even much literacy prior to the eighth century in Israel, and even less evidence of scribal schools.8 Most scholars would say that the first clear evidence of a bet midrash comes in Ben Sira (cf. Sir. 51:23). Mass literacy is a modern phenomenon. Writing materials in antiquity were often cumbersome and always expensive. Surveys of as literate a culture as ancient Egypt suggest only about a 1–10% degree of literacy. Education was for the well-to-do, and was not cost effective, for most trades required