The Gospel According to Luke

A. Synthesis

As I researched the Bible and the Gospel According to Luke I found that a large population of Ancient Rome and Greece were not literate. The Gospel According to Luke is interesting because Luke wrote this book of the Bible as he traveled with Paul. Because Luke was from Greece, his writing was originally in Greece, which I found was the primary language of Ancient Rome prior to the death of Christ. It is important that we understand that although this text was written by Luke, his manuscripts had been translated thousands of times in order to mass produce the Bible and its story, however, we are fortunate enough to have found some of the original scrolls that this text was written on.

One important piece of my research that is key to understanding literacy during the time of the New Testament is the actual definition of literacy. What does it mean? Literacy was simply defined as the ability to read. Although writing, composing, or speaking are all different ways to communicate, the term "literacy" during the first centuries was only concerned with reading. It was assumed that if you were able to read then you could also write, speak, etc. During the first centuries, I found that reading wasn't necessarily something that people did for fun. I understand it was a minuscule detail, however, reading is so popular in the 21st century and the Bible is the most popular book of all time. With that being said it was interesting to see that the idea of reading in the Bible wasn't common whatsoever.

Literacy was uncommon during the times of Ancient Rome, Greece, and Jerusalem, however it was still seen as a very powerful tool. In multiple examples from the Bible, reading or literacy is displayed as as a tool for teaching and preaching, rather than a tool for learning. I found it very interesting that in multiple cases, the only people who seemed to be literate were people who were associated or close with Jesus. For example in John chapter 7, the Jews who are sitting in the temple wondered why Jesus sounded so educated. It was like it was odd for them to see someone that was perceived as "one of the Jews" to be so educated and I think this example just speaks to the time period and shows how uncommon it was for people to be literate.

Overall, reading was a very important aspect in the Bible because it allowed Jesus, his disciples, and his apostles to spread his message. It was interesting, however, to see the reactions from characters when they saw Jesus or other educated men teach lessons. It was so amazing to them to see other people who knew how to read, speak publicly, and write so well and it is quite astonishing to see because nowadays, reading is something that is taken for granted and its treated more as a task rather than a privilege.

B. Literacy and Social Context:

"Athens in the early fifth century, he argued, could probably boast a literacy rate for the entire population, including women and slaves, little higher than 5%. By the time of the Persian Wars the number may possibly have doubled, but greater change was forestalled by the virtually universal illiteracy of Greek women. Much higher rates, bordering on figures known from early modern Europe, were probably achieved at certain places in the Hellenistic period—numbers as high as 30-40%, for example, at Teos. But literacy did not subsequently advance. Rather, rates fell back to earlier levels. Roman citizens, Harris estimated, were no more than 10% literate when Cicero and Julius Caesar were born. During the Principate the situation varied greatly according to region, but literacy rates on the whole were always by modern standards exceedingly low. Very few outside the elite living in the major cities could read or write either Latin or Greek. Everywhere women, the poor, small farmers and ordinary folk were ordinarily illiterate.93 Ancient Literacy did not merely confirm the worst fears of the idealists among the guild of classicists: it exposed those fears as insufficiently morbid. Eric Turner had once queried tremulously twenty years earlier, 'Are we to accept the depressing conclusion that the ordinary man cared little for literature, even if he could read it?' The answer, it developed, was yes. The ordinary man probably did not care, and almost certainly could not read it."(1)

"Assessing the literacy rate in modern society is very easily accomplished but the answer to this question in antiquity is the other way around. Nonetheless, this percentage is reflected in one of the rules in Soferim 11:2 (ed. Higger, p. 218)"

"A town in which there is only one who reads; he stands up, reads (the Torah), and sits down, he stands up, reads and sits down, even seven times."

"In other words, in some towns there was only one person who could read the Torah, which is a highly (Hebrew) religious reading. This rule appears also in t. Megila though with a slight difference: instead of 'town' it says there: 'a synagogue of which there is only', etc. However, this minor difference in the text has no significance since in the small towns in the Land of Israel there usually was one synagogue only, such as in Korazim, Beit-Shearim, and so forth. That is to say that the meaning of that rule was the same even though there was a textual difference. Calculating the balance between males and females, taking into consideration that female literacy rate is always lower than the male rate leads to the idea of there being one reader only in various places. If the fact is not overlooked that in all the synagogues that have been unearthed there was place for more than 50 people, the conclusion must be reached that while issuing that rule the Tanna was speaking of a town where the literacy rate was approximately 1 percent (if not lower)."(1)

"It may be argued that the Tanna ruled in a unique case, but it seems that usually the Tannaim did not speak of rare cases. On the contrary, most if not all, of the cases studied show that the rules of the Tannaim played their role in people's lives. Of course, it does not mean that in all rural places there was such literacy, but, on the other hand, if there were towns with 1% literacy, then the literacy of all the towns was not higher than 5% (at most). Therefore, taking into consideration the above rule, together with the fact that there are rules that reflect a zero literacy rate in the rural areas lead to the assumption of a low rate of literacy in the whole population. Even if we assume that in cities (as happens all over the world in urban areas in comparison to rural areas), such as Tiberias, for example, the literacy rate was double and even triple in comparison with the towns, still the figures of literacy are around 2-15%. With the assumption that the rural population was around 70% (with 0% literacy), 20% of urban population (with 1-5% literacy), and 10% of highly urban population (with 2-15% literacy), the total population literacy is still very low. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that the total literacy rate in the Land of Israel at that time (of Jews only, of course), was probably less than 3%."(1)

"At first glance this figure looks quite low, and maybe too low. However, in a traditional society, knowing how to read was not a necessity: neither for economic reasons, nor for intellectual ones. On the contrary. Why should a farmer send his son to learn how to read when it entails a waste of working time (=money)? Why should he himself learn how to read if his culture is based on oral tradition (though with a written Torah)? According to the Torah, there is no need to read or write, except for writing the Mezuza, Tefilin, and the Torah itself. However, for these purposes there was always a scribe, so a Jew in antiquity could fulfill the commandments of the Torah while being illiterate. Not only that, but 3% of the total population seems to be high in comparison with other cultures. In ancient Egypt, a land with a lot of scribes, only half a percent were literate. Now, even if it is taken into consideration that training in hieroglyphs takes much more time than script with some 22 symbols, still the conclusion of the extent of literacy in a neighboring country some millennia later with literacy rates that are some six times larger than its predecessor, seems quite plausible."(1)

Luke’s Audience:

“In contrast to either Mark or Matthew, Luke's gospel is clearly written more for a gentile audience. Luke is traditionally thought of as one of Paul's traveling companions and it's certainly the case that the author of Luke was from those Greek cities in which Paul had worked. Luke's gospel is a product of a kind of Pauline Christianity. And so it tells the story in some slightly different ways than do the other gospels. It has different interests. It has different thematic concerns. It probably also has a different political self consciousness because it's writing predominantly for gentiles in the Greek cities of Asia Minor or Greece itself. Luke's audience seems to be a much more cultured literary kind of audience. Luke's Greek is the highest quality in style of anything in the new testament. It reads more like a novel in the Greek tradition, rather than Mark's gospel, which has a kind of crude quality at times to the Greek grammar. So anyone on the street of a Greek city picking up Luke's gospel would have felt at home with it if they were able to read good Greek....Tradition holds that Luke was actually a traveling companion of Paul. He's often called Luke the physician which means he's portrayed as a kind of educated person from the Greco-Roman world.... Now the concerns of Luke's gospel are a little different, therefore; there are political as well as social concerns that we see in the way the story is told precisely because it's writing for this much more cultured kind of audience."(2)

"Luke's audience seems to be predominantly gentile.... when they talk about the story of Jesus there's more of an emphasis on the political situation of Jesus today. Jesus is less of a rabble rouser, and so is Paul, for that matter, in these stories. And this suggests something about the situation of the audience, that they too are concerned about the way that they will be perceived, the way that the church will be perceived by the Roman authorities. It's sometimes suggested that Luke's gospel should be seen as a kind of an apologetic for the beginnings of the Christian movement, trying to make its place in the Roman world, to say, "'we're okay, don't worry about us, we are just like the rest of you: we keep the peace, we're law abiding citizens, we have high moral values, we're good Romans too.'" (2)

Literacy and Culture Surrounding Reading the Bible:

"(in the 1980’s) This period witnessed an explosion of interdisciplinary research on ancient literacy and illiteracy in cognate disciplines such as classics, cultural anthropology, literary criticism, and media criticism. Cumulatively, these interdisciplinary studies have established a new and sustained scholarly majority opinion that most ancient persons were illiterate. As a result, New Testament scholars now see literacy and illiteracy as important factors for interpreting New Testament and early Christian texts in their socio-historical contexts, especially for understanding the diffusion of social power in the text-centered cultures of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity."(3)

"In 1989 the field of literacy studies welcomed a new work of this kind. It came to the study of Greco-Roman reading and writing bearing gifts of thoroughness and precision not previously seen. Authored by William Harris, Ancient Literacy wielded significant influence, sparking heated debate and launching numerous further investigations.88 Oddly, perhaps, Harris refused to say precisely what he meant by “literacy;” but this indirection was arguably more virtue than fault, since the term defies all efforts at simple definition. Literacy is not one thing, and Harris did not try to make it one. He found its absence easier to define. An illiterate, he suggested, was a person “who cannot with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life.”89 Woven together with this negation were three phrases: “mass literacy,” “scribal literacy,” and “craftsman’s literacy.” Mass literacy was for Harris the situation of the West since the late nineteenth century, and he gave it only cursory attention. His focus was rather on the second and third terms:"(4)

'By [scribal literacy] I mean the sort of literacy which predominated in ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds, literacy restricted to a specialized social group which used it for such purposes as maintaining palace records; and which also predominated in western Europe from late antiquity until at least the twelfth century. By craftsman’s literacy I mean not the literacy of an individual craftsman but the condition in which the majority, or a near-majority, of skilled craftsmen are literate, while women and unskilled labourers and peasants are mainly not, this being the situation which prevailed in most of the educationally more advanced regions of Europe and North America from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century.90 Essentially, then, Harris was thinking in terms of the social history of Western Europe since late antiquity. Ancient Literacy was a “high-level,” comparative study—as much a matter of analogy as of archives and archaeology:'

'Investigation of the volume of literacy in other societies, and in particular of the growth of literacy in early-modern and modern Europe, has shown that writing ceases to be the arcane accomplishment of a small professional or religious or social elite only when certain preconditions are fulfilled and only when strong positive forces are present to bring the change about.'

"Harris identified a threefold sine quibus non of mass literacy: extensive networks of schools; technology capable of producing and distributing vast quantities of texts at low cost; and a predominantly urban rather than rural demographic pattern. Since these preconditions were always absent in the Greco-Roman world, literacy always remained the accomplishment of a select few. Only in exceptional times and places was even a craftsman’s level of literacy achieved. Working his way through the evidence of archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece and the Greek East, as well as that of the Roman world from archaic times until late antiquity, Harris came to conclusions that he anticipated might cause “severe mental indigestion” in some classicists, and prove “highly unpalatable” to others."(5)

C. Images of Reading in Luke and the Bible:

In the Gospel According to Luke (as well as other books in the Bible) there are multiple situations where reading is depicted. It is interesting because there are multiple examples where characters have no idea what they are reading or they aren’t reading at all. Instead they are listening to Jesus or his disciples deliver a sermon or message. For example, in Luke chapter 4, Jesus delivers a message to his listeners in a synagogue in Nazareth:

Luke 4:16-21 "He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.'

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'"(6)

In Luke chapter 10, literacy is depicted differently as Jesus communicates with “an expert in the law.” Jesus asks the “lawyer” not to read the law that talks about eternal life, but for the “lawyer’s” interpretation of the law. This was very interesting because while reading was an extremely important skill, interpreting what was read was a totally different story:

Luke 10:25-28 "25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

26 'What is written in the Law?' he replied. 'How do you read it?'

27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 'You have answered correctly,' Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live.'"(7)

The act of reading was not only displayed in Luke but was also apparent throughout other books in the New Testament. In John chapter 7, Jesus is in the process of teaching the Jews during a festival. It was interesting to see the reaction that the Jews had when Jesus was teaching because they seemed amazed at the fact that Jesus wasn’t just well spoken, but through his speech it was apparent that he was very well educated:

John: 7:14-18 "14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15The Jews there were amazed and asked, 'How did this man get such learning without having been taught?' 16 Jesus answered, 'My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.'"(8)

In Acts chapter 4 the idea of education is present as Peter and John, two of the disciples of Jesus, realize that they were not educated, however, the men they were listening too were. In chapter 8 the apostle Philip finds a man reading, but this man has no idea what he is reading and doesn’t understand what is written:

Acts: 4:13 "13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus."(9)

Acts: 8:30-35 "30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. 'Do you understand what you are reading?' Philip asked. 31'How can I,' he said, 'unless someone explains it to me?' So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

'He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.'

34 The eunuch asked Philip, 'Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?' 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus."(10)

This imagery of reading and literacy in the Bible is similar to other examples because those who were literate seemed to either be close to Jesus or connected to him in some way.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul writes a greeting to Jesus on behalf of him and the churches in Asia. This display of literacy is different than the other examples because Paul is only writing, not reading. Now back then, Paul may have not been considered "literate" just because he could write, but nowadays he would definitely be considered literate. Also, because he is affiliated with Jesus, we can assume that he was most likely educated, as most of Jesus' apostles and disciples were.

1 Corinthians: 16:19-21 "19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 21I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. 22 If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you."(11)

Footnotes

1. Wise, Michael Owen. (2012). Language and literacy in Roman Judaea: a study of the Bar Kokhba documents. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, http://hdl.handle.net/11299/168319.``

2. White, Michelle. “The Gospel of Luke.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/luke.html.

3. “Literacy, New Testament - Biblical Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - Obo.” Oxford Bibliographies - Your Best Research Starts Here - Obo, 20 Apr. 2018, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0177.xml.

4. Bar-Ilan, Meir. “Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the First Centuries C.e.” פרופ' מאיר בר-אילן : Six Differences between Two Creation Stories in Genesis, faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/articles/to_check/illitera.html.

5. “Literacy, New Testament - Biblical Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - Obo.” Oxford Bibliographies - Your Best Research Starts Here - Obo, 20 Apr. 2018, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0177.xml.

6. “Luke 4, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 4 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.4.NIV.

7. “Luke 10, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 10 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.10.NIV.

8. “John 7, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 7 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.7.NIV.

9. “Acts 4, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 4 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.4.NIV.

10.“Acts 8, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 8 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.8.NIV.

11. “1 Corinthians 16, New International Version (NIV) | Chapter 16 | The Bible App.” ; A Fool Takes No Pleasure in Understanding, but Only in Expressing His Opinion., www.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.16.niv.