Public Reading in Early Christianity: Lectors, Manuscripts, and Sound in the Oral Delivery of John 1–4 by Dan Nässelqvist (review)

Dan Nässelqvist's Public Reading in Early Christianity is an examination of the reading practices of early Christ assemblies in the first two centuries ce. His stated purpose is to address discrepancies in the scholarship between those who argue for the public reading from a manuscript and those who argue for an oral delivery from memory with no text in front of them (1). His primary argument is to show how the texts were delivered as public readings from a text, not orally from memory (13).

Nässelqvist examines practical aspects of reading, such as the Christian preference for the codex over the book roll, handwriting styles, and the use of various lectional signs (e.g., punctuation, paragraphos, diaeresis, and ekthesis), as well as the use of nomina sacra. He concludes this analysis by challenging the work of Larry Hurtado (177), and argues that the lectional aids should be seen as aids to private reading, not public recital (58). Challenging the claims of New Testament scholars using ''performance criticism'' (73), Na¨sselqvist argues that their claims of oral delivery from memory cannot be substantiated in the literary evidence, nor is it reasonable, considering the difficulties of public reading. He highlights the lector's need to pay close attention to correct pronunciation in order to support the theory that public reading was done from texts, not memory (73–77). In this regard, he writes, ''These conventions depict an event that is different in almost every detail from the one portrayed by performance criticism scholars'' (77).

Perhaps the most interesting part of this monograph is Nässelqvist's use of the theory of ''sound analysis'' to identify ''sound structures'' in Greek compositions. This method of describing the ''aural character of a text'' is referred to as ''sound mapping'' (119), and Na¨sselqvist's purpose is to identify how the ''aural character'' affects both the oral delivery of a text and how the audience creates meaning from the text being recited (119). Sound mapping is thus a process by which someone can follow the ''shifting voice'' of the text, using sound to identify passages emphasized for their importance (120). He argues that a trained lector would have identified such aural features and used them to have an informed interpretation of the text before the public reading (179).

Nässelqvist then applies the method of sound analysis to the Gospel of John 1–4 in order to identify the ''soundscape'' of the composition (181), focusing on shifts in voice. He chooses John 1–4 because it presents a ''substantial part of the gospel,'' and these chapters ''constitute a coherent introduction to the gospel that can be distinguished from what follows after it'' (181). Na¨sselqvist uses diagrams that are easily accessible to the reader. The diagrams show the repetitions and parallelisms of certain words in close proximity (e.g., λόγος, οὗτος, θεόν/θεός, and the repetitions of ἦν) and the frequent use of important thematic words such as light (φῶς). This aural structure with strong rhetorical figures indicates to the audience how this passage sets up the main themes of the gospel, highlighting their importance (185–87).

Nässelqvist contrasts the first and second parts of the Prologue (1:1–5 and 1:6–14, respectively). Whereas the first part is characterized by heightened aural intensity, the second part does not contain the ''distinctive aural features'' of the first. This shift in aural intensity signifies the change of focus from the Word to John the Baptist, revealing a ''clear difference'' in importance between John the Baptist and Jesus (192).

Nässelqvist concludes with some implications for future research. He states that the method of sound analysis can be ''highly useful'' for understanding the relationship between a text's composition and its delivery in oral presentation, as well as adding insights to our own reading of a...