BARTIMAEUS bär’ tə me’ əs (Βαρτιμαῖος, G985). A blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, whom Jesus, on His way to His last Passover, healed as He left the city of Jericho (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus prob. has a patronymic meaning, “son of Timaeus” (10:46). The order of events given in Mark is somewhat different in Luke (Luke 18:35-43), where the blind man’s name is not given. In Matthew’s account (Matt 20:29-34) two unnamed blind men appear. Various attempts have been made to explain the apparent “discrepancies” in these accounts, but none has received universal acceptance.

A widely accepted explanation is that a blind man made his request as Jesus approached Jericho, but Jesus did not heed him, perhaps to test his faith. When Jesus left Jericho, the blind man was accompanied by another and both were healed by Jesus.

Another interpretation is that the healing occurred between the old Jericho (the site of the Canaanite city) and the new Jericho (the recently built Herodian city). Jesus actually healed two blind men, but for some reason Mark and Luke chose to mention only one, perhaps because he later became widely known as a disciple of Christ.