[Natural Law]

"Contrary to what the Catholic Church would have us believe, the early church fathers were big supporters of having people read and understand the scriptures."

According to researchers at Israel's Bar-Ilan University first century literacy was less than 3%.

Peae be with you

[HarleyD]

According to researchers at Israel's Bar-Ilan University first century literacy was less than 3%.

Yes. And I'm sure people just didn't pick up a scroll down at their local Barnes and Papyrus store. Nevertheless, the early church fathers must have been talking about someone who could read and there must have been mechanisms for studying when they penned their words. Otherwise it would make no sense in who they were talking about. It's almost be like Peter writing letters to people who couldn't read.