<p>5:27 <i>I solemnly implore you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the brothers</i>- Revelation, Thessalonians and Colossians contain specific statements that the material was to be read out loud to the illiterate church members (Rev. 1:3; 1 Thess. 5:27; Col. 4:16); but the contents of those books require quite detailed analysis, which we tend to wrongly assume can only be given by reading the text. The processes of occasional listening to a text employed by most first century believers and reading a text employed by many twenty first century believers are quite different. We can go back to a text, re-read it, re-access it at will. Someone who occasionally hears a passage read, and who maybe only heard parts of the New and Old Testaments read once or twice in their lives, simply relates to the text differently. Further, the nature of the reading of the text, the delivery of the speaker, would've played an important part in the interpretation of it by the illiterate hearer- hence the greater responsibility of teachers in the first century than today. For the illiterate audience, the message was tied up with the messenger to a huge degree. Hence Timothy is told to pay attention to his public? reading, preaching and teaching (1 Tim. 4:13).</p>