New Testament scholar Chris Kieth sets out in this academic study to answer as best he can a question that has long engaged New Testament scholars: was Jesus literate? Actually, of course, the question is much more complicated than that, therefore so is the answer. Read this book and you will learn a lot about the world into which Jesus was born. A big part of this, of course, is about about literacy in Israel and the wider Greco-Roman world of Jesus' day. This is, of course, of major importance to the study and understanding of Christianity. As Kieth makes clear, Jesus spoke Aramaic as his native language, but he also knew Hebrew, and probably spoke some Greek as well. That's important because the New Testament was written down first in Greek, then later translated into several other languages. One of those languages, of course, was Latin, so by the time we get to the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, when the canon was being assembled and the creeds written and so much else was going on, the words that Jesus spoke, and what others remembered of those words, and either told others or wrote down themselves, had been translated from and among several languages. And this does not even take account of the fact that some of those earliest reporters and writers were not Jews or native Aramaic speakers. And, of course, those earliest written accounts were not written down until several to many decades after Jesus' death and resurrection.
As the title indicates, this particular study focuses on whether Jesus was known by his contemporaries as being “scribal-literate” or not. This is an extremely important question, as referenced in several places and ways in the Gospels themselves. Jesus is identified as “the carpenter,” or “the carpenter's son,” and unschooled, and yet, amazingly, he teaches with “authority.” Jesus is even reported to write in one place, even if it is only in the dirt or sand. Kieth does a very good job of exploring the host of issues surrounding the meaning of the words used by the evangelists in those and other such references to reading and writing. The more anyone reads biblical scholarship, whether in the scholarship-heavy academic journals or the more popular works of Walter Brueggemann or N. T. Wright or many others appreciates that few biblical words make for easy translation, and that some defy clear understanding. Ironically, I think, the very difficulty of studying this particular question reveals that general problem.
For me, one of the best things about this book is that I now have a much better understanding about just who and what the scribes were. I'm sure there's a lot more to tell about them, and one day I would like to learn more about them. But for now, when I'm reading the Gospels and they mention the scribes, I have a much better context for thinking about them.
Along the way, from time to time Kieth gets into what most of us will think of as pretty esoteric discussions of how Jesus' hearers heard what he was saying, how they remembered and talked about it later, and how later hearers of their elders talking about Jesus remembered and later recounted it before it was finally written down. I admit some of this was probably over my head. Overall, however, I did come away with a better understanding of at least part of the process for how the works that eventually came to be known as the New Testament, and lots of other writings from that period, came about.
In the end, Chris Keith comes to the conclusion that, based on the evidence and how he understands that evidence, Jesus was not scribal-literate. As with any mystery, of course, its not just about “who done it.” Kieth is very clear about something that makes some Christians—and not just the literalists—uncomfortable: some of our questions will never be answered in this life because we just don't have and never will have the documents that can can answer those questions.
I will admit that I skipped over paragraphs and even a couple of subsections of some parts of chapters because some of it was just over my head. I could understand enough of it, however, that I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about literacy in that time and place generally, and I learned a bit more about how the four canonical Gospels and other materials were put together. I consider the time and effort put into understanding this material time and energy well spent.
This book clearly is not for everyone, which is why I only gave it four stars. But anyone interested in learning more about Jesus and his world should be able to learn something from this book. I know I did.
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