Did Jesus Read Cicero?

Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices | Brian J. Wright | Fortress Press

Reviewed by Sean C. Hadley

It is easy to forget that Jesus lived in one of the most literarily significant moments in Roman (or human) history.

Virgil’s Aeneid, Cicero’s letters, and Horace’s Odes circulated during his life and we know that Paul read Greek and Roman poets, even referring to them in his preaching (cf. Acts 17:28, 1 Cor. 15:33, Tit. 1:12).…