Chapter 5 Oral Traditions and Legend Making - Literacy in the First Century

Those who feel the story of Jesus is a legend believe that Jesus and his disciples were illiterate, so there was no written record to regulate the oral transmission of the story of his life. This allowed the facts to be altered over time. The idea is that only the wealthy were educated and able to afford means of writing. Common people like Jesus and his followers were not in that group.

Research and archeology has shown those ideas are not true. They have found clear evidence of writing among the military, slaves and common laborers. It has also been found that inexpensive means of writing were available to the lower classes. As further evidence of literacy among common people, they have found that public notices were posted for the general public to read. In the Jewish culture literacy was very important due to their focus on the Old Testament scriptures and its importance in their history and continued existence. There is therefore no reason to question the accounts of Jesus reading the scripture to the people. One of his followers Matthew was a tax collector, which would have required some literacy, and he is thought to have been designated as the note-taker among the disciples.

Although oral transmission of information was more prevalent in that day than in ours, there is no support for the idea that nothing was recorded in written form. This written record would have provided a means to keep oral tradition in line with the facts so that what we read today in the gospels could be an accurate account of what happened.