This article offers an integrated reading of Mark 10:46â52, foregrounding Bartimaeus as an honour-aware, disabled figure who exercises significant narrative agency. Combining close analysis of the Greek text, first-century Judaean social dynamics, and Disability Studies critique, it proposes four operational criteria for agency: dialogic symmetry, public resistance, a self-directed post-cure trajectory, and narrative echo with the disciple group. Measured against a Markan control set of healing narratives, Bartimaeus meets all four criteria. Markâs dense scene constructionâfeaturing a defiant messianic cry, the dramatic casting off of his cloak (á¼ÏοβαλÏν), and his choice to follow Jesus âon the wayâ (ἠκολοÏθει)âpositions him as a model disciple in contrast to the Twelve. This reading challenges ableist interpretations that metaphorize blindness, reframing Markan discipleship around the inclusion of disabled agency and modelling a co-operative grace that listens rather than silences.
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This article offers an integrated reading of Mark 10:46â52, foregrounding Bartimaeus as an honour-aware, disabled figure who exercises significant narrative agency. Combining close analysis of the Greek text, first-century Judaean social dynamics, and Disability Studies critique, it proposes four operational criteria for agency: dialogic symmetry, public resistance, a self-directed post-cure trajectory, and narrative echo with the disciple group. Measured against a Markan control set of healing narratives, Bartimaeus meets all four criteria. Markâs dense scene constructionâfeaturing a defiant messianic cry, the dramatic casting off of his cloak (á¼ÏοβαλÏν), and his choice to follow Jesus âon the wayâ (ἠκολοÏθει)âpositions him as a model disciple in contrast to the Twelve. This reading challenges ableist interpretations that metaphorize blindness, reframing Markan discipleship around the inclusion of disabled agency and modelling a co-operative grace that listens rather than silences.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 141 | 141 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 15 | 15 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 34 | 34 | 6 |