Philo and Paul among the Sophists : Alexandrian and Corinthian Responses to a Julio-Claudian Movement

by Winter, Bruce W.

• ISBN13: 9780802839770
• ISBN10: 0802839770
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

In this highly acclaimed work, Bruce Winter gathers for the first time all the available evidence on the first-century sophistic movement from two major centers of learning in the East. Together with the writings of the contemporary Hellenistic Jews, Philo and Paul, he discusses all the protagonists and antagonists of this movement in Alexandria and Corinth. This study provides important insights into the problems that this elitist movement created for Diaspora Jews in Alexandria and for Christians in Corinth. It also traces the origins of the Second Sophistic to the reign of Nero. Substantially revised and including a new foreword by G. W. Bowersock, this volume is also supported by a web site -- www.sophists.info -- featuring additional archaeological evidence and photographs.

Author Biography

Bruce W. Winter is director of the Institute of Early Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World, Tyndale House, Cambridge, a Fellow of St. Edmund's College, and a member of the Divinity Faculty, University of Cambridge

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
G. W. Bowersock
Preface to the Second Edition	x
Preface to the First Edition	xiv
Abbreviations	xvi
Introduction	1	(1)
The purpose of this book	1	(2)
The sophists	3	(2)
Philo among the Alexandrian sophists	5	(2)
Paul among the Corinthian sophists	7	(2)
Recent sophistic and rhetorical studies	9	(4)
The structure of this book	13	(2)
PART I THE ALEXANDRIAN SOPHISTS	15	(94)
Introduction to Part I	17	(2)
A student among the Alexandrian sophists	19	(21)
The shortage of sophists' schools	20	(4)
A private tutor in rhetoric as an alternative	24	(6)
The public declaimers	30	(4)
The status of students of the sophists	34	(4)
Conclusion	38	(2)
Dio and the Alexandrian sophistic leaders	40	(19)
The conflict in Alexandria	40	(2)
Dio as Alexandria's counsellor and saviour	42	(2)
Philosophers as former leaders in politeia	44	(4)
Orators, poets and sophists as present leaders in politeia	48	(6)
Orators and sophists in Dio's corpus	54	(4)
Conclusion	58	(1)
Who are Philo's sophists?	59	(21)
Identifying Philo's sophists	59	(3)
Present---day orators and sophists in Contempl. 31	62	(4)
The throng of sophists in Agr. 136	66	(3)
Sophists and Sceptics and Academic philosophers in QG III. 33	69	(3)
Sophists and Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans etc. in Congr. 67	72	(3)
Sophists and the ancient poets Homer and Hesiod in Op. 157	75	(3)
Conclusion	78	(2)
Philo's critique of the Alexandrian sophistic tradition	80	(15)
The sophistic misuse of paideia for vice	81	(7)
The sophistic misuse of paideia for deception	88	(3)
The sophistic misuse of paideia for personal gain	91	(3)
Conclusion	94	(1)
Philo among the sophists	95	(14)
Philo as orator and debater	95	(5)
Debating with and defeating the sophists	100	(6)
General conclusions	106	(3)
PART II THE CORINTHIAN SOPHISTS	109	(147)
Introduction to Part II	111	(2)
Epictetus and the Corinthian student of the sophists	113	(10)
Epictetus and the sophists	113	(5)
Epictetus and sophistic declamations	118	(3)
Conclusion	121	(2)
Dio and Plutarch among the Corinthian sophists	123	(18)
Dio among the Corinthian sophists	123	(6)
Favorinus, the sophist, in Corinth	129	(5)
Herodes Atticus, the sophist and benefactor of Corinth	134	(4)
Plutarch among the Corinthian sophists	138	(2)
Conclusion	140	(1)
Paul and sophistic conventions	141	(39)
Introduction	141	(2)
Paul's anti-sophistic coming and conduct: 1 Corinthians 2.1--5; 9	143	(29)
The Corinthians' sophistic response: 1 Corinthians 1.12, 3.4	172	(6)
Conclusion	178	(2)
Paul's critique of the Corinthian sophistic tradition	180	(23)
The so---called `apologia': 1 Corinthians 1--4	181	(2)
Inferiority and sophistic status: 1 Corinthians 1.4--9	183	(2)
The idolatry of sophistic imitation: 1 Corinthians 1.10--17a	185	(2)
Sophistic boasting: 1 Corinthians 1.17b--31	187	(8)
The sophist/disciple boasting and imitation reversed: 1 Corinthians 3.18--23	195	(1)
The irony of Paul's `covert allusion', boasting, status, and true imitation: 1 Corinthians 4.6ff.	196	(5)
Conclusion	201	(2)
Paul among the Christian sophists	203	(37)
Introduction	203	(1)
The sophistic assessment of Paul as orator and debater: 2 Corinthians 10.10, 11.6, 12.16	204	(27)
Paul's assessment of the Christian sophists: 2 Corinthians 10--13	231	(6)
Conclusion	237	(3)
Conclusions	240	(16)
The first-century sophistic movement	240	(3)
Philo's and Paul's sophistic opponents	243	(2)
The sophistic versus the Gnostic thesis	245	(1)
Philo, Paul, and rhetoric	246	(6)
Philo and Paul --- towards a comparison	252	(2)
Athens and Jerusalem, the Academy and the church	254	(2)
Appendix: POxy. 2190	256	(5)
Bibliography	261	(22)
Index of subjects	283	(3)
Index of literary sources	286	(10)
Index of non-literary sources	296	(2)
Index of authors	298