I just received word that an article of mine will appear in the Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters this fall or early winter. My article "Galatians and the Progymnasmata on Refuting a Law: A Neglected Aspect of Pauline Rhetoric" examines the ancient classroom exercise on how to introduce a law or refute one, and then considers the extent to which Paul utilized the kinds of arguments that this exercise promoted. This is a topic that was originally suggested to me by professor Jerry Neyrey in a doctoral seminar at the University of Notre Dame in 2003 and that I finally began working on a few years ago. I am grateful to Jerry for the suggestion, and also to David Aune for taking the time to read and comment on a draft of this article. The abstract is below, and when the issue is published I'll post the link.
The structure, flow, and logic of Paul’s argumentation in Galatians continues to be a subject of debate as scholars seek to read Paul’s statements about the law, works of the law, and other aspects of Judaism within a framework which appreciates both the diverse nature of first-century Judaism as well as Paul’s appropriation of his own Jewish heritage. Scholars have also sought to read Paul’s letter to the Galatians in light of first-century Greco-Roman rhetorical strategies and conventions. This essay contributes to these discussions by looking at Galatians from an angle that has not yet been considered: the first-century CE progymnasmata exercise on the introduction and refutation of a law (νόμου εἰσφορά). This specific compositional exercise drew on the skills mastered in earlier exercises as students utilized compositional and rhetorical skills to persuade the reader (an imaginary audience) to enact or abandon a particular law based on the topics of legality, possibility, advantage, and appropriateness. By reading Galatians through the lens of this particular exercise, it is possible to appreciate the extent to which Paul utilized conventional forms of argumentation about the application of existing laws. Such a reading contributes to a thicker description of Paul’s utilization of elements of ancient rhetoric.
