I suspect Harris' point is that they couldn't read Koine Greek, either.
Literacy is a skill and it is a relatively expensive skill to attain. There has to be an immediate need for it. An olive grower in the hills of Attica would have precious little need for literacy. Daylight hours were spent working on the farm and night hours were spent sleeping and eating. Only the rich could afford books...which had to be hand-copied until Gutenberg...and only they had the leisure time to read them.
There are primarily agricultural subsistence-level societies today...they don't spend their time reading.
Literacy is a skill and it is a relatively expensive skill to attain. There has to be an immediate need for it. An olive grower in the hills of Attica would have precious little need for literacy. Daylight hours were spent working on the farm and night hours were spent sleeping and eating. Only the rich could afford books...which had to be hand-copied until Gutenberg...and only they had the leisure time to read them.
There are primarily agricultural subsistence-level societies today...they don't spend their time reading.
