Students, Teachers, and Writers
To be Christian teachers, the disciples needed not only to know what Jesus said and did but also to understand how the Law and prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures applied to the Christ. (
Acts 18:5) Interestingly, Luke recorded one meeting Jesus had with some of his disciples shortly after his resurrection. What did Jesus do? “Commencing at Moses and all the Prophets he interpreted to them things pertaining to himself in all the Scriptures.” Shortly thereafter, Jesus told the disciples: “‘These are my words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms about me must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened up their minds fully to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures.” (
Luke 24:27, 44, 45) Later, the disciples “called to mind” the insight Jesus had given them.—
John 12:16.
These accounts suggest that the apostles and disciples must have applied themselves diligently to searching and studying the Scriptures so that they could fully understand the meaning of what they saw and heard with regard to their Lord, Jesus Christ. (
Luke 1:1-4; Acts 17:11) On this, Harry Y. Gamble, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, writes: “It can hardly be doubted that from the beginning there were Christians, probably groups of them, who devoted themselves to the close study and interpretation of Jewish scripture, constructing from it the textual warrants [proofs] of Christian convictions and making those texts serviceable for Christian preaching.”
All of this indicates that rather than depending solely on oral transmission, Jesus’ early disciples were very much involved in studying, reading, and writing. They were students, teachers, and writers. Above all, they were spiritual men who relied on the holy spirit to guide them. Jesus assured them that “the spirit of the truth” would ‘bring back to their minds all the things he had told them.’ (
John 14:17, 26) God’s holy spirit helped them both to remember and to put into writing what Jesus did and said, even lengthy quotations, such as the Sermon on the Mount. (
Matthew, chapters 5-7) The spirit also guided the Gospel writers in recording what Jesus at times felt and what he said in prayer.—
Matthew 4:2; 9:36; John 17:1-26.
So while the Gospel writers doubtless made use of both oral and written sources, the things they recorded had a far more reliable and supremely elevated source—Jehovah God himself. Hence, we may have absolute confidence that “all Scripture is inspired of God” and can teach and guide us in doing the things pleasing to him.—
2 Timothy 3:16.
Were the Apostles Illiterate?
When the rulers and older men of Jerusalem “beheld the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were men unlettered and ordinary, they got to wondering.” (
Acts 4:13) Were the apostles really unlettered, or illiterate? Regarding this assertion,
The New Interpreter’s Bible comments: “These terms are probably not to be taken literally as though Peter [and John] were unschooled and could not write or read. They simply recognize the profound difference in social class between those sitting in judgment and the apostles.”
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