Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death

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Subject: Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death
From: Cindy Smith (cms@dragon.com)
Date: Tue Dec 22 2009 - 17:35:55 EST


   Jesus grew up in Galilee of the Gentiles.  It stands to reason he  
spoke a smattering of Greek, which was the lingua franca of the era.

Yours,

-- 
Cindy Smith
cms@dragon.com

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!

A Real Live Catholic in Georgia!


Quoting "Madden, Shawn" <sMadden@sebts.edu>:

> Taking the gospels at face value (with noted disagreements in as   
> diverse as this body is) you find a carpenter reading Isaiah and   
> fishermen writing in Greek. I tend with Rochelle, especially in a   
> culture with the writing and reading tradition that Israel had that   
> I believe could possibly be more literate than the classical   
> cultures. The synagogue system in Israel would argue for more   
> literacy in a Jewish village than you may find in the villages of   
> other cultures. Then add in the polyglot possibility. In Africa I   
> found semi-literates who could speak English, Kiswahili and their   
> tribal language and many had a reading and writing ability in one,   
> two, and sometimes all three languages (if their tribal language had  
>  an alphabet).
>
> Shawn C. Madden, Ph.D., Major, USMC (retired)
>
> Associate Professor of Hebrew & Old Testament
>
> Director of The Library
>
> Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
>
> 114 N. Wingate
>
> Wake Forest, NC 27587
>
> (919) 761-2250
>
> (919) 761-2150 (fax)
>
> http://library.sebts.edu/smadden
>
> "Blessed be the LORD my rock, who trains my hands for war and my   
> fingers for battle."
>
> ???? ???? ???? ????? ??? ???? ??????? ??????
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-ioudaios-l@Lehigh.EDU on behalf of rochelle altman
> Sent: Tue 12/22/2009 4:13 PM
> To: First Century Judaism Discussion Forum
> Subject: IOU: Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death
>
>
>
> Hi, Jack,
>
> Well, in terms of Greek and Roman literacy, William Harris (Ancient
> Literacy, 1989) placed it at 10%. He has not gone uncontested,
> though. He ignored items such as the programs sold at gladiatorial
> contests mentioned by Cicero and tended to dismiss graffiti. Both of
> these do indicate some level of literacy. Still, 10-15% fully
> literate should be expected with another 25-30% semi-literate. These
> percentages really do not change very much across the centuries in
> cultures where literacy is encouraged.
>
> There's a new book out (that I'm going to order with my gift
> certificate from OUP) by Johnson & Parker, Ancient Literacies: The
> culture of Reading in Greece and Rome. (2009). After reading the
> review, I particularly am looking forward to reading Shirley Werner's
> article -- it's a bibliography and commentary that covers everything
> published on literacy since Harris and includes many important items
> in non-Classic cultures.
>
> I do wonder at 3-5%, though. Somehow, I'd expect the usual 10-15% of
> fully literate and 25-30% semi-literate, that is, can read a
> newspaper, sign his or her name, but may or may not be able to write
> a letter. (If we look at the inscriptions on the ossuaries, the
> majority are by literate people; perhaps 10% are by semi-literates.)
> Pretty much what we have today in the US. If you also add the
> marginally literate (people who can read a sign, a book with mostly
> pictures, but can't read the directions on a fire-alarm box) that
> would be about another 30%.
>
> Oh, well, there definitely is an overlap between literacy/orality.
> It's not as black and white as it used to be made out to be.
>
> Rochelle
>
>
>> -From: owner-ioudaios-l@Lehigh.EDU on behalf of Gary Hedrick
>>>> Sent: Sat 12/19/2009 8:22 PM
>>>> To: First Century Judaism Discussion Forum
>>>> Subject: Re: Jerusalem Temple Inscription Warning Gentiles of Death
>>>>
>>>> Regarding the literacy rate, one could use the same rationale and say, Why
>>>> write the New Testament? Why put a sign over Yeshua's head on the Cross?
>>> Why the Priene inscription or the Res Gestae?.  Someone literate would
>>> read it out loud to those who were not.
>>>
>>> Jeffrey
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
>>> 1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
>>> Chicago, Illinois
>>> e-mail jgibson000@comcast.net
>>
>>
>> This was particularly true at crucifixions.  Every Roman legion, in
>> this case the Legio X Fretensis, had a four man team called a
>> Quatornio with the responsibility for crucifixions.  They were led
>> by a legionnaire of Centurion rank called an Exactor Mortis.
>>
>> Seneca, for example, refers to the Exactor Mortis as CENTURIO
>> supplicio praepositus, De Ira 1.26. "Tunc CENTURIO supplicio
>> praepositus condere gladium speculatorem iubet, damnatum ad Pisonem
>> reducit redditurus Pisoni ... and Hermann-Josef Rollicke in Auf den
>> Stufen (Berlin 2006), certainly a modern authority, states," Der
>> CENTURIO als der exactor mortis, der den Tod des delinquenten om
>> kreuz abzuwarten und zu bestatigen hatte..."There is a ton of
>> primary Latin material on this but my point is that the Roman
>> authorities did not deem it wasteful but important reminders to the
>> populace that you would be better off not opposing Rome.  The charge
>> against the victim of this horrible exercise was written on a
>> titulus and read by the Exactor Mortis to the gathering public,
>> those same people who gathered about the guillotines in France, the
>> axe in England or Judge Bean's scaffold in the old West.
>>
>> The literacy rate in first century Palestine, according to Meir
>> Bar-Ilan was between
>> 3-5%  http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html  but among the
>> Greek speaking Romans and the Greeks themselves it was as much as
>> three times higher.  Perhaps Dr. Altman has some references, I
>> cannot dig mine up right now.  The inscription is targeted to
>> Gentiles rather than Greek speaking Diaspora Jews but my suspicion
>> is that Roman Period Gentile tourists who traveled to Jerusalem to
>> see one of the wonders of the world, were upper class and
>> literate.  The Temple was a class A tourist attraction and Gentiles
>> almost certainly paid the same 1/2 shekel/Tyrian half tetradrachm (7
>> grams of silver) to ascend to the Court of the Gentiles, enclosed
>> with colonnades and with stalls, souvenir stands and money
>> changers.  There were probably temple guards placed at the 13
>> entrances in the 3 cubit high wall separating the three steps or so
>> of the central courts but any Gentile who slipped by them, even a
>> Roman citizen, could be immediately put to death.  These inscription
>> were probably placed at each of these openings in the wall.  That
>> would account, IMO, for excavators being lucky enough to find one.
>>
>> Jack Kilmon
>> San Antonio, TX
>
>
>
>
>


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