READING

red'-ing (miqra'; anagnosis): As a noun occurs once in the Old Testament (Nehemiah 3:8) and 3 times in the New Testament (Acts 13:15; 2 Corinthians 3:14; 1 Timothy 4:13), each time with reference to the public reading of the Divine Law. The verb "to read" (qara'; anaginosko) occurs frequently both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament: (1) often in the sense of reading aloud to others, especially of the public reading of God's Law or of prophecy, as by Moses (Exodus 24:7), Ezra (Nehemiah 8:3,18), Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16), of the regular reading of the Law and the Prophets in the synagogues (Acts 13:27; 15:21), and of the reading of apostolic epistles in the Christian church (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27); (2) also in the sense of reading to one's self, whether the divine word in Law or prophecy (Deuteronomy 17:19; Acts 8:28-30, etc.), or such things as private letters (2 Kings 5:7; 19:14; Acts 23:34, etc.).

D. Miall Edwards

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.