The third text states that the person who reads the prophecy, contained in the book of Revelation out loud is blessed.

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Here some commentators argue that this text indicates that either the need for a Reader or potentially that the ministry of Reader was institutionalised in the church before the completion of the New Testament. Commentaries such as Johnson and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown are clear on the existence of a reader but do not mention or seek to justify the existence of an established, authorised ministry.

Interestingly a far earlier commentary, from the third century by Victorinus bishop of Petau who flourished towards the end of the third century and died in the persecution AD 304, makes no special mention of a specific Reader and is more concerned with the application of what is read than the process of reading.

The beginning of the book promises blessing to him that reads and hears and keeps, that he who takes pains about the reading may thence learn to do works, and may keep the precepts.