Bible Encyclopedias
Reading

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

rēd´ing ( מקרא , miḳrā' ; ἀνάγνωσις , anágnōsis ): 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" (קרא , ḳārā' ; ἀναγινώσκω , anaginṓskō ) 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 , Nehemiah 8:18 ), 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; Acts 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; 2 Kings 19:14; Acts 23:34 , etc.).