Paul, the Skilled or Unskilled Proclaimer

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

At times in Paul’s writings, he seems to suggest that he lacked any real skill in oral delivery. At one point, he says, “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God” (1 Cor 2:1).[i] In this text, Paul is clearly denigrating the form of his speech. Given the prevailing culture which all but worshiped those considered to be masters in rhetoric, Paul certainly wanted to distance himself from that so as to focus his hearers more on the content of his delivery.

Paul’s humility may have indeed been the cause for his disregard for proclamation ability, but at the very least it does appear that his detractors openly mocked him for his attempts. In 2 Corinthians 10:10, they were saying that Paul’s “speech [was] contemptible.” Despite the likely dubious motives behind this slander, Paul demonstrated that his concern was in the defense of the actual message: “But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things” (2 Cor 11:5).

Instead of appealing to the demands of his audience, which had been culturally predispositioned to prefer a polished speaker who could deliver an experience that captivated the hearers and entertained them regardless of the content, Paul made the content his only concern. To put this another way, Paul was preaching to please God by carefully making sure he honored His Word by delivering it with all accuracy. Even though Paul received some derision concerning his speaking ability, he himself obviously was unconcerned.  His proclamation abilities were far greater than what his opponents and even he himself admitted. In Acts 14:12, the pagan audience labelled Paul as Hermes, the Greek god of communication, because Paul was the chief speaker. Regardless of what this says about Paul’s skill level, if one takes Paul’s ministry as a whole, it would certainly seem that his delivery was indeed effective because he in fact did accomplish his stated goal in that delivery.

[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB1995.