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Progymnastic Topic Lists: A Compositional Template for

Luke and Other Bioi?

MICHAEL W. MARTIN

New Testament Studies / Volume 54 / Issue 01 / January 2008, pp 18 - 41

DOI: 10.1017/S0028688508000027, Published online: 30 January 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0028688508000027

How to cite this article:

MICHAEL W. MARTIN (2008). Progymnastic Topic Lists: A Compositional Template for Luke and
Other Bioi?. New Testament Studies, 54, pp 18-41 doi:10.1017/S0028688508000027

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 New Test. Stud. 54, pp. 18–41. Printed in the United Kingdom © 2008 Cambridge University Press
DOI:10.1017/S0028688508000027

Progymnastic Topic Lists: A Compositional

Template for Luke and Other Bioi?
M ICHAE L W. MARTI N
7607 Baylor St., Lubbock, Texas 79416, USA

The study examines bioi by two Greco-Roman authors (Plutarch and Philostratus),
two Jewish authors (Philo and Josephus), and finally, the Third Gospel, in the light of
the progymnastic topic lists, arguing that all the bioi employ topic lists as a composi-
tional template, guiding the narrative in its overall structure and content. The study
shows, moreover, that the Third Evangelist employs the lists with rhetorical skill
comparable to the most educated of the biographers surveyed, Plutarch and Philo.
Keywords: Luke, Bioi, Progymnastic Topoi, Plutarch, Philo

Progymnastic Topic Lists: A Compositional Template for Luke and

Other Bioi?

The thesis that the Gospels are ancient Mediterranean bioi has gained
increasing support since the publication of Charles Talbert’s What Is a Gospel?,1
and in the wake of Richard Burridge’s What Are the Gospels?, has arguably become
the majority view in NT scholarship.2 As noted in recent discussion of the Gospel
genre debate,3 Philip Shuler played an important role in this development, as his
attempt to show a number of broad similarities between the Gospels and what he
called ‘encomium biographies’ constituted one of the earliest challenges to the
prevailing sui generis thesis of form criticism.4 One aspect of Shuler’s thesis, how-

1 C. H. Talbert, What Is a Gospel? The Genre of the Canonical Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress,
1977); cf. idem, ‘Biographies of Philosophers and Rulers as Instruments of Religious
Propoganda in Mediterranean Antiquity’, ANRW 16.2:1619–51; idem, ‘Once Again: Gospel
Genre’, Semeia 43 (1988) 53–73; idem, ‘Ancient Biography’, ABD 1.745–9.
2 See R. A. Burridge, What Are the Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (2nd
ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004) 252–307.
3 See Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 3–24.
4 P. L. Shuler, ‘The Synoptic Gospels and the Problem of Genre’ (PhD diss., McMaster
University, 1975); revised for publication as A Genre for the Gospels: The Biographical
Character of Matthew (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); idem, ‘The Genre(s) of the Gospels’, The
18 Interrelations of the Gospels (ed. D. L. Dungan; Leuven: Leuven University, 1990) 459–83.

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 19

ever, has found little support – namely, his claim that encomiastic topic lists like
those described by Quintillian, Theon, and Ps. Hermogenes have shaped the top-
ical content of the Gospels and other ‘encomium biographies’. This claim has
been criticized on the grounds that the topic lists, at least as they are handled in
Shuler’s analysis of the Gospels, do not cover ‘the full range of Jesus’ life and min-
istry’, but instead only account for materials related primarily to Jesus’ ‘birth and
death/resurrection’.5 Also, it has been argued that the topic lists were ‘designed
for school use in rhetorical and encomiastic exercises, rather than for writing’, and
so should be used with caution.6 For these reasons Richard Burridge in his classic
study of the bios genre abandons the topic lists altogether and instead accounts
for the full content of bioi on a purely descriptive basis, identifying six ‘motifs’ or
‘topics’ typically treated in the genre: ancestry, birth, boyhood and education,
great deeds, virtues, and death and consequences.7
Because of the importance of Burridge’s work for the question of Gospel genre,
any attempt to revisit Shuler’s thesis must address Burridge’s objections. This
study does so in support of a thesis similar to and at the same time more encom-
passing than Shuler’s, namely, that progymnastic topic lists are employed in bioi
generally and Luke specifically as a compositional template, guiding the narrative

5 Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 85. The comment is regarding Shuler’s study of Matthew, but
Burridge subsequently states that similar criticisms could be made of Shuler’s analysis of
Mark and Luke in his PhD dissertation.
6 Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 200. I answer this argument below. I agree with Burridge,
however, in his accompanying claim that the topic lists should only be used with caution
since ‘they are later than most of our works’ (200). The exercises have pre-Hellenistic origins
and began to take a form very similar to that attested in the extant sources in the Hellenistic
period (G. A. Kennedy, Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric
[Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003] xi; cf. S. F. Bonner, Education in Ancient Rome:
From the Elder Cato to the Younger Pliny [Berkeley: University of California, 1977) 250–1; R. F.
Hock and E. N. O’Neil, The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric: Vol. 1. The Progymnasmata [Atlanta:
Scholars, 1986] 10; R. Cribiore, Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and
Roman Egypt [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001] 8). Hence the cautious use of
exercises attested only in these later sources is justified and potentially fruitful, as indeed
several studies have shown; see, e.g., B. L. Mack, ‘Teaching in Parables: Elaboration in Mark
4:1–34’, Patterns of Persuasion in the Gospels (B. L. Mack and V. K. Robbins; Sonoma, Calif.:
Polebridge, 1989) 143–60; idem, ‘Decoding the Scripture: Philo and the Rules of Rhetoric’,
Nourished with Peace: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism in Memory of Samuel Sandmel (ed. F. E.
Greenspahn, E. Hilgert, and B. L. Mack; Scholars Press Homage Series 9; Chico, Calif.:
Scholars, 1984) 81–115; M. W. Martin, ‘Philo’s Use of Syncrisis: An Examination of Philonic
Composition in the Light of the Progymnasmata’, PRSt 30 (2003) 271–97; and M. C. Parsons,
‘Luke and the Progymnasmata: A Preliminary Investigation into the Preliminary Exercises’,
Contextualizing Acts: Lukan Narrative and Greco-Roman Discourse (ed. T. Penner and C. V.
Stichele; SBLSymS 20; Atlanta: Scholars, 2004) 43–63.
7 Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 141–2, 173–5, 200–2, 224–5.

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 20 michael w. martin

in its overall structure and content.8 The study examines three Greco-Roman bioi,
two Jewish bioi, and Luke in the light of the topic lists and attempts to show more
clearly than does Shuler that they not only account for the ‘full range’ of the life
portrayed in each narrative, but they do so even more fully than Burridge’s six
‘motifs’.9

The Progymnastic Topic Lists and Their Purpose

Burridge’s claim, contra Shuler, that the encomiastic topic lists were
‘designed for school use . . . rather than for writing’10 presents a false dichotomy,
as they were actually designed for both.11 Mastery of the lists and all the progym-
nastic forms was regarded as essential preparation not only for the practice of
declamation (hence the name, progymnasmata, or ‘preliminary exercises’),12 but
also for written composition, a point about which Theon is emphatic.
Now I have included these remarks, not thinking that all are useful to all
beginners, but in order that we may know that training in exercises is
absolutely useful not only to those who are going to practice rhetoric but
also if one wishes to undertake the function of poets or historians or any
other writers. These things are, as it were, the foundation of every kind
(idea) of discourse, and depending on how one instills them in the mind of
the young, necessarily the results make themselves felt in the same way
later. (Theon 70 [Kennedy])13

8 The claim is more encompassing than Shuler’s in two regards: it pertains to the bios genre as
a whole and not just the ‘encomium biography’ subgenre (the existence of which is ques-
tionable; see Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 83–6); and it addresses the sequential topical
structure of the bios genre and not just its topical content.
9 Though the study focuses on Luke as a test case, the thesis holds for the remaining Gospels,
as I intend to show in a forthcoming study.
10 What Are the Gospels, 200.
11 At least, that is, in the case of the progymnasmata. The same may not be said for handbooks
of rhetoric, which were designed strictly for declamation. Hence this study attends to all four
extant progymnasmata (Theon, Ps. Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and Nicolaus), in contrast to
Shuler’s study, which takes as its sources one handbook of rhetoric (Quintillian) and only
two progymnasmata (Theon and Ps. Hermogenes).
12 On the progymnasmata, see H. I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity (trans. George
Lamb; London: Purnell & Sons, 1956) 150–205; Bonner, Education in Ancient Rome, 250–76;
Cribiore, Gymnastics of the Mind, 202, 221–30; R. Webb, ‘The Progymnasmata as Practice’,
Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity (ed. Yun Lee Too; Boston: Brill, 2001) 289–316;
Kennedy, Progymnasmata, ix–xvi.
13 All translations of the progymnasmata are from Kennedy, Progymnasmata; citations for
Theon and Aphthonius refer to the page numbers of the critical editions in L. Spengel, ed.,
Rhetores Graeci (3 vols.; Leipzig: Teubner, 1854–56), citations for Ps. Hermogenes to the page
numbers of H. Rabe, ed., Hermogenis Opera (Leipzig: Teubner, 1931), and citations for
Nicolaus to the page numbers of J. Felten, ed., Nicolai Progymnasmata (Leipzig: Teubner,
1913; repr., Osnabrück: Zeller, 1968).

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 21

The preliminary exercises, in fact, constituted the highest level of training for writ-
ten composition in Greco-Roman education, as all subsequent training focused
strictly on oratory. The forms taught in the exercises were drawn from classical lit-
erature, to which the theorists frequently appeal for exemplary models.14 Once
mastered, the forms could be incorporated into new compositions, as Nicolaus’s
instruction concerning encomion and syncrisis expects: ‘the use of syncrisis takes
many forms, as does that of encomion, both when employed by itself as a whole
discourse and when part of something else’ (62). In short, the forms taught in the
progymnasmata functioned as nothing less than the building blocks of ancient
Greek literature, beginning with the classics. As George Kennedy observes, they
were ‘combined in different ways to create epics, dramas, histories, and the
genres of lyric poetry’, and so ‘are comparable to structural features of classical
architecture that were artistically utilized in the great public buildings of the
Greco-Roman period’.15
Both of the exercises mentioned by Nicolaus, encomion and syncrisis, are
(together with invective) our sources for the topic lists, which are arranged below
in Tables 1a and 1b by theorist and exercise.16 The ‘topics’ (or ‘headings’ or ‘divi-
sions’) were, from the perspective of the theorists, the essential components of a
life, and so were deserving of consideration when praising, censuring, or compar-
ing lives. Hence lists such as these lent themselves well to the genre wholly
devoted to a single life, the ancient Mediterranean biography.17
A cursory comparison of the lists reveals there is general agreement about the
kinds of topics to be considered, but a divergence of opinion regarding the
method of their arrangement. Ps. Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and Nicolaus attest a
sequential arrangement, wherein topics are dealt with in an order that follows the
contours of a life chronologically, from origins to death and beyond. Theon (Table
1b), by contrast, attests an arrangement according to the three traditional goods:
external goods (which are arranged sequentially from birth to death), bodily

14 See, for example, the ‘syncrisis’ Nicolaus cites from the Iliad (Nicolaus 61). Because the com-
parison is but a single line and employs only one of the topics Nicolaus recommends, it illus-
trates what Nicolaus means when he speaks of syncrisis taking many forms when part of
another discourse. Indeed, the biographical syncrises surveyed below show far more con-
formity to Nicolaus’s instruction concerning syncrisis than does his own example of the
form.
15 Kennedy, Progymnasmata, ix.
16 In their discussions of invective and syncrisis, the theorists usually instruct the reader to use
the same topic list used in encomion. Ps. Hermogenes, however, describes in his syncrisis
exercise a topic list that is sufficiently different from that of his encomion exercise to warrant
its inclusion in the chart.
17 The use of encomiastic topic lists in bioi does not necessarily imply, however, that the work
has an encomiastic purpose. Their use in invective and comparison shows they are neutral
categories reflecting cultural notions of the essential components of personhood.

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 Table 1a. Chronological Arrangements of Ps. Hermogenes, Aphthonius, and Nicolaus
Ps. Hermogenes: Encomion
1. National origin
2. City
3. Family
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4. Marvelous Occurrences at
Birth
5. Nurture
6. Upbringing ( ⫽ training)
7. Body
8. Mind (⫽ virtues)
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9. Pursuits and Deeds
10. Externals
11. Time
12. Manner of Death
13. Greatness of the One Who
Killed the Subject
14. Events after Death
15. Comparison
– –
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Ps. Hermogenes: Syncrisis Apthonius: Encomion,
Invective, Syncrisis
1. Prooemion
2. Origin
2a. nation
2b. homeland
1. City
2. Family 2c. ancestors
2d. parents
– –
3. Nurture 3. Upbringing (⫽ nurture and
training)
– 4. Activities in Youth ( ⫽
– 4b. body
– 4a. mind (⫽ virtues)
4. Pursuits and Deeds 4. Deeds (referred to all 3
goods)
5. Externals 4c. fortune ( ⫽ externals)
– –
6. Manner of Death Not listed, but modeled
– –
7. Events after Death – –
– 5. Comparison
6. Epilogue
Table 1b. Theon’s Arrangement by Goods
Nicolaus: Encomion, Prooemion (not numbered as a heading proper)
Invective, Syncrisis 1. External Goods (arranged chronologically)
Prooemion (not numbered as
a heading proper)
1. Origin
2a. nationality a. good birth ( ⫽ origin)
2b. native city i. city, tribe, constitution
2c. ancestors ii. ancestors and other relatives
2. Circumstances of Birth
3. Circumstances of b. education
22 michael w. martin
Upbringing (⫽ nurture)
training)
4b. body
4a. mind (⫽ virtues)
5. Deeds (referred to virtues)
c. friendship
d. reputation
e. official position
f. wealth
g. good children
–
– h. good death
–
6. Comparison
–
2. Bodily Goods
3. Goods of the Mind (Virtues), and Actions Referred to
Virtues
 Progymnastic Topic Lists 23

goods, and goods of the mind (or virtues).18 Nicolaus shows, moreover, not only
an awareness of both methods of arrangement, but claims theorists generally pre-
ferred the sequential method19 – a claim supported by the fact that three of the
four extant Greek progymnasmata teach this method.
This divergence of opinion regarding method of arrangement is overlooked in
Shuler’s study, which does not consult Nicolaus or Apthonius. Its importance is
seen, however, in the fact that the sequential lists cover the ‘full range’ of a life in
the order it is typically portrayed in a bios. Indeed, it is instructive to note that
Burridge’s six-topic list (ancestry, birth, boyhood and education, great deeds,
virtues, and death and consequences), which he derives strictly on a descriptive
basis from extensive reading in the bios genre, bears a remarkable resemblance
both in content and order to the sequential lists, which as we have said were pre-
scriptive for composition. Provided Burridge’s description of the topical content
of the bios genre is accurate, such a correspondence by itself suggests
that the lists, given their prescriptive nature, have influenced biographical com-
position.
At the same time, all the lists describe additional topics and subtopics not
appearing in Burridge’s list, and these, together with the tensions and divergences
among the lists, can potentially lend more detail and texture to a description of
the topical structure and content of the bios genre. For example, all the theorists
subdivide origins according to familial and geographical origins, and the same
practice is reflected in many bioi. Two theorists also join Burridge in listing birth
among the three pre-career topics, while two do not.20 The same ambivalence
regarding the importance of this topic may be reflected in the fact that only two of
the four canonical Gospels have birth stories. Similarly, only two of the four theo-
rists join Burridge in treating deeds and virtues (also known as goods of the mind)
as the major motifs of a subject’s career, while the remaining two describe a career
in terms of deeds and all three goods, not just virtues;21 here again, a similar diver-
sity of practice is seen in biographical writing. Two of the theorists also attest to

18 The three-fold division of goods is widely attested in Hellenistic literature; cf. J. R. Butts, ‘The
“Progymnasmata” of Theon: A New Text with Translation and Commentary’ (PhD diss., The
Claremont Graduate School, 1985) 481 n. 7.
19 Explaining his use of the sequential method, Nicolaus states, ‘The godlike Plato in Phaedrus
and others of ancient times divided subjects of praise into goods of the mind, goods of the
body, and external goods. Those of the mind are divided into prudence, justice, temperance,
and courage; those of body into beauty, strength, size, and speed; external goods are divided
into origin, friends, wealth, and such. We, however, shall not follow this division but the pre-
vailing one’ (50).
20 Theon’s subdivisions of the topic ‘good birth’ show that he has in mind what the other the-
orists call ‘origins’.
21 Aphthonius refers all three goods to deeds, while Ps. Hermogenes deals with deeds and the
three goods as separate topics.

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 24 michael w. martin

pursuits/official positions, a topic not seen in Burridge’s list, as a major career

motif, and several bioi likewise treat it as such (see especially Philo’s De vita Mosis
below).
The theorists’ extended discussions of the topic of syncrisis – another topic not
appearing in Burridge’s list, and the only topic to which the theorists devote an
entire exercise – are also a potentially valuable resource for any examination of
the bios genre’s topical structure and content. All the theorists teach that syncrises
are conducted using a full set of topics (minus, of course, the topic of syncrisis
itself22), and as the survey below shows, many bioi, Luke included, handle the
topic accordingly. That is, not only do such bioi describe their subject via a full list
of topics, but they also compare their subjects via the same. This fact eludes
Shuler, who argues for the use of syncrisis in Gospels and other bioi without ref-
erence to syncrisis’s place among the topics nor its division by the topics.23 And
yet, the two-fold use of topic lists for structuring both the narrative itself and syn-
crises within the narrative is perhaps the clearest evidence for progymnastic influ-
ence on biographical composition.
The theorists’ examples, too, of individual topics can potentially shed addi-
tional light beyond that which Burridge supplies on the topical content of the bios
genre. In some instances, biographical treatment of individual topics follows
closely if not exactly actual examples of the same in the progymnasmata.
In sum, the lists can potentially provide a great deal of insight into biographi-
cal composition. Indeed, as the survey below shows, close conformity to the lists
is evident in the bios genre with regard to (a) the number and order of topics cov-
ered in the narrative as a whole, (b) the number and order of topics covered in
syncrises within the narrative, and (c) the manner in which individual topics are
handled. Such conformity shows that the cultural conceptions of personhood
attested in the lists quite naturally influenced biographical composition. More
importantly, it shows that the lists themselves, given that they were prescriptive for
written composition, influenced biographical composition.24

Progymnastic Topics Lists and Bioi

Because Shuler’s study of the Gospels in light of the topic lists focuses on
‘birth and death/resurrection topoi’ and not ‘the full range of Jesus’ life and min-
istry’, it fails to be convincing, in Burridge’s estimation. The following section

22 As Aphthonius observes, ‘There is no comparison in it, since the whole exercise is a compar-
ison’ (43).
23 Burridge questions Shuler’s claim that the Gospels employ syncrises on account of their dis-
similarity to Plutarch’s syncrises (What Are the Gospels, 85).
24 This is not to say that every biographer surveyed is individually influenced. Rather, the direct
influence is upon the bios genre, and in cases of less-educated authors, the influence is medi-
ated indirectly through the genre.

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 25

attempts to supply the lack and show that the topic lists not only account for the
‘full range’ of the life portrayed in each of several bioi, Luke included, but that they
do so more fully than Burridge’s six-topic list. The bioi selected as the background
against which Luke will be read derive from a time close to that of Luke. Three are
by Greco-Roman authors, Plutarch and Philostratus, and two are by Jewish
authors, Josephus and Philo. And all, like Luke, display a close conformity to the
lists.

Plutarch Alcibiades and Marcius Coriolanus

Since the work of H. Erbse,25 the consensus opinion in Plutarch scholarship
has been that syncrisis in the Parallel Lives occurs not only explicitly in the con-
cluding syncrises attached to most of the bios pairs, but also implicitly via the par-
allel narrative structure of each pair.26 Building on this consensus, this study
observes that the parallel structure of Plutarch’s bios pairs can be described in
terms of a common topical template. Plutarch’s Alcibiades and Marcius
Coriolanus are typical. These are structured using an identical set of topics that
closely resembles the topic lists of the extant progymnasmata: origins (Alc. 1.1; Cor.
1.1–2), nurture and training (Alc. 1.2–7.4; Cor. 1.2–4.2), body (Alc. 1.3–4; Cor. 2.2b),
externals (Alc. 8–9; Cor. 4.3–4), pursuits and deeds (Alc. 10–36; Cor. 5.1–38.4),
manner of death (Alc. 37.1–39.3, 39.4b–5; Cor. 39.1–4), and events after death (Alc.
39.4a; Cor. 39.5–6).
This parallel topical structure itself invites comparison of the Greek,
Alcibiades, to the Roman, Coriolanus, and serves what is evidently the larger
apologetic purpose of the entire project, namely, to show Plutarch’s native Greece
to be the equal of Rome in the political and military realms.27 Such a purpose, like
the structure itself, can likewise be described in terms of progymnastic theory. In
repeatedly juxtaposing outstanding Greek with Roman, Plutarch has employed
what Theon refers to as syncrisis of genera, or comparison of groups by their ‘out-
standing members’.28 Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, seen in the light of Theonic theory,

25 ‘Die Bedeutung der Synkrisis in den Parallelbiographien Plutarchs’, Hermes 84 [1956]

398–424.
26 See, e.g., D. H. J. Larmour, ‘Making Parallels: Synkrisis and Plutarch’s “Themistocles and
Camillus”’, ANRW 33.6:4159, 4162–200; C. Pelling, ‘Synkrisis in Plutarch’s Lives’, Plutarch and
History: Eighteen Studies (London: Duckworth, 2002) 349–63; and J. Geiger, ‘Nepos and
Plutarch: From Latin to Greek Political Biography’, ICS 13 (1988) 245–56.
27 On this apologetic purpose, see B. Perrin, Plutarch’s Lives (11 vols. trans. B. Perrin; LCL;
Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1914–26) 1:xiii; A. Wardman, Plutarch’s Lives (Berkeley,
Calif.: University of California, 1974) 243; D. A. Russell, ‘On Reading Plutarch’s Lives’, Essays
on Plutarch’s Lives (ed. B. Scardigli; Oxford: Clarendon, 1995) 73–98, esp. 78; idem, Plutarch
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973) 109.
28 ‘We usually compare more than one thing to more than one in two ways. One way is when
we take extreme examples of the things being compared and put these beside each other and

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 26 michael w. martin

thus emerge as nothing less than a grand genus syncritical project juxtaposing
two genera, Greeks and Romans.
Plutarch’s treatment of individual topics, too, shows a remarkable correspon-
dence to progymnastic instruction. For example, in the parallel sections concern-
ing the origins of both Alicibades and Marcius Coriolanus, Plutarch describes
each man’s familial origins in terms of two sub-topics prescribed by the theorists,
relatives (Alc. 1.1a; Cor. 1.1) and father (Alc. 1.1b; Cor. 1.2). Geographical origins,
meanwhile, are implied from the larger project’s structure. That is, the reader
knows Plutarch is setting Greek beside Roman in every pairing; hence there is no
need to describe in every narrative the homeland of each subject.29 Plutarch’s sec-
tions on nurture and training describe, per progymnastic requirements, the sub-
jects’ upbringing (Alc. 1.2; Cor. 1.2) and youthful exploits (Alc. 1.2–7.4; Cor. 1.2–3.3;
corresponding to Nicolaus’s broader construal of the topic as ‘activities in
youth’).30 The brief sections devoted to the body mention the beauty (Alc. 1.3–4)
and strength (Cor. 2.2b) of Alcibiades and Coriolanus respectively, qualities fre-
quently mentioned as examples of bodily goods by the theorists. In the sections
devoted to externals, Plutarch relates the story of each man’s marriage and result-
ing children (Alc. 8; Cor. 4.3–4) – and in Alcibiades’ case, a brief story concerning
his beautiful dog (Alc. 9). Such content is typical of the topic as it is described by
the theorists (cf. Ps. Hermogenes 16: ‘[externals] include relatives, friends, posses-
sions, servants, luck, and the like’). In the large sections devoted to each man’s
career, Plutarch describes each man’s actions as a statesman and general (Alc.
10–36; Cor. 5.1–38.4) – the latter being among the pursuits actually listed by Ps.
Hermogenes as an example of the topic. And in treating the deeds of each man in
connection with their pursuits, Plutarch reflects the practice endorsed by Ps.

in the comparison of these we think to find the whole genus (of one group) in comparison
with the whole genus (of the other). For example, if we wanted to compare the genus of
males to that of females (to find) which of them is braver, by comparing the bravest man to
the bravest woman; whichever we find better, we would conclude that the whole of that
genus is better than the other’ (Theon 114). Theon later summarizes this method of genus
syncrisis as ‘comparing one or two of the most outstanding to the most outstanding’ (Theon
114).
29 Allusion may be made in passing to the subject’s home city. For example, in the opening
words of Marcius Coriolanus, the subject’s family is characterized as ‘The patrician house of
the Marcii at Rome . . .’. Even here, though, it seems that the reader is being told something
he or she is expected to know already, that Coriolanus himself is Roman.
30 The treatment of Alcibiades’ youthful exploits mirrors that of Coriolanus’s. That is, material
devoted to each man as a boy (Alc. 1.2–6.4; Cor. 1.2–2.1) is followed by material devoted to
each man as a ‘stripling’ (Alc. 7.1–9.1; Cor. 3.1–4.2). The ‘stripling’ sections, moreover, tell how
each man was honored (mistakenly, in Alcibiades’ case) after his first military campaign for
defending a wounded fellow soldier.

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Hermogenes that ‘deeds [be] included among the pursuits’ (16).31 Following these
sections are corresponding sections devoted to each man’s manner of death, and
in keeping with Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction concerning the topic, ‘unusual’
events surrounding the death (Ps. Hermogenes 16) are narrated in both cases.
That is, Plutarch tells of the conspiracy against each man (Alc. 37.1–39.3; Cor.
39.1–4; cf. the alternate version of Alcibiades’ death in Alc. 39.4b–5) and, moreover,
notes in Alcibiades’ case the man’s premonition of his own death (39.1–2). Finally,
Plutarch mentions in both cases the reclamation of the body after death and the
subsequent ‘honourable burial’ (Alc. 39.4a; Cor. 39.5–6), and in Coriolanus’s case,
the women who mourned him for ten months, as well as the loss felt by the
Volscian state (Cor. 39.5–6). Such content is typical of the topic, events after death,
as it is described by Ps. Hermogenes (cf. 16: ‘you will examine events after death:
if they held games in his honor, as for Patroclus’).
In two respects, Plutarch’s method of syncrisis is exceptional in biographical
composition. That is, no other biographer compares two subjects via parallel bioi
devoted to each, nor does any other biographer attach as an addendum or post-
script to a bios or bios pair a self-contained syncrisis. Rather, most biographers
simply introduce comparisons at various points within the narrative of a
single bios.32 Hence it would be unfair to discount Lukan syncrisis (or any other
biographical syncrisis) for its lack of similarity to Plutarch’s syncrisis, as does
Burridge.33
In one respect, however, Plutarch’s method of syncrisis is not exceptional,
namely, his use of a full list of progymnastic topics to make the comparison. The
same technique is seen in some of the bioi surveyed below (Luke included) and is,
moreover, a tell-tale sign of progymnastic influence on the genre and perhaps
even the writer,34 as there are no precedents in classical composition for syncrises
covering a full list of progymnastic topics. Indeed, though the progymnastic the-
orists believed they were merely mediating classical standards of syncritical com-
position, none of the classical examples of ‘syncrisis’ that they cite (the
comparison of Conon and Theistocles in Demosthenes Against Leptines 71–74,

31 In the opening lines of the syncrisis that follow both works, Plutarch characterizes the bioi
just narrated as an account primarily of each man’s ‘deeds’ (‘Now that all the deeds of these
men are set forth . . .’, 1.1) – an explicit allusion to a standard encomiastic topic. Plutarch
implies that the bioi are primarily concerned with this topic and so reflects the theorists’
opinion that ‘deeds’ are the ‘most important’ of the topics (Ps. Hermogenes 16).
32 Variation in methods of incorporation is anticipated by Nicolaus’s comment, cited above,
that ‘the use of syncrisis takes many forms . . . both when employed by itself as a whole dis-
course and when part of something else’ (62).
33 Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 85.
34 Plutarch is, it should be noted, a known graduate of the progymnasmata; see, e.g., F. Focke,
‘Synkrisis’, Hermes 58 (1923) 327–68.

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 28 michael w. martin

and the comparison of the love of the soul to the love of the body in Xenophon
Symposium 8.12, cited by Theon 68–69; and the comparison of Hector and Achilles
Iliad 20.158, cited by Nicolaus 61) covers a list of topics that remotely resembles
either in range or number the lists they are commending. In citing these ‘exam-
ples’, the theorists betray the extent of their own influence on the form – and,
specifically, on the form as employed in the bios genre.
If Plutarch’s topic-by-topic approach to syncrisis potentially sheds light on the
Third Gospel, so too does his treatment of individual topics. Plutarch’s concern,
for example, to identify the subject’s parents or ancestors in the sections on famil-
ial origins – in other bioi, he gives full genealogies (e.g. Agis 3.1) – is mirrored in
Luke. Also, Plutarch’s praise for the subjects’ ancestors (‘The patrician house of
the Marcii at Rome furnished many men of distinction . . .’, Marcius Coriolanus 1.1)
and parents (‘His father, Cleinias, fitted out a trireme at his own cost and fought it
gloriously at Artemisium’, Alcibiades 1.1), required by the theorists, is likewise mir-
rored in Luke’s praise of the parents of John (‘Both of them were righteous before
God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of
the Lord’ [1.6]) and Jesus (Mary finds ‘favor with God’ [1.30], is a ‘servant of the
Lord’ [1.38], and is ‘blessed among women’ [1.42]). Plutarch’s account of the con-
spiracies against each man, too, is mirrored in the Lukan treatment of Jesus’
manner of death (22.1–6). The account of Alcibiades’ premonition of his own
death in this section, moreover, has parallels in Luke’s accounting of Jesus’ pre-
monitions of his own death (9.21–22, 43–45; 18.31–34). Also, in the sections on
events after death, Plutarch describes the reclamation of the body of Alcibiades
after his death by Lais’s mother, Timandra, the honorable burial of both
Alcibiades and Coriolanus, and the activities of mourning women in the case of
Coriolanus. Similar events, of course, are depicted in Luke’s section on events
after death (especially 23.50–56).

Philostratus Vita Apollonii

Philostratus’s Vita Apollonii is likewise structured using a set of topics that
closely resembles the lists of the theorists and particularly Ps. Hermogenes’:
prooemion (1.1–3), origins (1.4), marvelous occurrences at birth (1.5–6), body (1.7)
nurture and training (1.7–8), pursuits and deeds (1.9–8.28), time (8.29), manner of
death (8.29–30), events after death (8.31), and comparison (passim; e.g. to
Pythagoras, 1.1–2, his family to others, 1.4; to Heraclitus, 1.9, etc.).35
In the treatment of individual topics, too, conformity to progymnasmatic
instruction is evident throughout. For example, Philostratus signals the beginning
of the section on origins with explicit allusion to the topic (‘By origin Apollonius
came from . . . , 1.4) and, moreover, describes Apollonius’s origins both in terms of

35 Cf. Shuler, A Genre for the Gospels, 82–5.

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geography (both city and homeland) and family (both father and family), the pro-
cedure endorsed by all the theorists. In his subsequent treatment of marvelous
occurrences at birth, which is again signaled with explicit allusion to the topic
(‘Apollonius’s birth is said to have occurred’, 1.5), Philostratus describes both a
portentous dream and some portentous signs accompanying the birth. In this
regard he conforms remarkably to Ps. Hermogenes’ instructions regarding the
topic: ‘You will mention also any marvelous occurrences at birth, for example
from dreams or signs or things like that’ (Ps. Hermogenes 15). The subsequent
description of Apollonius’s education (1.7–8), insofar as it names his teachers and
describes the nature of his training, reflects the twofold interest in nurture and
training seen among the theorists.36 Specifically, the description of Apollonius’s
diet is reminiscent of Ps. Hermogenes’ example of nurture: ‘for example, in the
case of Achilles, that he was nurtured on Lion’s marrow and by Cheiron’ (Ps.
Hermogenes 16). Within this section, too, is brief mention of Apollonius’s beauty
(‘All eyes were turned upon him, for he was, moreover, conspicuous for his beau-
ty’, 1.6), a characteristic commonly cited by the theorists as belonging to the topic,
body. The majority of the work is dedicated to Apollonius’s career as a prophet
and philosopher, the latter being among the pursuits Ps. Hermogenes lists as
examples of the topic (Ps. Hermogenes 16). Apollonius’s many deeds are also nar-
rated in this part of the work. Hence Philostratus conforms to Ps. Hermogenes’
instruction that deeds be ‘included among pursuits’ (Ps. Hermogenes 16). The
work’s subsequent discussion of Apollonius’s age (‘Neither has Damis told us any-
thing about the age of our hero; but there are some who say that he was eighty,
others that he was over ninety, others again who say that his age far exceeded a
hundred’, 8.29), too, conforms to Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction concerning the
heading of time: ‘from the topic of time comes how long he lived’ (Ps.
Hermogenes 16). And the work’s description of Apollonius’s ‘manner of death’
(8.29), with its alternate accounts of a disappearing or ascending body (8.29–30),
conforms remarkably with Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction that mention be made of
the death ‘if there was anything unusual about it, as in the case of Callimachus,
because his corpse remained standing’ (Ps. Hermogenes 16). Finally,
Philostratus’s account of Apollonius’s postmortem appearances and honorable
burial (8.31) constitutes standard reflection on the topic of events after death as Ps.
Hermogenes describes it.
Philostratus’s treatment of individual topics, like Plutarch’s, provides valuable
parallels for Third Evangelist’s treatment of the same. For example, the Vita
Apollonii’s description of dreams and signs in connection with Apollonius’s birth

36 Though the theorists use conflicting terminology, they generally show a two-fold interest in
sources of nourishment for the body/mind in infancy/youth (⫽ nurture) and educational
experiences or activities in youth/early adulthood preparatory for a career (⫽ training).

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 30 michael w. martin

is reminiscent of Luke, which describes similar omens in connection with the

births of John (1.8–58) and Jesus (1.26–45; 2.8–20). Moreover, the Vita’s account of
Apollonius’s education describes both a precocious youth who amazes his elders
and an ascetic period of training preparatory for a public career, events with obvi-
ous parallels in Luke (2.41–52; 4.1–13). In the same section of the Vita, Apollonius’
ascetic diet is described (he renounces meat, partaking only of dried fruits
and vegetables). This, too, has an obvious parallel in the Lukan description
of Jesus’ ascetic diet (4.2–4) during his wilderness experience. Philostratus’s
description, moreover, of Apollonius’s ascension is reminiscent of the Lukan
account of Jesus’ ascension in its corresponding treatment of events after death
(Acts 1.10–11). Finally, the Vita’s account of Apollonius’s appearance to a doubting
disciple has obvious parallels with the Gospels’ appearance stories generally
and (though it is beyond the purview of this study) with the Fourth Gospel’s
story of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas specifically. These and other parallels are
best explained not as the result of direct, anti-Christian borrowing from the
Gospels by Philostratus, as some Christian apologists in the past have argued,37
but rather, as stock treatments of biographical topics in the ancient
Mediterranean world.

Philo De vita Mosis

Philo’s biography of Moses is structured using a number of headings typi-
cal of the progymnastic topic lists: prooemion (1.1–4), origins (1.5–7), circum-
stances of birth (1.8–19), body (1.8–19), nurture (1.8–19), training (1.20–31), mind
(1.27), pursuits and deeds (1.32–2.287), death (2.288–291a), events after death
(2.291b), epilogue (2.292), and comparison (passim).38
Philo’s own summations of material at various points in the narrative explic-
itly cite some of these topics as headings for major sections of the biography. For
example, in the introduction to the second volume, Philo states:
The first volume of this treatise dealt with the birth and nurture of Moses;
also with his education and career as a ruler, in which capacity his conduct
was not merely blameless but highly praiseworthy; also with the works
which he performed . . . The present treatise is concerned with matters
allied and consequent to these. If the first described Moses’ kingly and
philosophical faculties, the second will describe three others, one of which
is concerned with law-giving, the second with the high priest’s office, and
the last with prophecy. (2.1–2; italics mine)

This summation, with its allusions to the topics of birth, nurture, education, and
four career offices (ruler, lawgiver, priest, and prophet), shows that Philo not only

37 On this point, see F. C. Conybeare, Philostratus: The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (3 vols. LCL;
London: Heinemann, 1917) 1.xv.
38 Cf. Shuler, A Genre for the Gospels, 69–74.

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 31

consciously used the kinds of topics taught in the progymnasmata to arrange and
order the narrative, but also that he expected his hearers to have some degree of
familiarity with the topics as standard biographical fare.
A correspondence to progymnastic instruction, moreover, is likewise evident
in Philo’s treatment of each of the topics. For example, in the discussion of
Moses’ origins Philo begins with geographical origins, describing Moses’ ethnic-
ity and homeland (1.5–6), and proceeds to familial origins, describing Moses’
ancestry and parents (1.7) – again the procedure taught by all the theorists. Philo
also describes the circumstances surrounding Moses’ birth, namely, his preser-
vation from royally sanctioned infanticide (1.8–19). Nicolaus cites similar leg-
endary material concerning famous births in his examples of the topic (cf.
Nicolaus 51–52). Philo’s description in this section, too, of Moses’ ‘nurture’ on his
Hebrew mother’s milk is reminiscent of the example of this topic taken from
Achilles’ life and cited both by Ps. Hermogenes and Nicolaus, ‘that he was nur-
tured on lion’s marrow and by Cheiron’ (Ps. Hermogenes 16). And the multiple
allusions to Moses’ physical beauty in this section (‘Now the child from his birth
had an appearance of more than ordinary goodliness’, 1.9; ‘Thereupon, surveying
him from head to foot, she approved of his beauty and fine condition’, 1.15; ‘And
he grew and thrived without a break, and was weaned at an earlier date than they
had reckoned’, 1.18; ‘He was noble and goodly to look upon; . . . so advanced
beyond his age’, 1.18–19) reflect standard progymnastic treatment of the topic of
body. The account that follows of Moses’ progress from prodigy to philosopher
(1.20–31) is typical treatment, too, of the topic of training or education as
described by all the theorists and is undoubtedly the section on ‘education’ Philo
mentions in 2.3. This section includes brief praise of Moses’ ‘mind’ (‘Naturally,
therefore, his associates and everyone else, struck with amazement at what they
felt was a novel spectacle, considered earnestly what the mind which dwelt in his
body like an image in its shrine could be, whether it was human or divine or a
mixture of both’, 1.27), conforming to Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction concerning
the topic (‘You will say . . . about his mind that it was just, temperate, wise, brave’,
16).
Most of the work is devoted to Moses’ pursuits/offices, narrating his deeds
in connection with each.39 Philo arranges this material in four sections
devoted respectively to Moses’ four offices: king (1.32–334), legislator (2.1–65),
high priest (2.66–198), and prophet (2.187–287).40 The description of Moses’ king-

39 Cf. 1.334: ‘We have now told the story of Moses’ actions in his capacity as king. We must next
deal with all that he achieved by his powers as high priest and legislator, powers which he
possessed as the most fitting accompaniments of kingship’.
40 Cf. the summation of 2.3: ‘For Moses, through God’s providence, became king and lawgiver
and high priest and prophet; and in each function he won the highest place’.

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 32 michael w. martin

ship as an ‘office’ (2.2 – another explicit allusion to an encomiastic topic)

has parallels in Aphthonius’s textbook, which treats Philip’s kingship as an
example of this heading in the model invective against Philip (‘his first act as
king . . .’, 41).
At the work’s conclusion is a short account of Moses’ death and divinization
(2.288–291a). Inclusion of these materials conforms to Ps. Hermogenes’ instruc-
tion that mention be made of the death ‘if there was anything unusual about it, as
in the case of Callimachus, because his corpse remained standing’ (Ps.
Hermogenes 16). Also included are materials devoted to Moses’ burial and post-
mortem honors (2.291b), exactly the kind of materials Ps. Hermogenes commends
for the topic, events after death.41 The final sentence, too, of Philo’s biography
(‘Such, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, was the life and such the end of Moses,
king, lawgiver, high priest, prophet’, 2.292) is similar in its brevity and form to the
epilogues Aphthonius models for his students.42
Conformity to progymnastic instruction is also seen in Philo’s treatment of the
topic of syncrisis, or comparison. Throughout the work, Philo introduces com-
parisons of Moses with other great figures, conforming to Nicolaus’s instruction
to use comparisons everywhere. That the comparisons are with great figures of
other nations (1.21; 2.12) shows that Philo is employing ‘genus syncrisis’, or com-
parison of groups by their ‘outstanding members’ (Theon 114). In essence, Philo is
attempting to demonstrate the superiority of his native Jewish nation to others.
Philo’s comparisons, moreover, take up many of the same encomiastic topics pre-
scribed by the theorists and in generally the same order.

41 According to Philo, Moses was ‘told how he was buried with none present, surely by no
mortal hands but by immortal powers; how also he was not laid to rest in the tomb of his
forefathers but was given a monument of special dignity which no man has ever seen;
how all the nation wept and mourned for him a whole month and made open display, pri-
vate and public, of their sorrow, in memory of his vast benevolence and watchful care for
each one of them and for all’ (2.291b). Cf. Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction, ‘You will examine
also events after death: if they held games in his honor, as for Patroclus; if there was an
oracle about his bones, as with Orestes; if he had famous children, as did Neoptolemus’
(16–17).
42 Aphthonius provides four examples: (1) ‘Many other things could be said about Thucydides,
if the mass of his praises did not fall short of telling everything’ (from ‘An Encomion of
Thucydides’); (2) ‘Many other things could be listed about wisdom, but it is impracticable to
go into them all’ (from ‘An Encomion of Wisdom’; (3) ‘When Philip was alive he know not
when to stop, but the one who is describing him must stop somewhere’ (from ‘An Invective
against Philip’); and (4) ‘There are many other things that could be said about the virtue of
both, if it were not that both had nearly equal fame from their deeds’ (from ‘A Comparison
of Achilles and Hector’).

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Table 2. Syncrisis of Moses and Others

Topic Syncrisis

Origins Superior parents: ‘He had for his father and mother the best of
their contemporaries’ (1.7)

Training Superior in training: ‘Teachers at once arrived from different

parts, some unbidden from the neighboring countries . . . But in
short time he advanced beyond their capacities’ (1.21)

Mind Superior mind: ‘Naturally, therefore, his associates and everyone

else, struck with amazement at what they felt was a novel
spectacle, considered earnestly what the mind which dwelt in his
body like an image in its shrine could be, whether it was human or
divine or a mixture of both, so utterly unlike was it to the majority,
soaring above them and exalted to a grander height’ (1.27)

Pursuits and Deeds Superior shepherd: ‘he became more skilled than any of his time
in managing flocks’ (1.63)
Superior king: ‘In solitary contrast to those who had hitherto held
the same authority, he did not treasure up gold and silver, did not
levy tributes, did not possess houses or chattels or livestock or a
staff of slaves or revenues or any other accompaniment of costly
and opulent living, though he might have had all in abundance’
(1.152)
Superior legislator: ‘That Moses himself was the best of all
lawgivers in all countries, better in fact than any that have ever
arisen among either the Greeks or the barbarians, and that his
laws are most excellent and needful, is shewn most clearly by the
following proof’ (2.12)
Superior priest: ‘Thus he came to love God and be loved by Him
as have been few others’ (2.67)
Superior king, priest, and prophet: ‘I have discussed the first
three, and shewn that Moses was the best of kings, of lawgivers
and of high priests, and will go on to shew in conclusion that he
was a prophet of the highest quality’ (2.187)
Superior prophet: ‘Moses, the holiest of men ever yet born’ (2.192)

Events after Death Superior burial: ‘he was not laid to rest in the tomb of his
forefathers but was given a monument of special dignity which no
man has ever seen’ (2.291)

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 34 michael w. martin

Conformity of this kind to the topic lists suggests that progymnastic composi-
tional training has had its intended effect on Philo, a known graduate of the pro-
gymnasmata.43
Noteworthy, too, are the many parallels that exist between Philo’s treatment of
various headings and the Third Evangelist’s treatment of the same. For example,
in the section on Moses’ ‘education’, Philo describes Moses as a precocious youth
instructing teachers older than he. The story has an obvious parallel in the Lukan
account of Jesus as a precocious youth (2.40–52). Also, in his treatment of the topic
of death, Philo describes Moses’ prophesy of his own death and subsequent
ascension to heaven, details that are again paralleled in Luke (Luke 9.21–22, 43–45;
18.31–34; and Acts 1.10–11). Philo’s account, moreover, of events after death
includes description of Moses’ burial in an honorable tomb and of followers who
mourned him; similar materials, of course, are seen in Luke (23.50–56).

Josephus Vita
Josephus’s autobiography is structured using a fairly standard set of pro-
gymnastic topics: origins (1–8a), nurture and training (8b–27), pursuits and deeds
(28–413), externals (414–429), epilogue (430), and comparison (336–367). Jerome
Neyrey similarly describes the Vita in terms of four encomiastic categories, (a)
origin and birth, (b) nurture and training, (c) accomplishments and deeds, and (d)
comparison, and concludes largely on this basis that the Vita is an encomion.44
Such topical content, however, is also characteristic of the bios genre, with which
the Vita appears to have numerous other generic features in common (e.g. title,
allocation of space, mode of representation, size and length, etc.).45 Thus the work
probably falls within the ‘overlap of the genres’ of bios and encomion.46
A close correspondence to progymnastic theory is evident, too, in Josephus’s
handling of each of the topics. The section devoted to origins is divided into geo-
graphical and familial origins, the division taught by all the theorists and reflected
in most of the bioi surveyed. In this section, Josephus identifies and praises his
ancestors/relatives (1–6) and his father (7), and thereafter his home city (8a) (cf.
the theorists’ subdivisions of origins). Similarly the section on nurture and train-

43 On Philo’s training in composition and rhetoric, see B. L. Mack, ‘Decoding the Scripture’,
81–115; cf. T. M. Conley, Philo’s Rhetoric: Studies in Style, Composition and Exegesis (Center
for Hermeneteutical Studies 1; Berkeley, Calif.: Center for Hermeneutical Studies, 1987); and
M. Alexandre, Jr., Rhetorical Argumentation in Philo of Alexandria (BJS 322; Studia Philonica
Monographs 2; Atlanta: Scholars, 1999).
44 J. H. Neyrey, ‘Josephus’ Vita and the Encomium: A Native Model of Personality’, JSJ 25 (1994)
177–206.
45 On generic features typical of the bios genre, see Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 129–40.
46 This is Burridge’s phrase for bioi such as Isocrates’ Evagoras that occupy a middle ground
shared by both genres (Burridge, What Are the Gospels, 145); cf. Shuler, who regards the Vita
as a bios (A Genre for the Gospels, 80–2).

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ing (8b–27), focusing as it does on a series of educational experiences, is in obvi-

ous conformity with the theorists’ instructions regarding the headings.47 The
majority of the work focuses on Josephus’s deeds as a military commander in
Galilee (28–413), reflecting the theorists’ view that deeds are the most important
topic. In the ‘appended account’ (413) that follows this section (414–429), Josephus
tells of his wives and sons (414–416; 427–428), friends who have honored him such
as Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Domitia (414–426, 429), possessions he
acquired in the course of his career (417–420; 422–423; 425–426; 429), his servants
(415, 424), and his ‘good fortune’ in general (425). Thus the ‘appended account’
addresses exactly the subheadings identified by Ps. Hermogenes of the topic,
external goods (‘As for externals, they include relatives, friends, possessions, ser-
vants, luck, and the like’; Ps. Hermogenes 16). Moreover, in treating external goods
immediately after pursuits and deeds, Josephus has followed the order prescribed
by Ps. Hermogenes.48 Likewise the epilogue (‘Such are the events of my whole life;
from them let others judge as they will of my character’, 430) resembles in its
brevity and tone the examples offered by Aphthonius. Finally, the comparison
Josephus introduces of himself and Justus toward the end of his narrative
(336–367) employs two topics prescribed by the theorists in the syncrisis exercises,
pursuits and deeds. That is, the comparison demonstrates that Josephus’s deeds
as both an historian and a leader were vastly superior to Justus’s.49 And in intro-
ducing the comparison after narrating events from the war, Josephus has followed
the Ps.-Hermogenean practice of introducing comparisons as the occasion sug-
gests.

47 Josephus charts his ‘progress’ by age. Age 14: ‘I won universal applause for my love of letters;
insomuch that the chief priests and the leading men of the city used constantly to come to
me for precise information on some particular in our ordinances’. Age 16: ‘I determined to
gain personal experience of the several sects into which our nation is divided (Pharisees,
Sadducees, Essenes)’. Age 16: Josephus becomes a ‘devoted disciple’ for three years of
Bannus, ‘who dwelt in the wilderness, wearing only such clothing as trees provided, feeding
on such things as grew of themselves, and using frequent ablutions of cold water, by day and
night, for purity’s sake’. Age 19: ‘I began to govern my life by the rules of the Pharisees, a sect
having points of resemblance to that which the Greeks call the Stoic school’. Age 24: Josephus
narrates events from his early manhood.
48 In Neyrey’s reading, Josephus treats external goods in connection with deeds, as Aphthonius
and Theon advise, rather than after deeds, as Ps. Hermogenes advises.
49 Whereas Justus’s account of the Jewish War is false, Josephus’s account is true (336–9).
Whereas Justus caused the Tiberians to revolt, Josephus did not (340–4). Whereas Sepphoris,
one of the largest Galilean cities, remained loyal to Rome, Justus’s native Tiberius did not
(345–54a). Whereas Justus claims falsely to have sought the king out of loyalty, Josephus
claims truthfully that Justus sought the king out of fear of Josephus (354b–5a). Whereas Justus
claims falsely that Josephus was a knave, Josephus claims truthfully that Justus was a knave
(355b–6). And whereas Justus’s account of the Jewish War was belated and untruthful,
Josephus’s account was not (357–67).

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 36 michael w. martin

As with Philo, Josephus’s treatment of individual topics sheds light on the

Third Gospel, which often treats the same topics in similar ways. Josephus’s
description of his origins, for example, both in terms of geography and family per
progymnastic instruction is paralleled in Luke (1.26–27). The genealogical descrip-
tion, specifically, of Josephus’s own familial origins has an obvious parallel in the
Lukan genealogy (3.23–38). Josephus’s treatment of the topics of nurture and
training, too, is particularly noteworthy. In this section Josephus uses a verb,
prokovptein, to describe his own progress as a student. This word, a technical term
often used for the advancement of a student in philosophical studies,50 is the
same term the Third Evangelist uses to describe Jesus’ progress (2.52) in the cor-
responding section on Jesus’ nurture and training (2.41–52). Noteworthy, too, are
some of the examples of training Josephus provides in his treatment of the topic.
Josephus lists among a series of educational experiences an ascetic period in the
wilderness that is preparatory for and immediately preceding his public career.
The Third Evangelist likewise describes Jesus undergoing an ascetic, wilderness
experience that is preparatory for and immediately preceding his public career
(4.1–13). Also, Josephus’s description of himself as a precocious youth instructing
his elders, like the similar story cited above in De vita Mosis, has obvious parallels
to the Lukan description of an adolescent Jesus amazing his elders (2.40–52).

Luke
Like all the bioi surveyed above, Luke is structured using a fairly standard
set of progymnastic topics: prooemion (1.1–4), origins (1.26–38; 3.23–38), marvelous
occurrences at birth (2.1–39; 3.21–22), nurture and training (2.41–52; 4.1–13), pur-
suits and deeds (4.14–22.46), manner of death (22.47–23.46), events after death
(23.47–24.53), and comparison (see Table 3 overleaf).51
As with the other bioi surveyed, Luke’s treatment of individual topics also con-
forms closely to progymnastic instruction concerning the same. Jesus’ origins, for
example, are first described both in terms of geography and family (Luke 1.26–31),
just as the theorists require. The opening verses (1.26–27) name Jesus’ homeland
(Galilee), city (Narareth), presumable father (Joseph), and ancestors (house of
David) in exactly the order Aphthonius commends (for the sub-topics of home-
land, city, father, and ancestor respectively, see Table 1). The story that follows
these opening sentences (1.28–38) reveals, however, that Jesus will be the Son of
God conceived by the Holy Spirit – and yet, the story makes clear, he will be an
heir through Joseph’s line to his ancestor David’s rule of the house of Jacob. The

50 This term is used in philosophy for the beginner’s advancement, both moral and spiritual,
toward perfection; see G. Stählin, ‘prokophv, prokovptw’, TDNT 6.703–19; cf. C. H. Talbert,
‘The Way of the Lukan Jesus: Dimensions of Lukan Spirituality’, PRS 9 (1982) 237–49.
51 Cf. Shuler, ‘The Synoptic Gospels’, 259–98; idem, ‘The Genre(s) of the Gospels’, 474–9.

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 37

opening story thus clarifies all of Jesus’ rightful ancestral claims. Next the story of
Jesus’ birth is told (2.1–39), and a number of associated marvelous occurrences,
including visions, oracles, and signs, are related by the author (1.28–56; 2.1–39; cf.
Ps. Hermogenes 15: ‘You will mention also any marvelous occurrences at birth; for
example, from dreams or signs or things like that’). A section on nurture and train-
ing (2.40–52) then follows, a section framed by statements reporting the child
Jesus’ growth in wisdom and favor: ‘The child grew and became strong, filled with
wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him’ (2.40); ‘And Jesus increased
(proevkopten; see the discussion above of Josephus) in wisdom and in stature, and
in divine and human favor’ (2.52). Within the frame is a story of a precocious Jesus
who at the age of twelve amazes everyone with ‘his understanding and his
answers’ while conversing with Temple teachers (cf. the similar portraits of pre-
cocious youths in the sections devoted to nurture and training in Philo’s De vita
Mosis, Josephus’s Vita, and Philostratus’s Vita Apollonii).
Having described the child Jesus’ origins, birth, and nurture and training, the
author returns to these same topics a second time in 3.21–4.13. Evidently, the
arrival of the Spirit’s empowering presence in the life of Jesus is cause for further
reflection on these topics, warranting the innovative second treatment. That is,
the Spirit’s arrival accompanies the ‘begetting’ of Jesus by God (‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you’52) – an episode (3.21–22) that functions topically in this
Gospel as a second birth story, complete with ‘marvelous occurrences’ and specif-
ically ‘signs’ (the heavens opening, the voice from heaven, the Spirit’s descent in
bodily form like a dove) in accordance with Ps. Hermogenes’ instruction con-
cerning the topic (Ps. Hermogenes 15). The Spirit’s arrival also accompanies the
announcement of Jesus’ familial origins to Jesus himself: ‘You are my Son’. This
announcement, together with the genealogy Luke inserts immediately after it
(genealogies are commonplace in bioi’s sections on origins; cf. Plutarch Agis 3.1;
Josephus Vita 1.1–5; and Matt 1.1–17), functions as the Gospel’s second treatment of
the topic of origins, showing that God can be regarded as both a father and ances-
tor of Jesus (cf. Aphthonius, who in modeling the topic of familial origins traces
both Achilles’ and Hector’s ancestry to Zeus, 43). The Spirit’s arrival also leads to
a forty day period of training in the wilderness (‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit . . . was
led by the Spirit into the wilderness’, 4.1) during which Jesus fasts (though he is
nurtured by something other than bread, 4.4) and is tested by the devil. Here it
should be remembered that stories of ascetic experiences are standard fare in
bioi’s sections on nurture and training (Philostratus Vita Apollonii 1.8; Josephus
Vita 8b–27; cf. Mark 1.12–13; Matt 4.1–17). Josephus’s account of a three-year period
of ascetic training under Bannus in the wilderness, listed as it is among other

52 On the superiority of this variant reading, see B. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of
Scripture, 62–7.

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 38 michael w. martin

clearly educational experiences preparatory for and immediately preceding the

public career, provides an especially strong parallel.
Following the pre-career sections devoted to origins, birth, and nur-
ture/training is the account of Jesus’ public career (4.14–22.46). Described in this
section are Jesus’ pursuits (he is the Messiah; cf. Aphthonius’s ‘Invective against
Philip’ and Philo’s De vita Mosis for kingship as a standard pursuit) and deeds
(evidencing his Messiahship; cf. Ps. Hermogenes 16: ‘deeds are included among
pursuits’). Like similar sections in the bioi surveyed above, and in keeping with
the theorists’ opinion that deeds is the most important topic (Aphthonius 36, calls
deeds ‘the greatest heading of the encomion’; Ps. Hermogenes 16, similarly states:
‘Most important are deeds’), this section comprises the majority of Luke.
Next Jesus’ manner of death is depicted (22.47–23.56).53 Like many of the bioi
surveyed above, Luke describes premonitions of the death (9.21–22, 43–45;
18.31–34). Luke also reports, as Ps. Hermogenes instructs, some other ‘unusual’
events accompanying the death: ‘darkness came over the whole land’ (23.44); ‘the
curtain of the temple was torn in two’ (23.45).
Luke concludes with description of several praiseworthy events after death,
the topic attested by Ps.-Hermogenes. A centurion declares Jesus to be a ‘just
man’ (23.47). Another ‘good and just man’, Joseph, claims Jesus’ body and buries
him ‘in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid’ (23.53; cf. the recla-
mation of Alcibiades’ body by his mother and the honorable burials of Alcibiades,
Coriolanus, Apollonius). Women also prepare spices and perfumes for Jesus’ body
(24.55–56; cf. Plutarch, Coriolanus, which describes in its section devoted to events
after death women mourning Coriolanus for ten months). Two men in dazzling
clothes suddenly appear to the women at the empty tomb and report that Jesus is
alive in fulfillment of his own earlier prophecies (24.1–11; cf. Ps. Hermogenes 16–17:
‘You will examine also events after death . . . if there was an oracle about his bones,
as with Orestes’). Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaeus, and
later to all the disciples (24.13–53; Acts, passim; cf. Philostratus, who similarly
describes the postmortem appearances of Apollonius). Jesus ascends (Acts 1.6–11;
cf. the account of Moses’ ascension in Philo’s De vita Mosis).
Finally, Luke’s use of the topic of comparison is seen in a remarkably detailed,
running syncrisis of Jesus and John the Baptist via the topics of origins, marvelous
occurrences at birth, nurture and training, pursuits, deeds, manner of death, and
events after death. The syncrisis is illustrated in greater detail in Table 3.

53 Jesus’ death, it should be noted, is portrayed here as in all the Gospels as undergone willingly
and for the benefit of others. Cf. this portrayal to Theon’s instruction concerning the
encomion exercise, that one is to praise actions ‘done for others rather than ourselves; and
done for the sake of the honorable, not the expedient or the pleasant; and in which the toil is
that of the doer but the benefit is common; and through which the populace experiences

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Table 3. Syncrisis of Jesus and John
Topic of Syncrisis John
Origins
homeland Judea (1.5a)
city Jerusalem (implied by father’s status
as ‘priest’, 1.5b)
father Zechariah (1.5b)
ancestors Zechariah from the priestly order of
Abijah (1.5b)
Zechariah’s wife a descendent of
Aaron (1.5c)
mother ‘Her name was Elizabeth’ (1.5c)
Marvelous Occurrences Zechariah’s vision of an angel (1.11–12)
at Birth Angel’s oracle to Zechariah
concerning birth, name, and career (⫽
preparer figure) of son (1.13–17)
Zechariah does not believe oracle;
receives another oracle concerning his
punishment for his unbelief (1.18–23)
Oracle’s fulfillment celebrated by
Elizabeth: the Lord ‘looks favorably
upon her’ (⫽ she conceives despite
barrenness) (1.24–25)
Oracle’s fulfillment: Elizabeth bears a
son (1.57)
Neighbors/relatives told of birth (1.58)
Neighbors/relatives witness, report
marvelous events that occurred
immediately after birth, fear ensues
(1.59–66)
Portentous distancing from
Zechariah: neighbors/relatives want
to name child after father or father’s
relatives, but Zechariah and Elizabeth
refuse (1.59–64)
Oracle’s fulfillment: the child is
named John at his circumcision
(1.59–64)
All who hear neighbors’/relatives’
report ponder marvelous events that
occurred after birth (1.66)
Zechariah’s concluding oracles
concerning the children, Jesus and
John (1.67–79)
Nurture and Training The child grows and becomes strong
(1.80a)
[‘The child grew and became strong in
spirit’]
Was in wilderness prior to beginning
public career (1.80b)
Pursuits John’s public career as the preparer
figure (3.1–18; cf. esp. vv. 3–6)
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Progymnastic Topic Lists 39
Jesus
Galilee (1.26a)
Nazareth (1.26b) – but born in
Bethlehem (2.4)
Joseph (1.27a) – but conceived by Holy
Spirit as God’s son (1.35; cf. 3.21–38)
Joseph from the house of David (1.27b)
‘The virgin’s name was Mary’ (1.27c)
Mary’s vision of an angel (1.28–29)
Angel’s oracle to Mary concerning
birth, name, and career (⫽ Messiah)
of son (1.30–37)
Mary believes oracle; receives another
oracle – from Elizabeth – blessing her
and praising her for her belief
(1.38–45)
Oracle’s fulfillment celebrated by
Mary: the Lord ‘looks favorably upon
her’ (5 she conceives despite virginity)
(1.46–56)
Oracle’s fulfillment: Mary bears a son
(2.1–7)
Shepherds told of birth (2.8–13)
through visions (2.9, 13) and oracles
(2.10–12, 14); given a ‘sign’: ‘you will
find a child wrapped in bands of cloth
and lying in a manger’ (2.12)
Shepherd’s witness, report marvelous
events that occurred immediately
after birth, amazement ensues
(2.8–20)
Portentous distancing from Joseph:
Jesus dedicated as firstborn to his
‘Father’s house’ (cf. 2.49), but not
sacrificially redeemed by Joseph54
Oracle’s fulfillment: the child is
named Jesus at his circumcision
(2.21)
Mary, hearing the shepherd’s report,
ponders marvelous events that
occurred after birth (2.19)
Three concluding oracles concerning
the child, Jesus (2.25–39)
The child grows and becomes strong
(2.40–52)
[‘The child grew and became strong,
filled with wisdom; and the favor of
God was upon him’
Was in wilderness prior to beginning
public career (3.21–23; 4.1–13)
Jesus’ public career as the Messiah
(4.1–22.46; cf. esp. 9.18–20)
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 40 michael w. martin

Table 3. Continued
Topic of Syncrisis John Jesus

Deeds Who is the Messiah? John baptizes
with water (3.15–17)
Who is the bridegroom? John’s
disciples fast and pray (5.33–35)
Who is the One to Come? (7.18–20)
John prepares Jesus’ way
(7.24–27)
‘Among those born of women no
one is greater than John’ (7.28a)
‘John the Baptist came eating no
bread and drinking no wine, and you
say he has a demon’ (7.33)
John taught disciples to pray (11.1)
John proclaimed good news (16.16; cf.
3.18)
Implied: John’s authority is from
heaven (20.1–8)
Who is the Messiah? Jesus baptizes
with the Holy Spirit (3.15–17)
Who is the bridegroom? Jesus’
disciples eat and drink (5.33–35)
Who is the One to Come? (7.18–20)
Jesus gives sight to the blind, makes
the lame walk, cleanses lepers, gives
hearing to the deaf, raises the dead,
and brings good news to the poor
(7.21–23)
‘Yet the least in the kingdom of God
is greater than he’ (7.28b)
‘the Son of Man has come eating
and drinking, and you say, “Look, a
glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners!”’ (7.34)
Jesus taught disciples to pray (11.2–4)
Jesus proclaimed good news (16.16; cf.
4.18)
Implied: Jesus’ authority is from
heaven (20.1–8)

Manner of Death John is arrested (3.19–20) Jesus is arrested and crucified

John is beheaded (9.7–9) (22.47–23.56)

Events after Death John mistakenly thought to be Jesus is resurrected (24.1–53)

resurrected.
Herod mistakes Jesus for a
resurrected John (9.7–9).
Some of the people mistake Jesus
for a resurrected John (9.18–20)

Though the syncrisis is occasionally accomplished through explicit compari-

son of the subjects (as in Philo’s De vita Mosis), it is primarily carried out implic-
itly through parallel narration (as in Plutarch’s Alcibiades and Marcius
Coriolanus). The comparison may also be intended as a polemical ‘genus syncri-
sis’ proving the superiority of followers of Jesus to followers of John.55 If so, it is
comparable to the biographical genus syncrises seen in Plutarch (the Greek
Alcibiades vs. the Roman Coriolanus) and Philo (Moses vs. other nations’ lead-
ers/legislators).

benefits’ (110); and Theon’s instruction concerning the syncrisis exercise, that one gives
‘preference to things done by choice rather than necessity or chance’ (113).
54 B. Reicke, ‘Jesus, Simeon, and Anna (Luke 2:21–40)’, Saved by Hope (ed. J. I. Cook; Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978) 96–108; cf. Talbert, ‘The Way of the Lukan Jesus’, 237–49.
55 The Recognitions show that such a rivalry existed in the third century (see, e.g., R. E. Brown,
The Gospel According to John [AB 29, 29A; 2 vols.; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966 and
1970] 1.lxvii–lxx.); if a similar rivalry existed in the first century, it could account for the con-
cern to show Jesus’ superiority to John in Luke and other gospels.

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 Progymnastic Topic Lists 41

On the whole, the Third Gospel displays a close conformity in several regards
to progymnastic topical instruction, and in this respect it is no different from
other bioi of its time. Conformity such as this suggests that the topic lists have
been used merely as they were intended, as guides for composition. It also sug-
gests that the Third Evangelist is a graduate of the progymnasmata. Certainly the
Third Evangelist employs the skills of describing and comparing a life topically
with no less rhetorical sophistication than any of the other biographers surveyed,
including Plutarch and Philo, known graduates of the progymnasmata and of
declamation. This sophistication is apparent from the overall structure of the nar-
rative, which covers a range of progymnastic topics as broad as any of the bioi sur-
veyed. It is apparent, too, from the Gospel’s individual treatment of topics, which
at a number of points conforms as well as any of the bioi surveyed to progymnas-
tic standards.
The evangelist’s rhetorical skill is most evident, though, from the syncrisis of
Jesus and John. Again, syncrises such as this that cover a range and order of topics
typical of the progymnastic topic lists are not found in classical literature, nor are
they often found even in bioi of Luke’s time. Of the biographical syncrises sur-
veyed, only Plutarch’s rivals Luke’s in both its detailed treatment of individual
topics and its coverage of a full range of topics. Judged by progymnastic rhetorical
standards, then, the Third Evangelist displays more rhetorical sophistication in
his handling of syncrisis than most of the biographers surveyed, Philo included.
Such rhetorical skill is most naturally explained as the product of rhetorical train-
ing.

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