Paul’s letters also reveal that he had formal training: he was conversant and literate in Greek, including rhetoric, the ancient art of persuasion. He had knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy so that he could communicate well with Diaspora Jews and Greco-Roman Christians. Paul certainly improved his Jewish-Greek education in Jerusalem. At that time, through the offices of Herod the Great, Jerusalem had become a cosmopolitan city. It must have been an attractive destination for Jews in the Diaspora as a pilgrimage site and center of learning.
In an oral culture, the ability to speak well is important, and the ability to persuade is required of any public figure. This art of persuasion Paul learned well. He might be “weak in bodily presence, and his speech contemptible,” but his letters were “forceful” (2 Cor 10: 10). Paul’s letters were rhetorical speeches within an epistolary framework and with some epistolary features. They were surrogate for oral speech, and were in fact written to be “heard” and not simply to be “seen.”
