Why did Jesus use spit in his miracles?

Question

In three cases, Jesus uses spittle in the process of healing.

Mark 7:33, And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

Mark 8:23, And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

John 9:6, Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud

The main question is this:

Why did Jesus use spit?

Following this and for more clarity, my questions are more investigative:

Is there a cultural reason for Jesus using spit?

Is there a hermeneutical significance to Jesus using spit in his miracles?

How did first-century observers likely view Jesus' use of spit in healing?

Are there any historical or religious texts that provide insight into the practice of using spit for healing during that time?

Answer 1

Messiah's Miraculous Powers
The use of "spittle" in the workings of Jesus had nothing to do with the medical benefits of saliva. Note that the healings of Jesus with spit had nothing to do with digestion, nor open sores, as such. Deafness, speaking, blindness, were healed---not by interaction of saliva and a disease---but by supernatural miracles! And the time for healing to happen was not days, weeks, or months, which we would expect if He were relying on medicinable medication.

And the reason that Jesus performed a couple miracles this way was to fulfil the expectations of some Rabbinical teachings concerning the coming Messiah: ...Even the spittle of the Messiah would work miracles. This was one of the rabbinical ideas floating around the schools at the time of the first century (BCE-CE) concerning one of their concepts of the Messiah. This was just one of many concepts or speculations about the Messiah. [See Alfred Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix, for a complete listing of ideas found in the rabbinical literature that they applied to the Messiah's person and ministry.]

Some of the ideas of the rabbis were far-fetched, to be sure. But it seems that Jesus did accommodate some of them to satisfy their hopes---and not to leave any excuse for their not believing in Him.

Note: For an exhaustive list of Rabbinical commentaries on the Old Testament (Tanakh) and expectations concerning a coming Messiah, see Alfred Edersheim's, Life and Times of the Messiah, especially Appendix IX (9).

Answer 2

The chapter "Christ Is the Power of God" of the book Draw Close to Jehovah, gives a helpful explanation for Jesus' use of spit:

The man was deaf and hardly able to talk. Jesus may have sensed this man’s particular nervousness or embarrassment. Thoughtfully, Jesus took the man aside—away from the crowd—to a private place. Then Jesus used some signs to convey to the man what he was about to do. He “put his fingers into the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.” ^▵ (Mark 7:33)

^▵ Spitting was a means or sign of healing accepted by both Jews and Gentiles, and the use of saliva in cures is reported in rabbinic writings. Jesus may have spit simply to convey to the man that he was about to be healed. Whatever the case, Jesus was not using his saliva as a natural healing agent.

In addition, the question "Why did Jesus use spit to heal people?" on BibleAsk.org gives a similar explanation:

Spit as a Symbol of Healing

In ancient cultures, including Jewish and Greco-Roman societies, saliva was sometimes considered to have healing properties. This belief is reflected in various historical texts and practices.

• Jewish Tradition: While the Jewish tradition often considered spit to be unclean, there were instances where it was believed to have curative powers. The Talmud, for example, contains references to the use of saliva in healing (Bava Batra 126b).
• Greco-Roman Beliefs: In the Greco-Roman world, saliva was often seen as having medicinal properties. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder mentioned the use of spit in treating certain ailments in his work “Natural History.”

By using spit, Jesus might have been engaging with these cultural understandings to communicate His healing power in a way that was relatable to the people of His time.

So Jesus' use of spit was more of an indication to the recipient of the miracle that healing was about to occur.

Answer 3

So my knowledge is pretty limited to what I've found in the bible, so this might not be a full answer but this was a great question and stirred up some fun thoughts!

Throughout the bible being spit upon is not pleasant experience, it's humiliating and often a sign of utter contempt, disgust, or hatred.

Job 30:10 "They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me."

Numbers 12:14 "But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.”

In summary being spit upon was disgraceful and humiliating and I imagine that the first century observers were probably shocked that Jesus used spit in some of his healings.

And while Jesus's healing of the blind seems to be majority touch based it's evident that he didn't need to use touch (or spit!) to heal the blind as he heals blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 and Luke 18 by simply speaking to him.

Mark 10:51-52 "And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

So why did Jesus choose to heal by spitting in some of his miracles? I don't know if there is a conclusive answer but some ideas are:

1. God has many different ways of healing at his disposal and doesn't always have to use the same method for the same issue.

2. Sometimes the process of healing is humiliating or appears counterintuitive, but we're called to continue to trust that God is still good through it.

3. At the end of the day the person who is healed isn't as concerned with the method used as much as the fact that "I was once blind, now I see!" John 9

Answer 4

JOS Wars 2:147

καὶ τὸ πτύσαι δὲ εἰς μέσους ἢ τὸ δεξιὸν μέρος φυλάσσονται καὶ ταῖς ἑβδομάσιν ἔργων ἐφάπτεσθαι διαφορώτατα Ἰουδαίων ἁπάντων οὐ μόνον γὰρ τροφὰς ἑαυτοῖς πρὸ μιᾶς ἡμέρας παρασκευάζουσιν ὡς μὴ πῦρ ἐναύοιεν ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ σκεῦός τι μετακινῆσαι θαρροῦσιν οὐδὲ ἀποπατεῖν

They also avoid spitting in the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labours on the seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not move any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. (This addition includes the complete works of Josephus, fully parsed and lemmatized, as well as the 1828 Whiston English Translation. The Greek text is based on the 1890 Niese edition which is public domain.)

The use of saliva by Jesus in some of his miracles, as seen in the healing of the man born blind in John 9:6, where he mixed his saliva with dirt to make mud and applied it to the blind man’s eyes, carries profound and layered meanings, especially as this took place on the Sabbath.

First, the use of spit has cultural resonance in the Jewish context. According to Flavius Josephus (Jewish War 2.147), certain Jewish sects—possibly the Essenes—held strict prohibitions against actions such as spitting on the ground or in specific directions on the Sabbath. This practice was avoided to maintain ritual purity, especially on the Sabbath, when any act that could be interpreted as labor or desecration was strictly forbidden.

By using saliva on the Sabbath to heal the blind man, Jesus directly challenges these cultural and spiritual restrictions. Mixing his saliva with earth, he symbolically connects the human with the divine, the material with the transcendent, reminiscent of the creation of Adam in Genesis, where God formed humanity from the dust of the ground. This act carries a re-creative symbolism: the use of “mundane” elements—saliva and clay—takes on a sacred function in restoring sight, something only God could truly accomplish.

Thus, the spit in Jesus’s miracle becomes a transformative element, where what might be seen as profane by Essenes or other groups is sanctified by Jesus’s actions, emphasizing divine authority over human-made restrictions. Additionally, by choosing to perform this act on the Sabbath, Jesus makes a powerful statement about the true purpose of the holy day. He demonstrates that Sabbath observance should not restrict acts of mercy and restoration. This subtly redefines the Sabbath, not as a day of mere abstention but as a time when God’s compassion and healing are manifested most clearly.

Jesus’s action, then, serves as a practical teaching that the holiness of the Sabbath is not diminished by performing an act of healing. He reveals that God, in His creative and restorative work, is not bound by these human restrictions but transcends them, placing the value of life and healing above human tradition.

Answer 5

The National Library of Medicine in its website https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24862594/ offers a good writeup on the properties of saliva.Apart from aiding in digestion, it contains valuable medicinal properties. The people of Jesus' time sure knew that.See Lk 16:20-21:

At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

Well, dogs lick their own wounds and those of their puppies to heal them. Things were not different in ancient times when human beings learned many survival tactics from animals and birds (" How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing" Lk 13:34). Use of saliva was just one of those tactics. Mothers in some African clans are known to feed solid food to their babies after chewing it with saliva and transferring it to the mouth of the baby.

Jesus definitely wanted to rekindle the faith in medicines in the beneficiaries of his miracle ,as well as in the onlookers. Hence the use of saliva in the form of a medicine.