Mt 1:18-25; Hermogenes Issues 46.14-17)13; after praising a king's country and family, a rhetorician would turn to praising his birth (Menander Rhetor 2.1-2, 371.3-4). ?? Praising the virtue of Joseph and Mary fits ancient rhetorical emphasis on praiseworthy ancestry (see e.g. Gorgias Hel. 3); 'upbringing' was a conventional element in praising a person's background (e.g. Menander Rhetor 2.1-2, 37