Sound Mapping the New Testament

An exploration of the writing technology in the Greco-Roman world that applies sound theory to the New Testament.

In the ancient world, writings were read aloud, heard, and remembered. In contrast, modern exegesis assumes a silent text. For Margaret Lee and Brandon Scott, the disjuncture between ancient and modern approaches to literature obscures the beauty and meaning in writings such as the New Testament. As the structure of an ancient Greek composition derives first from its sounds, and not from the meaning of its words, sound analysis, analysis of the signifier and its audible dimension, are crucial to interpretation.
Sound Mapping the New Testament explores writing technology in the Greco-Roman world, and uses ancient Greek literary criticism for descriptions of grammar as a science of sound and literary composition as a woven fabric of speech. Based on these perspectives and a close analysis of writings from the four Gospels, Paul, and Q, Lee and Scott advance a theory of sound analysis that enables modern readers to hear the New Testament afresh. This second edition includes a new introduction which reviews a decade of sound mapping scholarship.

Margaret E. Lee is retired as assistant professor of humanities at Tulsa Community College. She is the editor of Sound Matters: New Testament Studies in Sound Mapping (2018). Bernard Brandon Scott is the Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament Emeritus at Philips Theological Seminary, Oklahoma. He is a charter member of the Jesus Seminar, and served as chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Scott is the author of numerous books including Hear Then the Parable (1989).