Luke’s Use of Mark as παράφρασις: Its Effects on Characterization in the ‘Healing of Blind Bartimaeus’ Pericope (Mark 10.46-52/Luke 18.35-43)

Abstract

‘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.