Luke 18:35-38

Healing a Blind Man

18:35 As ¹  Jesus ²  approached ³  Jericho, ⁴  a blind man was sitting by the road begging. 18:36 When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was going on. 18:37 They ⁵  told him, “Jesus the Nazarene is passing by.” 18:38 So ⁶  he called out, ⁷  “Jesus, Son of David, ⁸  have mercy ⁹  on me!”

[18:35]  ¹ tn Grk “Now it happened that as.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[18:35]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:35]  ³ tn The phrase is “he drew near to” (19:29; 24:28). It is also possible the term merely means “is in the vicinity of.” Also possible is a reversal in the timing of the healing and Zacchaeus events for literary reasons as the blind man “sees” where the rich man with everything did not.

[18:35]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[18:37]  ⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated. “They” could refer to bystanders or people in the crowd.

[18:38]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the blind man learning that Jesus was nearby.

[18:38]  ⁷ tn Grk “called out, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[18:38]  ⁸ sn Jesus was more than a Nazarene to this blind person, who saw quite well that Jesus was Son of David. He understood what Luke 7:22-23 affirms. There was a tradition in Judaism that the Son of David (Solomon) had great powers of healing (Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 [8.42-49]).

[18:38]  ⁹ sn Have mercy on me is a request for healing (cf. 17:13). It is not owed the man. He simply asks for God’s kind grace.