Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

380 Journal of Biblical Literature
so as to write a review rather than a panegyric. But in this case there are few. This is not
to suggest that Harland has exhausted his subject, or that specialists will not find aspects
of his evidence or his use of it to be problematic. But his primary goal in this book, at
least as I see it, is to open things up, to create a context for a more open and wideranging
discussion of associations, synagogues, and congregations, and this he has
achieved with gusto. In these discussions, which I feel confident are sure to come, I
would like to see more in-depth analysis of the Christian side of things, and more analysis
of Jewish evidence and opinions, which I found underappreciated in this book.
Turning to nonacademic aspects of the work, it is a pleasure to note that the book
is attractively laid out, and that the writing throughout is clear and readable. I must
admit that my personal preference is for footnotes to be printed at the bottom of the
page rather than at the end of the book as is the case here, and as seems to have become
the dominant scholarly practice. If one does choose to print endnotes, one should definitely
have the pages in the text to which the notes refer printed at the top of the page.
But this is just a quibble.
Overall, this book is highly recommended to anyone interested in this important
and hitherto underdeveloped subject.
Michael Kaler
Laval University, Toronto, ON, M6K 1H2 Canada
The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric: Classroom Exercises, by Ronald F. Hock and Edward
N. O’Neil. Writings from the Greco-Roman World 2. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2002. Pp. xiv + 411. $49.95 (paper). ISBN 1589830180.
This book is the second of a projected three volumes containing introductions,
texts, translations, and commentary dealing with the literary form known as the chreia.
A chreia is a pithy saying introduced by a crisp description of the situation in which it
was purportedly spoken by some well-known historical figure. Much of the current
interest in this form can be traced directly to the important work of Hock and O’Neil
almost two decades ago in the first volume of the trilogy (The Chreia in Ancient
Rhetoric: The Progymnasmata [Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986]). The intervening years
have contributed to a depth and precision that is everywhere apparent in this second
volume. This stellar example of the excellence that can be attained when two competent
individuals work together will quickly become required reading for specialists interested
in how the chreia was used in the educational curriculum from the Hellenistic through
late medieval periods.
Chapter 1 (pp. 1–49) opens with a brief survey of Greco-Roman and Byzantine
education that divides it into primary, secondary, and tertiary stages. It then explains the
role of the chreia in primary education, which was typically that of a model for reading
and writing. The remainder of the chapter provides a sequential treatment of twelve
texts derived from papyri and ostraca that exemplify the actual use of the chreia in primary
education.
Chapter 2 (pp. 51–77) begins with a summary of the use of the chreia in the secondary
phase of education. Classroom exercises at this level included reformulating an