The first thing that we need to note here is that the modern definition of literacy is that of the ability to both read and write. In the ancient world, the ability to write was probably fairly rare. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of materials. The "paper" of the ancient world (velum, which is stretched animal skin, and papyrus, which are woven reeds) was relatively expensive. It was not a commodity that could be wasted as it can today. As a result, it was necessary to have money to learn the craft of writing. The existence of a professional scribal class serves as further evidence that few people in the ancient world could write. If many people could write, it is unlikely that such a profession would have existed. Thus, most estimates of ancient world literacy rates are always going to be low.

However, the ability to read in the Roman Empire may not have been quite as rare as the ability to write. Most cities of at least a medium size had a gymnasium. Additionally, there were many private tutors available for hire as well. Certainly it cost money to employ these tutors, but they did not seem to be so expensive as to be beyond the reach of the small middle class. As a result, I have seem some estimates of the reading rate in Ancient Rome as high as 30-40%. This is probably too high, and assumes the existence of a much larger middle class than probably existed. Still though, we should not think of the ability to read in the Roman Empire, especially in urban areas, as rare.

Judaism, of course, did not always adhere to the same standards as the rest of the Roman empire. Many Jews resisted gymnasiums as a sign of syncretism or succumbing to Hellenism. But, this should not be taken to mean that Judaism rejected the importance of education. The ability to understand the Law (first five books of the Old Testament) was a prized quality in Judaism. Josephus, a Jewish historian who wrote about a generation after the death of Jesus, notes the importance of young men being educated in the Law. (The education they were given probably took place on a less formal basis than in the Greek gymnasiums.) We know that there were several schools of theological thought within Judaism during the time of Jesus, the Pharisees being the most famous example, and their members were not always confined to the elites of society. All of this suggests that the ability to read among Jews, especially males, in the time of Jesus was probably not rare.

That gives us a decent amount of background to work from. Onto the specific evidence from the New Testament, of which there is fairly little. First, Jesus was from Nazareth, a small backwater town in the backwater region of Galilee. The odds of there being a formal school in this area are remote, but informal education would still have been possible.

Second, Luke reports that Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem with his parents at the age of 12 (Luke 2:41-52). There he sat among the teachers of the Law, who were amazed at his knowledge. Since Luke is the only Gospel writer to report this story and since Luke was written some 50 years after Jesus lived, the historicity of this story is doubtful. Further, Jesus' understanding of the law could have been more about the wisdom of his answers when he was asked questions, rather than his actual book learning. In effect, this story tells us little about Jesus' ability to read.

Luke also tells us that Jesus read a scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4:16). Before assuming that this is clear proof that Jesus could read, we again must remember that Luke was writing 50 years after Jesus died and that Luke is the only gospel writer to report this event. It is not necessary to assume that Luke is trying to elevate or magnify Jesus in some way by stating that he could read. This statement could merely by taken as a literary device to advance the story.

All that said, we have to remember that written materials were rare and valuable. They could not necessarily be handled by just anyone. In Luke's story described above, Jesus is reading in his hometown of Nazareth where he would have been trusted to touch the scrolls. All of the gospels agree though, that Jesus had an itinerant ministry. Arriving in town he would have been a stranger in most places and may not have immediately had the stature or trust necessary to handle the valuable scrolls. So we should not assume too much when the other gospels never mention Jesus reading anything. Moreover, all of the gospels report that Jesus had a strong command of the Old Testament texts. Some of this could have been learned orally, and memorization was a valued skill because few written materials were widely available. However, if we keep in mind that many Jewish males were instructed letters sufficient for reading the law, it is not unreasonable to think that Luke's report was factual.

In summary, few people, especially the poor, were literate in the ancient world because few people could write. Thus, Jesus was probably not literate. But, many people (though not the majority) could read in Israel and in the greater Roman Empire. Since there is at least one passage that notes that Jesus could read and he was regarded as someone who knew the law well it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus could read at a basic level (think Reader's digest, middle school ability).

Josephus (c. 37 - c. 100), a Jewish historian for the Roman Empire and a non-believer, in a much discussed passage in his Antiquities of the Jews called the Testimonium Flavianum, writes:

“About this time came Jesus, a wise man, (if indeed it is appropriate to call him a man). For he was a performer of paradoxical feats (paradoxôn ergôn poiêtês) a teacher of people who accept the unusual with pleasure, and he won over many of the Jews and also many Greeks”

While historians agree that there was almost certainly some later tampering with this text by later Christian writers’ (Meier, Vol.1) most scholars also accept the authenticity of this key sentence: “…he was a performer of paradoxical feats, a teacher of people who accept the unusual with pleasure.” Other translations of the original Greek used by Josephus give us the following: Jesus was a performer of paradoxical (astonishing, startling, surprising) poetics (tricks, feats, works and deeds) a teacher of those who accept the abnormal (novel, truth, unusual and strange) with pleasure (gladly, delight). If we can provisionally grant the historical authenticity of just this fragment of Josephus’ non-Christian witness, then Jesus was a 1st century Jewish rabbi (teacher) who spoke in “paradoxôn ergôn poiêtês”, i.e. Jesus was a paradoxical poet.

The word "paradoxôn" literally means “against (para) orthodoxy (doxos)”. And against orthodoxy means “heresy”. From this rare vantage point external to the theological embellishments of the gospel authors and the political agendas early Christian communities, the historical Jesus therefore looks be a heretical Jewish poet, one who spoke in mind-bending paradoxes while attracting unconventional followers who joyfully received his counter-intuitive teachings.

NOW this poetics of paradox (paradoxôn ergôn poiêtês) reported by Josephus CORRESPONDS PERFECTLY with what we find at the heart of the parables of Jesus recorded in the synoptic gospels, where the original signature of this itinerant Nazarene Jew’s historical voice-print is embedded within narrative core of his most memorable short stories and parables. For if we extracted from the parables of Jesus all subsequent Christian interpretation and theological embellishment over the past two millennia, and let the language-event that simmers away within his proclamation of the Kingdom be unleashed in its first, disturbing, immediacy, then the earliest memory of Jesus coincides with paradoxical poetics (paradoxôn ergôn poiêtês) described by Josephus in the most astonishing way. To summarize:

Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37: the agents of neighbourly love, i.e. the devout Pharisee & Levite priest, are exposed as morally and religiously bankrupt; the morally and religiously bankrupt, i.e. the half-caste Samaritan, is an agent of neighbour love.

Prodigal Son Luke 15:11-32: the younger wayward son, who is lost in rebellious exile from home, is saved with the father’s homecoming feast, the older dutiful son, who is saved in righteous obedience to his father’s home, is lost in rebellious exile from the homecoming feast.

Vineyard Workers Matthew 20:1-16: the privileged status of those who started work at day break is the source of their envy and their sense of injustice; the envy and injustice of those who started work just before sundown, is the occasion for their privileged status, (when both groups receive equal pay from the vineyard owner).

Pharisee and Tax Collector Luke 18:10-14: the self-righteous Pharisee, who is saved in as a Temple insider - is lost, just as the sinful Tax Collector, who is lost as a Temple outsider - is saved.

Two Sons Matthew 21:28-32: the acceptance of the first son is a refusal to work in the field, and the refusal of the second son is an acceptance to go work in the field.

Friend at Midnight Luke 11:5-8, where: the refusal of a friend becomes the acceptance of stranger, while the persistence of a stranger is the faithfulness of a friend.

Shrewd Manager Luke 16:1-8: where: a shrewd business manager is condemned his employer as a fraud, as this fraud is praised by his employer as a shrewd business manager.

Unjust Judge Luke 18: 2-8: we see: the refusal to back down of a fearless judge is a merciful delivery of justice, just as the merciful pleas of the widow for justice are a fearless refusal to back down.

By unsettling the binary oppositions that constitute the very form and content of human language, Jesus' discourse of radical paradox is a skilful means for a piercing through our protective defences and exposing the defects in any system that justifies the status quo by interrupting our pre-given horizons of meaning with series of subversive reversals in the expected story-line at its deepest level that put language under pressure and puts into question our taken for granted assumptions about reality.

And while the world-shattering impact of this 1st century itinerant Jew’s paradoxical sayings were soon domesticated by the early Christian communities, if we dig beneath the mythic and supernatural encrustations that were built up around Jesus in the developing streams of early the Church (e.g. the Virgin Birth, the ‘only begotten’ son of God, substitutionary atonement, the pre-existing Logos, the Second Coming, etc.) and re-activate the mind-bending event that these traditions harbor prior to his subsequent inscription within the New Testament canon, then the paradoxical secret at the heart of Jesus' most memorable teachings not only demonstrates the historical existence of this itinerant Nazarene rabbi in 1st century Palestine, but also proves to us that the earliest memory of this Jesus has indeed survived the historical process of oral and written transmission with the original signature of his historical voice-print still intact.