Mark 10:46-50

Healing Blind Bartimaeus

10:46 They came to Jericho. ¹  As Jesus ²  and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. 10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, ³  “Jesus, Son of David, ⁴  have mercy ⁵  on me!” 10:48 Many scolded ⁶  him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 10:49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So ⁷  they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up! He is calling you.” 10:50 He threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

[10:46]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[10:46]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:47]  ³ tn Grk “to shout and to say.” The infinitive λέγειν (legein) is redundant here and has not been translated.

[10:47]  ⁴ sn Jesus was more than a Nazarene to this blind person, who saw quite well that Jesus was Son of David. 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]).

[10:47]  ⁵ sn Have mercy on me is a request for healing. It is not owed the man. He simply asks for God’s kind grace.

[10:48]  ⁵ tn Or “rebuked.” The crowd’s view was that surely Jesus would not be bothered with someone as unimportant as a blind beggar.

[10:49]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous action(s) in the narrative.