04_Biblica_1_A_Ossandon_Layout 1 05/11/12 12:18 Pagina 394 394 JUAN CARLOS OSSANDÓN Later, he starts up the plot, he usually keeps the action in motion, and he is the one to whom Jesus refers in his final statement. The centrality of Bartimaeus can be confirmed by the syntax: of the thir- teen conjugated verbs employed by the narrator, he is the subject of seven ― Jesus only of three. Therefore, it is Bartimaeus who is the protagonist of the episode, and not Jesus. Many aspects of Bartimaeus’ progressive characterization have been already described, as long as it coincides with the plot of rev- elation. Now it can be added that throughout most of the episode, the task of building Bartimaeus as a character falls to the voice of the narrator. But at the narrative’s peak, it is Jesus who defines him, and his words imply a reinterpretation of the whole preceding char- acterization, as we have said. Jesus acts and speaks little, but decisively. When he stops and calls Bartimaeus, he dispells at once the opposition. Later, the com- mand of making Bartimaeus come, instead of going to him, as could be logical since he is blind, gives the impression of superior- ity. And Jesus’ final statement, as noted before, offers the definitive interpretation of both the episode and the identity of Bartimaeus. Jesus’ acceptance of Bartimaeus’ petition implies that he refuses neither the titles applied to him by Bartimaeus (Son of David and Master), nor the attributes implied in his request (merciful and ca- pable of healing blindness). In Mark, when Jesus does not accept a confession, he manifests his refusal explicitly 44. To be sure, an attempt to find a precise idea of what “Son of David” exactly means here (a healer, a king, a prophet?) is rather useless, because in Mark “titles can no longer be seen as ready- made definitions which clarify the Jesus event and the stories of Jesus; they may serve instead as reflections which are shaped by the realities of Jesus. To some degree Jesus has become the hermeneusis of all messianic titles and messianic conceptions” 45. NETT, “Characterization and Reader Construction of Characters in the Gospels”, Semeia 63 (1993) 3-28, esp. 17-18. 44 See TANNEHILL, “The Gospel”, 72; ALETTI, “La construction”, 26. 45 E.K. BROADHEAD, Naming Jesus. Titular Christology in the Gospel of Mark (JSNTSS 175; Sheffield 1999) 115. The title of Messiah appears clearly when it can no longer produce misunderstandings. “Secrecy is no longer nec- essary when the titles are applied to the Christ of the passion, for then they are properly used. The narrative situation in which the titles are appropriated helps to define their meaning”, TANNEHILL, “The Gospel”, 88.