How could any of Jesus’ disciples write biblical books in Greek if they were all illiterate?

Some skeptics say that almost everyone in Jesus’ ministry context was illiterate, including His disciples. This misconception fuels the suspicion that the New Testament must contain forgeries. After all, Matthew couldn’t have written the Gospel that bears his name if he couldn’t read or write at all (let alone compose a literary work in Greek).

But is it really so unlikely that some of Jesus’ disciples could read and write? The Mishnah and the Dead Sea Scrolls show us that Jews taught their children to read and even encouraged young girls to learn Greek. Interesting fact: After the war with Rome, the Mishnah prohibited teaching children Greek. But this sounds like a reaction to Jews who were already teaching their kids Greek!

What about the disciples’ immediate context? It was more diverse than most skeptics think. For example, Matthew referred to the “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt. 4:15), and many Gentiles spoke Greek. Four disciples even had Greek names: Philip, Andrew (Peter’s brother), Thaddeus, and Bartholomew. Why would their parents give them Greek names if that culture hadn’t influenced their families?

Fishermen, tax collectors, and others in Galilee probably knew Greek, too. Matthew the tax collector had to be bilingual to some extent since he worked with the Romans and dealt with Jews from the diaspora. Zebedee was probably not illiterate because he owned a fishing fleet and would have to keep business records. Italian excavators have also discovered what may well be Peter’s house in Capernaum (a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee). The remains show that it had a bit more square footage than other homes—not the dwelling place of an illiterate peasant.

Even on historical ground, it’s not a stretch to believe that Matthew and Peter could read and write in Greek. Most of the disciples were probably bilingual to some degree, and at least some of them could read and write. It’s also easy to believe that their commitment to Jesus’ Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) would have compelled them to do everything they could to share the gospel, even growing in their abilities to write in Greek. Misconceptions about the literacy of the disciples provide no good reason to claim that the New Testament must contain forgeries.