18:35
In Mark 10:46 it says that Jesus met blind Bartimeus as they were leaving the city, whereas here it says they met a blind man as they approached Jericho. The other details of the incident are very similar, so it seems that Luke and Mark are reporting the same incident, though it is possible that there were two different blind men. Matthew 20:30 further complicates the matter. Matthew has Jesus leaving Jericho, but Matthew has two blind men, and both get healed. There are some who say that there were four different blind men healed. Now Jesus did heal a lot of people, so that possibility cannot be ruled out. However, the other features of story are so similar that this seems unlikely, if it weren’t for the differences noted. There are some small differences in the details, but these are such that if it wasn’t for the two key differences, the most natural conclusion would be that they were essentially the same thing.
With regard to the one or two beggars issue it is quite possible that there were two, but only one of them did the talking. Hence, Mark and Luke only referring to one of them. And note that Luke and Mark do not say that there was only one beggar.
What about the leaving or entering? Well there were two Jerichos. One was the mound of the ancient city of Jericho, the other was the inhabited city of Jericho. So Jesus could have healed the men as he was leaving the ancient city and entering the inhabited city of Jericho.
We cannot be sure of the exact nature of the case, but it is perfectly possible that the three accounts are in harmony.
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