Could Jesus read and write?

I imagine he probably did. Is there any confirmation of this? Did he ever record or write anything?

In Luke 4:14-21, Jesus reads in the Temple:

Yes, He could both read and write.

In Luke 4:16-20, He read to the congregation from the Torah scroll.

In John 8:8, He wrote with his finger in the dust.

He probably was taught to read and write in the local Hebrew school.

Regards,
Shodan

Shoot, lib beat me to it.

Happy anniversary to you and Edlyn. :slight_smile:

Regards,
Shodan

Remeber, there is no other collaborating evidence to support the Jesus of the gospels, except for the gospels themselves.

So, IF you do beleive the gospels, as Shodan and Lib have already mentioned, they do mention him reading and writing.

You can take that a step further, and examin other aspects of the gospels to conclude that it is possible Jesus was not a poor man. He was likely well educated and well off if not part of a wealthy family (this would contradict some other gospels though, but that’s not new :wink: ). I don’t remeber who in particular, but several biblical scholars have put forth this theory… Looking for a cite now, hopefully I can dig one up.

Jesus would not have needed to be rich, or even well off, to be literate in first century Judea or Galilee. The Torah commands that each man teach his son(s) and this was often interpreted as a command to teach reading (among other things) at least as far back as the period following the Babylonian exile, when Scripture began to play a very strong role in liturgy. Obviously, lots of farm kids away from the cities probably never were actually taught to read, as their fathers were not necessarily instructed in pedagogy and it is debateable whether kids in small villages or poor kids got an education, either. However, following the death of the Hasmonean king, Alexander Jannai in 76 B.C.E., his wife, Salome Alexandria assumed power and threw out her Sadducee advisors, replacing them with Pharisees.
Among the new laws promulgated by the Pharisee-dominated Sanhedrin was a rule that schools were to be organized and that all boys were to be educated in them. Outlying farm kids were probably still not given an education, but any boy in a town was educated. When the Sadducees regained control of the Sanhedrin, that was one law that they did not repeal.

I did mention that you’d have to take into account other clues in the gospels.

But seriously, to be the man Jesus was (disregarding the son of god bit, or any other faith based beleif), to be taken seriously by others, to be able to do the things he did, you’d have to rationalize that he wasn’t some beggar. He was likely well off and probably wealthy BECAUSE he was likely WELL educated. Or are you saying that in ancient Galilee the wealthy were no more educated than the poor? That’s not even completely true in today’s world!

BTW, I’m still searching to cites :slight_smile:

I do rember reading about it and it being rather convincing, and also hearing the theory in the history channel… yes I know, I’m definately going to need a cite now :slight_smile:

Actually, Luke 2:22-24 shows that Joseph and Mary were most likely of limited means.

Luke 2: 22-24

This was in accord with Law provision for the poor. Concerning ritual purification after child birth, note Leviticus 12: 6-8.

The obvious implication is that Joseph and Mary were not well off.

Granted, a lot can happen in 30 years, but I find this passage at Matthew 13: 54-56 to be interesting.

Though not as obvious an implication, it seems that the people who knew him best were surprised at his wisdom and his doings. If he were rich and prominent, would they have been so surprised or so vocal about it?

Beggar vs wealthy is a false dichotomy. Using even the tradition that he followed in the carpentry career of Joseph we can see the possibility for a poor tradesman who was still no beggar.

Hillel (who flourished in the period just prior to the time of Jesus)was supposed to have been poor (or, at least, one of the obstacles he faced in becoming a scholar was poverty), so there is no obvious bar to scholarship or wisdom rooted in poverty.

Using the gospel tradition, we find Jesus lecturing to the scholars at the age of 12, hardly time to become a scholar, himself, regadless of his family’s income level.

The OP asks only about literacy, not level of scholarship or wealth; the historical record notes that the majority of Jewish men in the first century were literate.

Crossan in The Historical Jesus makes the argument that Jesus was born into a family that was quite poor. In the socioeconomic hierarchy of the day, carpenters were tradesmen and hence people who lived hand to mouth, much more insecure than landsman, thus lower than farmer peasants. Thus he was not a beggar, not destitute, but lower lower class. He could still be literate.

The related hijack in post #5 was trying to link economic status to the discussion. I have no doubt of the literacy of Jesus (having the cites of Luke and John ready to post in answer to the OP), but I felt the related hijack deserved a response as well.

Working purely from the bible, since I am not a first century Palestinian historian, another hint that Jesus was not destitute/poor is at the crucifixion John 19:23 says the soldiers gambled for the seamless undergarment. This does not address the question of Jesus’ ability to read or write, however it does say something to His economic class when He died.

A new OP for the hijack

I was gonna chime in on the quote from Luke, but I’m way late. So I’ll just bring up a thought that has bothered me for a long time – why don’t we have any writings of Jesus? Given a literate and, by history’s and his own estimation very important religious figure, shouldn’t he have left writings behind? His spoken words, and in particular the “Lord’s Prayer” are highly revered. Isn’t it exceedly strange that he left no writings of his own?

Its not really that strange that we have no writings of Jesus. If the gospels are to be believed, Jesus preached for only three years. This time was spent traveling around various parts of Judaea speaking to crowds. It was not spent writing down a comprehensive philosophy. Outside of the gospels themselves we have no mention of Jesus until Josephus in 97 CE.

We don’t have any writings from Socrates either, only what Plato says that Socrates said. In his day Socrates, if we are to believe Plato, was much more popular than Jesus.

Its also more than possible that Joseph was moving up the tax brackets, as we might say today. After all, he just got married and moved across a fair distance when Jesus was born - he certainly wasn’t an old man, a well established tradesman. As Jesus matured, Joseph probably expanded his business. He wasn’t going to become wealthy, but he certainly could have gone from moderately poor to reasonably middle class.

But, was Socrates more popular than the Beatles? :slight_smile: