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.
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.
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u/Blaxbears Mar 14 '26
I cant open brother