Reading Acts: The Lector and the Early Christian Audience

By William David Shiell

William Shiell proposes that the book of Acts was performed orally by a lector in the early church following Greco-Roman rhetorical conventions for recitation and delivery rather than directly read by an audience that was minimally literate. Shiell's study outlines the function of the lector in Greco-Roman times as a filter through which an audience would receive a text. He describes the conventions for performers' gestures, facial expressions, and vocal inflections found in material from Greco-Roman literature and art that are mirrored in the book of Acts. He examines how a reading of Acts in this light can fill interpretive gaps left by literary and rhetorical-critical studies that focus on the reading rather than the hearing of biblical texts.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0391042165
• ISBN13: 9780391042162
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Brill
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.4"