Retorica Epistolei către Galateni: între actualitate și forțare contextuală
The rhetoric of the Epistle to Galatians: between actuality and forced contextuality

Summary/Abstract: It is often said that Paul’s letter to the Galatians can be analysed according to Greco-Roman rhetoric and epistolography. This possibility raises the whole question of Paul’s relationship to the rhetorical and literary disciplines and culture, a question which I adequately discuss in the very first chapters. The final part of my paper contains my original point of view, providing a criticisms of German scholar Hans Dieter Betz’s rhetorical commentary of the epistle, which I find it very unappropriated. Indeed, neither a judicial nor a deliberative nor a demonstrative type of speech would have been appropriate here, as Saint Paul is neither addressing a court of law from which he expects a verdict at the end. I post here that it is not surprising that the categories of ancient rhetoric fail us with respect to the structure of this epistle, because it is an epistle, and they were not made nor meant to fit such kinds of composition.

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