“In My Own Hand”: Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul 49 regarding two issues that illuminate the previous Pauline passages: (1) the stage of literate education at which individuals learned to write their names; and (2) the importance of demonstrating that ability. Most children in the ancient world received no education beyond what their parents taught them at home, and here one must keep in mind the 10% general literacy rate as an indication of how many parents were literate enough to teach their children. Educational opportunities outside the home were dependent upon population, proximity to an urban environment, availability of teachers, and (perhaps above all) the financial resources of the family. Those few who were able to attend a formal school setting, however, have left important clues indicating how they learned to read and write. Scholars have had some idea of this process through ancient educational theorists who offer detail on the pedagogical process. For example, Dionysius of Halicarnassus (first century CE) provides an example, and it is here worth including the long quotation since he references the entire pedagogical spectrum, from initial instruction to professional writing: When we are taught to read, first we learn by heart the names of the letters, then their shapes and their values, then, in the same way, the syllables and their effects, and finally words and their properties … . And when we have acquired knowledge of these things, we begin to write and read (gravfein te kai; ajnaginwvskein), syllable by syllable and slowly at first. It is only when a considerable lapse of time has implanted firmly in our minds the forms of the words that we execute them with the utmost ease, and we read through any book that is given to us unfalteringly and with incredible confidence and speed. It must be assumed that something of this kind happens with accomplished professional writers when they come to deal with literary composition and the harmonious arrangement of clauses (50). According to this theory, termed the “syllabic method”, literate education followed a clear pattern in which syllable recognition formed the initial stages (51). It is significant here that Dionysius mentions compositional writing only in the context of professional writers. According to Cribiore, however, the school papyri demonstrate a slightly different pedagogical agenda, which she terms the “copying method”. She says, (50) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Literary Composition (USHER, LCL). This reference is from 2.229 of the Loeb edition. See also Manilius, Astronomica 2.755-61. (51) CRIBIORE, Gymnastics, 169.