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“When It Was Clear That We Could Not Persuade Him, We Gave Up and Said, ‘The Lord’s Will Be Done’” (Acts 21:14): Good Reasons to Stop Making Unproven Claims for Rhetorical Criticism


 This article responds to Ben Witherington’s recently published paper (JETS 58 [2015] 63–88) arguing for the importance of ancient rhetoric as a means of interpreting the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul. I instead argue that rhetoric was not in the air, that Paul was not an ancient rhetorician but a writer of letters, and that his letters must be interpreted in this light.