It is entirely appropriate to give thanks where many thanks are due. First, I devote this work and give thanks to my Savior God, Jesus Christ, the incarnated Lord, who sustained me throughout this entire project and who inspired the apostle Paul in the first place to such a high degree of commitment and eloquence. To my lovely and courageous wife, Shannon, to whom I also devote this work, many thanks are given, beyond what words can express. I am indebted, too, to my parents, Dr. James I. and Lois E. Long, for their encouragement over the years, particularly as I finished this project.

I also want to acknowledge my wise dissertation advisor, Dr. Carol Stockhausen, who helped me get hooked on Paul's rhetoric, and the other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Julian Hills, who impressed on me the importance of literary form and excellence in scholarship, although I am still aspiring, Father Bill Kurz, who particularly encouraged my submission to SNTSMS, and Drs. Brad Hinze and Michel Barnes, who encouraged me in my project.

Vernon Robbins, Duane Watson, David Amador-Hester, and Troy Martin also have provided encouragement and inspiration, as have the members of the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity group working on socio-rhetorical criticism. In particular, my thesis was shaped in conversation with Ben Witherington III, who was so generous as to read through my opening chapter and offer many helpful suggestions while I was starting my dissertation.