Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews, and Christians (review)

H. Gregory Snyder. Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews, and Christians. Religion in the First Christian Centuries
London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. xv + 325. $27.99 (pb).

The metaphor of reading as textual performance shapes H. Gregory Snyder's broad comparative survey of the relationships between teachers, texts, and students. Ranging from the first century B.C.E. through the second century C.E., with a few exceptions at the margins, the study investigates representatives of "the four main philosophical Schools" (Stoics, Epicureans, Peripatetics, and Platonists), in addition to selected Jews (Philo, Qumran, and the scribes of Palestinian Judaism) and the earliest Christians. Although Snyder does not argue for a central thesis, the theme of "teachers as 'text-brokers'" develops in the course of his examination of the evidence.

Originating as a Yale dissertation, supervised by Bentley Layton and Heinrich von Staden, the book displays an abundance of detailed notes (fifty-nine pages) and extensive bibliography. Although Snyder makes some effort to provide limited chronology and background for nonspecialist readers, the technical style of writing generally assumes an advanced level of acquaintance with the period.

Following a brief preface, Snyder's general introduction describes and delimits his comparative approach. He defends his use of traditional school rubrics and argues for the fruitfulness of comparing the literary practices of ancient philos-ophers with those of Jews and Christians.

The presentation and analysis of the evidence moves from less invasive matters of collection, text criticism, and commentary to more invasive procedures of re-presentation. Snyder then discusses evidence for the actual use of the texts and offers his conclusions. The limitations of this pattern are immediately revealed in the first chapter on the Stoics. Due to a lack of evidence for any canon of school texts or commentary, Snyder quickly treats Cornutus' Epidrome as a re-pre-sented text and then moves immediately to the question of use. Epictetus' textual analysis of Chrysippus receives special attention, as Snyder describes a four-stage process of classroom pedagogy.

Snyder devotes a chapter to each of the other Schools. He reconstructs a prominent role for written texts in Epicurean teaching, based largely on evidence from the Herculaneum papyri. Yet he maintains that the diverse textual forms point beyond themselves to "Epicurus' body of doctrine" (64), which they seek to transmit. Snyder's treatment of the varieties of Aristotelian commentary of the Peripatetics includes some limited argument that the commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias "are probably based on Alexander's own lecture notes" (91). In addition to a discussion of Platonist commentary, particularly the Anonymous Commentary on the Theatetus, Snyder offers some limited comparison of class-room procedures in the contrasting schools of Taurus and Plotinus.

A long chapter discussing Jewish and Christian groups begins with an analysis of texts and reading in Philo. Snyder claims that Philo's writing, emerging out of his own inner life, "creates a 'virtual classroom'" in the encounter between a written text and a willing reader (137). Then a description of scribal activity at Qumran attributes a programmatic role to Jubilees as a "blueprint for the intense commitment to writing and written texts" (214). Beyond Qumran, Snyder's wide-ranging discussion of scribal activity in Judaism in Palestine highlights the role of synagogues and portrays Jesus as a "non-authorized textual expert" in conflict with the scribes (165). Among early Christian writers Snyder focuses upon Paul's work as "a text-broker for his congregations" and the Epistle of Barnabas as an "anthology of excerpts" for rhetorical performance (216).

Finally, a section of general conclusions not only summarizes the findings of the study but presents a simple model of three categories of relationship between teachers and written texts: "(1) text functions as teacher, (2) text and teacher act in concert, and (3) teacher as text" (224).

As this brief overview...