Paul’s argument with the culture of rhetoric in the ancient world. When Paul refers to “words of eloquent wisdom” (1:17), “lofty speech or wisdom” (2:1), and “plausible words of wisdom” (2:4), he has in mind the arts of classical rhetoric. Rhetoric was the basis of education and credibility in Paul’s world. It was the social dividing line between the leisured upper class of smart, cool people and the working lower class of simple, ordinary people. Not all rhetoric was sophistry, but audiences did