orator who never found leisure to write history himself, insisted that history’s primary goal was truth and accuracy rather than rhetorical display (Pliny Ep. 7.17.3); rhetoric was acceptable provided one’s basis was facts (8.4.1).58 While Luke’s rhetorical level is much higher than Mark’s, he is no elite historian, and neither his Greek nor his rhetorical elaboration place him in the same league as as the more rhetorically focused Josephus.59 Ancient historians were often critical, some of them