Reading, Oriental Mode of

Reading, Oriental Mode Of (Heb. קָרָא, to call aloud; ἀναγινώσκω). Mr. Jowett remarks, in his Christian Researches in Syria, etc., that "when persons are reading privately in a book, they usually go on reading aloud with a kind of singing voice, moving their heads and bodies in time, and making a monotonous cadence at regular intervals, thus giving emphasis, although not such an emphasis as would please an English ear. Very often they seem to read without perceiving the sense, and to be pleased with themselves merely because they can go through the mechanical art of reading in any way." This practice may enable us to "understand how it was that Philip should hear at what passage in Isaiah the Ethiopian eunuch was reading before he was invited to come up and sit with him in the chariot (Ac 8:30-31). The eunuch, though probably reading to himself, and not particularly designing to be heard by his attendants, would read loud enough to be understood by a person at some distance." SEE BOOK.