This volume features thirty-six translated texts illustrating the use of the chreia, or anecdote, in Greco-Roman classrooms to teach reading, writing, and composition. This ancient literary form preserves the wit and wisdom of famous philosophers, orators, kings, and poets. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).
This book provides the first translations in English and a preliminary analysis of the commentaries on the chreia chapter in Aphthonius’s standard Progymnasmata, a classroom guide on composition. The chreia, or anecdote, was a popular form that preserved the wisdom of philosophers, kings, generals, and sophists. Aphthonius used the chreia to provide instructions on how to construct an argument and to confirm the validity of the chreia by means of an eight-paragraph essay. His treatment of this classroom exercise, however, was so brief that commentators needed to clarify, explain, and supplement what he had written as well as to situate the chreia as preparation for the study of rhetoric—the kinds of public speeches and the parts of a speech. By means of these Byzantine commentaries, we can thus see more clearly how this important form and its confirmation were taught in classrooms for over a thousand years.
This volume provides an English translation of four Greek treatises written during the time of the Roman empire and attributed to Theon, Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and Nicolaus. Several of these works are translated here for the first time. Paperback edition available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).
For the ancient Greeks and Romans, eloquence was essential to public life and identity, perpetuating class status and power. The three-tiered study of rhetoric was thus designed to produce sons worthy of and equipped for public service. Rhetorical competency enabled the elite to occupy their proper place in society. The oracular and literary techniques represented in Greco-Roman education proved to be equally central to the formation of the New Testament. Detailed comparisons of the sophisticated rhetorical conventions, as cataloged in the ancient rhetorical handbooks (e.g., Quintilian), reveal to what degree and frequency the New Testament was shaped by ancient rhetoric's invention, argument, and style. But Ancient Rhetoric and the New Testament breaks new ground. Instead of focusing on more advanced rhetorical lessons that elite students received in their school rooms, Michael Martin and Mikeal Parsons examine the influence of the progymnasmata--the preliminary compositional exercises that bridge the gap between grammar and rhetoric proper--and their influence on the New Testament. Martin and Parsons use Theon's (50-100 CE) compendium as a baseline to measure the way primary exercises shed light on the form and style of the New Testament's composition. Each chapter examines a specific rhetorical exercise and its unique hortatory or instructional function, and offers examples from ancient literature before exploring the use of these techniques in the New Testament. --
Writing & Rhetoric Book 1: Fable Teacher's Edition includes the comlete studetn text, as well as answer keys, teacher's notes, and explanations. For every writing assignment, this edition also supplies descriptions and examples of waht excellentstudent writing should look like, providing the teacher with meaningful and concrete guidance."
Writing & Rhetoric Book 2: Narrative 1 Teacher's Edition includes the complete student text, as well as answer keys, teacher's notes, and explanations. For every writing assignment, this edition also supplies diescriptions adn examples of what excellent student writing should look like, providing the teacher with meaningful and concrete guidance.
