In deed we are. There is much about everyday life of the times that is unknown today. Peter was obviously not educated in the polished and elegant way Paul was (Peter being “ordinary and unlettered”) but write he did and movingly so.
How would Peter, and others like him, have learned to read?
Jewish tradition and Torah placed the responsibility for educating a son squarely on the shoulders of the father.
Would he hire a copyist? Do it himself? Would a priest do so? Send the boy to an informal “school”?
The exact means is not always clear but literacy, at least for males, was connected with obedience to God in Israel. “Write ye this song...” (Deut. 31:19)
“Peter? A fisherman? Unlikely” Being a very devote Jew why “unlikely”?
Where that 97% figure comes from I've no idea but consider some ancient libraries like the one found at Ugarit in Syria. It dates from around the 1300-1400 b.c. or the vast library of Ashurbanipal of the 7th. cen. b.c.
This collection of tablets numbered 20 to 30 thousand and covered everything from the most sacred to the most mundane of commercial notes and recipes. Clearly many people were scratching bills and notes of all kinds on shards and clay tablets routinely.
And what was the occupation of one the most honored men of Jewish history? A copyist, name of Ezra.
The motivation to read God's word for ones self is and was a powerful motivation to learn to read.
The father was a fisherman and educated his sons in fishing. Have you been to Temple? How much reading is done? How much listening? How much praying? The Jewish oral tradition is amongst the best in history. Except for the priestly class, only the upper class could claim any considerable level of literacy.
I would ask anyone more knowledgeable than I about this era to chip in, if you would.
Where that 97% figure comes from I've no idea but consider some ancient libraries like the one found at Ugarit in Syria. It dates from around the 1300-1400 b.c. or the vast library of Ashurbanipal of the 7th. cen. b.c. This collection of tablets numbered 20 to 30 thousand and covered everything from the most sacred to the most mundane of commercial notes and recipes. Clearly many people were scratching bills and notes of all kinds on shards and clay tablets routinely.
97% of primitive societies' population were existence agrarians or artisans. They had no time or money to be educated.
The motivation to read God's word for ones self is and was a powerful motivation to learn to read.
The leap to literacy was spurred on by Gutenberg's press, sure.