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‘The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus’, as Mk 10.46-52 is often called, has been taken over and restated with various changes in Lk. 18.35-43. This article views Luke’s modification of the account in terms of πάράφράσις (‘paraphrase’), a progymnasmatic exercise in which the writer changed the form of expression while keeping the thoughts. It is argued that Luke’s πάράφράσις of Mark’s account enhances characterization of three characters— Jesus, the λάός (‘people’) and the ‘blind man’—by creating a favorable portrait of each of them over against some respective inferior counterpart.

1 Corinthians 1:10–4:21 is usually seen as a defense against adherents of an “Apollos party,” who have become enamored with Apollos’ “wisdom” and who denigrate Paul as his inferior. This article argues for a different reading of this unit. Some in the church have espoused some kind of “human” wisdom, but not the wisdom of any particular leader. These people were boasting in themselves, not in their leaders. Paul discusses his relationship with Apollos not because there was a rivalry between them or between parties who claimed them as their leaders, but because the relationship between Paul and Apollos embodied the wisdom of Christ crucified and thus offered an antidote to the church’s divisions.