In the Bible Jesus not only speaks for also reads greek, hebrew and possibly latin. How could a carpenter have acquired that knowledge back them?

by Frigorifico

There is one story where Jesus reads the Torah at a synagogue, implying he should have been able to read hebrew. There are other stories of the bible which mention Jesus writing, although they don't specify in what language, just that the people understood it, implying it was greek or latin. Finally he speaks with roman soldiers and officials in a couple of occasions, implying he could speak latin

Now, a person knowing several languages is perfectly believable, even more considering how culturally diverse that region of the Roman Empire was at the time, but about reading and writing?

If a carpenter back then wanted his son to learn to read and write, what could he do?, could he afford a school?, were the public schools?. And even if there were, would they teach several languages?

Another thing to consider is that the Gospel of Thomas mentions Jesus going to school to learn the greek alphabet (after having killed or blinded a bunch of people). In the gospel it is implied this is like a public school where anyone can go

This gospel was written many decades after the life of Jesus, but I suppose life had not changed that much. If the author mentions a village having a public school maybe there really were public schools back then, I don't know

chockfullofjuice

As an aside this might get better answers in r/academicbiblical.

Just a jump in. Jesus likely would not have spoken latin but a form of Greek that likely had Roman loan words.

This is not my direct area but I can tell you similar questions have been asked in the sub I referenced and they would be glad to point you to various interpretations of Jesus reading and skill level.

jelvinjs7

So your question is fundamentally about educational access in Judea during Roman rule of the area, more than it is about the life of Jesus in particular. I want to recognize that upfront because this faq-find is gonna focus more on Jesus than it will about language learning. I'm not aware of any older threads that talk specifically or even indirectly about language learning in Judea, or even Jewish education practices in general at the time, but I can point to some answers that can give you some info about Jesus's language usage in the Bible:

As always, more can be said if anyone has anything new to add. If someone has an answer specifically about language education among ancient Jews that they're waiting to write, I would love to see it.