View source for Pericope

{{short description|Set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought; usually of sacred scripture}}
{{Distinguish|Periscope}}
{{No footnotes|date=May 2022}}
In [[rhetoric]], a '''pericope''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ə|ˈ|r|ɪ|k|ə|p|iː}}; [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|περικοπή}}, "a cutting-out") is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of [[sacred scripture]].

==Description==

The term can also be used as a way to identify certain themes in a chapter of sacred text. Its importance is mainly felt in, but not limited to, narrative portions of Sacred Scripture (as well as poetic sections).

[[Manuscript]]s—often [[Illuminated manuscript|illuminated]]—called pericopes, are normally [[evangeliaries]], that is, abbreviated [[Gospel Book]]s only containing the sections of the [[Gospel]]s required for the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]]es of the [[liturgical year]]. Notable examples, both [[Ottonian art|Ottonian]], are the [[Pericopes of Henry II]] and the [[Salzburg Pericopes]].

[[Lectionary|Lectionaries]] are normally made up of pericopes containing the [[Epistle]] and [[Gospel]] readings for the [[liturgical year]]. A pericope consisting of passages from different parts of a single book, or from different books of the Bible, and linked together into a single reading is called a ''[[wikt:concatenation|concatenation]]'' or ''composite reading''.

== See also ==
* [[Jesus and the woman taken in adultery]], known as the "Pericope Adulteræ"
* [[Parashah]], section of the Hebrew Bible
* [[Weekly Torah portion]]

== References ==
* Meinolf Schumacher: "Perikope" in ''Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft''. Vol. 3, edited by Jan-Dirk Müller, 43–45, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003 [https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/1860157/2913276 PDF].

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|pericope}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110716144725/http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/getImage.pl?target=%2Fdata%2Fwww%2FNASD%2F4a7f1db4-5792-415c-be79-266f41eef20a%2F009%2F499%2FOTIFF%2F00000591.tif&rs=1 Pericope in the ''Concordia Cyclopedia'']

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[[Category:Rhetoric]]
[[Category:Types of illuminated manuscript]]
[[Category:Christian genres]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible]]


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