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This book examines the way that Paul presents himself as a guide
into mysteries, a "mystagogue," in 1-2 Corinthians. By describing
himself as a type of mystagogue for the community, Paul was
following a precedent in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources for
invoking mystagogic language to engage in polemics with a rival. In
opposition to the precedent, however, Paul understands the
mystagogue to be a bi-partite figure-comprised of both foolishness
and wisdom simultaneously. C. Andrew Ballard argues that ancient
mystagogues were often described in two disparate ways: figures of
power, and figures of weakness and foolishness. Paul synthesizes
both aspects of the mystagogue in his self-presentation to the
Corinthians. The figure of the mystagogue, as a wise-fool, was
useful to Paul because it was descriptive not only of his own
experience as a suffering, yet authoritative, apostle, but also of
the experience of his deity, the suffering and glorified Christ. By
presenting himself as both a powerful and foolish mystagogue, Paul
could argue that he was a more authentic imitator of Christ than
his opponents in Corinth, who boasted in self-exaltation instead of
self-humility. In this way, Paul used the character of the
mystagogue as a strategic rhetorical tool in his communication with
the Corinthians.
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