Korean Job Discussion Forums

[philipjames]

Why the heck didn't the J-man leave any written records. If he was the messiah, or even if he believed that he had something profound to contribute to humankind, why didn't he put pen to paper? Muhammed was illiterate, as was John Smith (Mormons). John Smith at least got a dude to take dictation. Jesus didn't even do that. A bit bizarre. Perhaps another hint that the dude didn't exist. But if he did, where's the morality tales, the poems, the short stories. Can't say his followers were writing stuff down for him. First gospel was written down after Jesus and all his immediate followers were dead and buried. D'ya think we'll ever find written material from the hand of the almighty's kid?

[runlikegump]

Oops. You posted this in the wrong place. Any thread that will inevitably devolve into "my religion/ favourite politician/ understanding and interpretation of the state of the world/ conspiracy theory is better than yours" belongs over in Current Events. You"re bound to get some quality responses over there.

[ED209]

Dude you try writing shit down after having a large nail driven through your palms.

[billybrobby]

As far as literally answering your question, from the book of Luke:

16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The 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 preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[e]

20Then 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,

[Atavistic]

[ED209]

[philipjames]

We don't know if he opened a scroll in a synagogue and read from it. The person who wrote that almost certainly was not in the synagogue to witness it. None of the gospels were written by persons who had actually met the alleged Jesus. If they had, they would most certainly have stated that fact to bolster their case. So the scroll reading 'proof' of Jesus' literacy cannot be accepted in any way as actual proof.

But, even if I concede that Jesus was literate, the question remains. Why didn't he leave any writings?

[Bingo]

Didn't exactly select a literate group of dudes to hang out with. Farmers, fishermen, etc. Birds of a feather perhaps. Still, imagine the excitement if a "Gospel of Jesus" actually showed up and historians and other experts could confidently date it to the third decade of the first century. Highly cool. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that Jesus - even a fully mortal Jesus - ever existed as a historical figure. And unfortunately, mythical characters don't leave written records. But if a Jesus character did exist, was literate, and did write something down....Totally cool read.

[Ryst Helmut]

[nicholas_chiasson]

here we go again...did the budah exist...sure. Did Zoroaster exist? Sure...did Hannibal exist? Yeah why not? Did Alexander the great exist? Yes. Did Jesus exist? No, and by the time 300 years later Christianity was made a state religon of the roman empire...all the evidence was fabricated. So I wonder why nobody goes to great lengths to prove the non-existance of anyone else? Cause this Jesus guy is such a damn toruble maker. telling people to 'love one another' and 'sell all that you have and give it to the poor.' such a nasty piece of work.

[ED209]

Yeah I'd hate to find out Buddha, Zoroaster or Hannibal weren't real. That'd just ruin my day. Since western society is so engraved with those beliefs. Next you'll be telling me they're black

[Axiom]

[ED209]

[laogaiguk]

[yetanotherSarah]

In the common understanding of the Christ figure, it is said that he was raised Jewish (anti-Semites may depute this though). Judaism is a literate tradition, as is Islam and Christianity. Truth is premised on the contents of sacred scriptures. John 1:1 claims: 'the word was God'. Those sacred scriptures are God, and this idea is taken in the most literal sense most of the time. Thus access to God is available through literacy. Western religions believe in a personal God and what better way to connect personally then with reading? Not to mention that the Hebrew and Aramaic languages (the latter being the language of Jesus) both use (and used back then) an alphabet, making it incredibly accessible to the people. Cultures with alphabets have little use for scribes and other learned groups to do their reading and writing for them. Unlike places like Egypt which had a fully developed scribe culture (because they used hieroglyphics). I think we can safely assume that dating back even 2000 years that most if not all properly raised Jewish boys would learn to read. And so based on the above reasons it is highly likely Jesus, if he even existed, was literate, unless he was personally limited in some capacity.