Luke 18:35

35-43. Bartimaeus healed at Jericho.

35. as he was come nigh unto Jericho] This would be a week before our Lord's death on the evening of Thursday, Nisan 7, or the morning of Friday, Nisan 8. St Mark (Mark 10:46) and St Matthew (Matthew 20:29) say that this miracle took place as He was leaving Jericho. With simple and truthful writers like the Evangelists, we may feel sure that some good reason underlies the obvious apparent discrepancy which would however in any case be unimportant. Possibly it may arise from the two Jerichos the old town on the ancient site, and the new semi-Herodian town which had sprung up at a little distance from it. And, as Chrysostom says, such discrepancies have their own value as a marked proof of the mutual independence of the Evangelists.

a certain blind man] St Matthew (Matthew 20:30), as in the case of the Gadarene demoniac, mentions two blind men; and in any case a blind man would hardly have been sitting quite alone. The name of Bartimaeus is only preserved by St Mark.