Jesus illiterate?

U was surprised, indeed slightly shocked by NushIn Namazi's statement that Jesus was illiterate,  Jon Huyck comments: "My first reaction was that Jesus could certainly read.  The Gospel of Luke speaks of him reading from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth - chapter 4, verses 16-19.  A close reading of the passage in question, however, does not actually say that Jesus read.  It simply says that he "stood up to read" and "found the place where it was written" and then recited from Isaiah.  This leaves two possible ways to read the passage: 1) Jesus was indeed literate and read from Isaiah on that day.  2) He was somehow divinely guided to the right page and then recited the passage from memory or divine inspiration.   This seems a stretch, however, so I would tend to go with his being literate.  Of course, this assumes that the Gospel of Luke is providing an accurate report of what happened that day.  If it is not accurate, then one is left to speculate as to whether a carpenter in first-century, Roman Palestine would have been literate.  On that score, I'm afraid I have no information".

RH: This is an extremely important question. Mohammed was illiterate; I assume Zarathustra was literate. This does not mean that illiterate people are stupid.  In Spain, where illiteracy was high until recently, it was recognized that illiterate peasants were often wise and spoke well. In our world literate people often read junk which does more harm than good. We must also remember the importance of memory in pre-literate societies.  People could recite long poems or stories by heart (a strange expression; it should be by memory).  Can someone tell us if the Old Testament was recited by heart in ancient Jewish society?  At the same time, the scribes and pharisees were literate and would look down on the illiterate.  We should beware of this form of pride. Compare two groups: on the one hand illiterate peasants in Spain kneeling with the arms outstretched (los brazos en cruz) in the shrine of Santiago and thinking of the grace and majesty of god, or illiterate Mexican peasants worshiping at the shrine of  the Virgin of Guadalupe. On the other hand, literate crowds in Mexico City lining up to see some trashy show,  These seem degenerate in comparison.  I strongly support literacy and education, but they should not fill us with the deadly sin of pride lest we be like the scribes and pharisees. In my ignorance I still believe that Jesus could read.  Certainly Saint Paul could, which makes his conversion to the religion of the poor and ignorant even more remarkable.

Your comments are invited. Read the home page of the World Association of International Studies (WAIS) by simply double-clicking on:   http://wais.stanford.edu/
E-mail to hilton@stanford.edu. Mail to Ronald Hilton, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Please inform us of any change of e-mail address.