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EDUCATION.

The child has always been of paramount importance in Judaism, as the Mishnah and Talmud clearly show in several passages. For that matter, Jesus certainly taught the value of children, in his kindly treatment of them as well as in his instruction regarding them. Because of this, there are a number of source-books for the study of education in the biblical period to be found in the OT, the Apocrypha and the Mishnah; viz. Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom of Solomon and Pirqe Aboth, quite apart from useful allusions in other books. On the other hand, actual details of schooling are few; the word ‘school’ occurs but once in av, and then refers merely to a lecture-room borrowed by Paul (Acts 19:9), not to any Jewish or Christian school.

I. Early links with religion

Three events stand out in the history of Jewish education. They centre on three persons, Ezra, Simon ben-Shetaḥ and Joshua ben-Gamala. It was Ezra who established Scripture (such as it was at the time) as the basis for schooling; and his successors went on to make the synagogue a place of instruction as well as a place of worship. Simon ben-Shetaḥ enacted, about 75 bc, that elementary schooling should be compulsory. Joshua ben-Gamala improved existing organization, appointing teachers in every province and town, a century later. But otherwise it is not easy to date innovations. Even the origins of the synagogue are obscure, though the Exile is a likely time for their rise. Schürer doubts the historicity of Simon ben-Shetaḥ‘s enactment, though most scholars accept it. In any case, Simon did not institute the elementary school, but merely extended its use. Simon and Joshua in no way interfered with existing trends and methods, and indeed Ezra only made more definite the previous linking of religion with everyday life. So it will prove better to divide the topic by subject rather than date, since none of the three men made sweeping changes.

II. The development of schools

The place of learning was exclusively the home in the earliest period, and the tutors were the parents; and teaching in the home continued to play an important part in the whole of the biblical period. As it developed, the synagogue became the place of instruction. Indeed, the NT and Philo support Schürer‘s view that the synagogue’s purpose was primarily instructional, and only then devotional; the synagogue ministry of Jesus consisted in ‘teaching’ (cf. Mt. 4:23). The young were trained in either the synagogue itself or an adjoining building. At a later stage the teacher sometimes taught in his own house, as is evidenced by the Aramaic phrase for ‘school’, bêṯ sāp̱^erâ, literally ‘teacher’s house’. The Temple porticoes, too, proved very useful for rabbis, and Jesus did much of his teaching there (cf. Mt. 26:55). By Mishnaic times, eminent rabbis had their own schools for higher learning. This feature probably started in the time of Hillel and Shammai, the famed 1st century bc rabbis. An elementary school was called bêṯ has-sēp̱er, ‘house of the book’, while a college for higher education was known as bêṯ miḏrāš, ‘house of study’.

III. Teaching as a profession

The first tutors were the parents, as we have seen, except in the case of royal children (cf. 2 Ki. 10:1). The importance of this role is stressed here and there in the Pentateuch, e.g. Dt. 4:9. Even as late as the Talmud, it was still the parent’s responsibility to inculcate the law, to teach a trade and to get his son married. After the period of Ezra, there arose a new profession, that of the scribe (sōp̱ēr), the teacher in the synagogue. The scribes were to change their character by NT times, however. The ‘wise’, or ‘sages’, seem to have been a different guild from the scribes, but their exact nature and function are obscure. The ‘sage’ (ḥāḵām) is, of course, frequently mentioned in Proverbs and later wisdom literature. By the NT period, there were three grades of teacher, the ḥāḵām, the sōp̱ēr and the ḥazzān (‘officer’), in descending order. Nicodemus was presumably of the highest grade, the ‘teachers of the law’ (Lk. 5:17, where the Gk. term is nomodidaskalos) of the lowest. The generic term ‘teacher’ (Heb. m^elammēḏ; Aram. sāp̱^erâ) was usually applied to the lowest grade. But the honorific titles given to teachers (rabbi, etc.) indicate the respect in which they were held. Ideally, they were not to be paid for teaching, but frequently a polite fiction granted them remuneration for time spent instead of services rendered. Ecclus. 38:24f. considers manual labour beneath a teacher’s dignity; besides, leisure is a necessary adjunct to his task. But later on there were many rabbis who learnt a trade. Paul’s views can be seen in 1 Cor. 9:3ff. The Talmud gives stringent rulings about the qualifications of teachers; it is interesting that none of them is academic—they are all moral, except those that prescribe that he must be male and married.

IV. The scope of education

This was not wide in the early period. The boy would learn ordinary moral instruction from his mother, and a trade, usually agricultural, plus some religious and ritual knowledge, from his father. The interplay of religion and agricultural life would have been self-evident at every festival (cf. Lv. 23, passim). The festivals also taught religious history (cf. Ex. 13:8). So even at the earliest period everyday life and religious belief and practice were inseparable. This was the more so in the synagogue, where Scripture became the sole authority for both belief and daily conduct. Life, indeed, was itself considered a ‘discipline’ (Heb. mûsār, a frequent word in Proverbs). Education, then, was and remained religious and ethical, with Pr. 1:7 its motto. To read was essential for the study of Scripture; writing was perhaps lessimportant, although it was known as early as Jdg. 8:14. Basic arithmetic was taught. Languages were not taught per se, but note that, as Aramaic became the vernacular, study of the Heb. Scriptures became a linguistic exercise.

Girls’ education was wholly in their mothers’ hands. They learnt the domestic arts, simple moral and ethical instruction, and they were taught to read in order to become acquainted with the law. Their education was considered important, however, and they were even encouraged to learn a foreign language. King Lemuel’s mother apparently proved an able teacher to him (Pr. 31:1); this chapter also shows the character of the ideal woman.

V. Methods and aims

Methods of instruction were largely by repetition; the Heb. verb šānâ, ‘repeat’, came to mean both ‘learn’ and ‘teach’. Mnemonic devices such as acrostics were therefore employed. Scripture was the textbook, but that other books were not unknown is evidenced by Ec. 12:12. The value of rebuke was known (Pr. 17:10), but an emphasis on corporal chastisement is to be found in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus. But discipline was much milder in Mishnaic times.

Until comparatively late times, it was customary for the pupil to sit on the ground at his teacher’s feet, as did Paul at Gamaliel’s (Acts 22:3). The bench (sap̱sāl) was a later invention.

Jewish education’s whole function was to make the Jew holy, and separate from his neighbours, and to transform the religious into the practical. Such, then, was normal Jewish education; but undoubtedly there were schools after a Gk. pattern, especially in the closing centuries bc, and indeed Ecclesiasticus may have been written to combat deficiencies in such non-Jewish instruction. Hellenistic schools were found even in Palestine, but of course more frequently among Jewish communities elsewhere, notably in Alexandria.

In the infant church child and parent were told how to behave towards one another (Eph. 6:1, 4). Church officers had to know how to rule their own children. There were no Christian schools in early days; for one thing, the church was too poor to finance them. But the children were included in the church fellowship, and doubtless received their training there as well as in the home.

Bibliography. W. Barclay, Educational Ideals in the Ancient World, 1959, chs. I, VI; F. H. Swift, Education in Ancient Israel, 1919; E. B. Castle, Ancient Education and Today, 1961, ch. V; TDNT 5, pp. 596-625; entries s.v. ‘Education’ in IDB and EJ. (*Wisdom; *Wisdom Literature; *Writing.)

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