On pages 104-107 of “Jesus, Interrupted”, Professor Bart Ehrman paints a dismal picture of the disciples. Because they were uneducated fishermen and tradesmen, he implies they had no intelligence. But one doesn’t need an education to be intelligent or to do great things. Temujin, the man who became Genghis Khan, for example, was an illiterate man whose father was murdered by other Mongol tribesmen when Temujin was a child, and who consequently had to live by his wits. He finished up creating the second largest empire in history. But his empire wasn’t one that rose and fell with its creator, like that of Attila the Hun. Genghis Khan created an empire that continued to expand after his death and which was governed efficiently, and he set in place the foundation of a nation with laws. He was an evil genius who is still revered by his countrymen today.
“Uneducated and ordinary men”?
When the apostles Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:1-30), Luke tells us they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke so impressively that the Jewish rulers were amazed. He writes “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
Professor Ehrman has no hesitation in pointing out from this passage that Peter and John were illiterate. What he ignores is the most important point, which even the Jewish rulers noticed – these men had been with Jesus. It is this that made the difference. Lack of education is meaningless to God; or, better said, lack of education is not only no hindrance to God, he uses it by choice and design. In a passage in which Paul asks: “…hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor 1:20),he writes: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor 1:27-29).
Jesus chose simple and humble men to be the foundation of his Church and to build his Church (Matt 16:18-19; Eph 2:19-20). It was they who were the pillars; it was they who took the Gospel to the ends of the earth; and it was some of them who wrote the New Testament. And he equipped them to do so. In Jesus’ prayer for the disciples, he said “I have given them thy word….As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world…..And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one” (Jn 17:14, 18, 22).
Not only that – the Apostles had been anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit and given unique gifts specific to their Apostolic ministry (Jn 20:22-23), as well as the various spiritual gifts that God gave to the Church. For example, after the Spirit had been poured out on the Church, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance….we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:4, 11). Jesus gave many other spiritual gifts to the Church (see 1 Cor 12:1-31; Eph 4:4-15), apostles being one of them (Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:48).
When Jesus was speaking to the crowd, the disciples asked him, “Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given….But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matt 13:10-11, 16-17). And because it was given to the disciples to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:20).
If Jesus prayed for them, sent them, and gave them the word of God, and his glory, what is there that these men could not do? Even their enemies in the Sanhedrin could see this. Illiterate or not, these men were outstanding, and the world will never see the likes of them again!
The Bible itself tells us, as Professor Ehrman loves to point out, that Peter and John were uneducated men. But that wouldn’t stop them from writing scripture. Peter used Mark as his scribe to write his gospel. And Peter himself tells us that he had an amanuensis, or scribe, to write his first letter: “By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly….” (1 Pet 5:12). Peter acknowledges and identifies the one who wrote for him. He doubtless had a scribe, perhaps Sylvanus again, to write his second epistle as well, even though he doesn’t mention it.
Even the apostle Paul, who was highly educated and himself able to write, indicates he used a scribe when writing his letters, as we see at end of some of them e.g. Romans 16:22. And in another of his letters, although apparently written by a scribe, Paul liked to add his personal greeting as well e.g. Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17. .
And the beloved disciple John was told exactly what to write to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Jesus repeatedly tells John what he wanted: “To the angel of the church of….” and the names of seven churches in seven cities are specified, each of which is inserted in this introduction; Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (Rev Ch 2 and 3). So, what is to stop John from also using a scribe to write gospel, letters, and Revelation? Illiteracy is no obstacle to God.
The Apostles were Literate
But more specifically and significantly, in a study on John’s gospel, Craig Blomberg writes: “Equally unfounded are allegations that John the apostle was illiterate or uneducated, culturally backward, or philosophically unsophisticated as a Galilean fisherman to have written the Gospel that now bears his name. Acts 4:13 implies only that the apostles did not have the advanced, theological education that prepared one to become a rabbi (….) Jewish boys for the most part did learn to read and write Hebrew and/or Aramaic and studied Scripture intensively in a primary school education from roughly the ages of five to twelve (Reisner 1980). Alan Millard (2000) has recently demonstrated how pervasive reading and writing were in Jesus’ world, even in Greek, contrary to the claims of many. It is entirely credible that John the apostle could have learned considerable Greek, with or without formal education, over a possible seventy-year period of multicultural ministry in several parts of the Roman empire. On the other hand, the Greek of the Gospel of John ranks among the simplest of the New Testament Greek texts – precisely what one might expect from someone who learned it as a second language and never mastered it with the fluency of a native Greek speaker” (Blomberg, C.L. 2001, p. 33-34; highlighting added).
And Dr. Ann Nyland writes: “The old view that John was a poor fisherman in a small boat is just a myth. He was a partner in a fishing corporation (Luke 5:10) with Peter, James, and Andrew, and the business employed workers. His family employed servants (Lk 15:18, 22, 26). He was of the middle upper class, as shown by the reference to Joanna, the wife of Herod’s manager, Chuza. Further, the evidence suggests that John was the ‘other disciple’ of John 18:15 who was a close friend of the chief priest. John’s mother, Salome, was one of the women who financially provided for Jesus (Mark 15:41). In fact, Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to John. John was bilingual, with his first language being Aramaic and his second language being Greek. The majority of the middle and upper class citizens were bilingual, and in fact, some preferred their second language. John could speak and write Greek very well” (“The Source New Testament”, p. 163).
So Professor Ehrman is once again seen to be going the wrong way in his efforts to account for the discrepancies and other problems found in the New Testament. He could have researched more widely and consequently interpreted them in an orthodox way as evangelical scholars do, but he has chosen to go down the path of scepticism and has lost his faith. This is a tragedy.
Bart Ehrman has been deceived and, as do many other professing Christians who have also been deceived into abandoning Jesus, has taken it upon himself to pass on the deception to others, rob them of their faith and murder their souls; and he must pay the price for causing many of Jesus’ “little ones” i.e. Christians, to lose their faith. Whoever touches them, God warns, “….he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye” (Zech 2:8).
References
Blomberg, C. L. “The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel”, 2001, pub. Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England
Ehrman, Prof B. “Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them)” 2010, p 16-17, by Bart Ehrman, publ., HarperCollins Publishers, NY
Nyland, Dr. A, 2007, “The Source New Testament”, Translation and notes by Dr. A. Nyland. Copyright by Anne Maxwell-Nithsdale Nyland 2004, 2007, publ. Smith and Stirling Publishing, Australia.