Were the Gospel Writers Illiterate? (Acts 4:13)

Were They Not Illiterate?

Acts 4:13 - LSB

¹³ Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

For one thing, nobody is actually claiming that a fisherman wrote the Gospel. What the title is claiming is that the Gospel was authored by an ex-fisherman who first became a student of arguably the most influential Jewish rabbi in history and later became an apostle and evangelist. Indeed, if the Gospel of John was written toward the end of his life (which, as we will see, is what most ancient Christians believed), then he would have had some five or six decades of practice preaching and teaching about Jesus in Judea and the Greek diaspora before ever setting down a single word.

Moreover, although the apostle John is certainly described as “uneducated” (Acts 4:13), this may not mean that he was completely unable to read and write. In context, the description of Peter and John is presented in contrast to the figures of the Jewish leaders and the “scribes” (Greek grammateis):

Acts 4:5-6, 13 - LSB

⁵ Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; ⁶ and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. ¹³ Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

Lastly, even if Acts is describing John as unable to read and write, he still could have authored the Gospel attributed to him by using the common first-century (and twenty-first-century) custom of dictating to a secretary. For example, even the apostle Paul, who was certainly literate, dictated the letter to the Romans to the scribe Tertius (Romans 16:22). Many other examples could be given showing the use of both secretaries (1 Corinthians 16:21; Galatians 6:11-18) and co-authors (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Philemon 1:1). As Richard Bauckham points out, the description of the Beloved Disciple as having “written” the Gospel (John 21:24) could refer to “the dictation of a text to a scribe,”¹ In fact, some ancient Christians believed just that: that John’s Gospel had been dictated.

References / Sources

• Pitre, B. (2016). The Case for Jesus (p. 38).

Footnotes

1. Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses , 362. ↩︎