Would Jesus Read at All?

In the chapter of The Rise and the Fall of the Bible on “What would Jesus Read,” Timothy Beal discusses many issues of ancient literary culture, such as the location and media being used for the reading of scripture during the time of Jesus. Although the many of elements of ancient scribal and scriptural culture that he discusses bring in interesting concepts about the role of scripture in early Christian times, I felt in my reading that he made a significant assumption that deserved mention.

When Dr. Michael Satlow gave his lecture, “Who in Antiquity Read the Bible?” part of his talk included the insinuation that Jesus was not among those who read scripture in his lifetime. Satlow discussed the reasoning behind his statement that Jesus was likely illiterate when prompted by a question at the end of the lecture, saying that Jesus was from a relatively low class family and probably did not receive the necessary education. Instead, his scriptural education would have come from oral teachings, which makes sense given that Jesus’ quotations of scripture are often, in fact, incorrect.

Although there is no definitive proof indicating whether or not Jesus was literate, I believe that Satlow’s points require some acknowledgement when discussing the question “What Would Jesus Read?” Beal does discuss the low literacy rates in the ancient world, estimating “that literacy in the Greco-Roman population was probably around 10 percent” though “some believe that it might have been lower still within some early Christian communities” (99). It seems that this point would be a perfect opportunity to question the assumption that Jesus can read as scripture says he does in the book of Luke. However, this issue is only glossed over, referring to the ancient population at large and not as this literacy rate might have applied to Jesus. Although Beal may not have felt this subject was not necessary to the point he was trying to make, I believe that it is worth addressing in the discussion of what Jesus would have read. By not exploring the possible difficulties of this issue, Beal raises many questions and answers few.