Diogenes the Cynic

I don't know exactly, but it would accord with the ancient world in general. Most people everywhere were illiterate. Formal education was rare and books even more so. Clinging to the word "probably" is kind of lame. I would characterize the chance of 1st Century, Jewish, Galilean artisan being literate as so close to nil that it can be functionally dismissed out of hand.
Who worked as laborers on crews who did those things. They were bricklayers and stone masons and carpenters who did piece work for food. They lived in abject poverty and (again, according to Crossan) were worse off even than peasant farmers.
Evidence?[/QUOTE]
Archaeology as well as written records. Apart from the wealthy Greek cities of the Decapolis, Galilee consisted of sharecropping farmers (basically serfs who farmed for wealthy landowners), fishermen and (below them on the social scale) the tektons who fixed their walls and roofs. The only thing below artisans were the absolute destitutes, outcasts and lepers.

No Robots

One study puts literacy in Israel at the time of Christ at 3%.

douglas

I've also heard it argued that Jesus could have been a stone mason who spent most of his days working in the town of Sepphoris, about 5 km from Nazareth. When Herod Antipas took over the somewhat rural area of Galillee after his fathers death, he established Sepphoris as his showpiece city and spent much money and effort building it up.

It seems plausible that a family like Jesus' would have spent most of their non-sabbath time in Sepphoris - where the jobs were, and plausible that Jesus did not spend much time writing stuff down. Even if he was ABLE to write, I would imagine that he would not be very good at it. He grew up surrounded by the oral tradition.

Contrast that with Paul's childhood. A privaleged jew, a Roman citizen, and who spent his childhood studying under a famous rabbi. Is it any wonder he wrote so much, and wrote so eloquently?

Amaleq13

How does an individual's "character" inform us about the individual's literacy?

Clouseau

'At the time of Christ literacy was widespread. With its educational institutions designed to prepare persons for citizenship, Hellenism significantly increased interest in the ability to read.' ISBE Revised

But Jews have never been like people in general, anyway. They were and remain 'people of the Book'; there were synagogues in most towns where there were Jews (estimated at several thousands worldwide), and reading from the Tanakh was universal practice therein. We read in Acts 17 of the Jews of Berea checking out Paul's teaching with the Scripture. So at least some in each district were literate, and it is quite possible that Jewish children were taught to read the Tanakh in one language or another. Even if not, Jesus would of course have been as interested as any, and in view of his interest and intelligence, the chance of him being illiterate was negligible, imv.

Diogenes the Cynic

Not in Palestine.
Israeli archaeology does not support this claim.
Only by trained rabbis, not by the laity.


By the way, the study linked above cited Rabbinic sources for a 97% illiteracy rate in 1st Century Palestine.
Not that Acts is proof of anything but Hellenistic Jews were not the same as
Even accepting your totally unsupported assertion that Jesus had any extraordinary intelligence, intelligence alone would not have provided him any access to a formal education. He would have needed to train in a rabbinical school or a Greek one and it's virtually impossible that the Galilean son of a artisan would have been provided with either.

Clouseau

Because you insist on it?

Archaeology changes its 'viewpoint' by the decade.

John the B and Jesus were rabbis, so that settles it!

Chris Weimer

Because you insist on it?

Diogenes the Cynic

"Rabbi" was a pretty generic term for teachers and preachers. By no means did everyone who was called by that title have formal training in one of the rabbinic schools.

Clouseau

There was no official training, no official rabbinate until sometime after 70 CE.