June 12, 2011: Plug Your Ears and Spit – Michael Hidalgo

The Romans believed in a god named Asclepius. He was a god of healing. If you were sick you would go to the Asclepion (one of his temples) and priests there, for a fee, would invoke the powers of the god to come to your aid. One of the ways these powers came to bear on humans and heal them was through the bodily fluids of the god. 

This is interesting in light of the fact that Mark is writing to a Roman audience and tells the story of Jesus healing a man who was unable to hear or speak. Jesus performs this miracle, mind you, in the territory of the Romans – where their gods held power and sway.