How old is bartimaeus

Healing the Leper. More: Spirituality. Most popular. But what about the Holy Spirit? Are racial justice movements straying from Catholic tradition — or are Catholic leaders out of touch? Survey: Priests in the U. School President. The name Bartimaeus suggests other linguistic possibilities. In simplest terms, the name combines the Aramaic "bar" son with the Greek "timaios" honorable.

So, Bartimaeus is a family name. He's just the son of a father named Timaeus. Still others point to the Aramaic or Hebrew word for "unclean" br tm ' , suggesting that Bartimaeus is the "son of the unclean. I like to combine these ideas.

Bartimaeus, a down and out blind man, a poor person who begs for money, might be dishonored and marginalized by Greeks, he might be unclean to ritually clean Jews, but in Mark's telling he's a person we should honor.

There's a good reason why Mark honors this dishonored man. Whereas "many people rebuked him and told him to be quiet" , trying to put him in his place, the blind Bartimaeus was insistent. Not once, but twice, he cries out, "Son of David, have mercy on me! Longing for help and healing, the Son of Timaeus confesses the Son of David. Here we have hit the theological pay dirt. The title "Son of David" is a loaded phrase that occurs seventeen times in the gospels.

It hearkens back to the very first sentence of the New Testament, where in Matthew we read that Jesus is the "son of David, son of Abraham. The title "Son of David" points to more than a genealogical connection.

It's a shocking theological confession that makes a miraculous healing pale by comparison. Jesus is greater than Abraham. Like all djinn, Bartimaeus has its strengths and weaknesses. Bartimaeus's greatest asset is his cunning intelligence. His power is significantly exceeded by Faquarl and Jabor ; and, he would certainly lose if he fought anyone of them head-on. Yet Bart was able to defeat Jabor, a not so smart djinn, through planned sets of moves. And he survived clashes with Faquarl, also an intelligent and cunning djinn, throughout history by luck or by smarts or both.

And since Bartimaeus is prone to boasting, the nature of the accounts he gives of his various victories is not completely believable. During an account of his final conversation with Ptolemy , he mentions that he has 'taken out six djinns at once'. At book 3, he claims he defeated the afrit, Tchue.

He has great endurance; even after being on the receiving end of various torture forms such as the Stimulating Compass, which incidentally zaps the offender here, Bartimaeus himself with arcs of high voltage electricity. Bartimaeus was often held air-borne, as electricity coursed over his bare-chested muscular body, and yet managed to recover quickly enough and being his usual cocky "don't-care" self, which often results in the magician giving Bartimaeus another dose of the Stimulating Compass, thus shocking him repeatedly until Bartimaeus calmed down.

Described as his keynote evasive maneuver in The Ring of Solomon. In the Other Place , like all spirits, Bartimaeus has no physical form of his own but is simply a conscious part of the endless swirling Essence there. When summoned to Earth, he is forced to assume a physical form. His main form, that which he occupies on the seventh plane , is never explicitly described, although Bartimaeus has made certain allusions to it, alluding for example that he has far fewer tentacles than Faquarl.

On the planes visible to humans, Bartimaeus often chooses to appear in the guise of Ptolemy as a mark of respect and apparently in relation to an oath he made to himself to preserve Ptolemy's memory.

Other notable forms he has assumed are:. Obviously, there are many more forms that Bartimaeus has taken, each suited to the specific occasion on which it is employed.

Like many other spirits, while he has one 'true name' Bartimaeus , Bartimaeus has several 'by-names' by which he is also known. These include:. Confusingly, although he clearly states while recounting a conversation with Ptolemy that his true name is Bartimaeus, Trismegistus's Manual refers to this name as simply a by-name of the spirit Sakhr al-Jinni.

Presumably, Bartimaeus knows best. Bartimaeus was first summoned on in Ur, Sumer. More of his early adventures can be viewed in A Bartimaeus Chronology. Bartimaeus manages to kill his master, a magician who serves King Solomon in Jerusalem, but is soon summoned back to be punished and is bound to help build Solomon's Temple, along with Faquarl and many other djinn. He quickly begins causing trouble for his new master, Khaba. Khaba is at first content to punish him whenever necessary to make him continue working, but after Bartimaeus embarrasses him in front of the King himself, he sends Bartimaeus to patrol the desert for bandits.

One day, after Bartimaeus finds some murdered travelers, he spots Khaba's shadow really a guardian spirit following him. After he and Faquarl have a run-in with the Sheban assassin Asmira. Faquarl urges him to devour her but Bartimaeus refuses and claims that she might have some use to them, to Faquarl's displeasure.

Later on, Khaba takes a liking to Asmira, and Asmira urges him to set Bartimaeus and Faquarl free as a reward for saving her from the bandits.

Khaba seems to oblige at first when he dismisses Faquarl, but he reveals to Bartimaeus that he has caused him too much trouble and that he will be punished accordingly. He then leaves Bartimaeus with the shadow that was following him, who turns out to be a marid named Ammet. Ammet claims to love his master and is ordered to use a spell to confine Bartimaeus to a bottle for eternity. Several hours later the bottle in which Bartimaeus is confined is broken by Asmira, who then summons him and orders him to steal Solomon's ring, in order to nullify Solomon's power, as he made a threat towards Sheba, demanding the Sheban queen's hand in marriage.

Bartimaeus urges her to reconsider, telling her it is a suicide mission, but Asmira doesn't budge. Bound to her service they manage to bypass most of Solomon's defenses and reach the tower in which he resides.

In the tower, it is revealed that the titular ring causes great physical pain to any human or spirit who touches it.

He seemed to be looking deep inside me and asking about things far more profound than my wasted limbs. Nothing has been up to me; everything depended on other people. And in those few seconds I saw everyone who had ever helped me and worked so hard for me. You folk! I do want to get well. It lasted about a minute but by then I was on my feet.

I was gobsmacked, and by the time I had enough sense to thank the man he was gone. Of course I got into trouble because I was carrying my mat on the Sabbath. Well, it was only later that I saw Jesus in the Temple and realised it who he was. Sam tried to play it down a bit. Jesus only seems to have healed me that day.

Then I can do what I want, go where I like. When Bart heard that Jesus was in the crowd passing his spot, he shouted as loud as he could. Son of David, take pity on me. People on the fringes of the crowd were trying to hear what Jesus was saying as he walked along, so they tried to shut Bart up.

But he was having none of it. He was determined to see again. Jesus stopped and told his friends to call Bart. Well there was no hesitation from Bart. No drums, no fanfare. And Bart could see. He was ecstatic. He wanted to run the 30 miles back home to tell everyone.

He was free. For the first time in his life, he was free. He stood blinking in the light for a bit; then he looked long and hard at Jesus, who had already started on his journey to Jerusalem, and Bart made up his mind.

He followed Jesus on the way. Filed under Bible , Sermons , Stories.