communication ought to draw one to the concept that the speaker was presenting. Now Paul is not opposed, I do not believe, to the idea of presenting the Gospel mes sage in such a way that it draws men to it. But notice he says that he does not want his speech or preaching to be persuasive with man's words or as we would say today, with clever tricks and so phistry. There is, however, an ac ceptable persuasion that can speak to man. Remember Paul's words in Acts 26:27, 28: "King Agrippa, be- lievest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." Then the re sponse, "And Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Paul was in the business of reaching men and women for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was in the business of presenting the Gospel in such a way that it would have an affect upon lives. He recognized that the Holy Spirit must prepare the life. But Paul wanted to pre sent this message of salvation clear ly and effectively. When he talks about these per suasive words and man's wisdom in I Corinthians 2:4, I believe Paul is stating he neither doctors up the message or waters it down with wordy ideas in order to sell the message. Paul stood in contrast to the rhetorical practices that were associated with Roman dec lamation. The declamation were part of the entertainment media of the day. Since the major ideas were settled by the Emperor and those he appointed without the delay of public debate and discussion, the people looked for a natural outlet for their speaking ability and they found it in the schools of declama
tion and in special declamations or public speaking demonstrations. The average youngster who went to school in that day was taught how to express himself. He worked very hard at taking an idea and seeing how he could develop it in content and in style. An individual would take an idea, even a bizarre one, alter it, expand it, and turn it every conceivable way to demon strate his rhetorical ability. It be came a performance — a demon stration of man's ability, significant content and a practical objective were minimized. Now it is interesting to note that Tarsus was a center of rhetorical study. Paul, being raised in Tarsus, was undoubtedly acquainted with these schools and their practices. In fact, one British classical scholar presents rather effective argumen tation that Paul himself had been exposed to this kind of education in his youth. In order to give you an idea of what was actually taking place at the time in which this was written, I am going to quote two brief sec tions from a dialogue on oratory written by Tactius a short time af ter Paul wrote this particular epistle to the church at Corinth. "What poor quality is shown in their themes and how unnaturally they are made up . . . and they are all set forth in magniloquent phrase ology." Elsewhere Tacticus focuses in upon the style that is used in the courts of law of that day. "There is a fashion much in vogue with quite a number of the coun sel nowadays that ill befits an ora tor, and is indeed scarce worthy even of a man. They make it their aim by wantonness of language, by shallow painted conceits, and by irregular arrangements, to produce
Page 26
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker