What were the formative years of Jesus like? Is there anything we can really know about what they call “the hidden years”? Could he read and write? What level of education did he have? What languages did he speak? Jim McPolin SJ looks at these questions.
Can anything be reported about the formative years of Jesus? A biography of Jesus in the modern sense cannot he written because we are dealing with a man who died in his mid-thirties and whose first thirty-two years or so are almost completely unknown and unknowable.
Some answers
Writers refer to the in-between years of Jesus’ life, between his childhood and his public ministry, as the ‘hidden years’ of his life or his ‘hidden life’. They claim that we just have to pass over those years because of our lack of knowledge. It is true that the Gospels have little to say about them but does this mean that we must pass over them? There are some questions we must ask and recent studies can give us some answers.
The language of Jesus
For example, what language did Jesus speak? Since the adult Jesus became an itinerant preacher traversing Palestine, especially Galilee (north) and Judea (south) and since he obviously wished to be understood by his audience which was largely made up of ordinary Palestinian Jews, Jesus would have spoken whatever was the language commonly used by ordinary Jews in their daily lives in Palestine. What language was that?
Palestine in the days of Jesus was a quadrilingual country, that is, four languages were spoken, namely, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. Latin, the most recent language on the Palestinian scene, was also the least used. It was employed almost exclusively by, for, and among Roman officials. The Romans gladly used Latin in inscriptions placed on public buildings and works. They were blissfully unconcerned that the vast majority of Jews in Palestine could not understand the Latin phrases. The very presence of a Latin text in Palestine proclaimed Roman domination.
We also find Latin inscriptions on tombstones of Roman soldiers who died in Palestine. Latin was at home in the seats of power, but certainly not in a Galilean village. There is no reason to think that Jesus ever spoke, much less read, Latin – the language employed almost exclusively by the Roman conquerors.
Greek culture
Greek was another matter. After the conquest by Alexander the Great (third century BC) Greek culture and language made increasing inroads in Palestine. The Palestinian Judaism of Jesus’ day was known as Hellenistic Judaism. Some new Greek cities were founded in Palestine. Greek culture and language affected Jews, especially in Jerusalem (where about 16,000 people spoke Greek). But the chances of a Galilean peasant knowing enough Greek to become a successful teacher and preacher seem slim.
None of this, however, proves that Jesus knew and used absolutely no Greek. Probably the demands of business and trade, as well as the general need to communicate with the larger world made some use of Greek necessary at times, even in the case of conservative peasants.
Did Jesus speak Greek?
But exactly how much Greek would have been employed by the average Galilean peasant is hard to estimate. In his woodworking establishment Jesus may have had occasion to pick up enough Greek to strike bargains and write receipts. Regular pilgrimages by his family to the Hellenized city of Jerusalem would have exposed the youthful Jesus to steady doses of Greek culture and Greek spoken on street corners.
Naturally, such exposure may have helped him gain enough Greek to get through everyday business transactions. It may even be that he had enough Greek to communicate directly with Pilate at his trial. But without a formal education in Greek it is most unlikely that Jesus ever learned enough of that language to be able to teach or preach at length in it. Thus, as he learned his trade of a woodworker he would have found it useful or even necessary to acquire some Greek phrases for business purposes.
His ‘native’ language
But if, as John’s Gospel indicates, Jesus often went to Jerusalem, which had become thoroughly Hellenized, what language did he use when teaching in the temple? There are reasons for doubting that Jesus knew enough Greek to teach effectively in that language. The most probable opinion is that Jesus regularly, and perhaps exclusively, taught in Aramaic, his Greek being of a practical, business type and perhaps very elementary.
Perhaps one of his disciples with a Greek name and possible Greek background – like Andrew or Phillip – could have acted as interpreter for Jesus.
Aramaic
Hebrew, the ancient and sacred language of Israel, suffered great decline in popular use after the Babylonian exile and the return of the Jews to Palestine. Jesus would have learned Hebrew in the Nazareth synagogue or a nearby school and he probably used it at times when debating Scripture with Pharisees or Scribes.
Yet as a teacher who directed himself to the mass of ordinary Jewish peasants whose everyday language was Aramaic, Jesus almost necessarily spoke to, and taught, the people in Aramaic. Some words of Aramaic are found in the text of our Greek Gospels (Mark 5:41 – Talitha, kum! Mark 7:34 – Ephphatha. Mark 14:36 Abba. Mark 15:34 – Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani?). Aramaic was the common language of Palestine in the time of Jesus.
Could Jesus read and write?
Was Jesus literate? What sort of education did he receive? His adversaries state that he had not received an education, that is, he had not studied formally with any great rabbi but he could read and comment on the Scriptures (John 7:15).
He writes on the ground as the Pharisees ask him what was to be done with the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 8:6). But the simple explanation is that Jesus was just drawing lines on the ground to show his lack of interest in, or his disgust with, the excessive zeal of the accusers. Luke mentions that Jesus read in the synagogue but Mark omits this fact in his account (Mk. 6: 1-6; Lk. 4: 16-30).
The probability is that Jesus was in fact literate. The natural conclusion is that during his childhood or early adulthood Jesus was taught how to read and expound the Hebrew Scriptures. This most likely happened or at least began in the synagogue at Nazareth. However, there is no indication of him pursuing higher studies at some urban centre such as Jerusalem (although this seems to be denied in John 7:15).
Jesus’ education
Some writers tend to exaggerate the level of literacy in Palestine in the time of Jesus. Recent studies point to a low standard. We are not to imagine that every Jewish male in Palestine learned to read and women were rarely given the opportunity. Nazareth was a small village of about 2,000 peasants.
Being the firstborn son, Jesus would have been the special object of Joseph’s attention, not only in the matter of teaching the son the father’s trade but also in teaching the son the religious traditions and texts of Judaism.
In a strongly oral culture much could have been conveyed by word-of-mouth teaching. Yet Jesus’ reported skill in debating interpretations of Scripture with pious Pharisees, professional Scribes and Jerusalem authorities in both synagogue and temple would argue for some reading knowledge of the sacred texts, imparted either by Joseph or by some more learned Jew.
Apart from Joseph, the most likely source of education would be the synagogue at Nazareth, which could also have served as a sort of religious elementary school. We can understand the reaction (Mark ch. 6) when Jesus returned as an adult to that same synagogue to teach his peers and elders: ‘Who does he think he is?’
A peasant
In at least one aspect Jesus was atypical of most men and women of the Greco-Roman world in the first century AD. He was literate (that is, able to read and write) and his literacy very probably extended beyond the mere ability to sign one’s name or to conduct basic business transactions to the ability to read quite sophisticated theological and literary works and comment on them. Jesus comes out of a peasant background but he is not an ordinary peasant.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (January 2002), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
