Hebrew
Education in Ancient Times
by
Dr. Ron Moseley
The
importance of education in ancient Judaism is
clearly seen in the attitude passed down in the
rabbinic dictum that the world is poised on
the breath of schoolchildren. Rabbinic law
still obligates the father to teach his sons Torah,
as well as a trade. The duty to instruct the people
has its roots in the Torah with such precepts
as Deuteronomy 6:7 where the parents are required
to diligently teach the children.
According
to Jewish writings literacy was widespread in
ancient Israel (Judges 8:14). Toward the end of
the First Temple Period there is evidence of formal
religious instruction under the direction of the
Levites (II Chronicles 7:7). The institution by
Ezra of regular public readings of Torah, as well
as the emergence of a non-priestly class of scribes
and scholars, gave a new impetus to education.
The liturgical reading of the Torah was accompanied
by exposition and instruction. According to the
Talmud, Simeon Ben Shetah (103-76 B.C.E.) established
local schools for boys between the ages of 15
and 17, while High Priest Joshua Ben Gamala is
said to have instituted elementary education for
boys from the age of six. Later, higher rabbinic
education was given in the Bet Ha-Midrash,
which was usually close by the synagogue and tended
to overlap in some of its functions. In Babylonia,
non-professional scholars left their farms or
trade for the semi-annual study/retreat known
as Kallah. This was a month during which
study conventions were held in the Babylonian
academies at the time of the amoraim and
geonim. (An attempt to revive the idea
of the Kallah has recently been made by
leading yeshivot in Israel.) Elementary
education was given in the bet ha-sepher school
known later as the heder, which was normally
maintained by the community.
House
of Study
The
Bet Midrash (House of Study) was the main
place for the study of the Law and all interests
that surrounded its investigation. The sanctity
of the bet midrash was considered greater
than that of the synagogue (bet knesset),
and rabbis often preferred to pray in the
bet midrash rather than the synagogue (Ber.
8a). It was here that senior students spent most
of their day, either in individual study or under
the discipline of a rosh yeshivah (elder
rabbi, later known as the academy head). The bet
midrash was also a popular place for general
study. Almost all those who attended the synagogue
for prayer would usually spend some time before
or afterwards in the bet midrash. It served
as the communal library with the best of the literature
concerning the Law and sages.
According
to Jewish tradition, the antiquity of the institution
goes back to the bet midrash established
after the flood by Shem and Eber, where the Patriarchs
are said to have studied. From stories told in
connection with Jacob and Esau, scholars believe
that the proper time for entering the bet midrash
was upon completion of primary education around
the age of 12 or 13. The term bet midrash
is first recorded in Ecclesiasticus 51:50 but
is said to be referred to in Proverbs 8:34. Possibly
earlier, but definitely in later tradition, it
was customary for the student upon entering the
bet midrash to recite a prayer to be saved
from errors of understanding or interpreting the
Torah and upon leaving to recite another prayer
in thanks to Heaven for having cast his lot
among those who dwell in the House of Study (Ber.
28b).
Study
was considered in ancient times to be one of the
highest forms of worship. In the Christian writings
it is seen as a means of showing oneself approved
of God (II Timothy 2:15). Study was
pursued both day and night, as well as on the
Sabbaths and holidays. Often students who spent
their time in the bet midrash were permitted
to eat and sleep there (unlike the synagogue).
The bet midrash was considered more sacred
than even the synagogue, and the rabbis permitted
the selling of a synagogue in order to build a
House of Study.
Yeshua
was obviously very familiar with the bet midrash
and used it to illustrate His teachings. In each
bet midrash there was an interpreter, known
as the meturganim. This was a person
skilled in languages who stood by the one reading
the Law or teaching in the House of Study to translate
into the lingua franca of that day the
Hebrew that was being spoken. The use of the interpreter
goes back to the time of Ezra, when the interpreter
was said to have added the mearung. The
Talmud gives many details of the interpreter's
duties in the synagogues (Meg. 4; Maimon.
Tephillah, 12; Massecheth Soph. 10).
It is from this concept that we understand Yeshua's
words, "What you hear in the ear, that
preach you upon the housetops" (Matthew
10:27). This phrase was easily recognized
by those who were familiar with the system of
study in the bet midrash, where the teacher
would literally speak the message in the interpreter's
ear, who would in turn then shout it out to others,
both inside the classroom and out (Lightfoot
Hebraica Vol. 2, p. 187).
The
Scribes and the Pharisees
The
scribes had a great deal to do with Jewish education,
especially in the time of the Second Temple Period.
The term scribe (sopherim) often
signified a high administrative official. In the
early Second Temple Period it came to mean the
literate man engaged in the interpretation of
the Torah and the transmission of the oral traditions.
From their ranks came such great teachers as Ezra
and the men of the Great Assembly (Kenesset
Gedolah) who were still active centuries after
Ezra as expounders of the Law (Ezra 8:18; Nehemiah
8:7). Although the terms scribe and Pharisee
often overlap, they are not entirely synonymous.
All Pharisees considered themselves scribes, but
not all scribes were Pharisees. In a general sense,
a scribe was a scholar and a teacher who was also
a professional writer with the responsibility
of copying and interpreting the Torah. The School
of the Scribes is thought to have been
initiated by Ezra during the fifth century B.C.E.
(Babe Bathra 21b; Pesahim 50b).
The tractate Sopherim, which is appended
to the Babylonian Talmud, lists the many
laws that the scribes were required to observe.
It was the scribes who introduced an Aramaic square
script which greatly facilitated writing (Tosefta,
Sanh. 4:7). Ancient records tells us that
carefully annotated Biblical texts were kept in
the Temple court as standards for other copying
(Tosefta, Sanh. 4:7; Sifre, Deut.
160-1 05b n.6). This educational work of the scribes
pioneered the way for the later Masoretes, as
mentioned by Rabbi Akiva at Yavneh (C.E. 130).
The Pharisees, with the special help of those
who were scribes, were the chief scholars of the
first century and were in charge of the houses
of study and Jewish education in general. From
the time of Christ, the Pharisees were the leaders
of education and study. Hillel dedicated himself
to the principle of loving peace and drawing
fellow men to the Torah (Avot 1:12). In the
first century, Gamaliel had eighty students, one
of whom was the Apostle Paul (Acts 22:3). Because
of the success of the Pharisees in producing superior
students of the Torah, study was considered one
of the highest forms of worship during the first
century.
Many
of the ancient types of teaching were passed down
to modern times. The major example is that of
the acronym PARDES, representing
the first letter of the four basic types of Jewish
exegesis used during the first century. These
methods were PESHAT (simple), REMEZ
(hinting), DERASH (complex), and
SOD (secret). These were utilized by
Jesus and other rabbis. The meaning of the word
PARDES is "orchard," indicating
a place from which one gleans.
Most
of the ancient Jewish writings used the popular
form of parallelism repeating the same concept
in a different way in the second and third lines,
as is seen so often in the Hebrew Scriptures and
the New Testament.
The
Stages of Life in Education
The
basic stages of one's life are listed in the Mishnah
Avot 5:21 which gives some idea of how the
ancient individual was educated. Many of these
date from ancient times. We see them applying
to the life of Yeshua as detailed in the gospels.
At age five one is ready for the study of Scripture.
We are told that the children were taught first
from the Book of Leviticus for ritual purity and
how to approach God by sacrifice and then from
the Book of Psalms concerning the nature of God,
before they went on to other things. Possibly
this is what Yeshua meant when He referred to
people's coming to Him as a child (Matthew 18:2-4)
in child-like purity. At the age of ten one was
fit for the study of the words of the Oral Law,
and at the age of thirteen one was old enough
to fulfill the commandments. Some scholars believe
it was the Oral Law which the ancient boys were
questioned about on the steps of the Temple, as
in the case of Yeshua (Luke 2). At the age of
fifteen one was ready to study of the sages, at
the age of eighteen, for marriage, and at the
age of twenty, for pursuing a vocation. Yeshua
is called both the son of Joseph the carpenter
and Yeshua the carpenter (Book of Mark). Obviously,
Joseph had followed this pattern and taught his
son his vocation. At the age of thirty one entered
the full vigor of his ministry. It was at this
point in Yeshua's life that we see Him entering
the full ministry. At age forty one reached a
place where he had understanding, and at age fifty
the individual was worthy to counsel others. It
is in this setting that the Biblical injunction
for the older (age fifty) men to counsel the younger
men and the older women to counsel the younger.
The
ancient Jews were so careful to treat the Biblical
text as a delicacy that they instructed their
young children by placing honey on the tablets
as they were taught the alphabet and the Torah.
This left the young student with the lasting impression
of the Torah's having the quality of sweetness.
This idea of the Torah sweetness is echoed throughout
the Biblical text with such references as Psalm
19:11; 119:103).
The
goals of Jewish education may be broadly summed
up: (1) to transmit knowledge and skills from
generation to generation; (2) to increase knowledge
and skills; and (3) to concretize cultural values
into accepted behavior. The three main orders
of study in ancient Israel consisted of religious
education, occupational skills and military training
with the essence of all knowledge being the fear
of the Lord (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7).
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