On Dave the Potter, a Literate Slave in Edgefield SC, and Anti-Literacy Laws (3/25/26)

Persons interested in the history of Greenwood SC probably already know that “Greenwood County was formed in 1897 from portions of Abbeville and Edgefield counties,” Wikipedia, here. This segues into today’s post on Dave the Potter inspired by Their Ancestor Was an Enslaved Potter. They Are Battling to Recover His Legacy (New York Times 3/25/26), here gift article. The featured artist in the article is Dave the Potter who was a slave in Edgefield County SC and a respected potter whose works are now in the 21^st Century gathering more attention. See e.g., this YouTube video titled Hear Us Now: Poets Respond to Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, here. Dave the Potter was inducted in the South Carolina Hall of Fame. See e.g., YouTube video titled Dave the Potter | South Carolina Hall of Fame, here.

As an aside, Gemini (Google’s AI Tool) says that Dave the Potter did not live and create his pottery in the portion of Edgefield SC split off into Greenwood SC.

One interesting fact is that Dave the Potter could read and write at a time when it was a crime to teach slaves to read and write. I asked Gemini (Google’s AI Tool) “Why did some southern states prohibit teaching slaves to read and write?” The response Gemini offered was:

Thoughts on Bart Ehman's Book Love Thy Neighbor (3/22/26; 4/2/26)

Added 4/2/26 910:00am: Ross Douthat, the NYT sort of Christian conservative editorialist, interviews Bart Ehrman on facets of this story. I offer here a "gift article" permitting peope to read the article and, hopefully, the comments many of which are great. Can We Trust the New Testament?: A Christian and a self-described Christian Atheist debate (NYT 4/2/26), here. The article, a transcription of a podcast discussion, is quite long, but rewarding for those with the interest to work through it. And some of the comments are quite good. Here is an example of a comment that ties into my blog entry and my disagreement with Ehrman that Jesus introduced something radically new:

First comment:

Jesus was only preaching what he learned as an observant Jew Leviticus 19:33-34: "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Second comment:

I am a Jew who worked for a number of years in an Episcopal School. Listening to the New Testament being read, and sitting through worship services, I realized that the historic Jesus was very much a Jew, and that what he taught were basic Jewish values. He wanted Jews to be better Jews, to get back to basic principles. What my Episcopal colleagues thought of as unique values in their faith were simply what Jesus learned as a practicing Jew, but they did not know that. I began to think of Jesus as perhaps the first Reform Jew. I struggled to understand how Christianity evolved from who the historic Jesus was, and then I discovered the brilliant scholar of early Christianity, Elaine Pagels. After a lecture of hers, I posed this question: "Would Jesus have called himself a Christian?" She said absolutely not. He was born, lived and died a Jew. He taught Judaism to Jews. Pagels also wrote about how Christians began to scapegoat Jews and portray them negatively (as is clear in the Gospels) as a way of attracting converts. Most enlightening.YES! I am a Jew who worked for a number of years in an Episcopal School. Listening to the New Testament being read, and sitting through worship services, I realized that the historic Jesus was very much a Jew, and that what he taught were basic Jewish values. He wanted Jews to be better Jews, to get back to basic principles. What my Episcopal colleagues thought of as unique values in their faith were simply what Jesus learned as a practicing Jew, but they did not know that. I began to think of Jesus as perhaps the first Reform Jew. I struggled to understand how Christianity evolved from who the historic Jesus was, and then I discovered the brilliant scholar of early Christianity, Elaine Pagels. After a lecture of hers, I posed this question: "Would Jesus have called himself a Christian?" She said absolutely not. He was born, lived and died a Jew. He taught Judaism to Jews. Pagels also wrote about how Christians began to scapegoat Jews and portray them negatively (as is clear in the Gospels) as a way of attracting converts. Most enlightening.

Now the following is the original posting on 3/22/26:

Since Friday, Irene and I have attended sessions at the Virginia Festival of the Book here in Charlottesville. Yesterday, we went to a Bart Ehrman event. Bart Ehrman, Wikipedia here, is a prominent biblical scholar. Wikipedia opens with: “Bart Denton Ehrman (born October 5, 1955) is an American New Testament scholar whose research focuses on the textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity.” I have been a fan of Ehrman’s for many years and have read many of his books.

Yesterday’s event was titled “Love Thy Neighbor.” As often with such events, the speaker was promoting a book: Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West, here. The central claim of this book, as Professor Ehrman presented it, is that Jesus’ message was a radical departure from the Hebrew religion in the Second Temple period in which Jesus preached/taught. That central claim does not sound right to me. My background is that I have spent inordinate amounts of time on the Hebrew Bible, principally the Torah, through over 20 years of attending weekly Torah Study. At the end of the event, I told Professor Ehrman that I think he overstates his claim; in effect that he gave Jesus too much credit, that Jesus was a Jew, and that Jesus just spun the Torah as Jesus understood it. I think what Jesus did do through a process of spinning by his followers over the years to make the Hebrew Bible message palatable to non-Jews. But in terms of core moral imperatives, there is and has been more likeness than difference between Jews and Christians. In that sense, the radical message was in the Hebrew Bible.

This morning, I submitted the issue to Microsoft CoPilot AI tool. CoPilot answers in the first person ("I"). (I leave the font and presentation as presented in CoPilot; also, the only source I cited was Erhman's book; the CoPilot results are consistent with the scholarship of which I am aware):

Here is a clear, scholarly critique of Bart Ehrman’s claim in Love Thy Stranger that Jesus “expanded” the Hebrew Bible’s ethic by universalizing love of the stranger. I’ll ground the critique in mainstream biblical scholarship and in the Hebrew Bible’s own legal and ethical traditions, and I’ll use the sources you provided.

⭐ Summary Critique

Ehrman is right that Jesus radicalized the practice of enemy‑love and unconditional altruism, but he overstates the discontinuity with the Hebrew Bible. The Torah already commands love for the gēr (resident alien) without ethnic or religious qualification, and Second Temple Judaism already contained universalist strands. Jesus intensifies, dramatizes, and prioritizes these themes—but he does not invent them.

1. What Ehrman Claims

From the publisher’s summary and his public comments, Ehrman argues:

• The Hebrew Bible’s “love your neighbor” ethic was inward‑facing, focused on one’s own community.
• Jesus introduced a new, revolutionary obligation to love strangers and enemies unconditionally.
• This ethic transformed Western moral consciousness.

This is the thesis critics on his blog are responding to.

GHS 60 Alumni Reunion on June 8, 2026 (3/16/26)

To the Greenwood High School Class of 1960 Alumni:

After last year’s successful reunion, a decision was made to have another reunion this year. The reunion will be on June 8, 2026, at Port Grill on Lake Greenwood, here (formerly the Dock) starting at 4:30 pm. There will be a $15 per person charge that covers food. Drinks will be separately charged and paid.

For planning purposes, it will be helpful for those intending to advise  in advance if you plan to attend. You can do that by emailing me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com and I will forward it to the Pat Henderson Brooks who is the principal mover on this reunion.