I know that most people don't find things related to literacy in the ancient world as interesting as I do. But, for those few who might, I pass along my recently-published Oxford Bibliographies entry on "Literacy, New Testament." For those unfamiliar with Oxford Bibliographies, they are peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies that strive to capture most of the major contributions to a field. Inevitably, one has to leave out some here and there. This particular entry ended up being well over 10,000 words, however, so I'm hopeful that it's useful.
Monday, March 23, 2015
“Literacy, New Testament” in Oxford Bibliographies—Chris Keith
I know that most people don't find things related to literacy in the ancient world as interesting as I do. But, for those few who might, I pass along my recently-published Oxford Bibliographies entry on "Literacy, New Testament." For those unfamiliar with Oxford Bibliographies, they are peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies that strive to capture most of the major contributions to a field. Inevitably, one has to leave out some here and there. This particular entry ended up being well over 10,000 words, however, so I'm hopeful that it's useful.
Shortfalls in literacy would stress the reliance on fallible orality and memory.
ReplyDelete"Fallible" orality and memory?? What other kind is there?
DeleteThe earliest surviving physical texts we have from early Christianity are mere fragments c. 160 ff.. It is assumed that references to earlier texts were to rather complete texts like ours today. But could there have been mostly framentary lists, and mostly oral stories, to as late as Vinzent's 140?
ReplyDeleteExcellent. I suppose I am a bit of an oddball. I find literacy fascinating.
ReplyDelete