Given the high value
placed on public opinion, one can understand the high value placed on the use
of rhetoric in the ancient world, as skilled speakers could do much to shape
consensus, dragging public opinion concerning that which should be understood
to be truly honorable in the direction desired by those that wished to either
gain in status or cement their positions. It is the importance of the
orator in this regard, as not only would the orator have his own honor while
also being employed in ways that would gain honor for others, that stands in
the background and informs Paul’s words about eloquence and wisdom and status
and identification with certain individuals in his first letter to
Corinth.
Eloquence, which was
associated with wisdom, was also associated with honor. A highly
effective public speaker would be viewed with much honor and could be employed
to achieve the same for others by either “singing their praises” or shaping the
consciousness of the community in such a way that they found themselves wishing
to bestow honor in accordance with the actions of the one being so
praised. One cannot pass this by without acknowledging Paul’s focus on
eloquent speech, understanding its function within the culture. An
observer must also acknowledge that glossolalia is a speech act as well.
This particular type of speech act, which was intimately associated with the
gods, when performed publicly, was yet another means by which honor would be
accrued.
Paying attention to
the value of the orator, it is worth perusing a papyrus fragment dating from
110 A.D., roughly fifty years beyond the time of the writing of Paul’s
letter. That fragment reads “Pay to Licinius the rhetor,” rhetor being a
specific type of orator (short for rhetorician---one specifically skilled in
the art of rhetoric, which was a foundational component of the education system
of the day and a valued tool for the shaping of opinion well employed by Paul),
“the amount due him for the speeches in which Aurelius… was honored… in the
gymnasium in the Great Serapeion, four hundred drachmas of silver.”
According to the first century Roman historian by the name of Tacitus, the
amount of money that was paid to Licinius exceeded the wages paid to a Roman
soldier for a year’s worth of service. This serves to demonstrate the
high value that was then placed on this skill.
Accordingly, as there
was much money to be made, especially because the skill was put to use in
connection with the pursuit of honor (or the conferring of shame---it served a
dual role), training in such speech and writing was central to the education
provided in the institutions of the day. Indeed, the mastery of rhetorical
speech was a potentially lucrative enterprise, serving to assist in the accrual
of both wealth and public honor.
Again, the gaining of
position in society, and by extension within the institutions and associations
of that society whatever those may be, is connected to public speech
acts. Those that were more charismatic, outgoing, engaging, and
comfortable with public speech were able to serve themselves quite well.
Because of this, rhetorical speech was prized almost universally in the ancient
world. Romans, Greeks, and Jews, rich and poor alike, slaves and free,
men and women, all enjoyed listening to the presentation of an eloquent speech
riddled with lofty rhetoric. In this way, the people in Corinth and in
the church in Corinth were no different (and there is nothing wrong with that).
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