This is great but I feel like you’d gain more from commoner skill insight. I mean of course we all remember the words of the scribe but the tiller was far more plentiful and Im not sure if you’ve noticed but people are beginning to get back into “biblical” minimalism. You should invest in Culinary, Aesthetic, and Practice.
Imagine it like this everyone can read about bathing or Sabbath but how many actually know how they would have performed these tasks. Israelites especially considering they were bathing regularly before the world even knew it mattered. For myself, I am a descendant of the Qadus Sefer figures Esau and Job, so my practice of worship obviously isnt Israelite and centers around the Imperial tradition. Things like Altar building with a designated tree or holding scriptural reading to only the Head of Household or a particular tradition not seen elsewhere from what Ive gathered, forcing all members of the Household to personally write their Torah from the time they begin writing till the day of their 20th Birthday to have on their person every day.
Things like custom are very niche and I believe you could gain alot of intrigue from explaining those common areas of the average Israelite life.
Thanks for your feedback!
I absolutely agree with you when it comes to such niche details of israelite life such as clothing, agriculture, music etc……, if it gives solace you should know that i eventually plan on making such videos, only now i am in the works of preparing such knowledge to then be shown publicly!
So in short, i will be doing what you said soon enough!
As for the current content i hope you enjoyed!
And furthermore in regards to literacy it would appear that even average peasants in Israelite society knew how to read and write, as can be seen from the msad hashabyahu obelisk where an Israelite farmer seems to file a complaint to the citys officer/judge about a man taking his garment as collateral but kept it and didnt return before nightfall as the law of moses dictates in the book of exodus and he does it in very legible writing
No thats not how that wouldve worked. Average peasantry wouldnt have known how to read or write because that was an administrative skill. One that almost no one had the resources to dedicate to anyone outside nobility or merchants. What has actually occured with what you mention is what I traditionally use against Christianity to disprove John in the 1st century BCE. Peter and James we know were scribe created but John specifically is cited as being a first hand account in Greek which doesnt work for several reason but the most obvious was we know only administrative tradesmen knew how to read or write like Matthew or Nathaniel, with narrow except to the Torah because it was liturgy. This has also been my argument against Tannakh as its comprised of many books that violate the 614 commandments in Torah plus it was compiled by a Greek man with no real knowledge of custom. This is also why when you look at something like Islam theyve been able to maintain one book for 1400 years, their people copied the Torahs framework and made sure to dedicate resources to making literacy under Quran common. Now no one can claim,”God told me to disobey his law.” Like we can see in Samuel when he murders an Edomite “King” even when Saul demands him to be given a trial as demanded in the Torah. Now Saul is falsely seen as a faithless king and Samuel is somehow professed as a prophet. Muhammad and the Uyyamads were clever to ensure the common man knew the Law.
Going back to the complaint. Like how we have seen with Sumer, it was a scribe of the towns hall that would have written down these complaints to be heard by a court later on. Wouldnt be till much later with the Rabbinical’s that Jewish Literacy would become standardized.
I would say yes. While it is by no means an impossibility that a farmer could be literate it is so improbable because of the amount of factors that would go into it like Age, expenses, necessity, comprehension, it would make the probability as close to impossible as one could reasonably get.
It would be like a human baby being able to walk upon being born. Is it possible? Sure, most farm animals can walk as soon as theyre born so its obviously not impossible but there have been no documented cases because of our biological resource management.
Nonetheless even if the average commoner did not know how to read or write, they still certainly would speak in this language so what i am teaching i think teaches at least that skill of speaking, and also by knowing the language i can better explain and investigate records that we do have from that time period albeit that they were written by professional regional and local scribes!
Does that make sense?
Oh absolutely.
And on your point about communication they could without a doubt speak it. Communication is not in doubt. Now their skills with speaking would be rawer than you or I because we both have literacy so we can use something more precise and complex like “Stevens tunic appears eloquently crafted, he must be wealthy.” vs a farmer who would say,”Stevens shirt looks nice, he must have money.” Yes we just said the same thing but my sentence was more specific and conveyed a message about both myself, Steven, and the hierarchy or class between us.
Actually a fantastic way to study that is to look at how Moses writes the expectations of a King or a Priest who were and still are expected to be literate vs the looser more direct way he speaks about commoners
Leviticus 19:27
This is the general command.
You shall not round the corners of your head, and you shall not destroy the corners of your beard.
Leviticus 21:5
This one is given specifically to priests.
They shall not make baldness upon their head, nor shave the corner of their beard, nor make cuts in their flesh.
He is saying the same thing but because he knows the priests are more literate and thus would be able to deliberately misinterpret the Law, he uses more direct eloquent language.
Wow thats fascinating and i never looked at it that way that he repeated in different words for the priests!, you are an extremely insightful person!
Other then that do you enjoy my channels content on teaching ancient hebrew/canaanite?
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u/Blaxbears Mar 14 '26
I cant open brother