2 Corinthians 11:6

But though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowledge; nay, in every way have we made this manifest unto you in all things.

Rude in speech ... In no single area of Christian literature is there a more widespread and generally accepted error than the notion that the apostle Paul was deficient as a public speaker. Filson spoke of Paul's lack as a speaker, saying, "He admits it," and citing this verse along with 2 Corinthians 10:10; 1Cor. 1:17,1 Corinthians 2:4.[26] First, we shall glance at these verses which are supposed to be Paul's admission that he was a poor speaker.

The verse here: "Rude in speech" does not mean lacking agility as a speaker. "One definition of `rude' is `forceful or abrupt'; and our translators could have more worthily supplied such terms, if substitute they must; but there is no end to their tampering with the text."[27] Wallace was referring to the perversion of this verse in the RSV, which has "unskilled in speaking," which is of course a gross falsehood. See treatise below on Paul, a Skilled Speaker. The principal point, however, is that Paul here made a sarcastic reference to the slander of the false apostles; and the true meaning is, "They say I am rude in speech; but it has to be admitted that my speech makes sense, whereas theirs does not!" There is no thought whatever of Paul's making a confession here that, after all, he is not a very good speaker.

His speech is contemptible ... Paul did not say this of himself. The text says, "THEY SAY ... his speech is contemptible" (2 Corinthians 10:10); and just why should such an allegation from servants of Satan be allowed as gospel truth? Commentators who take this as a fact are poor friends of Paul; with friends like them, he does not need any enemies!

Christ sent me ... to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words ... (1 Corinthians 1:17). This has no reference whatever to Paul's ability as a speaker, but reveals his rejection of the stylish but worthless oratorical style of the Greeks. See treatise below on Greek Oratory.

I came unto you ... not with excellence of speech or of wisdom ... not in persuasive words of wisdom ... not in the wisdom of men ... (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). All that is said in the above paragraph applies equally here. There is not a hint in either place of Paul's ability. He was an eloquent and powerful speaker. All of these expressions he was applying to the Greek oratory which he rejected as worthless, not because he COULD NOT HAVE USED IT, but because he knew a better way.

GREEK ORATORY

Volumes could be written about the oratorical conceit of the Greeks. Their speakers assumed an emphatic distance, constructed their speeches with all kinds of decorative phraseology, gloried in balanced phrases and clauses, sought stunning effects by the use of alliteration, used words which sounded good, no matter what their meaning, modulated their voices in undulating cycles of dynamic contrast, adopted an "oratorical tone" much like the "holy voice" affected by some preachers, skillfully employed a hundred different gestures, each having its hidden significance and known only to the profession, timed their gesticulations so that the ictus always occurred exactly with the intonation of the proper syllable, strutted like peacocks before their audiences, exposing their good Grecian profiles in moments of dramatic pause (Paul was a Jew and had no such profile), arranged their speeches in classical outlines, cut, altered or perverted all material to suit the outline, paused at predetermined intervals to receive the applause of their hearers, and produced by such devices what they called an oration! This ornate, artificial and worthless kind of speaking resulted at last in the destruction of Greece; but in Paul's day it was still very stylish and popular among the self-imagined intelligentsia of a place like Corinth. The various references in these epistles to "wisdom of words," "wisdom of men," "excellency of speech," etc., are precise and exact designations of the bombastic, worthless oratory of the Greeks, described above. That is what THEY meant by such terms; and Paul used the terms in exactly the same sense. Now, as regards Paul's ability as a speaker, see article below.

PAUL; A SKILLED SPEAKER

It may well be doubted if a more effective speaker ever lived. The great apostle to the Gentiles who preached before governors and kings delivered messages which, even in the abbreviated form of their preservation, have fired the imagination of people in all ages. Among his achievements are the following:

He interrupted and calmed a vicious and unprincipled mob in the Jerusalem temple, a mob which stood transfixed, hypnotized and breathless for the great oration recorded in Acts 22. It is impossible to suppose that any weak speaker could have done a thing like that.

While speaking in the streets of Athens, the center of Greek culture, Paul was invited by responsible members of the Areopagus to speak before the highest tribunal in the Greek world. Would they have invited an "unskilled" speaker? A thousand times, NO! Invitations before that tribunal were not casually passed out to mere street-preachers. The oration that he delivered there resulted in the baptism of one of the mighty judges and an undetermined number of other converts; and the content of it has challenged the thinking of nineteen centuries!

Paul's eloquence before Festus was of such persuasive and glowing quality, that when the governor entertained royalty (Agrippa II and Bernice), he presented the apostle for the entertainment of his royal guests! Does that sound like he was a timid, embarrassed, weak and incompetent speaker? Commentators who affirm such nonsense should be ashamed. Paul's address on that occasion was so impressive, that even when Festus tried to break up the meeting, the king and his royal consort refused to leave until Paul had finished! Weak preaching? Absolutely NO!

Paul converted rulers of synagogues, the governor at Paphos, the chamberlain of the City of Corinth and enjoyed the friendship of the politarchs of Ephesus. He was bilingual, possibly trilingual, and one of the best educated men of his generation. As a high sheriff of the Sanhedrin, he enjoyed a post of honor and trust which was its own inherent testimony to the man's unusual and outstanding ability, which would of necessity have included mastery of the art of speaking. No man ever communicated his ideas to humanity any better than Paul did.

Another incident confirming the views expressed here happened at Lystra, where the pagan citizens of that Lycaonian city hailed the apostle as "Hermes" (Acts 14:12). And who, pray tell, was Hermes? He was the chief speaker for the gods of Grecian civilization! Weak speaker? The Lycaonians thought he was the chief speaker of the gods!

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels ... (1 Corinthians 13:1). This probably is as good an estimate of Paul's speaking ability as any that was ever written; and the lines could reflect unconsciously his own subjective awareness of his superlative ability as a mover of mankind with the spoken word.

It is our humble prayer that students of the sacred scriptures will recover themselves from the stupid error of thinking that Paul was an "unskilled" speaker. It is quite evident that much of the gratuitous downgrading of Paul as a gifted speaker derives from the thought that it is stylish, in a literary sense, to do so.

[26] Floyd V. Filson, op. cit., p. 394.

[27] Foy E. Wallace, Jr., A Review of the New Versions (Fort Worth, Texas: Foy E. Wallace, Jr., Publications, 1973), p. 440.