Diogenes the Cynic

It's also from the Greek Septuagint which would confuse them even more.

The adulterous woman story does not explicitly say that Jesus wrote any words, only that he "scratched" in the dirt with a stick. It doesn't say what he scratched.

Of course, that story is interpolated anyway.

According to John Crossan, 95-98% of the Palestinian state was illiterate at the time of Jesus. I can't see that anyone from a sub-peasant class in rural Galilee would have had any occasion to learn how to read and write.

Notsri

Crossan's estimates notwithstanding, it's probably not altogether improbable that Jesus could read, though it's likely a different story with regard to writing.

Though it extends us somewhat beyond Jesus' own lifetime, Birger Gerhardsonsson comments in Manuscript & Memory: Oral Tradition and Written Transmission in Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity: "We may be quite sure that at the time of the fall of the Temple there were private elementary schools in all the Jewish towns of Palestine, and that the larger villages of Judaea also had such schools" (p. 59). He is quick to add, though: "This does not mean that school attendance was general at that time, though."

Rabbinic sources, to my knowledge, suggest that schools and elementary education (in the scriptures) were actually fairly widespread during Jesus' day and age. Though I'm sure scholars think it's not without some exaggeration, the Yerushalmi, Megillah 3:1, 73d, for example, suggests that late in the Second Temple period: "There were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem, each of which had a Bible school for the study of Bible."

Perhaps the more relevant of excerpts comes from Harry Gamble, in Books and Readers in the Early Church: "Instruction in reading Hebrew was more widely given among Jews than instruction in Greek or Latin was among Gentiles and with less regard to social status." He goes on: "The aim of education in [the Jewish so-called "house of reading" and the "house of learning"] was not literacy as such but the ability to participate in Jewish life, so the capacity to read and understand scripture, especially the Torah, stood at the center of instruction." And still a little further on, he says: "the reason and opportunity to become literate in Jewish society did not exist, at least not to the same extent, in Greco-Roman society, and so there was a higher rate of literacy among Jews than among Gentiles" (p. 7).

Regards,
Notsri

mindovermyth

If it is more complicated than a science book, I suppose you would agree that children should hardly be introduced to it, right?

Huon

This story of a letter written by Jesus to Abgar is a legend. Here is a quote from Catholic Encyclopedy :

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01042c.htm

The fact related in the correspondence has long since ceased to be of any historical value. The text is borrowed in two places from that of the Gospel, which of itself is sufficient to disprove the authenticity of the letter. Moreover, the quotations are made not from the Gospels proper, but from the famous concordance of Tatian, compiled in the second century, and known as the "Diatessaron", thus fixing the date of the legend as approximately the middle of the third century. In addition, however, to the importance which it attained in the apocryphal cycle, the correspondence of King Abgar also gained a place in liturgy. The decree, "De libris non recipiendis", of the pseudo-Gelasius, places the letter among the apocrypha,...

yalla

Huon.

Obviously JC to Abgar is male bovine excreta.
What I find interesting is the role of Eusebius.
So much of purported fact can be traced back to his sticky little fingers.

On the original OP re JC writing I find it significant that all fringe examples of such are clearly shonky one way or another...a nomadic pericope, a LXX Isaiah quote absurdity
and a forged legend.
It's almost as if someone was trying to set the scene for a positive answer to the op question. That is, it was realized that it would be cool for JC to be able to read and write so various persons set out to remedy the lack thereof.]

Huon

Everybody should know fairly well that Eusebius was never afraid of writing lies when he found it useful. Yes.

But Eusebius is not a true believer ! If JC does not want to show that he can read, write, and speak many languages, then JC is free, no ? The Son Of God, God Himself, has no explanation to give, especially to Eusebius, if He does'nt want. JC knew certainly that Bush would invade Iraq, some day. But JC did not speak of that. It was not relevant in the time of Eusebius.

Believe, and don't ask questions.

Vorkosigan

Good post, Nostri.

Vorkosigan

Notsri

Thanks, Vorkosigan.

And let's emend my... ...to Gerhardsson.

Regards,
Notsri

The Admiral

According to Paul Maier, Professor of Ancient History, at Western Michigan University, as I quote from his book, In the Fullness of Time, "Jesus could read and write both Aramaic and Hebrew, and he undoubtedly knew common Greek as well, for he seems to have had no trouble conversing with the Syrophoenician woman or with Pontius Pilate. A few Latin words are sprinkled in the vocabulary as well". Maier then proceeds breezily on his way offering no documention to support this assertion.

The Admiral