Introduction -- The Second Sophistic -- Schools of Rhetoric: From Gaza to the Galilee and from Antioch to Elusa -- Rabbinic Attitudes to Greek Language and Wisdom -- Previous Scholarship and Methodology -- Philosophy and Rhetoric, Truth and Language -- On Rhetorical Arrangement -- Outline of the Book -- 1. Rabbis as Orators: The Setting and Structure of Rabbinic Homilies -- The Setting of Rabbinic Declamation: The Sabbath Sermon -- The Structure of Rabbinic Declamation: The Proem Form -- The Yelamdenu Form -- The Passover Haggadah -- Conclusion -- 2. Rabbis as Instructors: Rhetorical Arrangement and Reasoning in the Yerushalmi -- The Setting of Rabbinic Instruction -- Rabban Gamaliel's Nonconformity -- Source-Critical Analysis -- Rhetorical Analysis -- Conclusion -- 3. The Agonistic Bavli: Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia -- Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia -- Must a Father Feed His Daughter? -- Reading Four Portions in Second Adar -- Leaven Owned on Passover -- Further Examples -- 4. Progymnasmata and Controversiae in Rabbinic Literature -- Progymnasmata -- Controversiae and Hypotheticals -- Controversiae and the Ta Shema Form -- Rabbinic Paideia -- 5. Talmudic Topoi: Rhetoric and the Hermeneutical Methods of Midrash -- Midrashic Hermeneutics as Rhetorical Topoi -- Midrashic Hermeneutics as Anti-Sectarian Polemics -- The Skeptical Pushback -- Qal va-homer -- Gezerah Shavah -- Conclusion -- 6. The Role of Lawyers in Roman and Rabbinic Courts -- Adversarial and Inquisitorial Courts -- The Roman Court System -- The Rabbinic Court System -- Conclusion -- 7. Why Are There Lawyers in Heaven? -- Heavenly Advocates in the Bible and Second Temple Literature -- Heavenly Advocates in Rabbinic Literature -- Plato's Heavenly Court -- Conclusion: Rabbinic versus Christian Approaches to Rhetoric -- The Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric -- Christianity and Classical Rhetoric -- Forty-Nine Ways: On Truth and Interpretation.