Five-minute study · Day 328 · John 9
John 9:6
A word worth stopping on: spat πτύω ptyo
'When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.' The Greek word for 'spat' is ptyo. Jesus spat on the ground, mixed saliva with dirt, and pressed the mud onto a man's eyes. The act is physical, earthy, strange. It also made perfect sense to everyone watching. Tacitus records that the emperor Vespasian healed a blind man with saliva in Alexandria. Pliny the Elder catalogues saliva as a remedy for eye diseases. Suetonius reports similar healings. Saliva was folk medicine, widely believed to carry healing properties. Jesus met people where their understanding was. He used the material they already associated with healing, and he loaded it with divine power.
Word study: spat
- Greek
- πτύω
- Pronounced
- ptyo
- Strong's
- G4429
- Definition
- To spit, to expectorate. Used in the New Testament only of Jesus: John 9:6, Mark 7:33, Mark 8:23. Each instance involves a physical healing where saliva serves as a medium.
Ptyo appears three times in the New Testament, all in accounts of Jesus healing. In Mark 7:33, he puts his fingers into a deaf man's ears and touches his tongue with saliva. In Mark 8:23, he spits on a blind man's eyes at Bethsaida. In John 9:6, he spits on the ground, makes clay, and applies it to a man born blind. BDAG defines it simply: to spit. The word is unremarkable. The actions it describes are not.
Keener's commentary on John notes that saliva was widely regarded as therapeutic in the ancient Mediterranean world. The belief cut across cultures. Pliny the Elder (Natural History 28.7) reports that fasting saliva was considered especially potent for eye ailments. Tacitus (Histories 4.81) describes Vespasian healing a blind man in Alexandria by moistening the man's eyes with saliva, at the prompting of the god Serapis. Suetonius (Vespasian 7) records the same event. The Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 108b) later discusses whether saliva could be applied to the eyes on the Sabbath, treating it as an established medical practice.
Keener argues that Jesus' use of saliva was an act of communication. The blind man could not see. He needed to know something was happening. The physical act, the feeling of mud pressed onto his eyelids, gave him something tangible to connect with the coming miracle. Keener also notes that the making of clay (pelos) from dirt and saliva echoes Genesis 2:7, where God forms Adam from the ground. Jesus, healing a man born blind, performs an act of re-creation. The first creation shaped a man from earth. This new act restores sight to eyes that never worked. The material is the same: dust and the breath (or fluid) of God.
Historical context · 1st century CE
Saliva as Medicine in the Ancient World
The medicinal use of saliva in the ancient world was documented across Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Egyptian sources. Pliny the Elder provides the most systematic treatment in his Natural History (1st century CE). He reports that fasting saliva applied to the eyes each morning was a standard remedy for inflammation and eye disease. He also records that saliva could cure skin eruptions, ward off serpents, and treat various infections. The claims are a mix of folk tradition, empirical observation, and superstition, but the widespread belief in saliva's healing properties is well attested.
Tacitus' account of Vespasian's healing in Alexandria (Histories 4.81) is particularly relevant. A blind man approached the emperor, claiming the god Serapis had told him in a dream that Vespasian could heal him by applying saliva to his eyes. Vespasian was skeptical but consented. According to Tacitus, the blind man's sight was restored. The incident was politically significant: it established Vespasian's divine legitimacy as the new emperor. The detail that matters for John 9 is not whether the Vespasian account is historically reliable. The detail is that everyone in the first-century Mediterranean world associated saliva with healing, particularly healing of the eyes.
Keener places John 9 against this backdrop and draws out the differences. Vespasian was reluctant. Jesus was deliberate. Vespasian healed to prove his political authority. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, provoking the religious authorities. The Pharisees' objection in John 9:16, 'This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day,' focuses on the timing, not the method. The method, using saliva as a healing agent, was culturally unremarkable. The scandal was that Jesus did it on the day of rest and claimed the authority of God while doing it.
For reflection
Jesus used ordinary materials: spit, dirt, mud. He pressed them onto a man's eyes and told him to go wash. The method was strange, physical, undignified. Where do you expect God to work through polished, impressive means? What if his provision for you right now looks common, even crude, and you are waiting for something more impressive to arrive?
The man born blind had never seen anything. He could not evaluate the method by how it looked. He could only obey: go, wash. Sometimes the instruction matters more than understanding the mechanism.
Sources: BDAG; Keener, "The Gospel of John"