ABSTRACT
Paul’s surviving letters show him in dispute with many and perhaps quite varied fellow-Christians. When we compare his thought with the rest of early Christian writing it is often significantly different. Even if an at all persuasive case has been made out for Paul having assimilated important strands of Cynicism in practice and verbal expression, that might merely indicate just one more Pauline idiosyncrasy. On the other hand, if Paul can be seen perceiving something of the Cynic configuration a number of critics including the present author have discerned in the synoptic tradition in particular, Paul himself seems less arbitrary, he is not wilfully imposing a Cynic reading on a quite alien tradition; and, furthermore, a Cynic reading of the synoptic tradition itself gains something in plausibility.
