Hi Fred,
The serfs of antiquity probably didn't have access to many of these texts in any form (written or oral). I agree that some (perhaps many) were able to put to memory sections of Scripture.
There's no question that folks were able to meditate on things they had heard but that's a different thing than private persons in the ancient world, before printing, before universal literacy, owning and reading a text that wasn't as widely available as we know it today.
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Originally Posted by fredtgreco  Quote:
Originally Posted by Davidius Quote:
Originally Posted by R. Scott Clark Where exactly does Paul speak explicitly or implicitly about the private reading of Scripture by private persons? When did 1st century Christians get personal copies of Holy Scripture? | Woohoo!! I've been booed off threads several times for saying that the bible doesn't say anything about the necessity of private scripture reading by private persons, but maybe it will get some people thinking to hear it from the mouth of one whom they respect more, since people often magically see the validity of an argument when it comes from Y's mouth, whom they think is cool, instead of X's.   
Sorry, I know it's a little  . Neverthless, get my back next time we have a discussion about pietistic rituals and extra-biblical discipline made necessary for sanctification! | I suppose that we should also argue that no one ever read (or should have read) Cicero, Homer, Plato, Livy or Sallust either. It is basically the same reason: cost and availability. We might also realize that the common man in those days could memorize huge blocks of material (like a whole book of Homer, or a Pauline epistle) without being able to read at all. |