Books, Scribes, and Cultures of Reading in the Shepherd of Hermas

In this article, I analyse how the Shepherd of Hermas constructs an ancient Christian reading culture through concurrent portrayals reading, copying and book production. argue that, by portraying its protagonist as idealised reader, scribe auditor, early that authenticates Hermas's role prophet, activates textual dissemination ritualises practice auditory ‘reading’. The article closes with ‘Hermas freedman’, which considers self-presentation a formerly enslaved person may have connections to 's centralisation cultures.