Just how stupid were the ancient Israelites?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

When literacy became a more common reality

But that did not even begin to happen until the invention of the printing press.  In antiquity only the elites could read and even fewer could write.

Remember how it was during slavery times in America?  The slavers wanted the slaves to believe in the biblical fairy tale so that they would be good compliant slaves.  But they wouldn't teach them how to read so that they could read the fairy tale for themselves.  In fact it was illegal to do so.  They just wanted the slaves to believe in the fairy tale based on what they were told so that they wouldn't cause any trouble because zombie Jesus wouldn't like that.  It was excellent brainwashing.

Oh, and the Catholic church forbade the common Catholics from even reading the Bible for about a thousand years.