Rethinking Paul's Rhetorical Education

Did Paul have formal training in Greco-Roman rhetoric, or did he learn what he knew of persuasion informally, as social practice? Pauline scholars recognize the importance of this question both for determining Pauls social status and for conceptualizing the nature of his letters, but they have been unable to reach a consensus. Using 2 Corinthians 1013 as a test case, Ryan Schellenberg undertakes a set of comparisons with non-Western speakersmost compellingly, the Seneca orator Red Jacketto demonstrate that the rhetorical strategies Paul employs in this text are also attested in speakers known to have had no formal training in Greco-Roman rhetoric. Since there are no specific indicators of formal training in the way Paul uses these strategies, their appearance in his letters does not constitute evidence that Paul received formal rhetorical education.