The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70
Bartimaeus
fl. c. AD 32 (death unrecorded) · Blind beggar of Jericho · Followed Jesus in the way · Jericho
The Apostolic Age
Who Bartimaeus was
**The only person healed in Mark’s Gospel whose name is given.** Mark supplies it twice over — Bartimaeus, and then the patronymic it already contains, son of Timaeus — and the doubling is one reason the naming looks deliberate rather than incidental.
He is a beggar at the Jericho roadside on the last journey to Jerusalem, and he is told to be quiet. Mark says the crowd charged him to hold his peace and that **“he cried the more a great deal”**. What he cried is a title nobody in Mark has used of Jesus in public before — son of David. Then the detail Mark alone keeps: called for, he **cast away his garment**, which for a beggar was the cloak he collected alms on, and rose. And at the end he does not go home. He **followed Jesus in the way**, and the way leads to Jerusalem.
**The three Synoptic accounts do not agree, and the archive states the disagreement rather than harmonising it.** Mark has one blind man, named, as Jesus **leaves** Jericho. Matthew has **two** blind men, unnamed, also leaving. Luke has one, unnamed, as Jesus **draws near** to Jericho. The archive holds him from Mark, which is the only account that names him, and records what the others say.
Mark 10:46–52 only. Matthew and Luke tell the same healing without the name, so the name itself rests on one evangelist.
Common questions
When was Bartimaeus active?
Bartimaeus is dated fl. c. AD 32 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Bartimaeus in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Bartimaeus?
Bartimaeus is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from Mark. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Bartimaeus from?
The archive associates Bartimaeus with Jericho.
Who were Bartimaeus’ contemporaries?
The archive links Bartimaeus to 3 other figures, including Simon Peter, John the Apostle and Jesus of Nazareth. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (1)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Mark 10:46–52
c. AD 32And as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. … And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. … And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.Mark · read ↗
Names proposed by later tradition
Bartimaeus and the blind men of Matthew and Luke
The three Synoptic accounts diverge. Mark has one blind man, named, as Jesus leaves Jericho; Matthew 20:29–34 has two, unnamed, also leaving; Luke 18:35–43 has one, unnamed, as Jesus draws near to Jericho. The archive holds him from Mark — the only account that names him — and records the divergence without harmonising it.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Bartimaeus.