EDUCATION
EDUCATION.
—
In
theimportance
whichthey
attached
to
the
education
of
the
young,
it
may
fairly
be
claimed
that
the
Hebrews
were
faciie
princeps
among
the
nations
of
antiquity.
Indeed,
if
the
ultimate
aim
of
education
be
the
formation
of
character,
the
Hebrew
ideals
and
methods
will
bear
comparison
with
the
best
even
of
modem
times.
In
character
Hebrew
education
was
predominantly,
one
might
almost
say
exclusively,
religious
and
ethical.
Its
fundamental
principle
may
be
expressed
in
the
familiar
words:
'The
fear
of
the
Lord
is
the
beginning
of
knowledge'
(Pr
1').
Yet
it
recognized
that
conduct
was
the
true
test
of
character;
In
the
words
of
Simeon,
the
son
of
Gamaliel,
that
'
not
learning
but
doing
is
the
chief
thing.'
As
to
the
educational
attainments
of
the
Hebrews
before
the
conquest
of
Canaan,
it
is
useless
to
speculate.
On
their
settlement
in
Canaan,
however,
they
were
brought
into
contact
with
a
civilization
which
for
two
thousand
years
or
more
had
been
under
the
influence
of
Babylonia
and
in
a
less
degree
of
Egypt.
The
language
of
Babylonia,
with
its
complicated
system
of
wedge-
writing,
had
for
long
been
the
medium
of
com.inunication
not
only
between
the
rulers
of
the
petty
states
of
Canaan
and
the
great
powers
outside
its
borders,
but
even,
as
we
now
know
from
SeUin's
discoveries
at
Taanach,
between
these
rulers
themselves.
This
implies
the
existence
of
some
provision
for
instruction
in
reading
and
writing
the
difficult
Babylonian
script.
Although
in
this
early
period
such
accomplishments
were
probably
confined
to
a
Umited
number
of
high
officials
and
professional
scribes,
the
incident
in
Gideon's
experience,
Jg
8"
(where
we
must
render
with
RVm
'wrote
down'),
warns
us
against
unduly
restricting
the
number
of
those
able
to
read
and
write
in
the
somewhat
later
period
of
the
Judges.
The
more
stable
political
conditions
under
the
monarchy,
and
in
particular
the
development
of
the
administration
and
the
growth
of
commerce
under
Solomon,
must
un-doubtedly
have
furthered
the
spread
of
education
among
all
classes.
Of
schools
and
schoolmasters,
however,
there
Is
no
evidence
till
after
the
Exile,
for
the
expression
'
schools
of
the
prophets""
has
no
Scripture
warrant.
Only
once,
Indeed,
is
the
word
'school'
to
be
found
even
in
NT
(Ac
19'),
and
then
only
of
the
lecture-room
of
a
Greek
teacher
in
Ephesus.
The
explanation
of
this
silence
is
found
in
the
fact
that
the
Hebrew
child
received
his
education
in
the
home,
with
his
parents
as
his
only
in-structors.
Although
he
grew
up
ignorant
of
much
that
'
every
school-boy
'
knows
to-day,
he
must
not
on
that
account
be
set
down
as
uneducated.
He
had
been
instructed,
first
of
all.
In
the
truths
of
his
ancestral
religion
(see
Dt
6*"-2s
and
elsewhere);
and
in
the
ritual
of
the
recurring
festivals
there
was
provided
for
him
object-lessons
in
history
and
religion
(Ex
122«'-
IS^-
").
In
the
traditions
of
his
family
and
race
—
some
of
which
are
still
preserved
in
the
older
parts
of
OT
—
he
had
a
unique
storehouse
of
the
highest
ideals
of
faith
and
conduct,
and
these
after
all
are
the
things
that
matter.
Descending
the
stream
of
history,
we
reach
an
epoch-
making
event
in
the
history
of
education,
not
less
than
of
religion,
among
the
Jews,
in
the
assembly
convened
by
Ezra
and
Nehemiah
(Neh
8'"),
at
which
the
people
pledged
themselves
to
accept
'the
book
of
the
law
of
Moses'
as
the
norm
of
their
life
in
all
its
relations.
Henceforward
the
Jews
were
pre-eminently,
in
Moham-med's
phrase,
'the
people
of
the
Book.'
But
If
the
Jewish
community
was
henceforth
to
regulate
its
whole
life,
not
according
to
the
living
word
of
priest
and
prophet,
but
according
to
the
requirements
of
a
written
law,
it
was
indispensable
that
provision
should
be
made
for
the
instruction
of
all
classes
in
this
law.
To
this
practical
necessity
Is
due
the
origin
of
the
synagogue
(wh.
see),
which,
from
the
Jewish
point
of
view,
was
essentially
a
meeting-place
for
religious
instruction,
and,
indeed,
is
expressly
so
named
by
Philo.
In
NT
also
the
preacher
or
expounder
in
the
synagogue
is
in
variably
EDUCATION
I
said
to
'teach'
(Mt
4^3,
Mk
1'^,
and
passim),
and
the
education
of
youth
continues
to
the
last
to
be
associated
with
the
synagogue
(see
below).
The
situation
created
by
this
new
zeal
for
the
Law
has
been
admirably
de-scribed
by
Wellhausen:
'The
Bible
became
the
spelling-
book,
the
community
a
school.
.
.
.
Piety
and
educa-tion
were
inseparable;
whoever
could
not
read
was
no
true
Jew.
We
may
say
that
in
this
way
were
created
the
beginnings
of
popular
education.'
This
new
educational
movement
was
under
the
guidance
of
a
body
of
students
and
teachers
of
the
Law
known
as
the
SOpherim
(lit.
'book-men')
or
scribes,
of
whom
Ezra
is
the
typical
example
(Ezr
7°).
Alongside
these,
if
not
identical
with
them,
as
many
hold,
we
find
an
influential
class
of
religious
and
moral
teachers,
known
as
the
Sages
or
the
Wise,
whose
activity
cul-minates
in
the
century
preceding
the
fall
of
the
Persian
empire
(B.C.
430-330).
The
arguments
for
the
identity
in
all
important
respects
of
the
early
scribes
and
the
sages
are
given
by
the
present
writer
in
Hastings'
DB
1.
648
;
but
even
if
the
two
classes
were
originally
distinct,
there
can
be
no
doubt
that
by
the
time
of
Jesus
ben
Sira,
the
author
of
Ecclesiasticus
(dr.
B.C.
180-170),
himself
a
scribe
and
the
last
of
the
sages,
they
had
become
merged
in
one.
To
appreciate
the
religious
and
ethical
teaching
of
the
sages,
we
have
only
to
open
the
Book
of
Proverbs.
Here
life
is
pictured
as
a
discipline,
the
Hebrew
word
for
which
is
found
thirty
times
in
this
book.
'The
whole
of
life,'
it
has
been
said,
'is
here
considered
from
the
view-point
of
a
psedagogic
institution.
God
educates
men,
and
men
educate
each
other'
(O.
Holtzmann).
With
the
coming
of
the
Greeks
a
new
educational
force
in
the
shape
of
Hellenistic
culture
entered
Pales-
tine
—
a
force
which
made
itself
felt
in
many
directions
in
the
pre-Maccabean
age.
From
a
reference
in
Josephus
(Ant.
XII.
iv.
6)
it
may
be
inferred
that
schools
on
the
Greek
model
had
been
established
in
Jerusalem
itself
before
B.C.
220.
It
was
somewhere
in
this
period,
too,
that
the
preacher
could
say:
'Of
making
many
books
there
Is
no
end
;
and
much
study
is
a
weariness
of
the
flesh'
(Ec
12'2)
—
reflexions
which
necessarily
presuppose
a
wide-spread
interest
in
intellectual
pursuits.
The
edict
of
Antiochus
Epiphanes
at
a
later
date
(1
Mac
1")
equally
implies
a
considerable
circulation
of
the
Torah
among
the
people,
with
the
ability
to
proflt
by
its
study.
Passing
now,
as
this
brief
sketch
requires,
to
the
period
of
Jewish
history
that
lies
between
the
triumph
of
the
Maccabees
and
the
end
of
the
Jewish
State
in
A.D.
70,
we
flnd
a
tradition
—
there
is
no
vaUd
reason
for
rejecting
it
as
untrustworthy
—
which
illustrates
the
extent
to
which
elementary
education,
at
least,
was
fostered
under
the
later
Maccabean
princes.
A
famous
scribe
of
the
period
(ctr.
b.c.
75),
Simon
ben-Shetach,
brother
of
Queen
Alexandra,
is
said
to
have
got
a
law
passed
ordaining
that
'the
children
shall
attend
the
elementary
school.'
This
we
understand
on
various
grounds
to
mean,
not
that
these
schools
were
first
instituted,
but
that
attendance
at
them
was
henceforth
to
be
compulsory.
The
elementary
school,
termed
'the
house
of
the
Book'
(i.e.
Scripture),
in
opposition
to
'the
house
of
study'
or
college
of
the
scribes
(see
below),
was
always
closely
associated
with
the
syna-gogue.
In
the
smaller
places,
indeed,
the
same
building
served
for
both.
The
elementary
teachers,
as
we
may
call
them,
formed
the
lowest
rank
in
the
powerful
guild
of
the
scribes.
They
are
'the
doctors
(lit.
teachers)
of
the
law,'
who,
in
our
Lord's
day,
were
to
be
found
in
'
every
village
of
GaUlee
and
Judeea'
(Lk
5"
RV),
and
who
figure
so
fre-quently
in
the
Gospels.
Attendance
at
the
elementary
school
began
at
the
age
of
six.
Already
the
boy
had
learned
to
repeat
the
Shema
("Hear,
O
Israel,'
etc.,
Dt
6*),
selected
proverbs
and
verses
from
the
Psalms.
He
now
began
to
learn
to
read.
His
only
textbooks
were
the
rolls
of
the
sacred
Scriptures,
especially
the
