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Was the blind man healed as Jesus left Jericho or as he drew near to it?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
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“As they departed from Jericho”, two blind men by the wayside cry out to Jesus.
And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.
“As he went out of Jericho”, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sits begging by the highway.
And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, sat by the highway side begging.
“As he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging”.
And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging:
After the healing, “Jesus entered and passed through Jericho”, where he meets Zacchaeus.
And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
The objection
Matthew and Mark say the blind man (or men) was healed as Jesus was leaving Jericho. Luke says it happened as Jesus came near to Jericho, and only afterwards tells how he entered and passed through the city. Critics say the healing cannot have happened both before Jesus reached the city and after he left it.
The answer
This is one of the harder differences between the Gospels, and Christians give more than one answer; each fits the texts. The best known is that in Jesus’ day there were in effect two Jerichos: the site of Joshua’s city by the ancient mound, and the newer Jericho a mile or two to the south, where the Hasmonean kings and then Herod the Great built their winter palaces. Archaeologists are not agreed how much of the old site was still lived in, but on the road between the two a traveller could be leaving the one and drawing near to the other. On this view Matthew and Mark speak of Jesus going out of the old town, and Luke of his drawing near to Herod’s town, which he then entered and passed through (Luke 19:1), and the blind men sat by the road between the two.
A second answer comes from Calvin. He suggested that the blind man began calling out as Jesus approached the city but was not heard above the crowd. As Jesus left, he placed himself by the road again, and this time Jesus called him and healed him. Luke, in Calvin’s words, begins ‘with what was true’ and tells the whole story at the point where it began, passing over Jesus’ stay in the city; the other Gospels tell it at the time nearer to the miracle. On either view Luke and the others can both be right about where the healing happened.
Other answers Christians give
‘While he was near Jericho’
Barnes held that Luke’s verb (engizō) can mean simply being near a place, so Luke’s phrase need not say whether Jesus was arriving or leaving, and that Luke 19:1 begins the Zacchaeus story rather than fixing the order of events. Most Greek scholars think Luke’s words, en tō engizein, mean ‘as he was approaching’, so this reading has fewer supporters today.
Separate healings
John Gill thought Luke’s blind man was healed before Jesus entered the city, and the two in Matthew (Bartimaeus and a companion) as he left. The accounts are so alike, down to the words of the cry, that most commentators take them as one event.
Still open
Which explanation is right is still debated among Christian scholars, and none can be checked from outside the texts.
From the classic commentators
It would be rendered here correctly, "when they were near to Jericho," or when they were in the vicinity of it, without saying whether they were going to it or from it.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Matthew 20:29 (1832)
Sources
- John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists on Matthew 20, at HelloAO
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 20 (1832), at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Luke 18 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub