Paul's Masculinity‪.‬

Paul's letters to the Corinthians show that his opponents in Corinth made a number of specific criticisms of his physical appearance and character. Scholars have examined in detail the social context of these charges. (1) When we view the criticisms against the background of Greco-Roman social conventions in the first century, we can see how Paul's opponents were able to use the prejudices of the time against him: physical unattractiveness or disability detracted from one's ability to lead and persuade others, as did indicators of low social status such as a lack of education or participation in manual labor. In their invective against Paul, the opponents conformed to widely recognized rhetorical strategies, tactics with which first-century Corinthian audiences must have been quite familiar. (2) For all the attention to the historical setting of these charges, one aspect of the opponents' invective has been neglected: how the criticisms of Paul engaged cultural expectations about manliness and its relationship to authority. For this discussion, I will focus primarily on 2 Cor 10-13, where Paul most often seems to quote from or allude to his detractors' criticisms. I take it as reasonably well established that the opponents he refers to in this section of 2 Corinthians were hellenized Jews who themselves possessed some rhetorical education. They and Paul were functioning within a context of Greco-Roman social values and expectations acknowledged by both sides. (3)