Abstract

Abstract This study provides substantive evidence that in composing / Corinthians Paul made conscious use of the Complete Argument as reported in the Rhetorica ad Herennium. This cross‐cultural strategy of reasoning, in combination with Semitic structures of symmetrical reasoning, is employed to analyze the argument of / Corinthians 14, providing methodological criteria for accepting the modern tradition‐critical thesis that the admonition silencing women in Corinth (/ Cor. 14 33b‐35) is not original to Paul's epistolary argumentation. The study suggests the need for greater attention to the role of the Complete Argument as a strategy of cross‐cultural persuasion in Greco‐Roman epistolary literature while also providing an example of rhetorical criticism employed in the evaluative task of tradition‐textual criticism.