Preface to the Second Edition
There are a number of reasons why I welcomed the opportunity to produce a second edition of Philo and Paul among the Sophists. Among them, of course, is the extension of the life of a book published four years ago in the SNTS monograph series by Cambridge University Press.
Since 1997 studies on rhetorical argumentation in Philo, Paul's contemporary from Alexandria, have been greatly enhanced by the translation from
Portuguese of the magisterial work of M. Alexandre Jr., Rhetorical Argumentation in Philo of Alexandria (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998). His work is invaluable in confirming the importance of rhetorical argumentation, as are his observations on Philo's comments on its misuse by its promoters, i.e., the
sophists, in the first half of the first century A.D.
The importance of Alexandre's work also lies in the challenge it mounts for those committed to the application of rhetorical forms to the New Testament corpus. Is it possible to produce a parallel volume for the Pauline letters or other sections of the NT based on the same methodology and detailed analysis to which Alexandre subjected the works of Philo? It should be, given the assumptions concerning the use of ancient rhetoric by NT authors.
Within a year of the publication of Philo and Paul, a major work by T. Morgan, Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds, revised substantially our understanding of the body of ancient evidence on education 1. She drew an important distinction between those who were formally Educated — an education which taught, among other things, the use of rhetorical forms — and those who, as a result of this training, went on to make 'public' careers as speakers either in the area of public life or tertiary educa-
1 Cambridge University Press, 1998.
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tion, or who sometimes pursued both, as the sophists did. Her work represents a major challenge to those who have assumed that all who underwent
some form of Greek education (παιδεία) automatically produced written work that consciously or slavishly followed rhetorical forms. This has implications for the unsecured issue of Paul's own writing style. This assumption, which has undergirded much that is written on the adherence to rhetorical forms in the NT corpus, may not be unlike Hans Christian Andersen's emperor in the light of the important evidence she gathered from the early empire.
It had been the vision of Emeritus Professor E. A. Judge that NT research
undertaken in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University,
Sydney, would contribute to our understanding of the wider ancient world.
He has argued that the NT corpus was but one critical collection of writings
that should be harvested in order to enrich our understanding of the first century
world.2
It was therefore hoped that the publication of this book in 1997 would make some contribution to the body of knowledge in three disciplines, namely ancient history (and in particular the study of the Second Sophistic), Philonic studies, and Paul's letters to the Corinthian church. Philo and Paul among the Sophists was released at a time when ancient historians had reached an impasse, for lack of evidence, on important issues concerning the early origins and certain aspects of the first-century Second Sophistic movement. Philo in particular fills that gap, but this evidence from his corpus had been overlooked by scholars working in the field as well as those specifically interested in the sophistic movement. Up to this point the evidence of the third-century witness Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists on the origins the Second Sophistic in Nero's reign had been ignored in favour of a late-first-century or early-second-century date of origin. Evidence from the Alexandrian Jews corpus changed that. J. Munck's earlier, but tentative, suggestion that there could possibly be a sophistic background to 1 and 2 Corinthians had been ignored in favour of a Gnostic and then an overrealised eschatology thesis.3 His essay appeared a decade before the critical work of G. W. Bowersock's Greek Sophists in the Roman
2 For the use of the Acts and the Pauline corpus for providing additional evidence or gaps in our understanding of particular aspects of the first-century life see my ' Christentum und Antike: Acts and Paul's Corpus as Ancient History', in T. W. Hillard et al. (eds.), Early Christianity, Late Antiquity, and Beyond, Ancient History in a Modern University (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), vol. 2, pp. 121-30.
3 'Menigheden uden Partier', Dansk Teologisk Tidsskrift 15 (1952): 215-33; E.T. 'The Church without Factions', in Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (London: SCM Press, 1959), ch. 5.
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Empire in 1969.4 This was the first full-scale analysis ever done wholly in historical terms of the Greek cultural renaissance of the second and third centuries a.d. and demonstrated the central part it played in the history of the empire. It was not a literary invention of Philostratus as some had thought. Bowersock's ground-breaking work was to pave the way for the fruitful discussion of this movement in subsequent decades.
The layout of the book has been retained in the second edition. In each of the sections on Alexandria and Corinth, there are parallel chapters on an Alexandrian and a Corinthian student of the sophists, significant literary figures who visited these two important centres and commented on the sophistic movement. Then follow three chapters devoted to the reactions of Philo and Paul respectively. For clarity, conclusions and the implications of this evidence of the early-first-century sophistic movement and its impact on the two communities in Alexandria and Corinth are drawn at the end of each chapter.
Sections have been added, in particular one dealing with the entry and ethics of orators and Paul to Thessalonica which he discusses in 1 Thessalonians 1 and 2.1-8. This has been done in order to demonstrate that 1 Corinthians 2.1-5 was not an isolated experience for Paul and helps substantiate the clues to the Sitz im Leben from the latter passage. A more detailed discussion of Philodemus on 'rhetorical delivery' has also been included. It was the hallmark of public orators from the early first century b.c. and the Second Sophistic, and it was on his rhetorical delivery that Paul's performance was so harshly judged and contrasted with his letters (2 Cor. 10.10). I have revised that section of chapter 10, 'Paul among the Christian Sophists', amending my own views on some of the interpretation originally offered on aspects of the challenging passage in 2 Corinthians 10-13. This has been done partly in the light of Morgan's book. The final chapter represents further reflections on the issue of the use of ancient rhetoric and Paul's writings.
A second edition has also provided the opportunity to incorporate and respond to reviewers' comments. Greek in the text has been translated and corrections made because of inevitable imperfections5 and wrong judgements, books missed in the research process have been noted,6 and others published since 1996, whose learning enriches the discussion of this topic, have been incorporated into the discussion.
4 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
5 I am grateful to Mr. J. Hardin, who helped me at this point.
6 In particular I missed the important study on 2 Corinthians 10-13 by H. W. Merritt, In Word and Deed: Moral Integrity in Paul, Emory Studies in Early Christianity (New York: Peter Lang, 1993).
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At the time of publication in 1997 there was much deliberation as to whether the title would provide sufficient indication as to its subject matter. A number of scholars interested in Corinthian studies have indicated that they were unaware of the relevance of the book from the title, and data bases and some library catalogues missed its niches in their subject classification.7 It was felt that the title should resemble as closely as possible the original one but that a subtitle, 'Alexandrian and Corinthian Responses to a Julio-Claudian Movement', should be added. This has been done in order to indicate that it contains the critique by two Hellenised Jews of the responses of two communities in two important cities interacting with the same overwhelmingly significant movement in the first century.
I am grateful to Mr. Bill Eerdmans Jr., President of Eerdmans Publishing
Company, for the opportunity to revise this book.
July 2001
Bruce Winter
7 In fact, Tyndale House library's subject classification originally failed at this point.
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