that most people, when they wanted something written down, made use of a scribe, a professional writer. Normally such skills would be required for very practical documents—contracts, wills, business letters, marriage documents, and the like. The books of the New Testament are none of these. But in a largely oral culture with much illiteracy it is not surprising that scribes, called amanuenses, were available most anywhere and could take down almost any kind of document for a fee. Yet we must not