be openeT
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
EPHPHATHA.Mar_7:34, where Jesus says to a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. The word is really Aramaic, and if we transliterate it as it stands we obtain eppattach or eppethach. Both these forms are contracted: the former for ithpattach, the latter for ithpethach, which are respectively second sing, imperative Ithpaal and Ithpeal of the verb pethach, to open. Some Gr. MSS present ephphetha, which is certainly Ithpeal, whereas ephphatha may be Ithpaal. Jerome also reads ephphetha.
It is not certain whom or what Jesus addressed when He said Be opened. It may be the mouth of the man as in Luk_1:64 (so Weiss, Morison, etc.); or the ear, as in Targ. of Isa_50:5 (so Bruce, Swete, etc.); or it may be the deaf man himself. One gate of knowledge being closed, the man is conceived of as a bolted room, and Jesus said to him. Be thou opened.
J. T. Marshall.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
ef?a-tha, ef-a?tha (Ἐφφαθά, Ephphathá): Aramaic word used by Christ (Mar_7:34), the 'Ethpa'al imperative of Aramaic pethaḥ (Hebrew pāthaḥ), translated, ?Be (thou) opened?; compare Isa_35:5. The Aramaic was the sole popular language of Palestine (Shurer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, IIg, 9) and its use shows that we have here the graphic report of an eyewitness, upon whom the dialectic form employed made a deep impression. This and the corresponding act of the touch with the moistened finger is the foundation of a corresponding ceremony in the Roman Catholic formula for baptism.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Ephphatha
(ἐφφαθά, a Graecized form of the Syro-Chaldee imperative הַפָּתִחor אַפְּתִח, strictly אֵתְפָּתָח, meaning be opened, as it is immediately interpreted), an exclamation uttered by Christ in curing the deaf-mute (Mar_7:34).
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.