New Books in Christian Studies Matthew Pawlak, "Sarcasm in Paul's Letters" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
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Dec 28, 2025 Matthew Pawlak, scholar of early Christianity and author of Sarcasm in Paul's Letters, maps sarcasm across Paul's undisputed letters. He discusses how sarcasm shows up in Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians. Short, punchy case studies and a 400-item ancient Greek dataset fuel the conversation. The interview highlights methods, ancient models, and directions for future research.
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How The Project Began With Second Corinthians
- Matthew Pawlak began this research during his master's when he noticed repeated sarcastic lines in Second Corinthians that had no focused study.
- That master's project expanded into a PhD and then the Cambridge monograph Sarcasm in Paul's Letters (2023).
Why Narrow Sarcasm Beats Broad Irony Labels
- Older biblical scholarship often conflated different forms of irony, muddying analysis of Paul's rhetoric.
- Pawlak narrowed the focus specifically to sarcasm to provide clearer, testable claims about Paul's style and function.
Pragmatic Shift Changes Sarcasm Detection
- Irony studies shifted from semantics (meaning) to pragmatics (evaluation), which affects whether a line counts as sarcastic.
- Pawlak uses this to show Paul can be sarcastic while stating factual truths, e.g., Romans 11 examples.
