Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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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