This study claims that paul uses his personal example as an explicit literary strategy in 1 corinthians galatians and philippians and as an arguably implicit strategy in 1 thessalonians and philemon. He uses his own example to ground and illustrate his argumentation in a rhetorically sophisticated manner often structuring his argument on such a basis. In places a crisp statement of his own case serves as a thesis statement of the argument that follows e.G. Rom. 1.17 Gal. 1.10 While at other times it serves to summarize the argument and to provide a transition to the next phase especially in 1 corinthians and gal. 2.15-21 . All the while paul s self-portrayals in his letters serve not autobiographical or egoistic purposes but pedagogical and argumentative aims.
