BARTIMEUS (Baptimato). — A blind beggar healed by Jesus in the territory of Jericho during His final journey to Jerusalem. Only Mk. (10:46) gives his name in Aramaic (patronymic) and its interpretation (ὁ υἱὸς Τιμαίου Βαπτιμαῖος): “son of Timeus”; since the explanation, contrary to custom, precedes, M.-J. Lagrange thinks it is an extremely ancient gloss that has entered the text.
The name is of uncertain etymology: Bar tim’aj (from tame’ = impure) “impure son,” but perhaps tim’aj was a Semiticized form of the Greek name Τιμαῖος (“honorable”) or had the sense of “blind” (like Arabic a‘mā and Syriac sēmā). Some ancients read Bar semd: “Barsemia, filius caecus, quod et ipsum corrupte quidam Bartimaceum legunt” (Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum, ed. P. Lagarde, 2nd ed., Göttingen 1887, p. 99); Codex D, with various Old Latin witnesses, has Baptimato.
Informed of Jesus’ passing, B. began to cry out: “Jesus, son of David” (a messianic title), “have mercy on me!” For the Messiah was to open the eyes of the blind (Is. 35:5; cf. Mt. 11:5). Despite the threats of many, B. persisted in his entreaty. Jesus ordered him to be brought forward. B. threw aside his cloak and ran to Jesus (guided by others: Lk. 18:40), asking Him for the gift of sight. “Impetuously and touching his eyes” (Mt. 20:34), Jesus healed him, in reward for his lively faith, and B. followed the Master: Mk. 10:46–52.
In the account of Mt. 20:29–34, Jesus heals two blind men. St. Augustine resolved the difficulty (De consensu Evangelistarum, II, 65 and 125: PL 34, 1111 and 1137–38): “Hence it is that Mark wished to mention only this one, whose healing brought such renown to the miracle.” For his faith and prayer B. played a prominent part in the miraculous episode; perhaps later he had a role in the nascent Church, and Mark would have known B. “as a notable figure from that time” (Victor of Antioch, in Catena graecorum patrum, ed. J. A. Cramer, I, Oxford 1844, p. 388).
More serious is the difficulty, whose solution has taxed exegetes, concerning the place of the miracle. While Mk. and Mt. seem to affirm that the healing took place on the way out (ἐκπορευόμενον αὐτῷ ἀπὸ Ἱεριχῶ), Lk. 18:35–43 places it before Jesus’ entry into Jericho, a local circumstance to be regarded as certain given Luke’s precise wording. Yet this is not otherwise how Mk. 10:46 ἐρχονται εἰς Ἱεριχω is to be understood: “they come into Jericho”; then the ingenious separation (I. A. Kleist) of ἐκπορευόμενον αὐτόν from ἀπὸ Ἱεριχῶ — “outside Jericho” (referring to the main clause: “B., a blind beggar, was sitting outside Jericho”) resolves everything. In Origen and the “Western” codices (D, the best Old Latin witnesses) the difficulty is resolved: ἐξῆλθεν and not ἀπὸ Ἱεριχῶ. Others reconcile Mk. and Lk. by relating Mk.’s “departure” to old Jericho (today Tell es-Sultan) and Lk.’s “approach” to new Jericho (today Riha) nearly 3 km south-southeast (L. Pirot, P. Ketter); others: one blind man was healed at Jericho’s entrance, the other on the way out (St. Augustine [PL 34, 1138], A. Calmet, R. Cornely, J. Knabenbauer, F. Prat), or the blind man B. met Jesus at Jericho’s entrance but was healed on Jesus’ departure the next day (Maldonatus, C. a Lapide, L.-C. Fillion, G. Milligan, who adduces J. Bengel, R. Stier, R.C. Trench, J. Wordsworth and others).