Hearing Revelation 1-3 : Pickwick Publications : 9781666787528 : 1666787523 : 19 Jul 2023 : Recipients of Revelation listened to it, and heard it like other oral performances. Greek recipients knew not only Greek, but conventional ways of rhetorical presentation typical of Greek culture. They knew how works began (with a proemium, but with focus on speaker's ethos). Ethos of speaker was the first proof of persuading, and so audiences knew what one sounded like. They heard Revelation 1 as a continuous presentation, not like scholars pausing to examine each tile in the mosaic. The Speaker of Revelation 1-3 is Jesus - not John, who delivers God's revelation to the seven churches. After presenting himself in an impressive bodily manner, called an ecphrasis, he addresses seven individual letters. He repeats appropriate aspects of his ethos in his address of each letter. The letter type is solely that of praise and blame. Because this type is opaque to modern readers, the monograph presents