“In My Own Hand”: Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul 57 apropos here in light of the previous discussion of Paul’s Greek abilities: Josephus should probably be seen as an example of those upper-class Jews who had achieved a relatively high level of Greek education, being able to read and discuss Greek literature, although not able to write a faultless and stylistically sophisticated Greek without outside help (81). The primary focus of this study has not been Paul’s dependence upon an amanuensis, however, but rather has concerned his motives for breaking into the work of the amanuensis in order to demonstrate his own writing abilities. When Paul signs his own name and writes the formulaic statement “the greeting is in my hand” or an oath (“I will repay”), he demonstrates both his identity as an educated individual who “knows letters” (and Greek ones at that) and that he is a person of true prestige — able to write, but able to avoid it as well and have an amanuensis write the bulk of the epistle. In terms of material evidence for his writing ability in Greek, the apostle has left us an admittedly meagre corpus of “actual” Pauline writing (as opposed to “Pauline” writing produced by the hand of an amanuensis). However, while keeping in mind that lack of demonstration was not necessarily indicative of lack of ability (though at times it was), one may hazard a comment on Paul’s training in Greek based on the evidence we have. If Paul’s use of an amanuensis is due to the fact that he can write nothing more than short greetings and his name, this would suggest that his education in Greek was, in the least, adequate but not protracted. Since he penned greetings (i.e., not only formulae) and therefore was capable of at least a limited degree of compositional writing, Paul was more proficient than a “slow-writer” in Greek and certainly more advanced than Petaus, who had to copy line by line and was thus incapable of even a small degree of compositional writing. If Paul wrote all of Philemon, this would set him even further apart from a slow-writer. Nonetheless, there is likely truth in the estimation of Deissmann that “Paul preferred to dictate his letters; writing [at least in Greek] was not particularly easy for him”(82). Composing a greeting, or even Philemon, was not the same as composing the entirety of Romans or the Corinthian Correspondence, and Paul sought the help of a professional for lengthier tasks in the lingua franca, much the same as Josephus. (81) HEZSER, Jewish Literacy, 91. (82) DEISSMANN, Paul, 49. See also his Light, 166, n. 7, 174, 246.