Mark 10:47

‘And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me.”

The blind man had clearly asked what the commotion was and was informed that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. That Jesus was well known to him comes out in that the blind man knew who He was and that He was the son of David. The news excited him for he had heard what Jesus could do and he began to cry out.

‘Jesus of Nazareth’, a name by which Jesus, with slight variations, was identified (Jesus was a common name). It was used by evil spirits (Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34), by the serving girl who challenged Peter (Mark 14:67; Matthew 26:71), by the angel (Mark 16:6) and by two of Jesus’ disciples when identifying Him to ‘a stranger’ (Luke 24:19).

‘Jesus, you son of David.’ It is possible that knowing of Jesus’ connection with the royal house, he meant this to be flattering, but it is more probable that he was thinking of the great ‘son of David’, Solomon, who was traditionally a famous healer, and hoped for the same from this his heir. Yet as the crowd did not react to the name (their rebuke was because they thought he was making a disturbance and trying to beg from Jesus) and Jesus made no comment, it is not likely that the crowd here saw it as a Messianic title. But the man himself may have done. He may have been visiting Judaea for the Passover from an area where it was so used. Mark certainly sees it as significant. Here was prophetic recognition, whether conscious or subconscious, of Who Jesus really was, on His approach to Jerusalem to die and rise again. He is welcomed by a blind man in such terms while those who can see are oblivious to His coming.

‘Son of David.’ It was certainly a Messianic title in later Jewish literature, but the only known such reference in pre-Christian literature was in the Psalms of Solomon 17:23. It may thus have been a marginal rather than a popular Messianic title in Jesus’ time. Perhaps then its use popularly was localised in Galilee, and Bartimaeus was from that locality taking advantage of sitting beside a key route to Jerusalem before the Passover. The coming of a son of David as deliverer was certainly a common idea in the Old Testament (Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-10; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Ezekiel 34:23 and recognised in certain Psalms), and the crowds in Matthew 12:23 appear to have used it Messianically, as do two blind men in probably the same locality (Matthew 9:27), all in Galilee.

Matthew 21:9; Matthew 21:15 may have been a more general use in typical Passover welcomes, or the result of visitors from the locality where it was used, the children in Mark 10:15 having picked it up from the crowd. The use of it by the Syrophoenician woman (Matthew 15:22) was probably a polite title to Him as a Jew, son of David signifying a Jew (compare ‘our father David’ in Mark 11:10; Acts 4:25), although she too probably related it to Solomon as the great healer, for Solomon had had connections with Tyre and Sidon. That the Messiah would be the son of David was certainly recognised by the scribes (Mark 12:35) although that does not guarantee the use of the title by them at this stage.

So we may see it as quite possible that the blind man was hailing Him as Messiah in Galilean terms (certainly in the mind of Mark) without the crowd on the whole recognising his intention.

The crowd here probably largely consisted of local inhabitants crowding the route taken by Passover pilgrims, although it might also have included pilgrims from Galilee and elsewhere. None, however, appear to react to the title which, if it was understood, would have been surprising in the excitement of the approaching Passover. The Passover crowds who later hailed Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem in a similar way would be mixed and would probably contain a large Galilean element.