Chris Keith, «'In My Own Hand': Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul», Vol. 89 (2008) 39-58
Recent research in the school papyri of Egypt, especially Oxyrhychus, has illuminated our understanding of the pedagogical process in the Greco-Roman world. Particularly interesting in this respect is the acquisition and social function of grapho-literacy (i.e., the ability to compose writing). Since few were literate, and of those few, fewer could read than could write, understanding how one gained grapho-literacy, who gained grapho-literacy, and how that literacy was employed in day to day life shines new light on passages such as 1 Cor 16,21, Gal 6,11, Col 4,18, 2 Thess 3,17, and Phlm 19. In these passages, Paul draws attention
to the fact that he has personally written in the text. This paper will argue that these passages are not merely interesting asides, but rather significantly heighten the
rhetorical force of the text. They draw attention not only to Paul’s grapho-literacy, but also to his ability to avoid using it.
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“In My Own Hand”: Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul
I. “In My Own Hand”
That the apostle Paul was a literate individual is well-established and
beyond doubt (1). However, in the ancient world as today, “literacy” was
not a homogeneous entity but rather existed in shades and gradations.
The present essay is thus concerned not with Paul’s literacy per se, but
rather the degree of literacy Paul held in Greek, and, more importantly,
how he employed and displayed his literate status in a rhetorical
fashion. Recent research in the school papyri of Greco-Roman Egypt
has yielded new insights into the process by which individuals learned
to read and write in the Greco-Roman world, insights that shed new
light on five passages where Paul (or someone writing in his name) (2)
highlights the fact that he has written in the epistle with his own hand. I
will suggest that these passages enhance Paul’s arguments in the
epistles, and social position in the congregations, by underscoring not
only his literacy, but his grapho-literacy; and not only his grapho-
literacy, but his ability to avoid using it.
1. The Texts
In five passages within his epistles, Paul draws attention to the fact
that he has signed the epistle himself and written a short greeting or
oath. These texts are 1 Cor 16,21, Gal 6,11, Col 4,18, 2 Thess 3,17, and
Phil 19, and are briefly presented here in canonical order (3).
(1) Inter alia, see B. WITHERINGTON III, The Paul Quest. The Renewed Search
for the Jew of Tarsus (Downers Grove, IL 1998) 89-129.
(2) The Pauline authenticity of the texts does not affect the following
argument. Even as deutero-Pauline epistles, Colossians and 2 Thessalonians
would remain as evidence. That these epistles include the exact same formula in 1
Cor 16,21 demonstrates that their authors recognized the importance of asserting
that Paul signed the epistle himself and replicated that claim. “Paul” will thus be
used in this article in order to indicate the author of the epistle, even if that was not
the apostle Paul.
(3) G.J. BAHR, “The Subscriptions in the Pauline Letters”, JBL 87 (1968) 27-
41, suggests other passages that Paul may have written. E.R. RICHARDS, The
Secretary in the Letters of Paul (WUNT 2.42; Tübingen 1991) 189, claims, “Both
[2 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians] probably have autographed postscripts” (see
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