Mister Emu,
I apologize for being vague on my part in reference to the tomb. I can see where you'd get your assumption.
I can see why you'd ask about "prophecies" here. Here are some odd examples of prophecies (foretelling) in the OT. First, look at David, where the Psalms are simultaneously prophecy. Who would have thought, before Christ, that the 22nd Psalm was a prophecy? Another is the battle of Joshua (his name in Greek is Jesus, so that's important), where Moses stood up on a hill. Whenever Moses' arms were outstretched, the Israelites won, but when they fell, they lost. In that way, Joshua (Jesus) conquered the enemies of the people of God by the sign of the cross. There are numerous other prophesies, but it really comes down to this: the whole OT is one big prophecy, and then, the NT is. A prophecy is simply telling forth the will of God, whether it is the future, or a miraculous word on the present. By this, II Peter 1.21 covers the whole of Scripture.
Hopefully, that makes some sense of the logic behind my post there
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Education, now. I was taught that as well as a Protestant, but later I began to think about it. In the ancient world, books were copied entirely by hand. In order to buy a single book, you would have to employ a scribe to do it, and it may well have taken a whole year to do so. Obviously, he would need food, shelter, and other necessities. So would his family. Add up the costs, and it comes to an exhorbitant amount.
Now, consider that the average person struggled just to get bread or cheap fish. How would they have been able to afford a single book in order to teach their children? They could do it in synagogues, but even then, we couldn't expect the poor synagogues to have one. Those that did, probably didn't let every member use it, except during the services.
Now, I have no problem imagining them learning to read, but educating themselves like I was taught, and I think you are thinking of? It wouldn't happen. The costs were too prohibitive. Even some churches in the Early Church would have been without Bibles for a long while, and for this reason, books were chained in libraries and churches in the Middle Ages.
Given that, I doubt that the Apostles, men from the very bottom of society, would have had access to the necessary tools to learn. This reality extended into the Greek world, where the same problem existed. Christianity drew its converts from the poorest of society at first, almost overwhelmingly. It was, thus, logistically impossible for them to have many academically educated men.
On the "unstable," I believe what I say from the context both of the passage and the era. In the context, all the vitriol is directed towards the heretics. I would have trouble imagining them being slow, or mentally slow. They used cunning and devious words, according to the book. Similar problems are addressed by James. The Gnostics also valued "intellect" over the other attributes of men, and believed that was our spirit while the material was corrupt, less real, or some other thing. Given their fascination with intellect, I doubt their leaders would have been slow or simple (one does not have to be educated to be cunning, quick, or devious). I can't say anything about mental illness, but that would seem an anachronism to me.
However, even with your treatment of the issue, it leads to the same point I went to, albeit in a slower, more round-about way. The "slow" people (I'm trying to think of a term that isn't mean, and I'm not coming up with one) would need somebody to guide their interpretation and application. There, Scripture alone, is no longer sufficient. Once the can of worms is opened, it is hard to close. Does a newbie need heavy guidance? What about the average parishoner? The list keeps going up. Ultimately, we would have to establish a wholly arbitrary line.
Thanks for the post
. I enjoyed it. I'll close with a fun story on the books thing. I'm telling it from memory, so it's going to have some errors. Still, it pertains directly to what I said on books and price.
Once, a young scholar encountered a holy elder, and he invited the man to sup with him, so that he could learn from him. The elder, upon entering his house noticed that it was lined with books. In horror, he recoiled and fled. When the young man saw this, he hastened after the elder, and asked him, "Please, give me a word before you leave, that I may be edified." The old man replied, "You line your walls with the food and clothes of widows and orphans," on account of the fact that the young scholar had many books.
