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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Ephrem the Syrian
That Power Which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched; that the needy may draw near to Him, that in touching His manhood they may discern His Godhead. For that dumb man [whom the Lord healed] with the fingers of the body, discerned that He had approached his ears and touched his tongue; nay, with his fingers that may be touched, he touched Godhead, that may not be touched; when it was loosing the string of his tongue, and opening the clogged doors of his ears. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
He takes "him aside," for He was not a lover of glory, having humbled Himself to our poverty and not wishing to perform miracles before many, except when the benefit of the onlookers required it. "Having spit, He touched his tongue" as a sign that all parts of His Holy flesh were divine and holy, so that even His spittle loosed the bonds of the tongue. All spittle is an excess of fluids, but in the Lord everything is wondrous and divine.
Western Saints
Gregory the Dialogist
What is designated by the fingers of the Redeemer except the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Hence, when in another place He had cast out a demon, He said: "If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has surely come upon you." Concerning which matter He is described by another Evangelist as having said: "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." From both these passages it is gathered that the finger of God is called the Spirit. …
Bede
And spitting, he touched his tongue. The Lord indeed touches the tongue of the sick with spittle, when he instructs the mouths of catechumens towards the confession of faith. The spittle of the Lord signifies the taste of wisdom, which, as testified by the wise man, speaks: "I came from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn" (Eccli. XXIV). And hence elsewhere, when his spittle mixed with earth, the man born blind was illuminated. …
Translation