This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Foster, P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Educating Jesus: The Search for a Plausible Context

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland

Many reconstructions of the life of the historical Jesus have tended to portray him as being born into illiterate peasant stock. By so doing, significant statements in the Gospels, both canonical and non-canonical, are ignored. While much caution is needed, since there is a tendency to valorize the young Jesus in early Christian literature and to heighten miraculous events surrounding his childhood, nonetheless there are indicators that Jesus' background did not reflect the lowest echelons of Galilean peasantry. Instead, it is suggested that internal Gospel evidence and knowledge of aspects of the social milieu of first-century Judaism give weight to seeing Jesus as a person with what would now be classified as functional on basic literacy levels.

Key Words: Alpha-Beta logion • Dead Sea Scrolls • education • historical Jesus • Infancy Gospel of Thomas • Josephus • literacy • non-canonical Gospels • Quintilian

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?