Healing a Crowd near Sea of Galilee
Life of Jesus · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 8f00f1e74b9be24f · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Ministry in Galilee. A guided comparison of Gospel accounts, not a measured calendar or a claim that every parallel follows the same sequence.
Returning toward the Sea of Galilee, Jesus heals among the crowds. Mark follows his movement through the Decapolis and describes a man whose hearing and speech are restored; Matthew gives a broader account of healings.
The passages overlap in theme but differ in detail and scope. Decapolis denotes a wider region associated with several cities, not a single city or a precise itinerary through every member of the group.
Primary Scripture
15:29 Moving on from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountain and sat down.
15:30 Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them.
15:31 The crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.
7:31 Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.
7:32 Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him.
7:33 So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue.
7:34 And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”).
7:35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly.
7:36 Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it.
7:37 The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
Related Scripture
Isaiah’s language about hearing and speech provides a comparison with Mark’s account.
Location evidence
Matthew names the lakeside and an unnamed mountain; Mark names the Decapolis region on the return. Neither supplies the exact healing location.
Event map marker: Approximate region; [longitude, latitude] = [35.59, 32.8]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Decapolis · illustrative region: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [36, 32.55]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.45,32],[36.8,33.6]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Gospel setting; extent is an editorial illustration, not a boundary
Sea of Galilee: Approximate region. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.59, 32.8]. Classification source: editorial.
Illustrative regional extent: [[35.5,32.69],[35.67,32.92]]; not a measured confidence interval.
Gospel setting; extent is an editorial illustration, not a boundary
Gospel setting; extent is an editorial illustration, not a boundary
For the class
What responses to the healings do Matthew and Mark each emphasize?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: theographic (400)
Record source: editorial
Events and places adapted from Theographic Bible Metadata (github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata), CC BY-SA 4.0. This adapted data is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm