Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 6 Study # 2
November 21, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Honoring Jesus or dishonoring Jesus is a matter of significant blindness.
Introduction: Last week we chased the ideas of the text in respect to what is coming in Mark's record: Jesus being nationally recognized as "The Christ".
This evening we are going to look further into Mark's use of Bartimaeus as the prelude to Jesus' public identification.
- I. The Chiastic Parallel To 9:14-29.
- A. The original paragraph in Mark's chiasm (9:14-29) recorded the exorcism of the "difficult" demon as a demonstration of His "power".
- B. This current paragraph (10:46-52) follows Mark's pattern of switching back and forth from the twin proofs of the "might" of the Mightier One (1:7): spiritual authority over unclean spirits (1:21-27) and physical authority over material creation realities (1:29-31) with the initial blending of both of these theses in 1:32-34 ("...and He healed many...and cast out many...").
- C. In the first half of Mark's record, the focus was upon the "might" of Jesus as established by exorcisms and healings; in the second half, there are two issues: the Kingdom's requirement of heirs who operate by the superior power of the Spirit by whom they have been baptized; and the actual effectiveness of the "might" of Jesus in the face of the most fundamental problems inherent in the opposition to the Kingdom that is promised, and will be realized (John's three categories of "the loves of this world", all militantly opposed to "the Love of God": 1 John 2:16).
- II. At Issue In This Paragraph.
- A. The focus upon Jericho: main issue -- the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of a kingdom for Israel.
- B. The record's focus upon Jericho is that "He is coming into Jericho" and that "while He was going out of Jericho".
- 1. His disciples are included.
- 2. A "suitable crowd" is included.
- C. The record's sharpened focus is upon a "blind man" who receives his sight: this is likely another of the metaphors of Mark upon the blindness of those who have the promises but do not understand the significance of Jesus' movements.
- 1. Our introduction to the issues involved here is to "the son of Timaeus".
- a. "The" son strongly implies "an only son".
- b. "Timaeus" is, to Mark's readers, an unknown until after this event (this name appears in no other New Testament text in this form).
- 1) The name, in Greek, focuses upon "honor" and Mark's use of this concept in found in 7:6; 7:10; and 10:19; texts that are connected to our text by the fact that the verb, "timao", is found in them.
- a) 7:6 is a quote from Isaiah 29:13, a text that pronounces a strong criticism of "this people" for their "lip-hypocrisy" of saying things that are not a part of their "hearts".
- b) 7:10 is in harmony with this "lip-hypocrisy" specifically in respect to giving true honor to one's parents and is set within a context where Jesus exposes the fault of those who are "experts at setting aside the commandment of God" in order to preserve a tradition that was rooted in the practice of harvesting the wealth of the people to enrich those in control of the temple.
- c) 10:19 is in our current, extended context wherein a wealthy man seeks eternal life while claiming to have "honored" his parents all of his life. But the reality is that he is so "covetous" that he cannot turn loose of his wealth in order to gain what he, with his lips, claims to want.
- 2) The name of the blind man (Bar-timaios) is given even though Mark has already identified him as "The Son Of Timaeus" (the Greek word order is "the son of Timaeus, Bartimeus"; in distinction from that of the ASV and the Authorized Version).
- a) Mark's over-all phrase indicates that he wishes us to understand that this man is "the son of Timaeus": the question is "why?"
- i. Mark is the only one in the New Testament to refer to either "Timaeus" or "Bartimaeus".
- ii. This must mean something; and the context surrounding this double use of "son of honor" has a focus upon the resolution, by Jesus, of the fact that he is a loudly persistent blind man.
- iii. That he is "the son of Timaeus" suggests that his father was the person that he most accurately exemplified -- a man whose outward persona was "an honorable man", but whose inner persona was a man who was just as inwardly blind as his son was outwardly. This theme of "blindness" is inherent in the preceding record: James and John did not see themselves as "glory hounds", but The Ten had no problem with that fact (though they also were of the same value system).
- b) Mark's only other text/context that includes a "blind man" is 8:22-26.
- i. This prior context is a deliberate presentation of the "blindness" of the disciples who need two attempts by Jesus to gain their sight.
- ii. This prior context is also directly associated with Peter's identification of Jesus as The Christ (8:27-30).
- c) Mark's current context is Jesus' entry into Jerusalem as The Christ, but it is also within the undercurrent in the texts which makes "dishonoring Jesus" a major point of blindness -- lips that say what the heart does not actually hold to (James and John "say" they wish to be on Jesus' right and left hands in His glory, but their hearts are more interested in being "the recognized favorites of Jesus").
