5 - People of the Book
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Jesus came to Nazareth, where he grew up, and, as was his custom, went to synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. He was given the book of the prophet Isaiah, and, opening it, found the place where it was written, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He sent me to declare release for captives, sight for the blind, release for the oppressed, to declare the Lord's year of favour.’ He closed the book, gave it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began his address to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’
(Luke 4.16–21)The proconsul Saturninus said, ‘What do you have in your case?’ Speratus said, ‘Books and letters of Paul, a just man.’
The proconsul Saturninus said, ‘Take a reprieve of thirty days and think it over.'
(Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs, 180 ce)CHRISTIAN LITERACY
The proconsul Saturninus, seeing that the accused had a capsa, a scroll-box, dutifully checked whether it contained material relevant to the trial. What exactly did the martyr Speratus reply? Latin libri, here translated ‘books’, may be ‘the books’, Greek biblia. (Biblia, an alternative spelling of bublia, is the plural of bublion, ‘a strip of papyrus’.)
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- Information
- Christianity and Roman Society , pp. 78 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004