“In My Own Hand”: Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul 53 signed the papers passing through his office (65). Youtie notes the irony of Petaus’ defence of the other town clerk: “He was in effect offering a defence not only of Ischyrion, against whom the accusation had been directed, but also of himself and his own procedure” (66). Though Petaus is not literate enough to correct a simple mistake, he certainly considers himself literate. Against such a literary landscape, where few could write but those who could found it to be a significant accomplishment, it is now appropriate to consider the Pauline passages that call attention to Paul’s ability to write th/' ejmh/' ceiriv. For the sake of clarity, I note here that an individual such as Petaus is important for understanding Paul’s demonstrations of grapho-literacy not because Paul’s literate competency was comparable with Petaus’ — Paul clearly had progressed pedagogically further — but rather because Petaus’ example displays the social significance of using what literate skills one had. III. A Grapho-Literate Paul Cribiore discusses the phenomenon of attaching an epistolary greeting in one’s own hand as evidence that one of the education process’ primary goals was simply to enable students to participate in literate culture (67). She states: There can be no doubt that inhabitants of Graeco-Roman Egypt preferred to sign documents and letters in their clumsy, belaboured characters than be considered among illiterates. It was better to possess and exhibit the skill in limited and imperfect degree, however difficult and unpleasant to the eye their efforts were (68). This observation may pertain to interpretations of Paul’s “big letters” in Gal 6,11. While the material evidence of unskilled writers (65) For more on Petaus, see HAINES-EITZEN, Guardians of Letters, 27-28; KRAUS, “(Il)literacy”, 119-121; KRAUS, “Slow Writers”, 131-133; MACDONALD, “Literacy”, 53; E.G. TURNER, Greek Papyri. An Introduction (Oxford 1968) 83; H.C. YOUTIE, “AGRAMMATOS: An Aspect of Greek Society in Egypt”, in Scriptiunculae II, 621-622; repr. from HSCP 75 (1971); YOUTIE, “Bradevw" grafwn”, 239-244. v (66) YOUTIE, “Bradevw" gravfwn”, 239-240. (67) CRIBIORE, Writing, 4-5, 7, 10. (68) CRIBIORE, Writing, 10.