; Mk 7:24–31). This was the same area where God sent Elijah when the widow fed him (1 Kgs 17:9). Elijah’s visit was to the port city of Zaraphath (Serepta to the Greeks and modern Sarafand), almost mid-way between Sidon and Tyre. Both these Old and New Testament visits to the region may be a reminder that the Promised Land extended as far north as Sidon. While full of non- Israelites, it was still part of Israel’s inheritance.
Jesus pronounced judgment on Chorazin and Bethsaida suggesting that if the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon had experienced what Chorazin and Bethsaida did, they would have long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes (Mt 11:21–24).
The inhabitants of Sidon and Tyre offended Herod Agrippa I and came to visit him at Jerusalem. While both were significant Roman cities on the eastern Mediterranean, their leaders felt the need to keep in Herod’s favor. This visit was the occasion of Herod’s death at God’s hand (Acts 12:20–23).
When Paul returned to Palestine from his third missionary journey, he sailed into Tyre. He met with a group of disciples there and spent seven days in the city (Acts 21:3–7). He probably walked the colonnaded street, passing the hippodrome.
After his arrest in Jerusalem and imprisonment in Caesarea, Paul was taken as a prisoner to Rome. From Caesarea his ship stopped at Sidon and Paul was allowed to meet with a group of disciples in that city (Acts 27:3)."