BARTIMEUS (Gr. Bartimaîos). - A blind beggar, healed by Jesus in the territory of Jericho during his last journey to Jerusalem. Only Mk. (10:46) gives his Aramaic name (patronymic) and its interpretation (ὁ υἱὸς Τιμᾶς Βαρτιμᾶς): "son of Timaeus"; since the explanation, contrary to custom, precedes, M.-J. Lagrange thinks it is a very ancient gloss that penetrated into the text.
The name is of uncertain etymology: Bar tim'aj (from tamja "impure") "impure son," but perhaps tim'aj was a Semitized form of the Greek name Τιμᾶς ("honorable") or had the sense of "blind" (like Tarabo agamm and the Syriac semd). Some ancient author read Bar semd: "Barsemia, filius caecus, quod et ipsum corrupte quidam Bartimacum legunt" (Liber interpretationis hebraic. nom., ed. P. Lagarde, 2nd ed. Göttingen 1887, p. 99); codex D, along with variants of the Old Latin, has Βαρτιμᾶς.
Informed of Jesus' passing, B. began to cry out: "Jesus, son of David (Messianic title), have pity 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. persevered in his invocation. Jesus ordered that he be brought to him. B. threw off his cloak and ran to Jesus (guided by others: Lk. 18:40), of whom he asked the gift of sight. "Moved with pity and having touched his eyes" (Mt. 20:34), Jesus healed him, as a reward for his lively faith, and B. followed the Master: Mk. 10:46-52.
In the narrative of Mt. 20:29-34, Jesus heals two blind men. St. Augustine resolved the difficulty (De consensu Evangelist., II, 65 and 125; PL 34, 1111 and 1137 ff.): "Hinc est ergo quod ipsum solum voluit commemorare Marcus, cuius inluminatio tam claram famam huic miraculo comparavit." Through his faith and his prayer B. had a prominent part in the miraculous episode; perhaps he later had a role in the nascent Church, and Mark would have known B. "as a distinguished personage of that time" (Victor of Antioch, in J. A. Cramer's Catenae graec. patrum, I, Oxford 1844, p. 388).
More serious is the difficulty concerning the location of the miracle, whose solution has taxed exegetes. While Mk. and Mt. seem to affirm that the miracle was performed as he was leaving (ἐκπορευομένου αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ Ἱεριχώ), Lk. 18:35-43 places it before Jesus' entry into Jericho, a local circumstance to be regarded as certain, given the precision with which Lk. expresses himself. But Mk. 10:46 ἐρχόνται εἰς Ἱεριχώ is not to be understood otherwise: "they set out toward Jericho"; then, the ingenious separation (I. A. Kleist) of ἐκπορευομένου
αὐτῷ δα ἀπὸ Ἱεριχώ "outside Jericho" (referred to the main clause: "B., blind beggar, sat outside Jericho") resolves everything. In Origen and in the "Western" codices (D, the best of the Old Latin) the difficulty is resolved: ἐκείθεν and not ἀπὸ Ἱεριχώ. Others identify the sense of Mk. and Lk. by referring Mk.'s "departing" to the old Jericho (today Tell es-Sultan), and Lk.'s "drawing near" to the new Jericho (today Riha) almost 3 km. to the south-southeast (L. Pirot, P. Ketter); others: one blind man was healed at the entrance of Jericho, the other at the exit (St. Augustine [PL 34, 1138], A. Calmet, R. Cornely, J. Knabenbauer, F. Prat), or the blind man B. met Jesus at the entrance of Jericho but was healed at Jesus' exit, the next day (Maldonatus, C. a Lapide, L.-C. Fillion, G. Milligan, who cites J. Bengel, R. Stier, R. C. Trench, J. Wordsworth and others).
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