As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.” Morton Smith notes that “one of Mark’s favorite formulas” is to say that Jesus comes to a certain place, but “in all of these except Mark 3:20 and 10:46 it is followed by an account of some event which occurred in the place entered” before he leaves the place.