Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LITERACY

In the ancient world, writing was a specialized skill that few people possessed. The abilities to read and to write were rare, and thus they represented an expertise that would have been mostly concentrated within the control of the political, religious, and economic leadership. In the more literate cultures within the ancient world, such as Hellenistic Greece, literacy rates may have been 0.1 to 1 percent of the populace. In more rural and less centralized areas, such as ancient Israel, the literacy rates may have been significantly lower than that.

Narratives, poetry, letters, and epics — the forms used in the OT and NT — were probably very infrequent uses of writing. Instead, the most common example of writing was probably the inscriptions placed on objects, such as the frequent Hebrew inscription lmlk (“for the king” or “belonging to the king”) found on objects presumably used within the royal palace or elsewhere within the king’s service. Uses of writing such as this are difficult to describe as true literacy; people probably distinguished between a royal jar and a common jar by noticing that the royal jar had writing upon it and other jars did not. No reading ability was necessary to assign meaning to the marks.

Another frequent early use of writing was in the economic affairs of trade. Inventories required listing the goods that the owner possessed, and this list was written, possibly along with some indication of the amount. In order to facilitate trade, a copy of an inventory could be sent along with the shipment, so that a reader in another place could verify that the entire shipment was received. When trade increased, such writing would have grown in complexity and in importance as a means of communication over distances.

In Israel, governments and temples also had reasons to make written records for later reference. These might have included lists such as censuses or tax records as well as legal codes and narrative. Probably, professional scribes wrote and read these records in service to the religious and political leaders who employed them. In most of these cases, writing existed as a means for scribes to communicate with each other, rather than as a way to convey information to a variety of persons of dissimilar background. The higher literacy rate of later antiquity allowed for greater use of writing to communicate more broadly. Letters such as those from Paul to local Christian communities offer examples of communication over distance from one person to a group of others. Even in those cases, Paul probably used a scribe to write at least many of the letters attributed to him rather than wrote them himself. Paul’s education implies that he could read, but even if he could write, he sometimes chose not to do so. When a local church received a letter, they probably had one person read the letter out loud to the rest of the community.

It is unknown how scribes learned to write and read in ancient Israel. Scholars have argued for the existence of formal schools or for more individualized practices of apprenticeship, but no clear evidence remains to prove either scenario. In NT times, both practices are known to exist.

Jon L. Berquist

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LITERACY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)