1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book learn'n in the Ancient World, June 30, 2011
This review is from: Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews and Christians (Religion in the First Christian Centuries) (Paperback)
Today books are conveniently organized in stores and libraries to tell us what we should expect from them. Individuals purchase or check out these books and consume them privately. They know what to expect at the time of purchase because the books are labeled accordingly. If you want to spend time in a magical land you read fantasy. If you want to learn about a person you purchase their biography. If you want to read an interesting story you check out something from the literature section. In short, modern books are produced to be read by a large audience of literate individuals who rarely ever meet one another. In sharp contrast, ancient books were produced and used in a vastly different context.
It is to the context of reading in the ancient world that H. Gregory Snyder turns his attention in his fascinating book, "Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews and Christians." Snyder begins by observing that texts were chiefly used as "part of the everyday business of teaching and learning" (1). Since reading in the ancient world was mostly a social activity, texts required "performances" and presumed and audience (2). Usually, texts were performed by a teacher and the audience was composed of students. Teachers, therefore, often functioned as "text brokers" (3). For most people, these text-brokers were the only available means of accessing texts. Snyder focuses his study on how various groups (or schools) used their respective texts. He is particularly interested in "text-centered" groups and how they "study, maintain, transmit a discrete set of authoritative texts" (5). Snyder's goal is to understand the reciprocal role of teachers and texts in the ancient world.
To this end, Snyder analyzes five distinct groups and their use of texts. He limits his analysis, for the most part, to the period from the first century BCE to the second century CE. In chapter one Snyder describes his method of evaluation, which is geared toward comparison, and then applies it to how Stoics used their texts. Chapter two evaluates how Epicureans handled their written texts. Chapter three is concerned with Aristotelians (or Peripatetics). Chapter four evaluates the textual practices of Platonists. Finally, in chapter five, Snyder focuses on Jewish and Christian textual practices.
Snyder describes his comparative method at work in each chapter, "I will consider whether the group(s) in question bothered to collect and organize their School texts, and whether they sought to maintain them through textual criticism. Then, we shall ask about the practice of commentary. Following this, we will explore more invasive procedures that involve `re-presenting' the texts: altering them either by epitomizing, paraphrasing, or expanding. Finally, we shall pursue the question of use, exploring any available testimony that promises to shed light on the way that members of these groups used books in their gatherings." (14)
In the subsequent chapters he follows this method quite closely and with some intriguing results. This is well worth a read for gaining picture of the different ways books were read in the ancient world.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scholar investigates texts and teachers in the ancient world, April 15, 2009
This review is from: Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews and Christians (Religion in the First Christian Centuries) (Paperback)
It is maddening to realize how little is left of the texts of the ancient world, to imagine the thousands of fragments of learning gone forever, the poetry vanished.
So this book is especially welcome, shining scholarly investigation into the nexus between texts and teachers in the ancient world.
Synder, first of all, underlines much of what we have known: that texts were greatly prized by many in the ancient world. Most especially, of course, by Jews and Christians, who cared for their religious texts with great zeal. But also many of the ancient schools of philosophy.
"Stoics were certainly not unique in circulating their tests in fragmented and partial forms...Stoic writings were indeed a very unruly mob, as Seneca" (p 17) pointed out.
Oddly enough "only Epicureans seem to have made the jump to a different language, namely Latin" (p 166) among the schools of philosophy. And this even though the Epicureans were notorious for their reverence for their founder figures.
The Second Temple Jews--whose level of literacy is a matter of great debate--(see Harris, of course, as well as 'Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus') reveal a passionate love of learning. Philo clearly interacted with other Jewish scholars, although Synder argues that "his treatises are not mere by-products of school sessions" (p 136).
There can be no doubt how greatly scribes and texts were prized in Second Temple Judaism, proven, if nothing else, by the large number of fragments from the time found in and around Palestine. Martin Goodman points out that "'All adult male Jews had regular access to at least a Pentateuch scroll'" (p 186).
Synder argues that "Paul, like the textual experts in Palestine, served as a text broker for his congregations" (p 194) and the Jewish reverence for holy texts was a bedrock for early Christianity as well.
A fascinating book, full of interesting information.
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