Verse 46
Jericho stood about five miles west of the Jordan River and six miles north of the Dead Sea.
Scholars have attempted to harmonize this account with the other two in the Synoptics. A few believe that the accounts represent three separate events. Some believe there were two healings, one as Jesus entered Jericho (Luke 18:35) and another as He left Jericho (Matthew 20:29; Mark 10:46). Still others believe there was only one healing, and it happened somewhere between old Jericho and the new Jericho that Herod the Great had built one mile southwest of the old city. [Note: E.g., Zane C. Hodges, "The Blind Men at Jericho," Biblitheca Sacra 122:488 (October-December 1965):319-30.] I prefer this view since the three accounts are quite similar. Another view is that the beggars approached Jesus as He entered the city but He healed them as He departed from it. The various descriptions of what happened argue against this theory.
Mark was the only evangelist to record the more prominent of the two beggars’ names. This is in harmony with his interest in individuals and detail. Perhaps Mark’s original readers know Bartimaeus.
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