TORONTO, Canada - February 16, 2003 — Alan Millard is a scholar; that much is evident from his title alone; Rankin Professor of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool, England.
But he also speaks like a scholar; carefully measuring his words, before he voices them in a rich British accent. He even looks like a scholar; with thoughtful eyes that observe all from beneath prominent, bushy grey eyebrows.
So it seems completely appropriate that he should have authored "Reading and Writing in the time of Jesus" - an erudite book sure to appeal to those who appreciate both quantitative as well as qualitative research and insights.
But Millard is no ordinary academic; rather, he must be a courageous one, who is not afraid to stand alone and apart from his peers. For in publishing his book, he has bucked the dominant theories of twentieth century scholarship about the origins of the Gospels; theories which insist that for years (even decades) after the death and resurrection of Christ, there existed only an oral record of his words and deeds.
It is entirely possible, even probable the Gospels sprang from written reports, recorded in the time of Christ
"Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus", by Professor Alan Millard.
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Published by New York University Press in 2000, Millard's book presents convincing arguments to support his thesis, that contrary to popular consensus, it is entirely possible, even probable, that the Gospels sprang from written reports of the words and deeds of Christ, recorded during (and in circulation from) his lifetime.
The book examines literacy in first century Palestine, and explores who read and who wrote. It also portrays the wide variety of purposes for which writing was used during the time of Jesus, and provides a description of the equally varied tools employed in the task of writing.
Writing tools of Jesus' day: leather, papyrus, waxed tablets and broken pottery
Millard discussed some of those tools, during a November lecture to the Biblical Archaeology Society in Toronto. "Leather and papyrus were the normal writing materials for documents that you wanted to preserve," he said later. "Papyrus had to be imported from Egypt, so you had to pay the cost of that. Leather had to be prepared from the skins of goats and sheep, so there was a cost to that. And that's why they were used for more permanent records."
Among the more cost-effective tools used for note taking and recording data were wooden and waxed tablets. The Professor described them as, "like small picture frames; wooden panels with an edge, and then the middle part was filled with wax so it was always soft and you could write on it." Two such tablets were hinged together, such that they could be folded, wax faces together, but not rubbing.
The tablets were extremely common and came in all sizes, from what would be considered pocket sized today, on up to about a foot high. The smaller ones were often worn by individuals, clipped to their belts for handy note taking. Notes could then be transferred to more permanent materials as desired.
'Dear Mum ... I'll be home late for dinner'
"For little notes and things that you would only keep for a little while, you (could also) use pieces of broken pottery," Millard said. "Ancient pottery was terra cotta ... and they break quite easily, so ancient sites were covered with bits of broken pottery. You could go out into the street or courtyard and write on it, 'Dear Mum, I'll be late home for dinner,' and leave it on the kitchen table when you went out, and when she came in, she'd (read it) and throw it away, and that was that."
Millard's homey example may sound trite, but he insists people of the first century wrote for many of the same reasons we write today. He cites actual writing samples found at a fort in the north of Britain, dating from just after A.D. 100; a note from a soldier requesting a clean change of underwear, and a letter from the wife of a commandant inviting someone to her birthday party. From Egypt, a note left by a young boy for his father, has the child threatening to run away.
'Far more weight should be given to the role of writing in preserving information about Jesus'
In highlighting the prevalence of writing in the time of Christ, Millard leads readers to agree with his book's conclusion that, "The material evidence ... indicate far more weight than has been allowed should be given to the role of writing in preserving information about Jesus of Nazareth from his lifetime onwards and so in forming the Gospel tradition."
But who could have recorded these words and deeds of Christ? Millard's book isn't specific, though when asked, he agreed it's probable that some of the writers would have come from among the 12. "Peter and James and John, the sons of Zebedee were probably not at the bottom of society, (so) I think it's quite likely one of them might have kept some accounts. I think they would all have been capable of reading. But maybe only 4 out of 12 would have been accustomed to writing," he said.
"We don't know much about some of them," the Professor added. "We don't know much about Bartholomew, for example. What he did before he became a disciple ... he might have been a professional scribe, for all we know."
Matthew, the tax collector, could have had his writing instruments always at hand
Millard said it's also highly likely that Matthew, the tax collector, could have had his writing instruments always at hand. "I think he would have had a set of tablets, perhaps hanging from his belt, and would have been able to write on them quite easily," he commented.
The significance of Millard's findings becomes very clear when he explains how important written records would have been to capturing a true and accurate account of Jesus' words and actions.
"Well you know," he reflected, "once something's written down, it's much harder to change, unless you tear it up and throw it away, of course. Whereas, what is said orally can easily be misunderstood, misrepresented, deliberately distorted, exaggerated, expanded. And of course, there's many Gospel scholars think that's what happened. That the Gospels contain a lot of words put in Jesus' mouth by church people after the resurrection."
Professor Alan Millard does not count himself among that particular group of scholars.
'Nothing I find contradicts what the Bible says'
"I am a Christian and the Bible is part of my life. One of the verses I often quote is in Isaiah, chapter 40, 'The flowers fade and the grass withers, but the word of the Lord will stand forever.' Nothing I find contradicts what the Bible says. Occasionally I find something that causes a problem, and there are problems. But usually, the problems arise because there's insufficient evidence to see how to answer them.
"So I'm quite sure that verse is right."
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