I think it interesting that nobody has ever claimed that Jesus Christ ever wrote any books. Such books, if they ever existed, would be most interesting, but no such books are known to exist, not even forged ones. This despite the variety of forged documents over Christian Church history like the Donation of Constantine (supposedly giving the Pope the authority of a secular ruler over the Papal States).

The Book That Jesus Wrote by Barbara Thiering.

Fundies bash Thiering. I am watching for
her next book. She gives a bibliography
for her "wild and wonderful tales". I
try to follow up on what she says and in
the process I have learned how to read
Scripture.

Before this becomes "Fundie Fodder" I would
like to comment that my favorite source is
Flavius Josephus and that I do not
use Thiering for my sources. If you buy
The Book That Jesus Wrote without
having read Jesus The Man you will
miss an important ingredient. First and
foremost, both Thiering and Josephus are
teachers.

Thanks, offa

ohwilleke

There is no firm evidence that Jesus was even literate.

For example, as a child in the Temple, the Gospel of Luke says that he spoke with the priests and answered their questions, but there is no indication that he read anything. Luke 2:46-51. Similarly, in his disputations with Pharasee's and lawyers, he sometimes refers to what is written, or asks them what is written, but never reads himself. See e.g. Luke 6:3 (Sabbath argument), Luke 10:26-28 (It is the lawyer that says the Scripture says love god and love your neighbor, while Jesus merely tells him that he is right and goes on to ask who is your neighbor). A good memory for words often spoken aloud would have sufficed.

References to "scrip" in the Bible, are to money and not to writings.

Indeed, both Pontius Pilot, and the Pharasees often rely on scribes, which might be an indicatation that they weren't literate either (although the trilingual epitaph on Jesus's cross in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, would suggest a wider group of literate persons).

Certainly, even in most of Europe until recently (i.e. the past couple hundred years) a carpenters son would often not have formal schooling.