Both traditions and both critiques, therefore, come together in v. 17 as a transitional verse which introduces the main contrast between the “power” or operative effects of the cross and the “weakness” or inoperative attempts generated by “wisdom” on the part of the Gentile “Greeks” and Jews (1:18–31). Litfin describes v. 17 as “the nub of the issue.”231 The issue goes deeper than the traditional remark of many commentators that clever rhetoric merely stresses the importance of form at the expense