{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.023532829750145264, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0011621150493898896, 'mean_word_length': 4.967071057192374, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
GRAECO-ROMAN EDUCATION AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

This volume provides reflection and debate about precisely what levels of education were open to the first Christian writers and how they utilised whatever level of literacy they had achieved. Despite the title, the central area of interest is not ‘early Christianity’ in general, but rather the New Testament more specifically. As a partial response to the rhetorical criticism of the bible, this collection seeks to interpret the New Testament not by ‘rhetorical’ analysis, understood to be the domain of someone who has completed all levels of schooling, but rather with the tools acquired in the more basic steps of the educational process. It is not a book meant for scholars interested in the long-standing debates about ‘Christianity and Classical Culture’ – you will find no discussion in these pages of Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus or Julian’s School Edict. Instead, when the volume does go into the patristic period, it keeps its attention on the common Christian, the normal adult convert and the unnamed Egyptian copyist. The editors divide the contributions into two parts. The first investigates different settings of education in the ancient world, primarily the Graeco-Roman educational system, along with C. Hezser’s helpful comparisons with Jewish rabbinic education in the early diaspora. The second group of contributions turns to more specific examples of whether and how Graeco-Roman literary and/or rhetorical education can be seen shining through the writings of the New Testament. The volume ends with two articles that speak about the sub-apostolic age, both focused on the type of teaching provided by the early Christian community. The two-page introduction provides little more than the quickest overview of chapters, unfortunately without a productive thesis or a set of guiding questions that would have given clearer shape to the volume as a whole. Part 1, ‘Educational Contexts and Settings’, hinges around a series of comparisons. C. Hezser compares early rabbinic education with Graeco-Roman rhetorical and legal education; J.R. Harrison compares Paul’s moral exhortations to the widespread teaching of the ‘Seven Sages’; and C.E. Anderson compares the myth of Plato’s Cave and the Exodus story. All these articles show the difficulty of making comparisons productive. For instance, Anderson is hard-pressed to make the comparison between Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Moses’ actions in Exodus any more interesting than that both have to do with the ‘drawing out’ from slavery and false notions. And one wonders why the Latin term educare, with whose etymology he opens his article, is applicable to either the Hebrewor the Greek-speaking contexts he is comparing. Harrison’s article contains much interesting information about the spread of the Delphic maxims, but he is led to consolidate an extensive time period in order to create a concept of unified ethical training based on the wisdom of the Seven Sages. For instance, he uses Seneca’s distinction between mercy and pity to illuminate the archaic Greek maxims without making an argument for a Stoic reception of these ideas. Most helpful is the one article in this section that is not based on a comparison, the excellent contribution from R.F. Hock. His essay falls into two equally illuminating parts. The first gives an overview of ancient education studies THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 272