Matthew 21:42

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KJV

42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?


See Mark 2:24-28, in which Jesus reasons from the story of King David that he himself is Lord of the Sabbath. His accusation is similar — "Have ye never read? . . . ".

These verses, reinforced by this insulting rhetorical question, are evidence that the Lord Jesus himself expected high level literacy to be applied to Scripture, beyond dogmatic "plain reading". Cf. the discussion at Questions if Genesis is not Literal: this verse is cited here.

In Matthew 12:1-8 he asks the rhetorical question twice, and then follows up with "if you had known what this means, . . .  "