Ancient Rhetoric and Paul's Apology

Pauline scholarship has typically interpreted 2 Corinthians as a later editorial composite of several letters. Fredrick Long situates the text within Classical literary and rhetorical conventions and argues for its unity based upon numerous parallels with ancient apology in the tradition of Andocides, Socrates, Isocrates and Demosthenes. He provides a comprehensive survey and rigorous genre analysis of ancient forensic discourse in support of his claims, and demonstrates how the unified message of Paul's letter can be recovered.