<::Jxt^ -5 (^ c o o Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/educationinancieOOswifrich EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO 70 A.D. BY FLETCHER H. SWIFT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CHICAGO LONDON THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 1919 LA4'7 EOUC COPYRIGHT BY THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY Z919 Reproduced from original edition by the Carlisle Lithotone process of printing. A. CARLISLE & CO., UpHAM & RUTLEDGE, InC. 135 Post Street San Francisco 1936 EDUCATION DEFT. AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY FATHER WHO, FROM MY EARLIEST YEARS, TAUGHT ME TO KNOW, REVERENCE AND LOVE THE LAW. M56924 PREFACE. Most treatments of Hebrew education available in Eng- lish are either out of date or inadequate. The longer one studies the origins of modern education the more difficult does he find it to explain the meagemess of the accounts of Hebrew education thus far presented. Authors of educa- tional histories who have felt it incumbent upon them to include in their treatment of Greek education a discussion of music, dancing, physical and military training, have omitted these and other equally important topics from their discussions of Hebrew education. The fact that the infor- mation concerning these phases of ancient Hebrew educa- tion is in many cases meager and incomplete is no reason for failing to present such data as are available. The following account is, I believe, the first attempt in English to give education in Ancient Israel any such broad treatment as has long been accorded to that of other ancient peoples. There is no people whose history presents more difficulties, and none which leaves more room for the play of the personal equation of the writer. It is not to be expected that all the positions presented in this little volume will commend themselves to every reader. It is not offered in any sense as an apologetic of any theory of Hebrew history. Its aim is set forth in the statement of its problem (see page 4). It is hoped that whatever may be its defects it will lead the reader to see that the environment in which the native genius of the Hebrews ripened was a rich and varied one, and that the educative influences were many, not few. If, in addition to this, it stimulates future writers VI PREFACE. Upon Hebrew education to break away from narrow tradi- tional limits it will not have been written ivy vain. The fact that the present account does not extend beyond 70 A. D. accounts for omitting from the bibliography a number of standard authorities (e.g., Grassberger) which deal solely or chiefly with post-Biblical education. In the spelling of Hebrew words, the Jewish Encyclopedia has been followed except in cases where some change seemed necessary in view of the public for whom the present volume is designed. An explanation of the use of numerals and letters in the citation of authorities will be found in the note preceding the Bibliography at the end of the volume. The author wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance he has received from Rabbi S. N. Deinard of Minneapolis, formerly professor of Hebrew Literature and History, Uni- versity of Minnesota, Professor Julius H. Greenstone of Gratz College, Philadelphia, Professor Theodore G. Soares; . ^ of the University of Chicago, and Rabbi C. David Matt of Minneapolis, each of whom gave the manuscript a most careful reading and whose criticisms and suggestions have led to a number of important revisions. Fletcher Harper Swift. University of Minnesota, February 5, 1919. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGES The Native or Pre-Exilic Period, General Survey 1—16 Summary of Chapter 3 Introduction 3—7 Hebraism and Christianity 4 The Problem 4 Periods in Hebrew History 6 Periods in Hebrew Education 6 — 7 Historical Survey of the Native Period 7 — 11 The Conquest 7 Period of the Judges 8 Tribal Kings and Monarchy of Saul 8 Reign of David, 1010-973 B. C 9 Reign of Solomon, 973—933 B. C 10 Division of Kingdom, 933 B. C 10 Fall of Israel, 723 B. C 11 Judah, 933 B. C— 70 A. D 11 Determining Factors in Hebrew Life 11 — 16 Nomadism 12 Environment 12 Contact with Foreign Nations 13 Distinctive Beliefs and Religious Conceptions 13 Book of Instruction and Reforms of King Josiah, 621 B. C. . . 14 Primitive Conception of Yahweh 15 Prophetic Conception of Yahweh IS — 16 CHAPTER II. Education During the Native or Pre-Exilic Period 17 — 38 Summary of Chapter 19 General Characteristics, Social and Religious 19 — ^20 The Twofold Ideal of Manhood 20 Vm TABLE OF CONTENTS. rAGES Educational Characteristics 20—21 Institutions — Subjects — Method 21 Boys' Education in Tribe and Family 21 — 31 Who Was Taught 22 Teachers 22 Periods in Education 22 What Was Taught 23—31 Industrial and Physical Training •. 23 Military Training 23—24 Athletics and Games 24 Music— Dancing 24 — 2S Oral Literature — Traveling Bards as Teachers 25 — 26 Written Literature — Character and Evolution of the Canon 26 — 27 Reading and Writing 27 Use by Religious and Official Classes 28 Popular Use and Knowledge • 28 — 30 Religion 30 Morals 30 Boys' Education Outside of the Family 31 — 38 Institutions 31 Temples 31 Teaching Orders 32 — 38 Levites and Priests 32 — 34 a. Origin 32 b. Functions, Services as Teachers 33 Prophets or Orator-Teachers 34 a. Origin 34 b. Entrance into Public Affairs — Characteristics 35 c. Literary Work 36 d. Education in Prophetic Communities . . .". 36 e. Services as Teachers — Times and Places of Instruction 37 f. Methods ;.... 37 g. Educational Importance 38 CHAPTER III. General Survey of the Period of Reaction to Foreign In- fluences, 586 B. C— 70 A. D 39—46 Summary of Chapter 41 TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX PAGES Historical Outline 41—44 Babylonian Exile, 586—538 B. C 42 Literary Renaissance 42 Persian Period, 539—332 B. C 42 Greek Period, 332—167 B. C 43 Maccabean Period, 167—63 B. C 43 Roman Period, 63 B. C— 70 A. D 44 General Characteristics 44 — 46 Hierocracy and Democracy 44 — 45 Hellenism — Religious and Moral Decline 45 The Diaspora 46 CHAPTER IV. Education in the Family After the Exile 47 — ^72 Summary of Chapter 49 The Family as an Educational Institution 49 — 53 Desire for Children 49 Parental Responsibility 50 Parental Authority a Divine Right 51 Parents as Teachers 52 Conception of Child Nature — Corporal Punishment . . 52 — 53 Periods in Child Life and Education '. . 54 — 59 Childhood the Time for Learning 54 Distinguishing Rites 54 — 59 Rites of Infancy and Circumcision 54 Mothers' Purification Rites • 55 Weaning Feast 55 Adolescent Rites 55 Circumcision 56 Zizit 57 Tefillin or Phylacteries 57—58 Bar Mizwah 59 Educational Significance of Period Rites 59 Periods in School Life (Table) 59—60 What Was Taught 60—72 Industrial Education 60 Music 61 Dancing 61—62 Religion •. . 62 — 66 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGBS Holiness as the Ideal 62 Earliest Religious Education — The Mezuzah 62 Religious Literature 63 Prayer 64 Festivals in the Home 64 The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread- 65 Morals 66 — 67 Religious Basis 66 Virtues Emphasized — Obedience 66 — 67 Manners 68—72 Religious Basis 68 Simplicity, Meekness and Humility 69 Conversation, Whispering 69 Topics of Conversation 70 Curiosity 71 Table Manners — Gluttony 71 Ecclesiasticus on Table Manners 71 Neighbors 72 Hospitality * 72 CHAPTER V. Education in School and Society After the Exile 73 — ^^108 Summary of Chapter 75 Educational Characteristics and Tendencies 76—79 Zeal for Education 76 Place of Religion and Morals in Post-Exilic Life and Education 77 The Scribe as the Post-Exilic Educational Ideal 78 Physical Education — Greek Influence 79 Who Was Taught 79 Teachers 80—86 Decline of Priests and Prophets as Teachers 80 The Soferim or Scribes 80 Origin 81 The Ideal Scribe 82—83 Educational Services 84 Defects and Weaknesses 84 Rabbis ; 84-85 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI PAGES The Perushim or Pharisees 85 Origin — Characteristics 85 Educational Institutions 86—102 Rise of Universal Education 86 The Synagogue 87 — 91 Origin and Spread 87 General Character and Purpose 87 Order of Service 88 — ^90 Educational Significance 90 Elementary Schools 91 — ^99 Origin and Extension -. 91 Compulsory Education 92 Rival Claims of Simon ben Shetach and Joshua ben Gamala 92—95 Organization of Elementary Schools 95 a. Teachers : Numbers, Social Standing, Rewards .... 95 b. Aim of the Elementary School 96 c. Studies 97 d. Texts 98 e. Methods, Reviews, Incentives to Study 98 Results of Elementary Education 99 Schools of the Soferim 100—102 Origin 100 Studies 100 a. The Halakah , 101 b. The Hagadah : The Talmud 101 Methods . 101 Support 102 Festivals 103^104 Origin, Number, Character 103 Table of Festivals 103—104 Educational Significance 103 The Temple 104—108 Influence Upon the Synagogue 104 Order of Service 105—107 Educational Significance 107 — 108 XU TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. PACTS Woman and the Education of Girls 109 — 116 Summary of Chapter Ill Woman in the Home and in Society , HI Social Status 112 Daughters Less Esteemed than Sons 113 Reverence and Respect for Women 113 Ideal of Womanhood 113— 115 Educational Institutions US Aim and Content of Education 116 Selected Bibliography 117 — 125 Index 127—134 CHAPTER I. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. GENERAL SURVEY. "For nearly two thousand years conceptions, standards and ideals. . .originating in the spiri- tual experience of the ancient Hebrews have in- spired, rebuked, comforted and guided the na- tions of an ever-extending Christendom." See below, p. 4. Summary of Chapter. To the ancient Hebrews, Christendom owes the largest portion of its religious and moral heritage. Our problem is to discover how thislteritage arose, and what part education played in its development and transmission. The HeJDrews were originally nomadic tribes. About 1150 B. G.^ they invaded Palestine which they gradually conquered, meanwhile advancing from nomadism to agricultural and industrial life. In Pal- estine the various tribes united for a short time in a single monarchy. This monarchy became divided about 933 B. C. into two rival king- doms, Judah and Israel. Israel fell about 723 B. C. Judah continued as a nation with varying fortunes until 70 A. D. The history of Judah falls into two great periods, separated by forty-eight years,- 586-538 B. C, of enforced sojourn in Babylon, commonly called the Exile. Prior to the Exile the Hebrews borrowed much from foreign nations. Nevertheless, what they borrowed they largely made over in accordance with their own native genius ; hence, we call this period the Native Period. INTRODUCTION. As the Greeks and Romans may be said to have special- ized unv^ittingly for the race, the former in intellectual 1 All dates prior to 586 B. C. must be considered approximate, see below, notes 4 and 5. 2 Seventy years, if the Exile be considered (which it frequently is) as continuing to the dedication of the second temple, 516 B. C. 4 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. culture and the latter in social institutions and law, so the Hebrews may be described as the people who vicariously Hebrairtn and Created or evolvcd the major portion of our re- ^hrifttianity. ligious and moral heritage. One nation after another through the channel of Hebrew experience has ap- proached the Hebrew God of righteousness, and risen to spiritual conceptions before unknown to it. The early institutional divorce between Judaism and Christianity and the continued independent existence of the two has tended to obscure their original relationship. The founder of Christianity was reared in a Jewish- home, went to Jewish schools^ and frankly based his sublimest teachings vpon thf/se of the Hebrew prophets. For nearly two thou- sand years conceptions, standards and ideals reborn in the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth, but nevertheless originating in the spiritual experience of the ancient He- brews, have inspired, rebuked, comforted and guided the nations of an ever-extending Christendom. What are the fundamental characteristics of Hebrew re- ligion and morals, what part did education play in the devel- opment of the religious and moral conscious- The Problem. . , , ness of that race whose conceptions were des- tined to dominate the spiritual life of a thousand alien peoples and whose literary monuments have for centuries served as primer and final text for Christendom? What were the institutions, who were the teachers, what were the methods through which this national consciousness and its heritage of doctrines and ideals were stimulated, fostered, preserved and transmitted? Before attempting to answer these questions it may be well to recall the more important periods in Hebrew history and to survey, however briefly, a few of the most important events and movements con- nected with each, as a basis for interpreting the educational development of the Hebrews. 8 A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, Chap. VII, 118a; Martin Seidel, In the Time of Jesus, pp. 122d-123a. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. TABLE I. PERIODS IN HEBREW HISTORY. I. Nomadism. From earliest beginnings to the conquest and settlement of Palestine. 1. From earliest beginnings to invasion of Palestine, 1150 B. C* 2. Period of the Judges: From 1150 B. C or earlier to 1030 B.C. II. Period of Monarchy. 1. Reign of Saul (at first over the tribe of Benjamin only) 1030-1010 B. C.« 2. Reign of David, 1010-973 B. C 3. Reign of Solomon, 973-933 B. C. Monarchy divided 933 fi. C. III. Period of the Rival Monarchies Judah and Israel : From divi- sion of the monarchy 933 B. C. to fall of the kingdom of Israel, 723 B. C.s TABLE II. PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF JUDAH. I. First Period of Home Rule: From the division of the mon- archy, 933 B. C, to the beginning of the Babylonian Exile, 586 B. C. II. Under Foreign Masters, 586-175 B. C. 1. Under Babylon, 586-538 B. C 2. Under Persia, 538-333 B. C. 3. Under Greece, Egypt and Syria (Greek influence con- tinuous), 332-175 B.C. ■ . III. Home Rule Restored (Maccabean Period), 175-63 B.C. IV. Under Rome : From Roman conquest, 63 B. C, to the fall of Jerusalem, 70 A. D. — ■ ■ * 1230 B. C. is the approximate date given by many writers, see F. Hommel, The Civilization of the East, p. 80; James Frederick Mc- Curdy, History, Prophecy and the Monuments, I, 225, sec. 183, gives 1160 B. C 5 See above, note 1. How widely historians differ will be seen by comparing the dates in tables of H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 499ff, with those of H. Graetz, History of the Jews, VI, 90ff. « 722 is the date commonly given. 723 seems to be well substan- tiated by the arguments of A. T. Olmstead, Western Asia in the Days of Sargon of Assyria, p. 45 and note 9. 6 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. The history of the Hebrews is the history of the rise, development and final organization of a number of Semitic Periods in tribes into a short-lived monarchy, the division Hebrew History. ^^ ^^^^ monarchy into two states, Judah and Israel, and the subsequent histories of these two separate kingdoms. Tables I and II indicate the main periods in this history. J pa to ^ ^ hs Pi to J El « o a « « w tc%'o « o «H dJ^r >,.2 cj o o • o t! a o o HfeO wWccccco cj o.S is 1 w ss ^„S .1 *co to Si leg Is »5 ^ Q p a H •so 2^- -o .2 cj Is » oJQO .22 o s •2 ^ 'S go Q tl < o «z W t=i Ss S:l '3 II 4> H Is it 3 B rt 1-1 o •o o c ^ Jn The periods in the history of Hebrew education neces- sarily follow closely the .periods of political history, as THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. 7 changes in education are always closely related to political and social changes. However, the uncertainty of our knowl- Periods in edge conceming the time and origin of many Hebrew Educa- educational changcs forces us to be satisfied with a somewhat loose division. The type of dominant educational institution offers a concrete basis for such a division. (Table III.) HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE NATIVE PERIOD. It is, perhaps, between three and four thousand years ago that a number of nomadic Semitic tribes, to be known collectively to future erenerations as Israelites, The Conquest. , , . . . ° ........ began makmg their way with their families, flocks and herds into Palestine, that region of southwestern Asia which lies between the eastern end of the Mediter- ranean Sea and the northwestern border of the Arabian desert. The fair and fertile country which they were enter- ing and which they were destined to conquer was already in the possession of a kindred people, the Canaanites, who lived in walled cities and were much in advance of the in- vading nomads in industries, social institutions and modes of warfare. The days of invasion and conquest are wrapt in ob- scurity. It appears, however, that the process was long and gradual, extending over several centuries.® Bloody conquest, land purchase and intermarriage, all played a part. In the end the Israelites were victorious and largely absorbed or amalgamated their vanquished kinsmen. Meanwhile the invaders had passed from the nomadism of the Arabian deserts to a semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural life. Walled cities became their homes. The tents of the desert were given up for fixed abodes.® The new life and contact with the more advanced Cana- 8 See H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 73-86, for a critical account of the Conquest. '^ Chas. F. Kent, Biblical Geography and History, pp. 87-146, gives a brief but clear historical survey of the invasion and settlement. 8 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. anites brought many changes, industrial, social, political, intellectual and religious. "While hitherto not ignorant of field-labor, they became now agriculturists with settled abodes, houses, lands, vineyards and olive yards. Plowing, in simple fashion, sowing and reaping, threshing and win- nowing, gathering in grain and fruits. . .were added to (their fo.rmer occupation of) raising cattle."^'' "It is probable that .... (the Israelites) learned from. . . . (the Canaanites) not only agriculture and the simple arts, but also their system of weights and measures and the mode of writing."^^ During the earlier centuries of the Conquest the various tribes continued to maintain, independent of one another, Period of the much of the tribal organization brought from Judges. the desert. "The sheiks have a certain in- fluence due to the purity of their blood, but the influence is never sufficient to coerce the freeman of the tribe."^^ Nevertheless, "as well defined communities arose, under the influence of the example of Canaanite cities, municipal or- ganizations were effected ; and we read of 'elders of the city' (Judges viii. 16)."^^ This condition of affairs led to a period known as the Period of the Judges, characterized by the leadership of tribal heroes in the still independent and ununited tribes. "Out of the need of concerted action in time of war grew the tribal champion whose leadership extended beyond that of his own tribe ; and out of the chainpion grew the 'judge' or arbiter in time of peace."^^ ' It was only a step for a tribe which had been accus- tomed to follow tribal heroes as leaders in time of war and Tribal Kings and to tum to them to Settle disputcs in times of Monarchy of Saul peace, to clcct such a hcro as Gideon, Jeph- thah or Abimelech to a permanent position of leadership and bestow upon him the title of king. This was probably the manner in which the first step toward establishing ^ 10 Ismar J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 114. ^^ Ibid., p. 118, p. 117. " H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 88. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. V monarchy was^taken through the election of Saul as the king of the tribe of Benjamin.^^ Saul's sway apparently came in time to include several tribes, but accurate knowl- edge as to the extent of his domain is lacking.^* What he did for its organization is also left untold.^^ The next Israelite to gain an intertribal kingship of importance was David of the tribe of Judah. Brought to Reign of David the court of Saul in the capacity of court 1010-973 B. c. minstrel, he rose so rapidly in public favor that he aroused the jealousy of the king and was obliged to flee from court. He now placed himself at the head of a band of outlaws (1 Samuel xxii. 2)}^ Recognition of his courage, prowess and ability as a leader eventually led to his election as king by the tribal sheikhs assembled at Hebron, "the capital of Caleb or possibly of an alliance of clans afterward merged into Judah. "^^ At the beginning of David's kingship, Israel was an aggregation of tribes "only feebly conscious of their com- mon blood. Some of them were largely made up of Cana- anite elements. Their jealousies of each other were noto- rious."^® David conquered the Jebusite city of Jerusalem and made it the capital of his kingdom. His ambition fell short of nothing less than the union of all the tribes of Israel into a single kingdom with himself as king.^* He succeeded in laying the foundations of such a monarchy. His position as king of Israel appears to have received defi- nite recognition by outside powers as well as by the electing tribes. The royal court was much more thoroughly organ- ized than under Saul. Not the least important of his acts ^^ Ibid., p. 116. ^^ Ibid., p. 121. ^^ For an excellent brief summary of the conclusions of scholars concerning Hebrew history down to the establishment of the mon- archy consult George Aaron Barton, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, pp. 270d-275b. i« H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 129-130. " Ibid., p. 133. 18 Ibid., pp. 142-143. !« Ibid., p. 137. 10 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. was the establishment at Jerusalem of the royal sanctuary or king's chapel, destined to develop some three hundred years later into the national temple and sole lawful place of sacrifice. In the year 973 B.C., shortly before his death, David proclaimed his son Solomon king. The new monarch as- Reign of Solo- sumed toward his subjects the attitude, not mon 973-933 B.C. q{ an electoral king of free tribesmen, but of an oriental despot. Ignoring the traditional division into consanguineous tribes, Solomon divided his territory into geographical districts, each ruled over by a pasha.^° Solo- mon was the victim of the building mania "that possesses all 'grand monarchs.' " He not only rebuilt the capital but fortified various other cities.^^ He gloried in wealth, costly buildings and luxury. His resplendent palace and temple were of a beauty and costliness so unprecedented as soon to become symbols of regal grandeur. He entered the world of commerce and built his own ships and sent his own servants under Phoenician masters to trade with Arabia. In order to carry out his worldly ambitions Solomon oppressed his subjects in a manner scarcely to be endured by the descend- ants of the free-bom sons of the desert. He levied heavy taxes upon them, compelled them to serve without pay in the erection of public works and forced them to labor in alien states. To Solomon is ascribed a reign of forty years. The dissatisfaction and unrest created by his policies found ex- Division of the pi"ession in an appeal addressed to his son Kingdom Rehoboam, upon his accession to the throne. 933 B C The appeal was in vain. Rehoboam was deaf to all entreaties (1 Kings xii). Revolt broke out. Only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, remained loyal to the reign- ing house. These two formed the kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as its capital. The remaining tribes set up the 20 /Wd., p. 157. 21 /Wd., p. 158. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. 11 kingdom of Israel in the north with Shechem" as its capital and Jeroboam as its king. Israel, after a checkered history covering about two hundred years (933-723 B.C.), fell under the onslaught of Fall of Israel the Assyrian kings, Shalmaneser IV (d. 727 723 B.C. B.C.) and Sargon (reigned 727-705 B.C.). Many of its inhabitants were scattered throughout the prov- inces of Assyria and were absorbed by the surrounding pop- ulation. A similar fate appears to have attended those whom Sargon allowed to remain in Palestine. The kingdom of Israel had fallen to rise no more. The history of Judah extends from its establishment following the division of the kingdom 933 B. C, to the Judah 933 B. C- final dcstruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 70 A. D. 70 A. D., and the subsequent dispersion of the Jews. This long history falls into two main divisions, separated by a period of enforced sojourn in Babylonia 586-538 B. C, commonly known as the Babylonian Exile. From the division of the kingdom up to the time of the Exile the little kingdom of Judah, though much of the time paying tribute to Egypt, Assyria or some other foreign power, nevertheless maintained a separate political existence. In the year 586 B. C. this existence came to an end. From 586 B. C. to 70 A. D., with the exception of the century of Mac- cabean leadership (175-63 B.C.), Judah passed from one foreign master to another — Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome. DETERMINING FACTORS IN HEBREW LIFE. The history of the Hebrews and of their social insti- tutions was largely determined by the following seven im- portant factors : ( 1 ) their early nomadism ; (2) their environ- ment, including the location, size and physical characteristics of Palestine; (3) their contact with foreign nations; (4) their own political weakness; (5) their prolonged subjection 22 Samaria was, of course, the capital of Israel throughout the greater portion of its history. 12 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. to foreign masters; (6) the supreme place ultimately given to religion; (7) the character of their religious conceptions, particularly their final monotheistic conception of God as a righteous, loving and universal father.^^ The records we possess tell little of the centuries of Bedawin life that preceded the migration into Palestine. But what the written accounts failed or re- Nomadism. . , , .,,.,,. , fused to relate, was mdelibly impressed upon the racial consciousness and imbedded in the products of racial experience. Myths, legends and stories of the patri- archs handed down from early times betray unmistakable evidences of nomadic Hfe. Likewise, certain social institu- tions and religious conceptions bear for centuries uncon- scious witness to the nomadic character of the period of their genesis. What the Hebrews became after settling in Palestine, the customs and ideas they acquired and their final fate were to no small degree determined by the Environment. . ii-ii rT->i location and physical characteristics or rales- tine. A small strip of land covering about 8500 square miles, approximately the size of Massachusetts,^* extremely fertile in parts and lying in the direct path from Egypt to Baby- lonia and Assyria, was by its location, fertility and natural resources inevitably destined to be the perpetual battlefield of the great nations of antiquity. The division of this small country into distinct districts by natural barriers tended to keep the different tribes settling it from forming any strong or -2 Some writers question whether the Hebrews ever developed a conception of God as a universal father; a gracious universal sov- ereign, such writers maintain, represents the climax of ancient He- brew thought. To me such passages as 1 Kings viii, 41-43 ; Jonah iii. 10-11 and many teachings of the prophets are sufficient basis for the position taken here. 2* Approximately: the area of Massachusetts (8315 square miles) ; eight times as large as Rhode Island (1250 square miles), the smallest of the United States; one sixth the area of New York (49,170 square miles) ; and one tenth of that of Minnesota (83,365 square miles). (Areas taken from the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia. Vol. IX.) THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. 13 lasting union and made them ready prey to internal misunder- standings and jealousies and to conquest by outside foes. From the time of their settlement in Palestine to their final dispersion, the Hebrews were almost continuously in Contact with contact with foreign civilizations. The effect Foreign Nations. Qf this coutact was mauy-sided and often ad- vantageous. On the other hand, contact with pagan nations carried with it the dangers of absorption, of loss of nation- alism and of the adoption of moral and religious ideas and practices of a, lower level than their own. In time, these dangers were clearly recognized, and a studied effort was made to devise a system able to withstand them. It was this effort that gave rise to Judaism, uninviting in comparison with the broad teaching of the prophets, but which, through its very narrowness and exclusiveness, saved the national- ity of a people scattered to the four ends of the world. The four supreme conceptions"-^ contributed by the He- brews to the religious heritage of the race were (1) mono- T.. ^. ^. -o theism, the belief in one god and only one ; Distinctive Be- ' q j ' liefs and Reiig- (2) the uuivcrsal fatherhood of God; (3) ious Conceptions, ^j^^ Universal brotherhood of man; (4) the union, or rather the identity, of religion and morality. Hebrew religion was a gradual evolution. The long process of growth by which the above conceptions were gradually evolved can be merely suggested here. The extent to which totemism and ancestor-worship-^ entered into primitive He- brew religion, whether Hebrew monotheism evolved from polytheism-^ or from henotheism-^ are still largely matters 25 It should be noted that the discussion of religion and morals in the following paragraphs includes the post-Exilic as well as the native period. 28 Owen C. Whitehouse, "Hebrew Religion," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XIII, 177 c-d. 2^ F. B. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 382ff, gives an excellent summary for the arguments in favor of the poly- theistic origin which he then proceeds to controvert. 28 Whitehouse accepts both henotheism and polytheism (for ref- erence see above, note 26). 14 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. of conjecture and debate. Whitehouse considers it prob- able that during nomadism "some, at least, of the Hebrew clans had patron deities of their own."^® Through the union of the tribes Yahweh, formerly a tribal deity, became the national god.^^ At the time of the Conquest, Palestine was dotted with shrines of Baalim (singular Baal), Canaanite local gods of agriculture and fertility. Where the Hebrews conquered, they deposed the Baalim and set up shrines to Yahweh. Thus local shrines to Yahweh gradually sup- planted local Baalim.^* The change appears to have been frequently a change in name only, for to Yahweh at these newly established shrines were transferred many of the traits and the sensual and degrading rites^^ of the deposed Baalim.^^ Yahweh was not regarded as the only god but merely as a greater god than the gods of other nations.^' The reality of the gods of Egypt, Phoenicia and Canaan, far from being denied, was so thoroughly believed in that they together with the many Yahwehs were openly wor- shiped until the reforms of Josiah, 621 B. C. According to Biblical record, it was in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah (621 B.C.) that the high priest found in the royal temple in Jerusalem, Book of Instruc- ^ „ , . , -r^ , r -r • oi tion and Reforms a scroll spokcu of as the Book of Instruction.'* of King Josiah 'pj^g Book of Instruction forbade the worship 621 B. C. ^ of any god other tha n Yahwf^l^ . declared Jeru- salem the sole place where sacrifices might be offered, and 29 Owen C. Whitehouse, "Hebrew Religion," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XIII, 177a. 30 It should be borne in mind that this view of Whitehouse, as well as all other views, of the process of how Yahweh became the national god of the Hebrews is distinctly hypothetical. An entirely contrary view has long been maintained, namely, that the political union grew out of the fact that Yahweh was the common tribal god. Such a view, of course, reverses the process as stated by Whitehouse. 31 Owen C. \Vhitehouse, "Hebrew Religion," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XIII, 179d. ^^Ibid., p. 180a; cf. Jeremiah ii. 19-20; Hosea iv. 13-14. 33 Exodus XV. 11. 34 Identified with Deuteronomy xii-xix, and xxvi-xxviii. THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. 15 gave specific directions as to the manner of worship ac- ceptable to Yahweh. King Josiah sought to put the new- found regulations into effect at once. The Book of In- struction was read publicly, and the king, speaking for himself and as representative of the people, bound himself and the nation to fulfil its laws. The adoption of the Book of Instruction was an act of supreme importance.^'^ It y^ marked the triumph of monotheism and of the prophetic conception of Yahweh. By centering worship at Jerusalem it made possible its control. In early Hebrew thought Yahweh is represented as hav- ing human characteristics and performing human activities. Primitive Con- I"^^g^s are employed in worshiping him,^^ and ception of Yah- he makes known his will through the sacred ^'^- lot." He seeks to kill Moses.^^ He is des- potic, merciless toward all who offend, beasts^® as well as men. He is concerned with the minute details of ceremony and rite. His wrath is averted or his favor won and kept by elaborate ceremonies, lavish and costly offerings not excluding human sacrifices.*^ It is remarkable that nowhere amid the traces of this early stage is Yahweh associated with any of the gross immoralities which stain the biographies of the gods of Greece, Rome and other nations.*^ Out of this primitive non-ethical conception of Yahweh gradually developed the prophetic conception. Yahweh of the prophets is a god of mercy and kindness, the protector of beasts'^^ as well as of men. He is the lov- Prophetic Con- ^"?' forgiving, never despairing father of all ception of Yah- mankind.*^ Through his universal fatherhood ^* ■ all men are brothers and as such are obligated to fulfil toward one another the duties of brotherhood. He 35 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 292-293. 3« Judges xvii and xviii. 37 /^f^f 38 Exodus iv. 24. 39 /^{^.^ xix. 12-13. ^^ C. G. Montefiore, "Origin and Growth of the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews," Hibbert Lectures, 1892, p. 40. 41 Ibid., pp. 37-40. *^ Jonah iv. 11. *3 Qi. above, note 23. 16 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. is the only god : all other gods have no existence. He is the god of all nations, of Assyria as well as of Israel: to Him shall all nations ultimately come. He is the moral ruler of the universe. He is a god perfect and absolute in his own righteousness (Amos). His favor depends upon right- eousness. He demands of his worshipers not rites and material gifts, but righteousness, lives pure and holy, con- secrated to Yahweh and acceptable to him because reflecting his moral characteristics. The forces which gave rise to this later conception were many. It arose partly as the reaction against the sensual worship of surrounding nations, partly through borrowing the better elements of religions with which the Hebrews came in contact, largely as the result of the deepening of their own spiritual life. National weakness and prolonged subjection to foreign masters played an important part. Between the relentless Yahweh of early times, whose anger is appeased by the hanging of Saul's ^seven sons,** and the Yahweh pictured by the Second Isaiah*^ are centuries of subjection, persecution and suffering, and the ripening of the religious genius of the prophets. 4* 2 Samuel xxi. 1-11. *^ Isaiah xl-lxvi is commonly called the Second Isaiah. See espe- cially Isaiah xli. 1-4; xliii. 4; xlv. 21. CHAPTER 11. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE OR PRE-EXILIC PERIOD. "And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field ; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents." — Genesis xxv. 27. "Young men and maidens vied with one another in learning beautiful songs Shep- herds and hunters at their evening rests sang songs to the accompaniment of the flute." — Herzog, Encyclopddie, 2d ed., V. Extracts, pp. 672 flF. Summary of Chapter. For the mass of people the Native Period was a period without schools. The tribe and the family were the chief educational institu- tions. Parents and relatives were the child's almost sole teachers in private life. During this period arose two orders, th e priests and the pr ophets, which fulfilled most important functions as public teachers and under whose guidance arose a rich heritage of national literature, both oral and written. Toward the close of the period a national "Book of Instruction"; was adopted. This was the most conspicuous step in the beginning of the movement which was to make of the Hebrewsin the post- Exilic Period a people of jook s and schools. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS. It is impossible to estimate even approximately the dura- tion of the Native or pre-Exilic Period. From the Conquest to the Exile is something over five centuries, but back of the Conquest stretch unknown unrecorded centuries of nomadism. The Native Period is marked by all those changes, industrial, political, social, moral, religious, intel- lectual and educational, involved in passing from the life 20 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. of wandering tribes to that of a people living in walled cities, ruled over by a king, and pursuing as occupations, agriculture, trades and commerce. It was a period of re- markable religious, moral and intellectual progress.^ It be- gins with a bookless people who erect heaps of stones to record events. It closes with the public adoption of a written code,^ destined henceforth to be a national text- book. The foundations of Judaism had been laid. Already the forces which were to make the Jews a "people of the book" were at work. Throughout the Native Period the popular ideal of man- hood was twofold, the man of craft and shrewdness and The Twofold ^^^ "^^^ ^^ Strength and courage. The man Ideal of Man- of shrcwduess is represented by the thrifty ^°°^' herdsman and farmer, the shrewd rperchant, the discerning and just judge, the crafty warrior. The man of strength and courage is represented by the stalwart and daring hunter and soldier. Although patriarchal life as pictured in the Scriptures is undoubtedly much idealized, the character of Jacob may be accepted as a clear and forceful embodiment of one aspect of this popular ideal: a man of shrewdness and cunning, if need be tricky and dis- honest, prizing highly his religious inheritance, winning by craft against all odds. Representatives of the physical ideal are to be met with on every hand in early narrative and legend: Jephthah and other tribal heroes or "judges"; Saul, who stood higher from the shoulders and upward than any one else ; David, who slew his ten thousand. EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. The educational characteristics of the Native Period appear in sections to follow which consider the subject-matter and institutions of education. The present section will be 1 See Chapter I, paragraphs on the Primitive and the Prophetic Conceptions of Yahweh. 2 The so-called "Book of Instruction," identified with Deuteron- omy xii-xix and xxvi-xxviii, see above, pp. 14-15. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 21 limited, therefore, to a brief statement of a few general characteristics. T he Native Pe riod_^M„ a period w ithout schools. At first the tribe, then the family, were the chief social organi- , . . zations throug^h which education was received. Institutions, ° . /tt t. i. ? • \ Subjects, The rise of orders of priests (Heb. kohamm) Method. ^^^ ^^ communities of prophets (Heb. nebiim) undoubtedley^ed to some sort of provision for giving special training to the members of these orders, but for the masses of the people there were no schools. Education was chiefly a training according to sex in the practical duties of every-day life. This training was given, as among primi- tive people, chiefly through actual participation, instruction playing only a minor part. In certain respects education was broader than in later times owing to the fact that phys- ical sports, dancing^ and music were more universally culti- vated. The camp, public assemblies, temples, religious and secular festivals supplemented the training given through tribal and family customs and occupations. . • - For convenience in treatment, education will be con- sidered under two main heads : ( 1 ) Education in the Tribe and Family; (2) Education Outside the Family. The con- sideration of the family as an educational institution will be reserved, for the most part, for the post-Exilic Period, owing to the meagerness and uncertainty of our knowledge concerning conditions during the Native Period. With re- spect to tribal and family education, the present chapter will attempt to answer simply the questions, who was taught, who did the teaching and what was taught. BOYS' EDUCATION IN TRIBE AND FAMILY.* In the earlier part of the Native Period all members of the tribe of the same sex received practically the same 3 Dancing, originally a religious and patriotic exercise, came in later times to be limited to the field of secular festive activities. See below, paragraphs on Music — Dancing. * For a discussion of girls' education see Chapter VI. 22 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. training. It may be that the eldest son as the prospective successor to the position of tribe chief received some special Who Was training in religious rites, tribal ceremonies, Taught. institutions and laws. This view is supported by Graetz who writes: "Collaterally (with the priesthood) there existed a custom, dating from remote patriarchal ages, which demanded that the first-bom of every family should attend to the performance of sacrificial rites. This pre- rogative could not be abruptly abolished, and continued for some time alongside of the Levitical priesthood."^ The rise of the priesthood and the prophets as distinct classes brought into existence two orders demanding special training. In tribal days .the education of the child was in the hands of the parents and adult members of the tribe. Upon settlement in Canaan the family became the fundamental social unit and the training and instruction of the children became almost entirely a matter of parental responsibility. In some cases, however, the parents delegated the rearing of their children to others. The Scriptures contain references to "nursing fathers,"^ and "nursing mothers,"^ male and female nurses. Ruth's child was nursed by Naomi.® Jonathan's four-year old son was in charge of a nurse,^ and Ahab's seventy sons were reared by the great men of Samaria.^^ Undoubtedly the Hebrews from earliest times in com- mon with other primitive peoples, consciously or uncon- Periods in Edu- sciously, recognized distinct periods in child cation. ijfg ^nd modified training and instruction ac- cordingly. Definite recognition of such periods is found in the post-Exilic Period, and will be described in the next chapter. In the present chapter no attempt will be made to present the activities, occupations and training of the child 8 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 25. « Numbers xi. 12. T Isaiah xlix. 23. « Ruth iv. 16. 9 2 Samuel iv. 4. lo 2 Kings x. 1-7. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 23 upon the basis of stages; owing to lack of data, a general treatment must suffice. What Was Taught. In early childhood, play, in later childhood and youth, work, industrial occupations and training in the use of Industrial and wcapous were the activities through which Physical Train- physical development and training were se- *"^* cured. During the period of nomadism and for a considerable time after settlement in Canaan every tribesman looked f orw^ard to the life of a herdsman, warrior and hunter. To these occupations were added upon settle- ment in Canaan agriculture, building, and other trades and crafts. Following the establishment of the monarchy and the rise of cities, trades and crafts of a considerable variety developed. The most important crafts and industrial occu- pations came now to be: (1) agriculture, (2) cattle- raising and grazing, (3) fishing, (4) mining, (5) building, (6) car- pentry and wood- working, (7) metal- work, (8) spinning, (9) weaving, (10) dyeing, (11) tanning, (12) tent-making, (13) pottery-making, (14) making of tools to be used in trades and crafts. Implements and processes were simple ; nevertheless, all occupations put a value upon strength and physical dex- terity. In the camp, on the march, in pasture land, in shop or in market place, the boy under the direction of his father or elder kinsmen learned to perform the tasks of his gene- ration." Just as the social conditions made it necessary for every boy to be given industrial training, so the troublous political Military Train- conditious made it necessary that every adult ^"2. male be ready at a moment's notice to answer the call to arms. Consequently every boy would learn the use~or^eapons. Preparation for war consisted chiefly in 11 Compare these statements with Chapter IV, paragraphs on In- dustrial Education. 24 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. training in the use of the sling, the bow and arrow, the sword, shield, spear. Later in some cases, riding and chariot- driving would be taught. Many passages in the Scriptures chronicle a display of skill which could not have been gained except through long and persistent practice and train- ing. David's skill in the use of the sling^^ jg known to every one. An illuminating passage in Judges reads : "Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left- handed ; every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth and not miss."^* That athletics and physical sports such as ball games, jumping, running races and contests in archery had a place Athletics and i" the life of this period is indicated by a Games. number of passages: "He will toss thee like a ball ;"^* "I will shoot as though I shot at a mark ;"" "He hath set me a mark for the arrow ;"^® "And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. "^^ "Young men and maidens vied with one another in learning beautiful songs, and cheered with them the festival Music. gatherings of the villages, and the still higher Dancing. assemblies at the sanctuaries of the tribes. THe maidens at Shilo went yearly with songs and dances into the vineyards ;^® and those of Gilead repeated the sad story of Jephthah's daughter.^^ The boys learned David's lament over Jonathan,^^ shepherds and hunters at their evening rests by the springs of the wilderness sang songs to the accom- paniment of the flute."^^ From the fact that David "danced before Yahweh"^^ and from other instances, it is evident that dancing was 12 1 Samuel xvii. 50. ^^ Judges xx. 16. i* Isaiah xxii. 18. I'* 1 Samuel xx. 20. i« Lamentations iii. 12. i^ Psalms xix. 5. 18 Judges xxi. 21. ^^ Ibid., xi. 40. 203 Sam. i. 19-27. 21 Judges V. 11. Cf. Herzo^, Encyclopddie, 2d ed., V, pp. 672 et sea. (Quotation and reference from C. A. Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 356.) 22 2 Samuel vi. 14. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 25 originally a religious as well as a patriotic and festive exer- cise.-^ It was probably combined with song and dramatic gesture. Often the Hebrew youth accompanied his song with the kinnor^* or played the flute while others sang. In certain families and in preparation for certain public festi- vals there may have been some provision for systematic instruction in dancing, singing, playing the kinnor or the flute. But probably music and dancing were learned with- out any formal instruction, i. e., children picked them up by watching, imitating, and now and then joining in the performance. It was for the most part in the same in- formal manner that the children of each generation learned from their elders ballads, lyrics, funeral dirges, patriotic songs, chants and prayers. The history of literature during the Native Period falls into two minor periods : -(i)__tbe age of oral transmission Oral Literature- ^^ ^hc age of song and story ; (2) the age of Traveling Bards written literature. Such passages as Genesis xxxi. 44-52 and Joshua iv seem to indicate that prior to a widespread knowledge of reading and writ- ing it was customary to erect heaps of stones to indicate the site of important events, and then to transmit orally from generation to generation the narrative connected there- with. Laws, traditions, myths, songs, riddles, fables, pro- verbs and prayers were handed down orally for many cen- turies before they were committed to writing. "Many of Israel's traditions undoubtedly continued for centuries to be recorded simply in the minds of the people. As among the nomadic Arabs to-day they were recounted during the long evenings beside the campfires, or as the shepherds watched their slow moving flocks, or in the secret of the harem, or at the wells as the maidens went out to draw water, or at marriage feasts and religious festivals. 23 Later times came to look with disapproval upon dancing as a form of worship and relegated its use more and more to secular festive occasions. 2* An eight-stringed lyre. 26 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Possibly, as throughout all the towns of modern Palestine, there were found professional story-tellers who, whenever men gathered together for recreation, recited with gesture and action their bundle of tales. The stories appealed strongly to the imagination of the people, for they told of courtship, of marriage, of intrigue, and of the achievements of -their ancestors, or else answered the questions which were uppermost in their minds [i. e., questions regarding the origin of man and the world in which he lives, differ- ences in races and languages]. Other traditions, embodying the experiences of the tribe, were transmitted as sacred from father to son. Another large group was treasured at the many local sanctuaries scattered throughout the land. Each time that the worshipers made a pilgrimage to the shrine, its especial cycle of traditions relating to its history and ceremonies would be recounted or recalled and thus kept fresh in the popular memory."^'* "In the picturesque, concrete form of popular traditions were transmitted the thoughts, the beliefs, the fancies and the experiences of preceding generations. The variety of the motives and in- fluences which gave rise to these is astonishing. Some were at first intended simply to entertain, others to enlighten, to kindle patriotism, to instruct in ritual, and to inspire true faith and action. They touch almost every side of human experience, and meet in a remarkable manner man's varied needs."-« Gradually through the offices of priest, prophet and scribe a body of written literature began to appear. Each period produced its own erroup of written works or Written Litera- ^ „ _ - , . *^ ^ " . . ture— Character scrolls. Out of this mass of writmgs there the cln!>"n'°" °^ gradually emerged a group accepted as canon- ical, i.e., as bearing the stamp of divine author- ity. Every work so produced gave one more text to be studied by the rising generation. As finally established the 25 C F. Kent, Beginnings of Hebrew History, p. 13. 2« Ibid. p. 12. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 27 canQn included three chief divisions, (1) the-I^w; {2)^a^ the Pcopbets; (3) the ^i^Mings. It is agreed among schol- ars that the first division of the canon, the Lav^," was constituted and officially adopted through the influence of Ezra and Nehemiah^^ in the fifth century B. C. The sec- ond division, the Prophets,^® was probably not completed before the third century B. C.'*' The third division, the Writings," was closed in the year 118 A. D. when the Council of Rabbis meeting at Jamnia decided in favor of the canonicity of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs which up to that time had been in dispute.^^ From the above data it is evident, ( 1 ) that the canon was not finally determined until the second century A. D. ; (2) that there was in exist- ence among the Hebrews, at least three hundred years be- fore the Exile, a considerable body of written literature. When did the three R's come to be of such general use as to be considered essentials in education? It is generally Reading and agreed that the Hebrews adopted, during their Writing. conquest and settlement of Palestine, the Cana- anite systems of writing and of weights and measures.^' However, this does not prove that a knowledge of reading, writing and reckoning became general at this time, nor does it preclude the existence and use of earlier systems.^* "The ^"^ The Law includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deu- teronomy. 28 C. A. Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 120. 29 Included in the Prophets are: (1) earher prophets: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings; (2) the later prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve "minor" prophets. 3^ C A. Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 123. 31 Included in the Writings are: (1) Psalms, Proverbs, Job; (2) The Five Rolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther; (3) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles. 32 C. A. Briggs, Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 130 33Ismar J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 118. 34 "The cuneiform script was perhaps still in use in Palestine in the tenth and eleventh centuries B. C, meanwhile the north-Semitic al- phabet appears (about 850 B.C.)." S. A. Cook, "Palestine," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XX. 608-609a. 28 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Mesa stone of Dibon erected by a contemporary of .... Elijah, exhibits so clearly and perfectly the characteristics of cursive script as to demonstrate the existence in Israel of a long practised art of writing."^'^ Probably the classes first to make an extensive use of writing were the priests, the prophets, scribes and court UsebyReiie- officials. The pricsts as the oldest of these ious and Official f our classes Were undoubtedly the first to use Classes. j^ ^^^ ^^^ have employed it in certain tribes prior to the Conquest. The establishment of the monarchy resulted in the rise of the last three classes named above, each of which found a knowledge of the three R's a most valuable asset. The later prophets wrote extensively.^® The establishment of the monarchy brought with it the demand for written records of court transactions. Alliances, treaties, royal proclamations, messages of the king to chieftains ab- sent on the field of battle, chronicles of the king's exploits, all afforded abundant opportunity for the royal secretary or scribe. "From the days of David recorders and scribes figure among the court officials."^^ That some members of the nobility were able to read and write is suggested by the statement that David wrote to his captain Joab, and that Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name.^® It is impossible to estimate how widespread was the knowledge of the three R's during the Native Period. The Popular Use Scriptures contain many passages which sug- and Knowledge, gggt, though they do not prove conclusively, a widespread knowledge of reading and writing.^® It is related that a young man of Succoth captured by Gideon described or wrote down a list of elders and princes of 35 Carl H. Cornill, Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 90. 3* See below, paragraphs on Literary Work (of prophets) and note 62. 3^ C. F. Kent, Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives, p. S. 38 2 Samuel xi. 14; 1 Kings xxi. 8. 39 See Deuteronomy vi. 9 ; xxvii. 8 ; Joshua xviii. 9. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 29 Succolh.*^ The instances of David and Jezebel just re- ferred to are frequently cited as arguments of a consider- able popular knowledge of reading and writing among the masses upon the basis that both David and Jezebel took it for granted that those to whom they were writing could read. The evidence of such passages is not conclusive. David and Jezebel both may have employed scribes ; more- over Jezebel was a foreigner. In 1880 was discovered chiseled into the rocky wall of one of the aqueducts leading into the Siloam reservoir in Jerusalem an inscription as old at least as the time of Isaiah, perhaps as old as the reign of Solomon.*^ However it is not safe to conclude from this inscription, as has sometimes been done, that the three R's were in common use among the laboring classes. The inscription is in a cursive hand which suggests that it may have been traced by a scribe and then cut by a workman. Moreover, even if the hand that traced and the hand that cut were the same, the work may have been that of a highly educated prisoner of war, taken captive and enslaved. Nevertheless such an inscrip- tion scarcely would have been made unless there had existed at the time a considerable reading public. In conclusion it may be said that it seems safe to as- sume that putting into writing laws designed to be known by all the people'*^ would be the beginning of a widespread demand for instruction in reading and writing. As soon as commerce became an important element in general life*^ a demand would arise for a knowledge of the elements of reckoning, moneys, weights and measures. As there were no^chools whatever for the masses, any instruction chil- ^^^ Judges viii. 14. o r^^l^c S" ?^y^^' ^^Sht from Ancient Monuments, p. 5 ; p. 82 gives fngpp 82-86"^^"^^'°"' ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^" ^^^^'^ ^^^ ^^°^^ °^ ^^^ ^"^" *2 Deuteronomy xxvii. 2-3 ; Joshua xxiv. 25-27. *^ This occurred as early at least as the days of the monarchy. 30 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. dren received in the three_R's must have been given in the home by the parents or by private teachers. ''The impossibility of treating reHgious and moral edu- cation*"* apart from training and instruction in other fields of activity is already evident from the pre- * *^'°"' ceding paragraphs.*^ It has been pointed out / that dancing was originally a religious as well as a festive exercise. Much of that large body of literature which for centuries existed only in oral form was religious and morale in character. Although religion did not^ dominate life in this early period to the extent that it did in the centuries followmg the Exile yet there was no phase of life and no field of activity into which it did not enter. Meetings of family or tribe, the shearing of the sheep, the gathering of the harvest, the birth of a child, departure for war, victory or defeat, changes in the seasons and in the moon were all occasions for religious observance. Through be- holding such observances, through assisting in preparing for them, and through listening to such explanations as parents and elders saw fit to give, the child received his re- ligious training and instruction. The Hebrews were no exception to* the general rule that the moral qualities emphasized by any people depend largely upon industrial, social and political conditions. Surrounded by powerful enemies and forced to live in a state of continuous military prepared- ness, the virtues they most esteemed were courage, loyalty to kindred and to the nation's god, absolute unquestioning obedience to those in authority and to the laws of the fam- ily, of the tribe and of the nation ; kindness toward kinsmen, hospitality toward the defenseless wayfarer, mercilessness ** The meagerness and uncertainty of our information regarding many family religious rites and customs necessitates postponing to the Period of Reaction to Foreign Influences any attempt to describe in detail family education in religion and morals. *'5 See especially Chapter I, concluding paragraphs, and Chapter II, What Was Taught. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 31 toward foes. Although the antiquity of many Hebrew pro- verbs suggests that from very early times precepts were used to inculcate virtues, most moral education was a matter of training rather than of instruction : boys and girls learned to be industrious by working within the dwelling or in the field ; to be courageous and loyal by facing concrete situations demanding courage and loyalty ; to be obedient by obeying. Such training was enforced further by tales, legends and traditions setting forth the deeds and virtues of ancestors and of tribal and national heroes. BOYS' EDUCATION OUTSIDE OF THE FAMILY. Institutions. Very early in life the child began to be made conscious of, and later on began to come into contact with, many communal, tribal or national institutions, customs, festivals and activities which stimulated and guided his thought and conduct.*^ Among the most important of these were public festivals,'*^ war, hunting, expeditions, courts or places of judgment and temples. Throughout the greater part of the JNativf Period the domain of the Israelites was dotted with a multitude of shrines and temples presided over by bodies of priests. Every such temple fulfilled a vari- ety of functions. In addition to being a place of worship, it was a place of instruction in religious rites and law.*® Every symbol and rite was a stimulus to religious feeling and a potent teacher of some belief, law, tradition or con- ception. The erection of-Sojon Ton's temp le (dedicated 963 B. C.) was an event of great educationafas well as of great religious importance. Its services and its priesthood must *« See above, paragraph on Religion. *' Reserved for discussion in The Period of Reaction to Foreign Influence, see above, note 44; cf. below, Chapter V, "Festivals." *« See below, paragraph on Functions— Teaching. J' 32 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. have exerted a widespread educative influence. From the story of Baruch** we learn that in the time of Jeremiah the temple court was used as a place of public instruction. This custom, undoubtedly far older than the time of Jere- miah, was still followed in the time of Jesus. Teaching Orders, y The rise in post-Exilic times of the order^of^cribes may be regarded as the beginning of a distinct teaching profes- sion among the Hebrews. Nevertheless the Native Period was by no means destitute of orders certain aspects of whose work may well be described as educational. It would be misleading as well as confusing to designate either the priests or the prophets as teachers. The former were essen- tially ministers at and guardians of the shrines of Yahweh, and the latter were essentially preachers. Aside from the training and instruction they gave to novices or to members of their own orders they probably seldom if ever acted as teachers in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Certainly they organized neither schools nor classes for the masses. Yet in fulfilling the very work to which theyhad been con- secrated, they were in a very real sense stimulating and guiding the religious and moral consciousness, furnishing it with content and with forms of expression and, in a word, Levites and wcre educating it. It is therefore impossible Priests. ^q excludc from even a brief account of an- cient Hebrew education some consideration of the teach- ing or educational services of these two orders. The origin of the Hebrew priesthood is wrapt in ob- scurity. During the nomadic period and for some time after the settlement in Canaan the head of every a. Ongm. r m ^ - • a x < •• family acted as its priest.^" Judges xvu seems to indicate clearly that as early as the time of the "judges" the L^idies were recognized as an order or tribe of priests whose ministrations were peculiarly efficacious in gaining ** Jeremiah xxxvi. 4. ^o Cf . above, paragr. on Who Was Taught. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 33 the favor of Yahweh,^^ but how long before Micah's time a distinct priestly order existed cannot be stated. Early times knew no distinction between priests and Levites but called the ministers of all Yahweh sanctuaries Levites.*^* It is probable that the reforms of Josiah (621 B.C.) were responsible to a large extent for the distinction which arose in later times. These reforms specifically provided that the Levites in charge of the many shrines outside Jerusalem should be brought to the capital city and attached to the national temple. It is easy to understand how the order of priests already in charge of the royal sanctuary would assign to the newcomers the more humble temple duties and a humbler rank in the now national order of priests, claiming for themselves a superior rank and the more important offices. Among the most important functions of the_early4iriest- hood-were divination, guarding and ministering at the shrines b Functions ^^ Yahwch, and teaching. Kent on the basis Services as of Deuteronomy xxxiii. 10 ("They shall teach Teachers. Jacob thy judgments") and certain other pas- sages asserts not only that the early priests acted as judges but that it was through the exercise of this function that much of their most important educational influence was exerted.^^ In 1 Samuel iv. 18 we read that Eli had acted as gL-jJ^dge for forty years. There are, however, serious objections to ascribing this function of acting as judges to the priests except in cases where some matter of ritual was involved as where a tabu had been broken. But even if we deny that the priests acted as judges in any general sense and if we exclude from our conception of their work the forceful though indirect presentation through the chan- ^1 Judges xvii. 13. ^2 Emil Schiirer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Div. II, Vol. I, pp. 223-229, gives an excellent brief ac- count of the rise and development of the order of Levites. ^^ C. F. Kent, The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity. pp. 44ff. 34 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. nel of their judgments, of civic, political, moral .and relig- ious lessons, there nevertheless remain many activities in which they appear discharging a teaching function. ' Through their declaration of the will of Yahweh, discovered by the use of the sacred lot or by some other means of divination, they created and disseminated conceptions of Yahweh. They organized and directed public festivals many of which were little less than dramatized lessons in religion and history. They taught to the individual resorting to them in private and to the multitude publicly assembled in the temple or in the open, forms of worship. They collected and trans- mitted (at first orally, later by writing) laws, rites, cere- monies, myths, legends and history (cf. Malachi ii. 7). w^hey compiled, edited and transmitted this literature. They put much of it into forms easy to grasp and remember and taught it to the people. Through their literary efforts they began the compilation of that great body of literature which still remains the world's unsurpassed text for religious and moral instruction. Their communities were the first organ- ized groups in ancient Israel providing definite and special instruction for a class (the priesthood) definitely, though by no means solely, devoted to teaching.^* Saul, unable to find his father's asses, resorted to Samuel, the seer, much as some to-day resort to fortune-tellers or Prophets or Ora- clairvoyants.^^ Undoubtedly long before Sam- tor-Teachers, ucl's time many a seer (Heb. roeh) and diviner a. Origin. (Heb. kosem) was to be found living in the various tribes. Such individuals were believed to possess un- usual means o"f ascertaining the divine will or of communi- cating with divine powers. The soothsaying priest and the kosem, and probably also the roeh, based their declarations largely upon the observation of objective physical phenom- ena. It is probable that the prophet (Heb. sing, nabi, pi. ne- *** For a discussion of the priests as teachers see Chapter V, De- cline of Priests and Prophets as Teachers. " 1 Samuel ix. Iff. EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 35 biim) emerged by a process of continual development from the earlier roeh.^^ It is possible also that "The signs or sym- bolic acts of the prophets originated in actions of sympathetic magic."'*^ However that may be, "the prophet's function became in an increasing degree a function of mind and not merely of traditional routine or mechanical technique."'^® In other words the nabi himself became the subjective channel through which Yahweh spoke. The Hebrew prophets were not primarily nor chiefly foretellers of the fiiture. Their importance is due to the b~Entrance into P^^* ^^^^ played in public affairs and to their Public Affairs— servicc as public teachers. Their rise to the Characteristics. pQgition of publiclcaders in Israel is contem- poraneous with the rise of the monarchy. Among the causes which explain their entrance into the arena of public affairs three may be mentioned: (1) the need of seers at the royal court to declare the will of Yahweh when important under- takings were being contemplated and upon other occasions ; (2) the needjof religious reform; (3) the need of social reform. Religious and social abuses (e. g., idolatry and the in- creasing oppression of the poor), combined with a constant fear of outside foes, resulted in bringing together devout men, endowed with a greater vision, yearning for reform and moved by religious and patriotic zeal mounting fre- quently to frenzy. Such bands went by the name of prophets or "sons of prophets." They appear to have lived in com- munities frequently in the vicinity of some famous sanc- tuary as Beth-El and Gilgal. Some prophets, such as Sam- uel and Elisha, were intimately associated with such com- munities ; others, like Elijah, generally worked independently. ^® 1 Samuel ix. 9. ^"^ Wm. Robertson Smith and Owen C. Whitehouse, "The Prophets of the Old Testament," Enc. Brit, 11th ed., XXII, 442b. «8 0. C. Whitehouse, "Hebrew Religion," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XIII, 182a. 36 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. In contrast to the priestly order the prophets were a lay or^T. They were also an open order,"X e., the spirit of prophecy might come upon any one, whereupon he would begin to prophesy and would be numbered among the proph- ets. '^^ Women as well as men were included in the ranks.^° "The seer appears individually With the proj[)hets it is quite otherwise; they appear in bands; their prophesying is a united exercise accompanied by music, and seemingly dance music ; it is marked by strong excitement which some- times acts contagiously."®^ Such prophets as Amos, Hosea and Isaiah were public poets and orators. Like Jeremiah they probably spoke their c Literary prophecics first and then later committed them Work. to writing.®^ Their literary products included orations delivered in public, tracts intended for public dis- tribution but not oral recitation, codes,®* history®* and sum- maries of their own actions. They cast their utterances into poetic form, choosing the meter best adapted to the mes- sage. These works, oral or written, served as texts for u^heir own disciples and for future generations. It is futile to attempt to state how extensive was the provision made by prophet communities for training and d Education in instructing their members. It is impossible Prophet Commu- to accept the vicw presented by some writers that the prophets established colleges presided over by a senior member, in which music, oratory, poetry, law and other advanced studies were taught. However, in view of the general state of culture in the monarchical 69 1 Samuel x. 11-12; xix. 20-24. «<^ E, g., Deborah, Judges iv. 5 ; Huldah, 2 Kings xxii. 14. 61 Wm. Robertson Smith and Owen C. Whitehouse, "The Prophets of the Old Testament," Enc. Brit, 11th ed., XXII, 441c. 62 Jeremiah xxxvi relates how Jeremiah dictated an epitome of his prophecy. 63 E. g.j'The Book of Instruction. 64 Charles F. Kent, Beginnings of Hebrew History, p. 36. The Judean prophets began writing a comprehensive history of Israel about 825 B. C EDUCATION DURING THE NATIVE PERIOD. 37 period and of the need the prophets would have of a knowl- edge of reading, writing, literature, oratory and composi- tion, there is no valid reason against the assumption that some provision was made for instruction in some or all of these branches. Isaiah evidently had a group of disciples who wrote down his utterances and recorded his work.®'' The prophets were wandering teachers. In their own eyes and in the eyes of the people, they were Yahweh's divinely commissioned messengers. Wherever Teachers— Times there was an Opportunity to make known his and Places of ^ju^ whercver there was need of protest against Instruction. ., , . • • i . evils or of encouragement in righteousness, thither they betook themselves. "Sometimes he (the prophet) appeared in the court before the king and princes, some- times he appealed frOm the rulers to the people. Often the temple court. . . .was the scene of the prophet's teaching."®' Many examples might be given from the work of Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and other prophets, showing the i, extensive use the prophets made of symbol- 7 f. Methods. . . , . , , i . • , . ism, the object lesson and the dramatic method- Jeremiah, wishing to dissuade the Judeans from joining Egypt and the surrounding tribes in a revolt against Baby- lonia, made a number of wooden yokes. One he wore him- self, the others he carried for the foreign ambassadors.®^ Isaiah, to give force to his message to king Hezekiah not to join with Egypt against Assyria, for three years dressed like a captive and went barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem to picture the captivity such rashness would bring.®® ^^ Isaiah viii. 16. ®® C. F. Kent, The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity p. 25. «^ Jeremiah xxvii and xxviii. "The account is not from Jeremiah himself but seems to rest upon good information." *® Isaiah xx. 3. 38 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. It may be seriously doubted whether any nation has ever produced a group of religious and moral teachers com- parable with the prophets of ancient Israel. Through their spoken public addresses and writings they became creators g. Educational of national religious and social ideals, critics Importance. ^nd iuspirers of public policies, denunciators of social wrongs, preachers of individual and social right- eousness, and the source and channel of an ever loftier con- ception of Yahweh and of the mission of Israel.^® In ful- filling each of these capacities they were acting as public teachers. In every national crisis they were at hand to denounce, to encourage, to comfort and always to instruct. They were the public conscience of Israel, the soul of its religion, the creators of public opinion, its most conspicuous, its most revered, its most convincing teachers. «» See Chapter I, paragraph on the Prophetic Conception of Yah- weh. CHAPTER HI. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD OF REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD OF REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES.^: FROM 586 B. C. TO 70 A. D. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her time of service is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins." — Isaiah xl. 1-2. Summary of Chapter. In 586 B. C. Jerusalem with its temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. Thousands of Jews were transported to Babylonia. The Exile had begun. The Jews in Babylon found themselves in the midst of a civilization far in advance of their own. A literary re- naissance ensued, one of whose most important products was a code of laws known as the giiesil^iCode, governing every phase of life and destined to become the basis of education. From the Babylonian Exile, 586 B. C, to the fall of Jerusalem, 70 A. D., with the exception of the Maccabean century, 167-63 B. C, the Jews were always in subjection to some powerful foreign nation, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Rome. During this time thousands of Jewish communities, collectively called the diaspora, be- came established throughout the world. HISTORICAL OUTLINE. In the year 597 B. C. Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusa- lem and carried as captives to Babylon King Jehoiachin, his royal household, a large number of nobles and many artisans. 42 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Not many years had passed before Nebuchadnezzar was forced to send an army to quell rebelHous Judah. After Babylonian Exile a year and a half's siege Jerusalem fell, 586 586-538 B. c. g. C. The city and temple which had been spared in 597 were sacked and burned. Thousands of Jews were deported to Babylon, and Judea was made a part of the Babylonian province ; the Exile had begun.^ The Jews in Babylon found themselves in the midst of a civilization far in advance of their own. Schools and li- Literary Re- braries, some of them possessing thousands of naissance. works, Were widely spread. A considerable knowledge of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, architec- ture, engineering, and an elaborate code of laws dealing with every phase of life, bore witness to Babylonian intel- lectual development. Such an environment was bound to stimulate literary activity. Further stimulus arose from the w/fews' passionate desire to preserve their national laws, his- tory, traditions and temple rites. Prior to the Exile, Jeru- salem had been declared the sole lawful place of sacrifice. The priests now freed from their customary duties turned to instruction and writing, as did also the prophets. The result was a literary renaissance out of which came forth such original works as the prophecies of Ezekiel and the Second Isaiah ; new editions of such already existing works as Amos, Hosea, Deuteronomy and Joshua; compilations of codes and detailed records of rites, customs and cere- monies. The Exile lasted only forty-eight years :^ in 538 B.C. Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon. The ^Persian rulers Persian Period permitted the restoration of the Jewish com- 539-332 B. c. muuity at Jerusalem. The rebuilding of the temple followed (520-516 B.C.), an event of supreme im- portance to religion and religious education. ^ H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 297. 2 By Jewish writers frequently considered to have lasted until the dedication of the second temple, 516 B. C, i. e., a total of seventy years. THE PERIOD OF REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES. 43 In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great of Greece defeated Darius, King of Persia, and then pushed his conquests south Greek Period 332- through Palestine and Egypt. Following Alex- 167 B. c. ander's death in 323 B. C. Palestine became a bone of contention between the rival kingdoms of Egypt and Syria. For over a hundred and twenty years from 320 B. C. when Ptolemy I captured Jerusalem, Judah was in the possession now of Egypt, now of Syria. Finally in 198 B. C. the Seleucids of Syria secured the supremacy, which they retained until the Maccabean revolt 167 B. C.^ A part of Alexander's ambition had been to Hellenize the East. Wherever he had conquered he had planted colonies of Greeks and had introduced the Greek language, Greek religion, Greek political institutions and Greek schools. His efforts to Hellenize Judah were continued by his successors, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria, who alike endeavored to wean or force the Jews away from their native religion, culture, institutions and education. The Seleucids, not satisfied with the rapidity with which the Jews were be- coming Hellenized, resorted to violent measures. A Greek altar was erected on the altar of burnt-offering in the temple at Jerusalem. Possession of the books of the Law and Sabbath observance were punished by death. Altars to Greek gods were erected everywhere and the heads of fam- ilies were called upon to worship at them under penalty of death.* As a result of these oppressive measures the Jews rose in revolt in 167 B. C. under the leadership of an aged priest Maccabean Pe- Mattathias and his five sons, the Hasmoneans. riod 167-63 B. c. Within two years religious liberty was re- stored. Successive Jewish leaders, by political intrigue and by playing off one aspirant to the Syrian throne against another, succeeded in gaining concessions which ultimately 8 Judas Maccabeus victorious in his first battle with the Syrians. The period is commonly dated 175-63 B. C * H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 444-445. George Adam Smith, Jerusalem : to 70 A. D., II, pp. 367-436. 44 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. restored to Judah a national independence that continued until the Romans took Jerusalem in 63 B. C. The rule of the Romans was attended by disastrous con- sequences. Roman conquerors on their way through Pal- Roman Period 63 cstiuc plundered the temple, levied extortionate B. C.-70 A. D. tribute and carried thousands of Jews away as slaves. Local aspirants for power kept alive internal jealousies and strife. One of these, Herod, with the aid of Rome, captured Jerusalem in 37 B. C. and began his reign which continued till 4 B. C. His son, Archelaus, who succeeded to the throne of Samaria, Judea and Idumea, ruled in such outrageous fashion that after ten years the oppressed Jews appealed to Rome (6 A. D.). Augustus de- posed Archelaus and placed Judea under the rule of a Roman procurator. Roman oppression and mismanagement resulted in continual efforts at revolt. These efforts cul- minated in the insurrection which began 66 A. D. and ended ^^'in 70 A. D. with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Titus.'^ Later came the dispersion throughout the Roman world of the remnant of miserable survivors. All hope of a national political existence was now at an end. The story of how, in the centuries which followed, this wonder- ful people managed through their system of religious edu- cation to preserve their nationality belongs to medieval and modern history, and consequently has no place in the present account. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. The six and a half centuries of contact with foreign powers outlined above were marked by many important Hierocracy and changes. During this time the priesthood Democracy. arose to a position of political power second only to that of the foreign rulers. Carefully organized, ** The destruction of Jerusalem is one of the most thrilling as well as one of the most horrifying events in ancient history. An excellent description will be found in Carl H. Cornill, History of the People of Israel, pp. 272-301. THE PERIOD OF REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES. 45 protected and assured a generous competence by laws re- garded as coming from Yahweh, the priests grew in in- fluence and numbers. Following vain post-Exilic efforts to perpetuate the kingship, the high priest became the head of the Jewish state, recognized as such, not only by the Jews themselves, but by their foreign masters. With the Jewish state a hierocracy, patriotism and piety were one. To be law-abiding was to be religious, and to be religious one must' be law-abiding. The importance of this to the history of Jewish education cannot be overestimated. In contrast with the tendency fostered by the priesthood toward the creation of a caste-bound society, there were certain marked tendencies toward democracy, in part the outgrowth of the ideals and teachings of the prophe^ - and in part the outgrowth of Greek influence. These "i lude a growing autonomy for individual cities, and the reorgani- zation of the senate or Sanhedrin.^ Prior to the Exile, the Hebrews as an independent people, often as conquerors, had borrowed freely such ele- Heiienism— Re- "^^^"^^5 as they chosc from foreign nations, ligious and The Hcllenizcd peoples with whom they came in contact from the time of the Exile onward were for the most part their conquerors. The effects of Greek influence were twofold: the intellectual and esthetic j aspects of life were extended and enriched, but this intel- lectual enrichment was accompanied by religious and moral decadence. "The rich Judeans soon copied the Greek cus- toms, and callous to the promptings of shame and honor, they introduced singers, dancers and dissolute women at these festivals."^ Greek religious cults, including the orgi- astic rites of Dionysus were adopted by ^ many faithless Jews. Skepticism, repudiation of Judaism and licentiousness followed.® Amid these conditions there arose among the « H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 417-418. 7 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 428d. » Ibid., 426-428. 46 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Jews distinct parties: one, eager for political preferment who sought to curry favor with their foreign masters by adopting Greek culture, institutions and religion f a second, endeavoring to exlude foreign innovations and to preserve unsullied the customs and institutions of the fathers ; a third, representing a somewhat middle ground. It was the second of these three groups which fostered that attitude toward life commonly known as Judaism, which emphasized, often unduly, all rites and customs that marked the Jews as a peculiar and distinct people consecrated to the worship and service of Yahweh. From the time of the Babylonian Exile onward, various foreign conquerors deported as slaves large numbers of „^ _. Jews. Other Jews left Palestine voluntarily The Diaspora. *' *' . • ^ r,- to escape oppression, to avoid conflict or to avail themselves of opportunities in foreign lands. Thus there gradually arose outside of Palestine throughout the entire civilized world a vast multitude .of Jewish cokmmuni- ties.^° This mojvremeDV which b e g a n with the Exilc -iiriiie ^ si xth cen turv. reached its climax in the Roman period.^^ Strabo writes, even in Sulla's time, "there is hardly a place in the world which has not admitted this people and is not possessed by it."^^ Through the diaspora,^^ then, as well as through the settlement of aliens in Judea, Jewish customs, beliefs and institutions were constantly threatened by for- eign innovations. ® Joseph, grandson of Simeon the Just (d. 208 B. C), is a notorious !i^?''^5f"^^^ive of this type. See H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 423-431. 1^ There is evidence that flourishing Jewish communities existed 1? J?^yP^ ^* Daphne and Elephantine as early as the sixth century B. C. "A recent English work of much interest is D. Askowith, The Toleration and Persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire. 12 Strabo, frag. 6, cited by Josephus, Antiq., XIV, 7, 2. /^ Riaspora is the term collectively applied to the body of Jews living in communities scattered throughout the world. CHAPTER IV. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. "Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah : And the fruit of the womb is his reward." — Psalm cxxvii. 3. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." — Deuteronomy vi. 7. Summary of Chapter. The Hebrews regarded children as a gift from God. The sacred Law placed upon parents the responsibility of acting as the child's first teachers of religion. The mother as a teacher occupied a place subordinate to that of the father but nevertheless an exceedingly important one. Generally speaking, the education of the child was marked by severity, corporal punishment being highly commended and freely used. Nevertheless Hebrew literature furnishes abundant •— evidence of the deeply tender affection of parents for their children and children for their parents. Per jods, more or less distinct, were <-^ recognized in the life and education of the child, the dividing line being generally marked by some religious rite. Education within the family consisted chiefly of training and instruction in religion, morals, manners and industrial occupations. The aim of all religious instruc- tion was to develop in the child a c6nsciousness of his personal responsibility to Yahweh. THE FAMILY AS AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION.! The intensity of the Hebrew desire for children is revealed in such Old Testament narratives as those of Desire for Chii- the childless Sarah, Rebccca, Rachel and Han- dren. nah. The racial attitude is beautifully ex- pressed in the well-known hues: 1 A number of topics, such as Education in the Family, Festivals and the Education of Girls, treated in this and succeeding chapters, 50 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. "Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah : And the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are the children of youth, ^ Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of themr^ Throughout thp^tir^ h^'^^^T-y nf the- TTf^hrpw^g the fam- iy^ ily was regarded as the fundamental educational institution. Parental Parents were held responsible not only for Responsibility, ^he instruction of their children but for their conduct. In time the laws fixed thirteen as the age at which the boy became personally responsible for the J^w,^ up to this age his father was held responsible not only for the boy's education but for his conduct. Even the rise of a system of elementary schools devoted to the task of daily religious instruction did not free the home of this its most important responsibility. It could not, for to parents direct from Yahweh came the command: "And thou shalt teach them (the laws of Yahweh) diligently unto thy children, And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, And when thou walkest by the way. And when thou risest up. "And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, And they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, And upon thy gates." (Deuteronomy vi. 7-9.) The zizii tefillin* and mezuzah' show with what degree of exactness the Hebrews sought to carry out these com- mands. belong quite as much to the Native Period. Discussion of these topics has been reserved until the post-Exilic Period, owing to the vagueness and uncertainty of the data available with respect to them in the earlier period. Consequently much of the data given in this chapter refers also to the Native Period. 2 Psalm cxxvii. 3-5. » Babylonian Talmud, "Tract Aboth," V, near end. (In Rodkin- son's translation, p. 133.) * See below. Distinguishing Rites, paragraphs on Zizit and Tefillin. ^ See below, Religimi, paragraph on Mezuzah. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 51 The ancient Hebrew family, writes Cornill, "was an absolute monarchy, with the father as absolute monarch , . ^ at the head."® The evidences of this authority Parental Author- _ , , m j ity a E^ine are many. The wife and children were upon Right. ^j^g same basis as slaves. A father could sell his daughters into marriage or slavery, though not to for- eigners.^ Infanticide was not permitted, as far as our rec- ords show, but it is probable that in early times upon certain occasions fathers offered up their sons and daughters as living sacrifices.® In historic times the modern Rousseauian theory that parents must win their authority over their chil- dren by convincing their offspring of the superiority of parental wisdom and goodness found no place in Hebrew thought. On the contrary, parents ruled by divine right : "For the Lord hath given the father honor over the children And hath confirmed the authority of the mother over the sons."® The Deuteronomic law provided that if punishment failed to beget obedience in a wayward intemperate son, the father and mother should bring him before the elders of the city and say, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice ; he is a riotous liver and a drunk- ard."^*' No provision was made in this law for any investi- gation nor for any defense by the accused child. The parents acted both as accusers and prosecutors, the elders were the judges." If the parents' accusation was accepted by the elders of the city, thereupon "All the men of the city shall stone him (the guilty son) with stones that he die."^^ ^ Carl H. Cornill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 87. ■^ Exodus xxi. 7-11. ® This inference seems justified from the story of Abraham and Isaac, from that of Jephthah's daughter and from the evidence of the continuance of Moloch worship down to the reforms of Josiah, 621 B. C. » Ecclesiasticus iii. 2. lo Deuteronomy xxi. 20. 1^ Carl H. Cornill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 79. 12 Deuteronomy xxi. 21. 52 ^ EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. It should be noted, however, that the Deuteronomic law, severe as it is and significant as it is for the light it throws upon the degree of authority granted parents, is even more significant as a sign of the attempt to put certainOchecks upon this authority. In earlier times there had been no check upon the parents' authority. The Deuteronomic law made it impossible for the parents to do with their child as they pleased. Their act must be reviewed by elders of the city as a court : thus a higher authority, not the parents, imposed the death penalty. Many passages similar to Deuteronomy vi. 7-9 might be quoted in which the father is enjoined to instruct his ^ Parents as SOU or his children in the divine laws,^^ in Teachers. particular rites such as Passover,^* or in the significance of sacred monuments or landmarks.^^ Both parents were held responsible for the religious education of the children, but the chief responsibility fell upon the V father as head of the household. The mother is frequently^ mentioned in the Scriptures as a teacher, but generally in conjunction with and subordinate to the father.^® There is only one passage in which the mother is represented as acting independently in this capacity :^^ the first division of Proverbs is introduced with the title: "The Words of Lemuel, King of Massa,^® which his mother taught him." . Proverbs and the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus, both designed as manuals for rehgious and moral instruction, represent child nature as irresponsible, way- ; Chii"Natur^ Ward, foolish and rebellious. Fathers are Corporal Punish- wamcd agaiust playing with their children and are advised to preserve an austere coun- tenance toward both sons and daughters: 13 Deuteronomy iv.'9-lO. i* Exodus xii. 26-27. 15 Joshua iv. 21-22. i6 Proverbs i. 8. " Carl H. Cornill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 92. 18 Massa located beyond the limits of the Holy Land, near to Du- mah, one of the original seats of the Ishmaelites. See Genesis xxv. 14 and 1 Chronicles i. 30. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 53 "Cocker thy child and he shall make thee afraid, Play with him and he will bring thee to heaviness.''^^ ' "Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow with him And lest thou gnash thy teeth in the end."2o "Hast thou daughters? Have a care to their body And show not thyself cheerful toward them/'^i A child's will must be broken : **A horse not broken be- cometh headstrong; a child left to himself becometh wil- ful."^2 *'Bow down his neck while he is young, and beat him on the sides while he is a child, lest he wax stubborn and be disobedient unto thee."-^ Commendations of corporal punishment abound: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son. But he that loveth him chasteneth him diligently."^* "Chasten thy son, seeing there is hope. . . ."^5 "Wfthhold not correction from the child, For if thou beat him with the rod he shall not die."2« That all Hebrew fathers were not of the austere type pictured in these passages is evident from the necessity felt by the authors for repeated admonitions to parents to be severe, and from passages in other books. Jacob's love for Joseph and the paternal love depicted by Jesus in the parable of the Lost Son undoubtedly were typical of many fathers. Hebrew poets wishing to picture the pity of Yahweh for Israel do so by a reference to earthly fathers: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.'* i» Ecclesiasticus xxx. 9. 20 Jbid., xxx. 10. 21 Ibid., vii. 24. 22 ji^id^^ xxx. 8. 23 Ibid., xxx. 12. 24 Proverbs xiii. 24. 25 Ibid., xix. 18. 26 jijid,^ xxiii. 13. 54 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. PERIODS IN CHILD LIFE AND EDUCATION. The early age at which the boy assumed adult responsi- bility made childhood distinctly a period for learning and Childhood the training. This was recognized not only in Time for Learn- practice but in pedagogical literature: "Hast *"^' thou children? Instruct them and bow their neck from their youth."^^ "Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it."28 Distinguishing Rites. The Talmud distinguished five periods-* in child life and education,^^ but though frequently quoted this division does not apply to the pre-Talmudic period. Edersheim discovers in the Scriptures eight "ages of man," seven of which are distinct periods ii^ childhood.^^ The Priestly Code provided rites to mark the opening and close of periods in child life. Probably many of these rites were in existence long before they were embodied in the Law. Some arose perhaps in nomadism, but their antiquity cannot be determined. It must suffice to describe them. Upon birth the new-born infant was bathed in water, rubbed in salt and wrapped in swaddling clothes.^^ If the Rites of Infancy child was the first-bom son he belonged to and Circumcision Yahweh and must be redeemed by an offering of five, shekels. ^^ On the eighth day after birth every boy 2*^ Ecclesiasticus vii. 23. 28 Proverbs xxir. 6. 2» Strictly speaking only four, as the fifth is that of adultness. 30 "Tract Aboth," V, near end. (In Rodkinson's transl., p. 133.) 31 Alfred Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, pp. 104-105, makes the following divisions: (1) new-born infant, m. jeled, f. jaldah; (2) suckling, joneh; (3) an eating suckling, olel; (4) a weaned infant, gamut; (5) "one who clings," taph; (6) "one who has become firm and strong," m. elem, f. almah; (7) youth, naar; (8) "ripened one," bachur. 32 Ezekiel xvi. 4 ; Luke ii. 7. 33 Exodus xiii. 12ff ; Numbers xviii. 15. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 55 was circumcised^* and named, receiving his name from his father^® or from his mother.^^ Peritz found that out of forty- four cases of naming children mentioned in the Old Testament, four were ascribed to God, fourteen to men and twenty-six to women.^^ A mother after the birth of a son was regarded as un- clean for a period of seven plus thirty-three days ; in the Mothers' Purifi- casc of a daughter the numbers were doubled, cation Rites. making the period fourteen plus sixty-six days. During this period the mother was not allowed to touch any sacred thing or to enter any sacred place. She regained her ceremonial cleanness at the end of this time by making two offerings: (1) a burnt-offering, a first-year lamb (in case the mother was poor, a pigeon or dove) ; (2) a sin offering, a pigeon or a turtle-dove.^® Mothers generally suckled their own children,^® although nurses are sometimes mentioned.*^ Children were ordin- arily weaned at the end of two or three years,*^ the completion of the weaning was sometimes celebrated with a feast.*^ The Talmud states that at thirteen one should assume the responsibility of the commandments,. i. e.,.become respon- Adoiescent sible for the Law.*^ The Scriptures give no ^'***- positive information concerning any special system of education provided for adolescence ; nevertheless in legends, traditions, customs and rites of later times there are many indications that even from tribal days adolescence 34 Genesis xvii. 12-14. ^^Ihid., xvi. 15; xvii. 19; Luke i. 59; ii. 21. 38 Genesis xxix. 32 ; 1 Samuel i. 20. 37 1. J, Peritz, "Women in the Ancient Hebrew Cult," Journal of Biblical Lit., XVII, 13Q-131, note 36. 38 Leviticus xii. 1-8. 39 Genesis xxi. 7. *o Ibid., xxiv. 59 ; 2 Kings xi; 2. ^ *i 2 Maccabees vii. 27 ; cf . 1 Samuel i. 22-24. *2 H. A. White, "Birth," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 301a. *3 "Tract Aboth," V, near end. (In Rodkinson's transl, p. 133.) 56 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. was recognized as a period of peculiar social and religious significance, and that it was set aside as a time for definitely /^assuming political and religious obligations and was intro- duced with special ceremonies. It was when Jesus had reached the age of twelve that his parents felt the time had arrived for taking him to the temple in Jerusalem.** Many a Jewish tradition and legend represents the hero as having made his first great decision in life at the opening of adoles- cence. According to legend, it was at twelve that Moses left Pharaoh's daughter's house, and that the boy Samuel heard the voice of God in the night.*** The rite of circumcision offers perhaps further evidence of immemorial recognition of the social and educational significance of adolescence. The earliest Bib- Circumcision. ,. , r 1 • • Aa heal account of this rite*® cannot be accepted as an explanation of its origin but only as an attempt to explain its origin ^s an infancy rite.*^ If, as is believed by some, circumcision was originally a tribal, not a family rite and formed part of the ceremonies by which youths were initiated into the tribe,*^ then the inference seems justified that in the earlier stages of development, the Hebrews in common with other primitive peoples provided special rites for adolescence, and, in conjunction with these special rites, ^ special training. Assumption of responsibility for the Law is to-day accompanied by changes in costume whereby the significance of adolescence is recognized. Two of these changes, the zizit and the phylacteries, will now be con- sidered. The early Hebrews appear to have worn as an outer garment a large piece of cloth of the shape of a Scotch plaid generally called simlah, to the four corners of which ^were ** Luke ii. 42. *** B. A. Hinsdale, Jesus as a Teacher, p. 16. *« Exodus iv. 24-26. *7 H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 67. *8 Cheyne and Black, "Circumcision," Biblical Encyclopedia. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 57 attached blue and white tassels or twisted threads. The ' Deuteronomic law reads: "Twisted threads (Hebr. zisit, in- correctly translated 'fringes') shalt thou make ^"'*' thee upon the four corners of thy mantle wherewith thou coverest thyself. "^^ The custom seems to have been a very ancient one with magical or superstitious associations. In time it took on a spiritual significance, and the garment with twisted threads came to be chiefly a reminder of the obligation of the Jews to walk in the Law of Yahweh and to keep all his commandments.^" Dispersion, persecution and changes in costume resulted in post-Biblical times in substituting for the simlah two garments, namely, (1) the tallit or prayer-shawl, an outer garment, and (2) the arba kanfot^^ or small tallit, an undergarment with twisted threads, which is still worn throughout the day by orthodox Jews. The tefillin (sing, tefillah) or phylacteries, are two ritual- istic objects worn by males over thirteen years of age when Tefillin or Phy- praying. Each consists of a small parchment lacteries. ^^se with a loop attached through which a strap may be passed. By means of these straps the wor- shiper binds one tefillah on the forehead between his eyes, the other on the inner side of his left arm. The case of the head tefillah is divided into four compartments in each of which is one of the four following passages of Scrip- ture: (1) Exodus xiii. 1-10; (2) Exodus xiii. 11-16; (3) Deuteronomy vi. 4-9; (4) Deuteronomy xi. 13-21. The same passages of Scripture are placed in the case of the arm tefillah which, however, consists of only one compart- ment." ^^ Deuteronomy xxii. 12. »oA. R. S. Kennedy, "Fringes," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, II, 68-70. ^1 J. M. Casanowicz, "Arba Kanfot," Jewish Encyc, II, 75d. ^^ William Rosenau, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs, pp. 59-60, gives a most excellent account, with illustrations of current practices. 58 , EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. The antiquity of the custom of wearing tefillin cannot be determined. The New Testament contains many ref- erences to them.^^ Tradition ascribes their origin to the command given in Exodus xiii. 16 : *'And it shall be a sign for thee upon thy hand and for frontlets between thine eyes." It is possible that the foundation of the custom may have been laid in tribal days in some custom of brand- 7 ing or tattooing members of the tribe to distinguish them or to protect them against magic. "Originally the 'sign' was tattooed on the skin, the forehead ('between the eyes') and the hand naturally being chosen for display. Later some visible object worn between the eyes or bound on the hand was substituted for the writing on the skin."^* From the time when entrance upon adolescence was first accepted as the period for assuming adult religious, political and social responsibilites, it is probable that the youth was ushered into his new rights and duties by some ^ period of special preparation and by special religious cere- monies. It was apparently not until the fourteenth cen- tury^^ that the present ceremonies connected with the hat imzivah became current, but there is every reason for be- lieving that between the tribal ceremonies and those of the bar mizwah there was no break, only continuous develop- ment. In the absence of any description of earlier ado- lescent rites it may not be amiss to describe here those of the bar mizwah, remembering, however, that they belong to a much later time. • ' By bar mizwah'^^ (tr. "son of command") is meant a :; male Jew who has reached the age (thirteen years) when "^ he himself is responsible for fulfilHng the Law. Some time 53 Matthew xxiii. 5. 5* Emil G. Hirsch, "Phylacteries, Critical View," Jewish Encyc, X, 28c. 55 K. Kohler, "Bar Mizwah," Jewish Encyc, II, 509b. 56 "vy Rosenau, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs, Chap. X, 149-154, contains a most excellent and clear account of present practice. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 59 before his thirteenth birthday the boy enters upon a period ' of special preparation and rehgious instruction. On the Sabbath following his birthday he goes to the Bar Mizwah. • j i i • r ^i rr^i synagogue accompanied by his latner. i here in the presence of the congregation the father formally renounces his responsibility for his son's conduct in the fol- lowing benediction: "Blessed art thou Who hast set me free from the responsibility of this child." The boy is called upon to read portions of the Scrip- • tures. He may also lead in the benedictions and may even deliver the address following the close of the Scripture les- sons. A family festival with gifts may be held at home after the conclusion of the synagogue service." Such ceremonies as those described above gave to each ^ period in the child's life a distinctly religious significance. . , ^. Every member of the family was impressed Educational Sig- -^ ,.,,/, i tt- i nificance of Pe- with th^ fact that the child belonged to Yah- riod Rites. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ the parents were directly re-" sponsible to Yahweh for insuring to the child his religious education. Family pride, public opinion, religious beliefs and observances reinforced this sense of responsibility. PERIODS m SCHOOL LIFE. Prior to the rise of schools festivals, rites, the home and such religious and social institutions as existed at any particular period were the means through which recognition was given to the different periods in child life. After the rise of schools the transition from home to school marked a distinct change in the child's environment and occupations. But school instruction included little else than religion. The following outline represents approximately the educational periods in a boy's Hfe after the rise of the elementary schools. ^"^ William Rosenau, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs X, 149-154. The practices given here are for the most part modern. 60 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Outline of Jewish Boys' Education After the Rise of Elementary Schools. Years Periods I — 6 Infancy. Institutions Teachers Family. Parents and other members of the family. 6 — 12 Childhood. Elementary Hazzan 12 — Adolescence. School, Scribe's School. 5^ (Elementary teacher). Soferim (Scribes). Subjects and Activities Shema or national creed. Bible verses and proverbs. Prayers, hymns and Bible stories. Memorized portions of Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch. Advanced religious and theological literature, written and oral ^^ WHAT WAS TAUGHT. Industrial Education. The industrial occupations which had arisen during the Native Period continued after the Exile.^® That every boy learned some handicraft seems evident from the fact that the most highly educated of all classes, the scribes and rabbis, supported themselves if necessary by plying a trade/'^ It was left for the Talmud to direct every father, regardless of his social position, to teach his son a trade.^^ °^ Most boys finished attending school at twelve or thirteen and took up their trade or vocation. Some few went to higher schools to prepare to become scribes and rabbis. ^» See Chapter H, What Was Taught, paragraphs on Industrial and Physical Education." ^° The Talmud mentions more than one hundred rabbis who were artisans. For a list of trades and crafts and eminent rabbis plying them see F. J. Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, pp. 78-79; also J. D. Eisenstein, article on "Rabbi," Jewish Encyc, X, 294d-295a. ^^ Babylonian Talmud. "Tract Kiddushin," 30b. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 61 But here as in many other instances it seems probable that the Talmud merely formulated as law what had been com- mon practice for centuries, perhaps from time immemorial. In absence of definite information, the question of how ^ the boy learned his trade must be largely a matter of con- jecture. It seems reasonable to assume that in most cases he followed his father's occupation and acquired his earliest training by assisting his father or elder brothers in shop or market-place. As he grew older he would assist more and more until at length he would enter upon a regular appren- ticeship. After elementary education had been made com- "- pulsory, the major part of this training would necessarily be postponed until the boy had finished his studies at the elementary school. Then, unless he continued his studies at some higher professional school for the sake of prepar- ing to become a scribe or rabbi, he would take up serious preparation for some commercial or industrial occupation. ''- Music. The important place occupied by religious music in the temple service*^^ could scarcely have failed to make it a prominent feature of the religious life of the home. Partly as the result of direct instruction but largely merely by hearing his elders chant or sing, the child during infancy would begin learning the religious songs of his race. Later on perhaps he would be taught some musical instrument. Dancing. . Dancing which had occupied a prominent place in early Hebrew worship, came to be looked upon with increasing disfavor as a religious act. It continued, however, as a U/iT?u/^ ^^'^^ paragraph should be compared with Chapter II, KK nat i/Vas Taught, paragraphs on Industrial and Physical Education. , • .^J9'^"-^°'""'^^' ^^^^ Culture of Ancient Israel, pp. 125-132. For 15-21 ^^^^'■'P^'°"s see 2 Chronicles xxix. 26-30 and Ecclesiasticus i. 62 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. festive activity at weddings and other secular festivities. ^ There is nothing to show that it found any place in the schools which apparently devoted all their energies to the study of the sacred writings. Therefore it was probably for the most part learned at home. Religion. No sharp distinction can be made in post-Exilic Jewish education between the intellectual, moral, religious and civic Holiness as the elements. Practically all literature studied at ^^^^^- home and in school was religious literature, but this literature contained not only religious teachings but moral teachings and laws. The most important task of parents was to teach their children religion and for many centuries this responsibility rested entirely upon the home. Even after the rise of the elementary schools the education of girls remained almost entirely within the family as did also that of boys up to about their seventh year. The re- ligious ideal of this period may be summed up in the word holiness. Holiness meant "set apart unto Yahweh," i. e., consecrated. Prior to the prophets the term had been devoid of any ethical content, but through their teachings it came to mean set apart, through purity of heart and of conduct. The religious education of the child really began with the rites of infancy already described by which he was Earliest Reiig- ^^^^^^^ ^s belonging to a race set apart unto ious Education— Yahwch. As he grew older, this ideal was gradually built up within his consciousness by ^ the words and actions of those about him. Even before the child could speak he began unconsciously to receive les- sons in reverence and love of the Law. Long before he could understand language his attention was attracted by members of the family pausing before the doorway, touch- ing reverently the mezuzah, a small shining cylinder of wood or metal, kissing the hand that touched it and then passing ^ EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 63 on.®* Later on he would learn that the meznzah was placed upon the doorway in obedience to the divine command: "Thou shalt write them (the laws) upon the doorposts of thy house and upon thy gates. "®^ Within the cylinder writ- ten on a small piece of parchment were two passages: Deuteronomy vi. 4-9 and xi. 13-20. About this time also the child must have begun to notice the phylacteries and the bright twisted threads hanging from the four corners of his father's simlah. As soon as children began to speak their parents began i/^ teaching them Bible verses. Possibly in the childhood of Religious Jesus or even earlier it was already the custom Literature. ^q begin this teaching with the first verse of the Shema,®® the national confession of faith: "Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone."®^ Other verses from the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms and Proverbs would . be learned one by one. Long before he started to school the boy would be taught the never-to-be-forgotten stories of the adventures, calamities and glories of his ancestors. There was scarcely a question childish lips could frame for which the answer was not waiting in the sacred writings. The story of Adam and Eve®^ answered the child's question, "Who made me and what am I made of?"; "Why don't all people speak the same language?" was answered by the story of the Tower of Babel.®^ And when he asked who made the sea and the stars his father recited the majestic poem of creation : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. "^'^ No matter what the question, in its last anal- «* "The antiquity of the mezuzah is attested by Josephus (c. 37-100 A. D.) who speaks of its employment {Ant., IV, p. 8, sec. 13) as an old and well-established custom." J. M. Casanowicz, "Mezuzah," Jewish Encyclopedia, VIII, 532a. ^^ Deuteronomy vi, 9. «« Though the definite provision belongs to the Talmudic period it is possible the custom was much older. Babylonian Talmud, "Suc- cah," 42a. 6" Deuteronomy vi. 4. es Genesis ii. 7ff. 69 Ibid., xi. 1-9. 70 /^f^ i i_ii ^ 64 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. I ysis and in its final effect upon the child the answer was always, "God." It was God who formed man out of the dust of the earth, — it was God who confused the tongues of men, — it was God who divided the waters from the land and placed the sun, moon and stars in the sky, — it was God who wrote the laws with his finger upon the tables of stone, and who had laid down the hundred regulations governing every day and hour. In this atmosphere, pervaded by a / continuous sense of the reality, holiness, purity and domin-^ ion of Yahweh the religious consciousness of the child was awakened, stimulated and nurtured. In the home, as in the temple and in the synagogue ^ prayer was a conspicuous and important channel of re- ligious expression. The life of every mem- ber of the family was a life of prayer. Before and after meals a prayer of thanksgiving was offered.*^^ Besides this, prayers were offered three times each day, morning, afternoon and evening.'^^ One of the first things ^ taught to children was to pray.''^ Two different classes of festivals were observed in the home:^* (1) festivals celebrating some event of family life, Festivals in the such as the infancy festivals already described ; Home. (^2) festivals celebrating some historical, re- ligious or social event of national importance such as the Passover and the Feast of the Tabernacles. Some festivals such as the Sabbath," originally seasons of rest, gradually became days of religious observance, study of the Law and 71 Inference based upon such passages as Matthew xv. Zd and Acts xxvii. 35. 72 Inference based upon such passages as Psalm Iv. 17 and Daniel vi. 10. 73 By Talmudic law the child was "to be enforced by the father to say the benediction after each meal and to invoke a blessing before tasting any kind of fruit." N. H. Imber, Education and the Talmud, Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1894-95, II, 1814d. 7* Cf. Chapter V, The Synagogue, paragraph on Order of Service. 78 T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, pp. 168-170. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 65 training in ritual and religious customs.'^® Every religious festival offered parents an opportunity for giving impres- sive religious instruction. Many festivals were definitely set aside as seasons for instruction in national history and religion (Nehemiah viii. 18). Within the home the parents in obedience to divine command explained to the chil- dren the origin of the festival and the meaning of each symbolic act. How far this tendency to make religious in- struction an element of every festival was carried is well illustrated by Purim, the carnival of the Jewish year. Purim was originally merely a festival of merriment and is to this day marked chiefly by unbridled jollity. In time, however, the custom arose (which finally became a universal obliga- tory part of the day's observance) of reading or hearing the story of the book of Esther. The Passover celebrated in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month Abib, or Nisan, was followed immediately The Passover ^y ^^^^ sevcn days' Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of Un- which began on the fifteenth and continued leavened Bread, ^hj-ough the twcnty-fifst. During all this time only unleavened bread was eaten. In every household on Passover eve a lamb, a year old, or a kid, free from all blemish, was roasted whole and eaten with bitter herbs. The manner in which the feast was celebrated aimed to recall vividly and dramatically the situation to which its origin was traced, namely the flight from Egypt: for the Law directed that those^ partaking of the feast should eat it in haste, standing and dressed ready to march, their loins girded, their shoes on their feet and staff in hand.'^^ Perhaps no festival illustrates better than the Feast of the Passover the manner in which festivals were used as occasions for religious instruction and training. "At a certain part of the service it was expressly or- dained that the youngest at the paschal table should rise and formally ask what was the meaning of all this service "'^Ihid., pp. 170-171. 77 Exodus xii. 11. 66 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. and how that night was distinguished from others: to which the father was to reply, by relating, in language suited to the child's capacity, the whole national history of Israel from the calling of Abraham down to the deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law,"^® Morals. Through the prophets Yahweh had been revealed as a God of righteousness whose first demand of his worshipers was pure, hearts and upright lives. Direct Religious Basis. .__ , , r xt ' *^ ~ from Yahweh of Hosts came the command to truthfulness, mercy, honesty and purity. The moral responsibility of the individual was not merely to his fam- ily and the community but to Yahweh. Consequently there could be no separation between morality and religion. It was impossible to be religious unless one were first righteous. In the Native Period moral education like every other type of education had been received almost entirely through training/^ Such training in no sense ceased after the Exile ; nevertheless, the Jews became ever increasingly a people of the book, and written literature became more and more im- portant as a channel of education in morals and manners as well as in religion. No people has ever produced a body of literature so rich in moral teachings or so wide and so varied in its possible application. In the earlier writings and in those passages in the later ones designed for children, moral precepts are stated dogmatically. But in many portions of the later writ- ings dogmatic precepts give way to principles. Consequently the Old Testament is equally well adapted for the primitive Virtues Empha- and the highly developed mind, for the moral sized. Obedience instruction of the child and the meditation of the philosopher. Absolute obedience to parents was re- garded as the cardinal virtue of childhood and was pre- '8 A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 110; cf. Exodus xil 26-27 and Exodus xiii. 8. ^^ See Chapter II, paragraph on Morals. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 67 sented as such in the earliest as well as in the latest writ- ings : "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long In the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee/'^o "He that feareth the Lord will honor his father And will do service unto his parents, as to his masters/'^i "Honor thy father with thy whole heart And forget not the sorrows of thy mother, Remember thou wast begotten of them : And how canst thou recompense them The things they have done for thee?"^- Children are specifically enjoined to respect the old age of their parents : "My son, help thy father in his age And grieve him not as long as he liveth.''^^ "Hearken unto thy father in his age And despise not thy mother when she is old."^* The remaining moral virtues taught to the Jewish chil- dren were those which are known and honored to-day throughout Christendom. They were presented in part through proverbs, moral precepts, psalms and prayers, in part through biographies and historical narratives, in part through the symbolic rites, customs and festivals already described. It must suffice here to name briefly the more im- portant of these virtues, bearing in mind that they "were taught line upon liiie, precept upon precept," in season and out of season. 1. Obedience 2. Reverence 3. Brotherly love 4. Charity 5. Compassion 6. Hospitality 7. Temperance ^^ Exodus XX. 12. 82 Ibid., vii. 27-28. 8. Chastity 9. Truthfulness 10. Industry 11. Thrift 12. Prudence 13. Patriotism 14. Patience 15. Meekness 16. Loyalty 17. Diligence 18. Perseverance 19. Mercy ^1 Ecclesiasticus iii. 7. »^Ibid., iii. 12. \ 8* Proverbs xxiii. 22; Ecclesiasticus iii. 1-16 is of marked interest. 68 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Manners. Manners were regarded as matters of religion and moral- ity. This is well brought out in the command to the young to rise in the presence of the aged: "Thou e igious asis. gj^^|^ ^.-^^ ^p before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and thou shalt fear thy God : I am Yahweh."*'^ Here we have a command to perform an ordinary act of politeness made correlative with fearing God and followed by the most authoritative and binding oi all divine utterances, "I am Yahweh." No description of any system of training in manners employed by the ancient Hebrews is available. However, the patriarchal organization of the home, the implicit obe- dience exacted of children, the respect required of them for all their elders, the emphasis placed by the Hebrews upon form in every aspect of life are sufficient reasons for believing that training in manners constituted a most im- portant part of the education of children. The soundness of this inference is amply supported by many lessons in politeness contained in the Holy Scriptures. Sorhe of these lessons are given in the form of narratives which relate in detail the conduct of some great national character. Gen- esis xviii gives, under the guise of the story of Abraham entertaining angels unawares, a beautiful lesson in hospital- ity and detailed instructions as to the proper manner of treat- ing guests. Genesis xix gives a similar lesson in connection with the story of Lot.^^ Elsewhere lessons in courtesy are given in the form of precepts and admonitions relating to the treatment of strangers, the aged, topics of conversation and conduct in general or upon particular occasions. These lessons vary in length from terse proverbs to comparatively long passages such as that on table manners in Ecclesiasticus.^^ ^^ Leviticus xix. 32. ^® For a summary of Abraham's acts (5f courtesy see below, para- graph on Hospitahty. '**' See below, special paragraph. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 69 Breeding expresses itself outwardly and concretely in acts, but the essence of good breeding is the spirit which Sim licity prompts and pervades the acts. Simplicity, Meekness and meekucss, humility, gentleness and kindness, Humility. ^^^ earmarks of good breeding, and the foun- dations of all genuine courtesy are repeatedly presented as qualities which bring divine favor, care and reward. "Yah- weh preserveth the simple."*® "The meek shall inherit the land;"«» "He will adorn the meek with salvation ;"»« "I (Yahweh) dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite;"®^ "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were upon the face of the earth."®^ Boasting, ostenjtatipn and conceit, the most patent evi- dences of vulgarity, are condemned in narrative and in pre- cept: "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth: a stranger and not thine own lips;"®^ "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty glory in his might, let not the rich glory in his riches ;"®* "Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear Yahweh, and depart from evil ;''^^ "The way of the foolish is right in his own eyes, but he that is wise hearkeneth unto counsel."®* Whispering and whisperers are to be shunned : "A whis-\ perer separateth chief friends."®^ Loquacity is condemned Conversation, andjrgserve in uttgr ance commended : "In the Whispering. multitude of words there wanteth not trans- gression, but he that ref raineth his lips doth wisely ;"** "A fool's vexation is presently known : but a prudent man con- cealeth shame i"**® "A fool uttereth all his anger but a wise 88 Psalm cxvi. 6. 89 Psalm xxxvii. 11. »o Psalm cxlix. 4. si Isaiah Ivii. 15. »2 Numbers xii. 3. 93 Proverbs xxvii. 2. 9* Jeremiah ix. 23. . »5 Proverbs iii. 7. »« Proverbs xii. 15. »7 Proverbs xvi. 28. »8 Proverbs x. 19. »» Proverbs xii. 16. 70 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. man keepeth it back and stilleth it ;'*^^<> "Death and life are in the power of the tongue ; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof."^^^ Stinging and bitter retorts are to be avoided: "A soft answer turneth away wrath : but a grievous word stirreth up anger ;"^®^ "The north wind bringeth forth rain: so doth Topics of a backbiting tongue an angry countenance."^**^ Cqnversation. Nothing more readily betrays breeding than the character of conversation. The book of Proverbs con- tains numerous exhortations to proper conversation and denunciations of rash or perverse speech. "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life : But perverseness therdn is a breaking of the spirit."io4 "A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in network of silver."^®* "He that giveth answer before he heareth. It is folly and shame unto him."i<*« Wisdom, righteousness and the laws of Yahweh are to be made the constant topics of conversation: "And (thou) shalt talk of them, (the laws and words of Yahweh), when thou sittest in thy house."^^'^ "And ye shall teach them your children, talking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."^°^ "And my tongue shall talk of Thy righteousness, And of Thy praise all the day long/'i^^ "The mouth of the righteous talketh of wisdom, And his tongue speaketh judgment."ii<^ The inseparability of religion, morals and manners has been dwelt upon sufficiently to make it unnecessary to point 100 Proverbs xxix. 11. loi Proverbs xviii. 21. 102 Proverbs xv. 1. io3 Proverbs xxv. 23. 104 Proverbs xv. 4. io5 Proverbs xxv. 11. 106 Proverbs xviii. 13. io7 Deuteronomy vi. 7. 108 Deuteronomy xi. 19. loo Psalm xxxv. 28. 110 Psalm xxxvii. 30. EDUCATION IN THE FAMILY AFTER THE EXILE. 71 out that the fact that the passages just quoted bear primar- ily upon religious instruction, does not to the slightest degree exclude them from the field of manners. If tact is the test of a thoroughbred, curiosity is equally ' the betrayer of the illbred. Curiosity is linked in the Scrip- tures with irreverence and disobedience. It was inevitable that the Hebrews should apply to commonplace experiences and situations the frightful warnings contained in the story of Lot's wife,^^^ and in the story of the fifty thousand and seventy men of Beth-shemesh destroyed because they looked into the ark of Yahweh.^^^ Among the most important occasions for display of breeding are the times when one sits down to eat. Gluttony Table Manners- is branded as a disgrace to one's own self and Gluttony. ^ shaming of one's parents: "He that is a companion of gluttonous men shameth his father,"^^^ The principles, precepts and moral qualities presented and ex- tolled in the Scriptures if applied to conduct at the table would have made any specific direction unnecessary. Never- theless Ben Sira, like the authors of chivalric courtesy books, felt it incumbent upon him to give specific rules of table conduct which he did in the following interesting and, to the modern mind, curious passage: "Eat, as it becometh a man, those things which are set before thee ; and devour not lest thou be hated. Leave off Ecciesiasticus ^^^^ ^^^ manners' sake ; and be not unsatiable on Table Man- lest' thou offcud. When thou sittest among ^^"' many, reach not thine hand out first of all. A very little is sufficient for a man well nurtured. Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating: he riseth and his wits are with him."ii* However important may be the command, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," it represents merely the beginning of Hebrew custom with respect to the 111 Genesis xix. 26. "2 1 Samuel vi. 19. 113 Proverbs xxviii. 7. n* Ecciesiasticus xxxi. 16-21. 72 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. treatment of neighbors. In the Levitical code, as well as in the teachings of Jesus^^*^ stranger and neighbor are to be treated with the same love that one bears toward his own flesh and blood : "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."^^* Neighbors are to be treated with generosity when they come seeking to borrow: "Say not unto thy neighbor, 'Go and come again, and to-morrow I will g^ve,' when thou hast it by thee.""^ Hospitality is a religious obligation and brings divine rewards. Many details of a host's conduct are clearly and beautifully set forth in the two stories already referred to, of how Abraham"® and Lot^^* entertained angels unawares. Abraham, sitting in his tent, beholds three men. He runs forth to meet them. He bows himself to the earth and then entreats them in terms of unsurpassable courtesy to be his guests. He orders water fetched that their feet may be washed. His wife Sarah makes fresh bread and a feast is prepared. When they depart, as a last act of hospitality, Abraham goes with them "to bring them on their way." The acts of hospitality per- formed by Lot as host are almost identical with those per- formed by Abraham. Abraham is rewarded by a promise of a son; Lot, by being saved from the destruction that overtakes the other inhabitants of Sodom. "6 Luke X. 29-37. ii« Leviticus xix. 18. iiT Proverbs iii. 28. y "s Genesis xviii. 3-1& ^^* Genesis xix. CHAPTER V. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom." — Proverbs iv. 7. "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." — Proverbs ix. 10. "The law of Jehovah is perfect. ...The precepts of Jehovah are right The judg- ments of Jehovah are true. . . .More to be de- sired are they than gold, yea tKan much fine gold."— Psalm xix. 7-10 (Extracts). "There is no love such as the love of the Torah. The words of the Torah are as dif- ficult to acquire as silken garments,^ and are lost as easily as linen ones." — Babylonian Talmud, "Tract Aboth of Rabbi Nathan," XXVIII, beginning. (In Rodkinson's trans- lation, p. 97.) Summary of Chapter. As the earlier hope of ever becoming a great political power waned, a new hope arose, that of preserving the nation through pre- serving its religion. There was only one way of doing this, by edu- cation. The Priestly code had given to the priests the supreme political as -y well as the supreme religious authority. Their devotion to political and administrative duties and to the elaborate system of worship organized in connection with the second temple led them to resign gradually most of their one-time teaching functions to a newly arisen lay order of teachers, the scribes. The temple and the priests never ceased to be important factors in the educational situation, but a new institution, the synagngjje, became the people's prayer-house, assem-. bly-hall and house of instruction. Although the family always remained, as it had been in the pre- Exilic Period, the . -fundamental educational- institution, and the parents V- Id EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. continued to be the child's first teachers, nevertheless there gradually arose, in connection with the s)magOgues, elementary schools which relieved the home of much of its educational burden. Finally, as the result of the reforms of two famous educators, Simon ben Shetach (c. 65 B.C.) an d Tosh ua ben Gamala (c. 64 A. D.), ejementary^du- 1^'^cation became both universal and compulsory. In addition to the ele- mentary schools higher schools were established for the sake of offer- ing opportunities for advanced study of the Law. The schools made no provision for girls and women. Their edu- cation always remained thoroughly domestic and was received almost entirely at home. EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TENDENCIES. Warned by the oblivion which had overtaken the tribes of the northern kingdom, the religious leaders of subject Zeal for Educa- Judah set about to save the people of the little **®"- kingdom from a similar fate. As the one- time hope of national and political independence and great- ness waned a new hope arose, that of preserving the nation ^^ through preserving its religion. There was only one way^ of achieving this end, that was by universal education. Zeal , for education was further fostered by three important be-^ lief s : ( 1 ) the belief that national calamities were punish- _,. ments visited upon the people because they had not been faithful to Yahweh and his laws ;^ (2) that if Yahweh's laws were kept, national prosperity would return; (3) the J belief that the divinely appointed mission of Judah was to make known to the other nations of the world Yahweh, the only true God. Educational zeal resulted in an ever-increas- ing tendency to organize and institutionalize education. In this process of organization and institutionalization, each of the following five movements played an important part : ( 1 ) the development of a complete code of laws (the Priestly code) governing every phase of life; (2) the state adoption of the Priestly code, which made its observance binding upon every member of the Jewish state and consequently a *This is the underlying philosophy of the Book of Judges. See Judges iv. 1 and 2; vi. 1 and elsewhere. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 17 knowledge of it necessary; (3) a vast growth of sacred -^ literature, both oral and written, including works specially written as textbooks, such as Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus ; (4) the organization of the scribes into a teaching guild ;^^ (5) the rise of schools, elementary and advanced. .;^__ The passages quoted at the opening of the present chap- ter bear witness to the supreme importance attached to the Torah, the Law of Yahweh, in the centuries and Morals in following the Babylonian Exile. This position Post-Exilic Life of supremacy had been attained gradually. and Education. ^ . ,. . , r tt i ^' e i* • In the earliest periods of Hebrew life, religion was but one, albeit a most important one, of many interests in life and education. Gradually, however, the vision of Yahweh, his power and his kingdom enlarged. He came to be regarded as the founder of the state and of all its institutions, civic and political as well as religious. He was accepted as the author of all its laws whether criminal, moral or religious, and of all institutions. The Law, in\^ other words religion, and with it morality, became the ] supreme interest, the chief study and the all-determining I force in public and in private life at home and in school, jf'' It is doubtful whether history contains a more tragic illus- tration of devotion to an ideal than the story of Simon ben Shetach's son. Certainly no other incident reveals as for- cibly the supreme place accorded to the Law in the hearts of the devout Jews. The story is related by Graetz in the following words : "On account of his unsparing severity, Simon ben She- tach brought upon himself such hatred of his opponents that they determined upon a fearful revenge. They incited two false witnesses to accuse his son of a crime punishable with death, in consequence of which he was actually con- demned to die. On his way to the place of execution the young man uttered such vehement protestations of inno- cence that at last the witnesses themselves were affected and confessed to their tissue of falsehoods. But when the 78 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. judges were about to set free the condemned, the prisoner himself drew their attention to their violation of the Law, which enjoined that no belief was to be given witnesses who withdrew their previous testimony. 'If you wish,' said the condemned youth to his father, 'that the salvation of Israel should be wrought by your hand, consider me but the threshold over which you must pass without compunc- tion.' Both father and son showed themselves worthy of their sublime task, that of guarding the integrity of the Law ; for to uphold it one sacrificed his life, and the other his paternal love. Simon, the Judean Brutus, let the law pursue its course, although he, as well as the judges, were convinced of his son's innocence."^ 1. In the educational ideal of the Native Period, the phys- I ical, the esthetic and the industrial, aspects of personality The Scribe as ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ intellectual, moral and religious the Post-Exilic were recognized. The educational ideal of the ^^**^* post-Exilic Period was the scribe,' the man ^arned in and obedient to the Law. Such obedience im- plied complete consecration to Yahweh and a consequent separation from all duties and activities not related to Him. The vast development of the Law during the Exile, the multitude of legal interpretations and precedents made leisure a prerequisite for all who would become learned and left the student of the Law little time for attention to anything else.* Despite the fact that the great cultural heritage of Greece and of Hellehized Rome was at their veQc^jdoprs, the faithful Jews not only remained indifferent rto the physical, esthetic and intellectual interests of their Vpagan conquerors but studiously excluded them from their 2 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 54c-55a. 8 A further discussion of the educational ideal is given below, paragraph on the Ideal Scribe ; see also below, note 15. * Cf. with these statements those relating to the scribes* attitude toward manual work in Schools of the Soferim, paragraph on Sup- port, and note 15. An interesting suggestion of a broader attitude in the Rabbinical comment to Genesis ix. 27, in which ("Tractate Me- gillah," 9b) the esthetic element in Greek culture is praised. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 79 schools and from their ambitions. Narrow as this may seem, it is doubtful whether any other course would have! saved the Jews from paganism, amalgamation and oblivion.] Had the native interests of the Hebrews which charac- terized the pre-Exilic Period been allowed free development Ph sicai Educa- ^* ^^ possible that physical education among tion— Greek In- the Hebrcws might have had an entirely dif- fluence. 'fercut history. The solemn duty resting upon every Jew of mastering an ever-increasing body of sacred literature left little time for anything else. To be sure, the high priest Jason who had purchased his office^ from An- tiochus IV, Epiphanes (r. 175-164 B.C.),« built a Greek gymnasium in Jerusalem under the very tower."^ Moreover "many of the priests took their place in the arena,"^ and "the high priest even sent three hundred drachmas to Tyre for a sacrifice to Hercules."* Nevertheless the faithful Jews looked upon the Greek physical sports with abhor- rence,^ and the establishment of Greek gymnasia, far from introducing physical training into Jewish education, led to an identification of physical education with paganism and to a consequent hostility to it.^° WHO WAS TAUGHT. Throughout the period of foreign influence, education | remained for the most part a masculine privilege. With the exception of the synagogue, of the temple and of certain festivals, the home was the sole institution providing train- ing and instruction for girls and women. All schools were boys' schools and all teachers were men. "^ H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 443. « I. J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 293. ^ H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 443 and footnote. 8 See 2 Maccabees iv. 9-12; cf. 1 Maccabees i. 13-14. » I. J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 294. 10 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 444-446, gives much inter- esting material. EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. TEACHERS. Decline of Priests and Prophets as Teachers. Reference has already been made to the growth of the political importance of the priests following the restoration of Jerusalem after the return from captivity. More and more their numbers, wealth and power increased. It was no longer possible for all the members of this vast army to be actively engaged all the time in rites and ceremonials. Consequently they were organized into twenty-four courses or families. The courses rotated, each course serving one week in turn and beginning its duties by offering the Sab- bath evening sacrifice. The existence of a vast Priestly (Lode setting forth in detail regulations governing every phase I bf conduct did away with the need of the type of instruction Ngpven by the priests and prophets in earlier times. This t function could now be entrusted to lay teachers whose task tfwould be transmitting and interpreting the already existing 'laws. This fact combined with the increase in the number, complexity and elaborateness of the temple rites and in the increase of the political and administrative activities of the priests resulted in the gradual transfer of the major portion of the teaching function from the priests and prophets to a newly arisen teaching order, the Soferim or scribes. It must not be inferred, however, that the priests ceased to teach. The Soferim, it is true, became the teachers of the Law, but the priests still continued to be the people's great teachers in forms of worship. In addition to this, some of the priests were also famous scribes, and ijti this capacity were professed teachers of the Law. V The Soferim, or Scribes. The art of writing, as already shown, had been known and employed from early times by priests, prophets, secre- taries and others. It has also been shown how the Exilic EDUCATION IN SCH(X)L AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 81 renaissance increased greatly the body of literature. The original meaning of the term soferim was "people who know how to write."^^ It was, therefore, applied "'*"* to court chroniclers or royal secretaries. Be- cause ability to write came to be generally accepted as the mark of the educated or learned man, the term came to be employed for a wise man (1 Chron. xxvii. 32).^^ Following the restoration, the Jewish community, under the leadership of the priest-scribe, Ezra, bound itself to the observance of the written Law.^^ If the Law was to be kept it must be known and understood; there must be teachers and interpreters. But the Law was written in ancient Hebrew, a tongue almost unknown to the masses,- most of whom spoke Aramaic or Greek. As the result of these conditions, those able to read the Scriptures in the original Hebrew and to interpret them to the people came to form a distinct teaching class. At length soferim came to be used to designate specifically this great body of teachers from the time of Ezra to that of Simeon the Just (a con- temporary of Alexander the Great). It seems that after Simeon the Just the teachers were more generally styled "elders," lekenim, later "the wise ones," hakhamim, while soferim was sometimes used as an honorific appellation. In still later times soferim became synonymous with "teachers of little children." As conditions became more settled through- out Judea the scribes made their way to its remotest parts. In time a powerful scribes' guild was organized to which all teachers belonged, and which monopolized the teaching profession. By the time of the Chronicler, three ranks of teachers appear: (1) the Hazzan or elementary teacher; (2) the scribe; (3) the sage.^* 11 Max Seligsohn, "Scribes," Jezvish Encyclopedia, XI, 123. 12 H. P. Smith, Old T£stament History, pp. 393-5, discredits this story entirely. 13 A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, L 6S0b. 82 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. The following paragraphs, written by Jesus ben Sira (who flourished in the first third of the second century B.C.)^* present the most complete description The Ideal Scribe. , ,, .j , -u .t. . i_ j j j /^ of the ideal scribe that has descended to us from that period. The divorce made by Sira between the life of study and that of industrial occupations, and his contempt for manual labor must not, however, be regarded as necessarily representing a universal attitude. JESUS BEN SIRA ON THE GLORY OF BEING A SCRIBE. (Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 24 — xxxix. 11.) (F^ "The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity I of leisure : and he that hath little business shall become wise. "How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bullocks? He giveth his mind to make furrows ; and is diligent to give the kine fodder. "So every carpenter and workmaster, that laboreth night and day ; and they that cut and grave seals, and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work: "The smith also sitting by the anvil, and considering the iron work, the vapor of the fire wasteth his flesh, and he fighteth with the heat of the furnace ; and the noise of ham- mer and anvil is ever in his ears, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh; he setteth his mind to finish his work, and watcheth to polish it per- fectly ; "So doth the potter sitting at his work, and turning the wheel about with his feet, who is always carefully set at his work, and maketh all his work by number; "He fashioneth the clay with his arm, and boweth down his strength before his feet; he applieth himself to lead it over ; and he is diligent to make clean his furnace : 1*1. Levi, "The Wisdom of Jesus Sirach," /m/j/t £«cyr., XI, 389a. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 83 "All these trust in their hands, and every one is wise in his work. "Without these cannot a city be inhabited: and they shall not dwell where they will, nor go up and down. They shall not be sought for in public council, nor sit high in the congregation; they shall not sit on the judges' seat, nor understand the sentence of judgment; they cannot declare justice and judgment; and they shall not be found where parables are spoken. But they will maintain the state of the world, and (all) their desire is in the work of their craft. "But he that giveth his mind to the law of the Most High and is occupied in the meditation thereof, will seek out the wisdom of the ancient, and be occupied in proph ecies. He will keep the sayings of renowned men; and where subtil parables are, he will be there also. "He will seek out the secrets of grave sentences and be conversant in dark parables. "He shall serve among great men, and appear before princes ; he will travel through strange countries ; for he hath triad the good and the evil among men. "He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him, and will pray before the Most High, and will open his mouth in prayer, and make supplication for his sins. "He shall show forth that which he hath learned, andi shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord. "If he die he shall leave a greater name than a thousand : and if he live he shall increase it."^^ ^7^^|5 Franz Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, PP- 76-77, for opinions opposite to those of Sira regarding the possi- bihty of combining study with handicraft. See also below, Elemen- tary Schools, paragraph on Teachers: etc., and Schools of the Sofe- rtm, paragraph on Support. 84 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. The Soferim regarded their work as a holy one: to them had been entrusted the sacred task of transmitting Educational the laws given by Yahweh himself. Through Services. their literary and educational activities they //eventually gained almost complete control over religious (/thought and educatipn. They interpreted the Law for the masses. They furnished the texts upon which instruction was based. They established elementary schools and col- >^ leges. They taught public and select groups of pupils. It was their aim "to raise up many disciples," as is said in the Talmud ("Tract Aboth," I, 2). On occasions of public worship they translated the Scriptures written in a tongue - almost unknown to the masses in the post-Exilic period into the language of the people. In their teaching and in their lives they represented the new educational and re- ligious ideal of the times, Judaism. Within their schools arose that oral literature which developed into the Talmud.-- Despite the sincere efforts of the Soferim to adjust the Law to changing conditions they soon became burdened Defects and with such a mass of traditions and precedents Weaknesses. ^j^^t readjustment and progress became ex- tremely difficult if not impossible. Their standpoint as legalists led to such emphasis upon technical adherence to details that the great principles were frequently lost sight of. Political, social and religious life came to be dominated by a burdensome system of traditions, laws and minute regulations, the external form of which instead of the spirit and underlying principles came to be the focus of interest and attention.^* Rabbis. Qn^naAly th e leader jof_any union of j workm gn, even ^' the leader of the hangmen, was called rafe&i, (literally, "my, master"). Rabbi was applied to the head of the weavers i«For a contrary view see S. Schechter, 'The Law and Recent Criticism" in Schechter's Studies in Judaism, Vol. I, pp. 233-251. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 85 (Talmud, "Tract Abodah Zarah" 17b), and to the head of the gladiators (Talmud, "Tract Baba Mezia," 84a). It was , commonly applied to teachers, but did not entitle its posses- sor to preach or teach. It apparently was not used dis- tinctively as a teacher's title till after the time of Christ.^^ The Perushim or Pharisees. During the latter part of the second century B. C. there came into prominence among the Jews two important sects Origin, charac- or parties, the Perushim or Pharisees, and ^ teristics. the Zedukim or Sadducees.^^ The PerusWm lU'^^'^ or separatists were simply later exponents of a tendency older than the time of Ezra. This tendency had its be- ginnings in the earliest impulses of a certain portion of the Jews to regard the devout observance of the laws of Yah- weh as the supreme aim of individual and national life. They believed the Jews could realize this aim only by holding themselves aloof from all foreign innovations and by em- phasizing those elements and customs of Jewish life that marked off the Jews as a distinct and peculiar people. They "insisted upon all political undertakings, all public transac-j) tions, every national act being tried by the standard of reli-'' gion."^* In both of these positions they were opposed by the Sadducees. They differed further from the Zedukim or Sad- W«^ ducees in accepting and throwing the weight of their influ- ^y^ ence in favor of the oral law of the scribes and many beliefs not set forth in the Pentateuch, such as the doctrine of the resurrection and the belief in the existence of angels and future rewards and punishrnents. ' Many of the most prominent of the scribes were Peru- shim, but the Perushim were in no sense a teaching order. Rather they constituted a religious sect or party which in- " A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 650b. 18 H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 479. " H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 17. 86 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. eluded men of every rank and occupation. Their educa- tional importance grew out of the support they gave to the cause of Judaism and to the teachings and educational ef- forts of the Soferim. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. Rise of Universal Education. Universal compulsory education for the sake of pre-' serving the nation: is a state policy familiar to the modern world. The gradual development of this policy among the Jews of Palestine is the most interesting and most signifi- cant feature of the history of education from the time of the restoration of the Jewish community in the sixth cen- tury B. C. to the end of the Jewish state 70 A. D. The realization of this policy was made possible by two distinct but nevertheless inseparable movements : first, the evolution of a professional teaching class ; second, the rise of edu- cational institutions. The Native or pre-Exilic Period had been a period without schools, the period of foreign influ-ence was marked by the rise of three types of educative institu- tions: (1) the synagogue; (2) boys' elementary schools: (3) the scribes' (or higher) schools. The most important steps in the rise of the policy of universal education may be stated as follows : ( 1 ) the public adoption of the sacred canon and solemn covenant to keep the Law of Yahweh; (2) the provision of universal oppor- tunities for instruction through the rise and gradual spread of the synagogue; (3) the rise of elementary schools (at- tendance voluntary) ; (4) 70 B. C, ordinance (of Simon ben Shetach) making compulsory the education of orphan boys over sixteen years of age; (5) boys' compulsory ele- mentary education b^ edict of Joshua ben Gamala, high priest, 64 A. D. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 87 The Synagogue. Jewish tradition traces the synagogue back to the time of Moses. Nevertheless it is not expressly mentioned until Origin and the last century of the second temple, but then Spread. ^^ 2in institution long existing, universal, and the center of Jewish life.^^ It may have arisen during the Exile. Sacrifice could be offered only in Jerusalem, but prayer and the study of the Law could be carried on regard- less of place. The Sabbath, already observed as a. day of rest in pre-Exilic times,^^ offered the exiles leisure and op- portunity for study. The custom of assembling on the Sabbath for worship and study may have arisen in Babylon, whence it may have been carried back to Jerusalem and there institutionalized in the synagogue. After the restora- tion of Jerusalem, the synagogue spread throughout Judea and the entire Jewish world.^^ The term synagogue, applied originally to the assembly,, came in time to be applied to the building in which the General Charac- assembly met. The use of the term "church" ter and Purpose, illustrates a similar transference of a title from a group of people to the building occupied by the group. Although used as public halls, court rooms and places for scourging malefactors, the synagogues never ceased to be chiefly houses of instruction and worship. In communities; too small or too poor to erect a separate building, a room in some building might be devoted to the purpose. The in- terior of buildings erected as synagogues was generally round or rectangular.^^ Beyond the middle rose the bema 20 W. Bacher, "Synagogue," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, IV, 636d. 21 Exodus xxiii. 12. Nothing is said in this earliest legislation about special religious observance. See T. G. Soares, The Social In- stitutions and Ideals of the Bible, pp. 168ff. C. H. W. Johns, "The Babylonian and Assyrian Sabbath," Enc. Brit., 11th ed. XXIII, 961d- 962a. 22 W. Bacher, "Synagogue," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, IV, 637b. 28 Alfred Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 254. 88 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. or platform.^* On the center of this stood the lectern or pulpit. Farther back stood the "ark," the chest containing the scrolls of Scripture.^'* The manner in which worship and instruction were combined in synagogical religious exer- cises is revealed by the order of service. Synagogue services were held twice on the Sabbath ; on all fej5t- and fast-days ; and on the two weekly njarket- days, Monday and Thursday .^^ Although the * service varied somewhat with the day and the hour,^^ the general order was the same : that of the Sabbath morning may be taken as a type. An analysis of the Sab- bath morning service shows that it consisted of two main "divisions : one, liturgical ; the other, instructional. The litur- gical portion consisted of the recitation by all adult males^^ of the Shema^^ preceded and followed by a number of "benedictions," prayers or eulogies^^ recited by one indi- vidual especially deputed for the occasion, the congregation simply responding "Amen."^® The Shema is commonly characterized as the national creed or confession.^^ It is composed of three scriptural passages i^^ Deuteronomy vi. 4-9 ; Deuteronomy xi. 13-21 ; Numbers xv. 37-41. It begins : "Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone," a pas- sage which offers many difficulties in translation as may be seen from the variant translations in the marginal note of the American Revised Version. It is named Shema from its initial Hebrew word shema, meaning "hear." The liturgical portion of the service offered definite systematic training on three or more days per week in worship and acts of devo- tion. The instructional portion consisted in the reading from the Law and then from the Prophets in the original Hebrew passages assigned to the day, which were forthwith translated into the vernacular by the meturgeman or trans- lator who stood beside the reader.^* ^* Ibid., 261. 2^ Ibid., 262. . 26/ttrf.^277d-278a. ^f Ibid.,2G^. 28 Ibid., 275c. 29 i^id^^ 277-279. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 89 It is unnecessary to dwell upon the educational signifi- ^ cance of a custom which resulted in insuring the reading to the Aramaic or Greek speaking masses of their native litera- ture in the original tongue. The Pentateuch was so divided that its reading extended over three or three and a half years.^*^ The section for the day was subdivided in such a manner that at least seven persons might be called upon to read a portion of not less than three verses each.^^ The Law was read and translated verse by verse. The reading and translating of the Prophets was presented in passages of three verses each.^^ The synagogue service provided training in worship and ] oral instruction in the Scriptures for every man, woman and j child in the community. Furthermore, it furnished a power- i ful stimulus to every man and boy to become an earnest'! student of the native literature, for any male, eyen a minor, might act either as reader or meturgeman,^^ and the public esteem attached to fulfilling such an office made it the pious ambition of all, through the many opportunities it furnished to those qualified for active participation in its "Services. Moreover, one individual especially deputed for the occa- sion led in the recitation of the benedictions or prayers'' which constituted so large a part of the liturgical portion of the service, the congregation simply responding "Amen."'' Finally, the reading of the Scriptures was followed by the derashah, an address or exposition which consisted of the explanation and application of the day's lesson or some portion of it.^'^ Here again we find a custom providing,Y on the one hand, instruction for the mass of the people, and | on the other hand, an incentive for earnest study, for any learned man present might be called upon to act as the datshan or expositor. The manner in which the synagogue combined worship and education, instruction for the masses ^^Ihid.,277. 31 /^,tU, 279a. 32/Mf/.,278. ^^ Ibid., 275. ^* Ibid., 279h-c. 90 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. and incentives to study for those having leisure and ability, will appear from the following outline^* of the Sabbath morning order of service. ORDER OF SYNAGOGUE SERVICE ( SABBATH MORNING.) PART I. LITURGICAL OR DEVOTIONAL. I. Lectern Devotions.^s 1. Two "Benedictions." 2. The Shema — recited by all adult males. 3. One "Benediction." II. Devotions Before the "Ark."8« 4. Various "Benedictions." The number apparently varied from twelve in earlier times to eighteen or nineteen in later times.^'^ 5. The Priestly Benediction (Numbers vi. 23-24) .88 To be recited by a descendant of Aaron if any such were present, otherwise by the leader of the devotions.*® PART II. INSTRUCTIONAL. I. The Scripture Lessons. 1. "Benediction" by first reader.^* 2. Reading and translation of selections from the Law. 3. Reading and translation of selections from the Prophets. 4. "Benediction" by the last reader.*® II. The Exposition or Derashah. The synagogue was the earliest, the most widespread and the most enduring of all the educational institutions Educational Sig- after the Exile. It was the first institution to mficance. ^^^^ systematic instruction to both sexes. It . was the parent of the scribe college and the elementary \ school. Out of it arose the movement which resulted in universal education. Under its influence and that of the ** Ibid., 268ff. Edersheim states in a footnote on page 268 that his description is based on a study of the Mishna. se "The 'Shema' and its accompanying 'benedictions' seem to have been said at the lectern; whereas for the next series of prayers the leader of the devotions went forward and stood before the ark." Ibid., 272a. " Ibid., 272-275. " jbid,^ 275. »» Ibid., 277. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 91 scribes all Jews became students of the Law ; the Law became ' the most reverenced of all studies, and the center of re- ligious and intellectual interest. Elementary Schools. It was but a step from using the synagogue on Sabbaths and feast-days as a place of instruction to using it every day Origin and Ex- as a placc for teaching boys whose parents tension. would permit them to come. A school was a common feature of Babylonian temples, and if the syna- gogue arose during the Exile it may be that the elementary school arose at this time also as an adjunct to the synagogue. On the other hand, it may not have arisen till after the Exile and then not in any sense as a borrowed institution but merely as a natural result of the increasing conviction that the salvation of the Jews depended upon every Jew ' knowing and keeping the Law."*** When such schools first became universal is still an open question. The universality of teachers in the first part of the first century A. D. and, by inference, of schools fs shown *■ by passages in the New Testament such as Luke v. 17: "There were Pharisees and doctors of the law, sitting by, who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judeal] and Jerusalem." In the year 64 A. D. the ordinance of'! Gamala^^ required that one or more, elementary schools be established in every community. The elementary school was always located in the synagogue proper, or in some room attached to the synagogue or in the master's house.*^ If, as is generally agreed, teachers and synagogues were practically universal in Palestine in the first century B. C, it does not *® In time the name most commonly given to such a school was Betha-Sefer, or "House of the Book"; this, however, is a post- Bibhcal term and is consequently avoided in the present account. *i The claims of Shetach and the ordinance of Gamala will be dis- cussed m the immediately following paragraphs. *^A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings^ Bible Dictionary, I, 92 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. seem unreasonable to conclude that, whether elementary edu- cation was compulsory or not at this time, elementary schools were exceedingly widely spread, perhaps practically uni- versal. Moreover, if the claims of Shetach be admitted, and ^ " if his law refers, as some maintain, to already existing schools, it is possible that elementary schools were all but universal even earlier than the first century B. C, how much earlier cannot be conjectured."*^ The widespread existence of elementary schools proved in itself insufficient to guarantee an education to every boy. Compulsory To insure this, a law was passed requiring Education. every community to establish one or more elementary schools and making attendance compulsory for boys over seven years. It is a matter of dispute whether this law was passed early in the first century B. C. or in the latter part of the first century A. D. Some writers give the credit to a decree issued in 75 B. C. by Simon ben Shetach, \^ brother-in-law of the Jewish king Alexander Janneus (r. 104-78 B.C.) and president of the Sanhedrin. Kennedy, in his brief but scholarly account, asserts there is no good reason for rejecting the tradition regarding Shetach's efforts on behalf of popular education, but fails to state what he considers this tradition to include.** Graetz, recounting the reign of Queen Alexandra, writes: "Simon ben Shetach, the brother of the queen, the oracle of the Pharisaic party, stood high in her favor. So great a Rival Claims P^^^ ^^^ ^^ P^^Y ^^ "^^ history of that time of Shetach and that it was Called by many 'the days of Simon ben Shetach and of Queen Sajome.'*'' 3ut Simon was not an ambitious man and he determined to waive his own rights (to the presidency of the Great Council) . . .in favor of Judah ben Tabbai, who was then residing in Alex- p- *^, ^^4^"^^""'s conclusions given below in the paragraph on the Kival Claims of Shetach and Gamala, should be consulted at this point. 64Q**^" ^* ^' Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, *' H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II. 48d. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 93 andria, of whose profound learning and excellent character he had formed a high estimate . . .These two celebrated men have therefore been called 'Restorers of the Law/ who 'brought back to the Crown (the Law) its ancient splendor'. . . .^^ "One of the reforms of this time expressly attributed to Simon ben Shetach was the promotion of better instruction. In all large towns, high schools for the use of young men from the age of sixteen sprang up at his instance. But all study, we may presume, was entirely confined to the Holy Scriptures, and particularly to the Pentateuch and the study of the Law. Many details or smaller points in the Law which had been partly forgotten and partly neglected during the long rule of the Sadducees, that is to say, from Hyr- canus's oppression of the Pharisees until the commencement of Salome's reign, were once more introduced into daily life."*^ The passage in the Jerusalem Talmud which records the services rendered to education by Simon ben Shetach reads as follows : "Simon ben Shetach ordained three things : that a man may do business with the kethubah (a sum of money stipu- lated in the marriage contract) ; that people should send their children to school; that glassware be subject to con- tamination."** It is evident that the brevity and vagueness of the ref- erence to education in this passage are such as to furnish basis for much discussion but at the same time such as to make exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, any conclusions as to what Shetach actually did. Giidemann,*^ Grossmann and Kandel,'° Laurie,"^ Leip- *« Ibid., p. 49a and d. *7 j^id,^ pp. 50d-51a. *» Jerusalem Talmud, "Kethuboth," VIII, end. *» M. Giidemann, "Education," Jewish Encyc, V, 43c. 50 Grossmann and Kandel, "Jewish Education," Monroe's Cyclo- pedia of Education, III, 542d. ^"^ S. S. Laurie, Pre-Christian Education, p. 93. 94 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. ziger,'^^ and Spiers/'* while crediting Shetach with educa- ^tional reforms, regard the law issued in 64 A. D. by the high priest Joshua ben GAmala as the ordinance by which elementary education was first made universal and compul- sory for boys over six or seven. The defenders of the claims of Gamala assert that the law of Shetach applied either only to orphan boys over sixteen years of age, or only to Jerusalem and other large cities. If the first of these positions be accepted, it would follow that the first step toward compulsory education was the establishment in 75 B. C. of higher schools for orphan boys over sixteen years of age. Gudemann sums up the situation as follows : "The scribes, at first, restricted their educational activ- ities to adults, giving free lectures in synagogues and schools while the education of children remained in the hands of the parents as in olden timds. But as boys often lacked this ; advantage, the state employed teachers in Jerusalem (B. 5^ 21a) to whose care the children from the provinces were entrusted; and as these did not suffice, schools were also established in the country towns. This arrangement must probably be referred to an ordinance of R. Simon ben Shetach (Jer.Talm.;'Ktth:'YlU, end ).-»«... .These district schools were intended only for youths of sixteen and seventeen years of age who could provide for themselves away from home. The high priest Joshua ben Gamala instituted schools for boys of six and seven years in all cities of Palestine."''* The section of the Babylonian Talmud recounting the X work of Gamala is of such importance in the history of Jewish education that no account, however summary, can aflFord to omit it. The passage is valuable not only for its account of Gamala's work but for the light it thrown on earlier conditions. "Verily let it be remembered to that man for good. »2 H. M. Leipziger, Education of the Jezvs, p. 197. " B. Spiers, The School System of the Talmud, pp. 9-10. ''* M. Gudemann, "Education," Jewish Encyc, V, 43. EDUCATION IN SCHCX)L AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 95 Rabbi Joshua ben Gamala is his name, for had he not been, the Law would have been forgotten in Israel. At first every one that had a father received from him instruction in the Law, but he that had no father learned not the Law Thereafter teachers for the children were appointed in Je- rusalem. . . . But even this measure sufficed not, for he that had a father was brought by him to school and was taught there, but he that had no father was not brought to be taught there. In consequence of this, it was ordained that teachers should be appointed in every district, to whom children were sent when they were sixteen or seventeen years of age. When a teacher became angry with a scholar, the latter stamped his feet and ran away. In this condition education remained until the time of Joshua ben Gamala, who ordained that in every province and in every town- there should be teachers appointed to whom children should ^ be brought at the age of six or seven years."''' Any such legislation as that described in the foregoing paragraphs would, of course, have been ineffective had it not been supported by a widespread sentiment in favor of education. All schools were for boys only and all teachers were men. The ordinance of Gamala required communities to Organization of Provide One teacher for twenty-five pupils orjj Elementary less ; f or any number over twenty-five and' ' °** *■ less than fifty, one teacher and one assistant ; for fifty pupils, two teachers and two classes. ''^ In the be- ginning probably any scribe or any officer of *• Teachers: , i i « i i • Numbers, the synagoguc who had the leisure taught the Social Standing, elementary classes. In time, however, the Rewards. / > > master of the elementary school came to hold membership in the powerful scribes' guild and to bear the " Der Babylonische Talmud, "Baba Bathra," tr. by Wunsche ; A. R. S. Kennedy, Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 250b. I have taken Kennedy's translation of Wunsche here in preference to Rodkinson's. ^^ Babylonian Talmud, "Baba Bathra," 21a. (Tr. Rodkinson, p. 62.) 96 . EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. distinct title of hazzan.^'' Kennedy asserts that the Hazzan of the elementary schools was distinct from the synagogue officer of the same title whose work consisted largely of menial duties connected with the synagogue, including even the whipping of criminals.'^* Other writers consider that the two may have been identical. J Although the scribes taught without pay and supported themselves, if necessary, by plying a trade, the Hazzan prob- ably received a regular though small wage.*^* The greatest // reward, however, of the teachers of every rank was the love, j gratitude, esteem and veneration in which they were held iby the community. In public and in private they were treated with a marked and particular respect, and no man in a Jewish community occupied a more esteemed or a more enviable position. Moral character, knowledge of the Law y/^ and pious observance of all it' "ordinances, were undoubtedly th§ qualities most sought for in a teacher. y^. Before the boy began going to school he had learned at ^ ^Ni'^ home many passages of Scripture, some prayers, some b. Aim of the songs and' many sacred traditions of his race. Elementary He had also Witnessed and participated in many feasts and festivals and listened to the explanations of the origin and significance of each act. The ll aim of the elementary school was to give every boy a com- j plete mastery of the Law and thus prepare him for assuming \ upon reaching his majority, responsibility for the Law. Probably the only subjects taught in the elementary school were reading, writing and the elements of arithmetic. Learning to read and to write was far from an easy task. No language was permitted other than the ancient Hebrew,^" '^^ A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, ^^Ibid. '^^'D. Eaton. "Scribes," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, IV, 422d; cf. Apts xvin. 3 ; M. Schloessinger, "Hazzan," Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 285c-d. «0A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 651. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 97 a tongue almost unknown to the children of this period, in ^ the majority of whose homes Aramaic or Greek was spoken. The difficulty of learning to read and write was further increased by the fact that in writ- ing ancient Hebrew, vowel sounds were not indicated. Thus Yahweh was written YHWH. Consequently, a large ele- ment in reading consisted in reproducing from memory the vowel sounds. The work of the elementary school centered about., memorizing the Law in its threefold content, ceremonial, ji civil and criruinal. No doubt Hebrew education like that of every other oriental people made great demands upon the child's memory. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that passages which the boy would be required to learn by heart, setting forth the details of rites and laws and which to a Gentile of to-day are vague, unreal and exceed- ingly difficult to remember, were in many cases merely descriptions of acts the pupil had witnessed from his earliest years. They had been presented concretely again and again in a manner which could not fail to impress them vividly upon his mind long before he was assigned the task of com- mitting them to memory. From the very first, his parents had explained to him, as far as his years and understand- ing permitted, the origin, real or traditional, and the signi- ficance of all that entered into law or rite. In view of the relation that the Law in its threefold content held to the life of the community, it will be seen that this work of the schools, far from being remote from life, was in reality a distinctly socializing process. The only way to comprehend the breadth of studies of the elementary schools is by re-, calling the varied nature of the contents of the Scriptures. Upon this basis, it will be seen that religion, morals, man- ners, history and law as well as the three R's were studied in the elementary school, for all these are contained in the great literature there taught to the child. The books included in the Scriptures, especially those 98 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. constituting the Pentateuch, were the chief school texts. The Psalms, owing to their important place in the temple worship, undoubtedly received much attention in the school. Two other books which must have held a prominent place in the schools were Proverbs and the apocryphal book, Ecclesiasticus. Both arose during this period ; both were specifically designed as texts for in- struction; both are compilations of moral and religious maxims, instruction in manners, intermingled with eulogies of the Law, its study, and its students and the virtues it extols. In later times there were prepared .as texts for little children small parchment rolls containing portions of the Scriptures such as the Shema,®^ the Hallel (Psalms cxiii-cxviii), history from the Creation to the Flood, the first eight chapters of Leviticus.®^ How early such texts were employed cannot be determined. The hair-splitting methods of the scholars of this period, as well as the sanctity attached to every word and every e. Methods Re- ^^^^^^ ^^ ^he Law made it necessary that it views, Incentives be memorized exactly word for word and to Study. letter for letter. Absolute accuracy was im- perative owing to the fact that many Hebrew characters are almost identical (e. g., h and ^/i) and that the interchange of two such characters frequently gives not only different but opposite meanings : thus hallel means "to praise," '^hallel means "to desecrate." To achieve this end countless memo- I riter exercises and constant repetitions were employed. The Rabbinical saying "to review one hundred and one times is better than to review one hundred times" indicates much regarding the character of the school work. A large part of the literature committed to memory was no doubt interesting to the child, nevertheless, many portions of it must have been indescribably dull and taxing. The «i See above, The Synagogue, paragraph on Order of Service, and note 27. •2 A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 117. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 99 great veneration in which the Law was held and the fact that through it alone was there access to the highest posi- tions in state and society were no doubt sufficient incentives to spur on the older boys to diligent study. But the eom- mendatiohs of corporal punishment to be found in the Scriptures,®^ as well as the Jewish conception of child nature, leave no doubt that punishment was used freely in the school to keep the younger and less studious at their tasks. The Jews of this period have already been described as a "people of the book." It is scarcely necessary to add that Results of Eie- education in the schools was thoroughly book- mentary Educa- ish. The Greeks had sought in vain to induce **°"' the Jews to include in their course of study physical culture, the golden classics of Greece^ and Greek science. Nevertheless, the boy who had completed the| studies of the elementary school was master of one of thej greatest literatures any race has ever produced. He prob- ably knew by heart most of the Pentateuch as well as selec- tions from many other books of the Scriptures. He was ready to explain the origin and meaning of the sacred rites and customs, public and private, which played a part in the events of each day. He was steeped in the religious con- sciousness of his people and was united with them in thought, knowledge and sympathies. Ellis writes: "An interesting commentary on the (elementary) edu- cation of the time is that of Jesus. He never attended one of the Rabbinical schools (Mark vi. 2, 3), and this allows us to see what advantages the common people had. His knowledge of the Scriptures was remarkable and unchal- lenged. He could read Hebrew and was often called upon to officiate in the synagogue (Luke iv. 16; Mark i. 21, etc.)."** «3 See Chapter IV, paragraph on Conception of Child Nature — Corporal Punishment. These statements should be compared with such Talmudic statements as in Aboth II, 6 (tr. Rodkinson, pp. 4, 56-58) where it is asserted that a hasty (or passionate) man is unfit to teach. «*H. G. Ellis, "Origin and Development of Jewish Education/' Pedagogical Seminary, 1902, IX, 58. 100 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Schools of the Soferim. From earliest times it was necessary for prospective Soferim (scribes) to receive special professional training. . . The increase, after the Exile, in the functions of the Soferim, in their numbers, importance, and in the body of literature to be mastered by them made necessary prolonged and careful training. Those who were called upon daily to declare and administer the Law must possess not merely a superior knowledge of the Law itself. They must know all possible interpretations, methods of interpretation and the precedents created by former deci- sions and applications. In temple court or in synagogue, noted scribes gathered about themselves groups of youths and men. In time each famous scribe appears to have had his own group or school.®** In some cases the distinctive character of the master's teaching resulted in the develop- ment of rival schools, such as those of Shammai and Hillel.®* The latter's grandson, Gamaliel, it will be recalled, was the teacher of Saul of Tarsus.®^ In some scribe schools, Greek learning may have been given a place but in all the major part of the time was prob- / „ ,. ably devoted to the study of the sacred writ- l Studies. . r 1 TT 1 \ \ mgs of the Hebrews and to the memonzmg of the ever-increasing mass of oral literature. This mass of oral learning consisted of two elements, — the'^alakah or legal element, and the Hagadah or non-legal element. The Halakah was composed chiefly of oral laws grow- ing out of the attempts of the scribes to adapt the written law to the ever-changing social and political conditions. In ®5 In later times, such a school was commonly known as Beth Hammidrash, but this is a post-Biblical term and is consequently avoided in the present account. «« Associated with (by tradition, President of) the Sanhedrin 30 B. C Wm. Bacher, "Hillel," Enc. Brit., XIII, 467c-d. «^ A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 650d. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER TlII^F^XjJLjEr. 101 time these oral laws, decisions and interpretavrons aciqu^red: fixed form and with fixed form, sanctity. Upon the basis of Exodus xxiv. 12 ("I will give thee tables a. The Halakah. . . , ,,x •, . t ,■» ^ of stone and a law ) it was asserted that Moses had received from Yahweh upon Mt. Sinai, in addi- tion to the written law, an oral law, namely, the Halakah.*® For many centuries the Halakah was forbidden to be written and consequently must be committed to memory by every prospective scribe. Every sentence, every word was sacred and must be memorized exactly as given by the teacher. All possible interpretations were presented and discussed. Various methods of interpretation must be learned and prac- tised. The Hagadah (literally "narrative") was not distinguish- able in method from the Halakah. But whereas the Hala- ^^'^ b. t^ Hagadah r kah was dcvoted to religious law, the Hagadah The Talmud. included literature of considerable range and -^ variety. Though much of it was ethical, exegetical or homi- letical, it included as well proverbs, fables, traditions, his- tory and science. In a word, it embraced all topics except the more strictly l^al elements, which might be drawn into the discursive discussions of a group of scholars seeking to amplify and explain in a somewhat popular manner laws, institutions and customs. This oral literature developed into \\ the two monumental encyclopedias, known as the Jerusal«n -T] Talmu d and the Babylonian Talmud.*® "^ The main theme of the instruction given by the Sof erim 1 1 was the oral law. Their instruction was consequently en-| ^ ^ ^ tirely oral. In order to assist their pupils to Methods. . , . ^ ^ retain their words, they cast many of their teachings in the form of proverbs, precepts, epigrams. They «8 Arthur Ernest Cowley, "Hebrew Literature," Enc. Brit., 11th ed., XIII, 170c-d. «» In form, the Talmud consists of two parts,— the Mishna com- piled about 190 A. D., and the Gemara or Commentary upon the Mishna, produced during the next three hundred years and compiled about 500 A. D. 102 ,/? r /: J EDUCATION in ancient israel. =\. .? >' : c I^J^sented ccncreTe cases, real or imaginary, to train their pupils in the application of legal principles. Parable and allegory were employed for illustration. Public discussions between different scribes were frequently held. Upon Sab- baths and feast-days, it was customary for various scribes to assemble "on the terrace of the temple and there publicly to teach and expound, the utmost liberty being given of asking questions, discussing, objecting afid otherwise taking intelligent part in the lectures."^® In their groups of select pupils as well as in piiblic they made large use of the ques- tion and answer method, the pupils as well as the master asking questions.^^ The study and the teaching of the Law were alike sacred tasks. The So ferim would have regarded charging fixed fees for their services as trafficking in the wisdom of the Most High. Those without private incomes commonly supported themselves by some craft or trade.''^ At that time there were no paid teachers. Delitzsch writes: "The learned, or 'teachers of wisdom,* as they were called, were thrown on the gratitude of their scholars and their scholars' parents, on some consideration at the distribution of the tithes for the poor, and in certain cases also on the support from the temple treasury No wonder that the pursuit of some remunerative occupation in connection with the study of the Law was held to be most ad- visable. And this combination was not only a necessary evil, but to work in the sweat of face was also regarded a blessing of healthy moral discipline which admitted of no substitute."^^ TO Alfred Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 120. Ti Plumtre gives a number of interesting details, not found in most accounts, concerning the education of the scribe and his admission into the rank of scribes, see Edward Hayes Plumtre, "Scribes," Wm, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, III, 1167-1168. ■^2 Franz Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, (tr. by B. Pick), pp. 7Z, 81. For a list of the various trades followed by Rabbis, see article on "Rabbi," Jewish Encyclopedia. 73 Franz Delitzsch, loc, cit., p. 80. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 103 FESTIVALS. The great national holidays of the Jews were national holy days. Th rough them the Jews recognized their d e^ Origin, Number, j-'^-^— -- "p^" ^'-^^ ^^*- *^^'- *«iii<-e ^f f\^^ jjeld. Character. }q^ the joys of home. J Qj; deliverance from enemies and for past and future prosperity. Every period in Hebrew history contributed its portion to the heritage of national festivals. From,jiqmadism came the Pg^s^v^r- ori^inally a spring festival when the firstlings of the~flbck were offered up to Yahweh.''* From the agricultural stage came Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jewish year included three hundred and fifty-four days. In the period of later Judaism, more than thirty Table of Festi- days in the year, in addition to New Moons ^*^*- and Sabbaths, were devoted to ceremonial ob- servances of some sort.^** The table on the following page shows^* the more important of these feasts, their duration and time of celebration. From the standpoint of education, the significance of the festivals was manifold. Probably no other factor in Educational sig- Jcwish life played a more important part in nificance. stimulating and developing the racial religious consciousness, national and individual. They formed a cycle . of religious and patriotic revivals extending throughout the year. Through them each new generation was taught the story of the great religious and political experiences of the > race. Every religious festival was a period of training in Ij connection with worship ; in connection with many of them definite provision was made for religious instruction. Parents .^J*^ ^- Scares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. 173 ; Exodus xii. ^'^ T. G. Scares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. I/O. 7« Exclusive of New Moons and Sabbaths. The data in this table have been compiled from various sources. See especially Elmer E. Harding, "Feasts and Fasts," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I. 104 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. were directed to instruct their children in advance or during the celebration in the origin and meaning of the festival. This private instruction was frequently supplemented by instruction given in public by priests and scribes. TABLE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT JEWISH FEASTS AND FESTI VALS.7« POST-MACCABEAN PERIOD. No. OF Jbwish Approximate Current Feast Days Days Month Calendar Time Passover T7 or Feast of Unleavened Bread From even- ing of 14th to 2ist of Nisan Nisan The month of Nisan began with the New Moon of March and extended to the New Moon of April Pentecost 7T 6th of Siwan Siwan included part of May and part of June Feast of Trumpets istof Tishri Tishri included part of Sep- tember and part of October Day of Atonement (Strictly a fast, not a feast) loth Feast of Tabernacles 77 15th to 2ISt inclusive Tishri Shemini Atzereth Eight or Day of Conclusion » 22nd Tishri Feast of Dedication 8 25th ff. Kislew Kislew included part of Nov- ember and part of December Purim 2 14th to 15th Adar Adar included parts of February and March THE TEMPLE. Despite the rise of the teaching order of Soferim and the inultiplication of synagogues, the temple at Jerusalem never /(influence upon ccased to be a national center of religious ithe Synagogue, education. Hither the people resorted to cele- brate the great national festivals and here they were trained in forms of worship. Here, too, the carefully trained choirs '''^ On€ of the three great annual feasts. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 105 of Levites sang the national songs of praise and in singing them taught them to the people. Indeed it was the temple, according to Graetz, which furnished the pattern for the service in the thousand synagogues scattered throughout Judea and the diaspora. "The form of prayer used in the temple became the model of the services in all prayer-houses or houses of gathering."^* "The inhabitants of the country towns introduced in their own congregations an exact copy of the divine service as it was conducted in [the temple in] Jerusalem."^* More than this, it was at the hours of temple worship that the Jews everywhere gathered in their local synagogues,^** and it was toward the Holy City that every Jew, alone or in the congregation, turned his face when he prayed. The resemblance of the synagogue service to that of the temple will be seen by comparing the Order of Service. .. .^ . . . ^ -T ^,_ r , outlme of service given above with the fol- lowing order of the temple morning song service which followed the dawn sacrifice.®® ORDER OF TEMPLE MORNING PRAYER AND SONG SERVICE. 1. Selected psalms of praise and thanksgiving. 2. Response by the congregation. 3. Prayer and thanksgiving. 4. Reading of selections from the Law. 5. The Ten Commandments. 6. The Shema. In addition to the instruction and training given through the services, public instruction was often given in the temple courts. This custom, probably antedating the time of Jere- miah, was followed in the days of Jesus and undoubtedly continued till the final destruction of the temple in 70 A. D. The temple and its public services were national institu- tions. "The temple was the approach of the nation to their God Its standard rites were performed in the name and ^8 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 399a. T»/HJ., 401a. 80 /Hd.. 399. 106 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. for the sake of the whole people. . . .The Tamid or standing sacrifice offered twice a day on the high altar was the offer- ing of the nation. Every Jew contributed to its mainte- nance.*^ .... Each of its celebrations was attended by a formal committee of the nation .... "®^ It is not within the purpose of the present account to enter upon a history of the temple and its varying fortunes nor to describe the magnificence of its structure and of its services.*^ It arose aloft above the city on its holy hill like the temples of Athens. Here as in Greece, the lofty emi- nence and conspicuousness of its position contributed toward keeping it ever before the minds of the inhabitants of the city. Every day was ushered in by a national sacrifice, marked midway by a second one and closed with a national service of prayer. "After midnight the captain of the temple together with a number of priests arose from their beds and with torches in their hands went through the temple. ... to see if every- thing was in a state of preparation for worship at the dawn of day. As soon as the watchers upon the temple ramparts could perceive in the morning light the city of Hebron, the signal was given : 'the light shines on Hebron' and the sacri- ficial victim fell under the hand of the priest. "Immediately after the immolation came a service of prayer with music and song. This was followed by the burning of incense upon the golden altar, at which the priestly blessing was pronounced. The sacrificing priest then performed his functions at the altar of burnt-offering, while the Levites sang psalms, accompanied by the sound of trumpets. Two hours and a half from mid-day the evening *^ By a decree of the Council issued in the reign of Salome Alexandra, every Israelite, proselytes and freed slaves included, v^ras required to pay at least one half shekel a year to the support of the temple. H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 52. «2G. A. Smith, Jerusalem:. .. Jo 70 A.D., II, S22d-523b. "3 For Biblical descriptions see 2 Chronicles xxix. 19-36; Eccle- siasticus 1. 1-21 ; Ezekiel xl-xli. EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY AFTER THE EXILE. 107 worship began with the slaughter of the sacrificial lamb. Immediately after sunset the evening service of prayer was closed."** Not only was the temple service fraught throughout with symbolism, but the structure and organization of the temple Educational made it a monumental object lesson teaching Significance. the hoHuess, majesty and omnipotence of Yah- weh. "If Josephus be right, the vast entrance of the porch symbolized heaven; the columns of the first veil, the ele- ments ; the seven lamps, the seven planets ; the twelve loaves of the Presence, the signs of the zodiac, and the circuit of the year; the altar of incense that God is the possessor of all things."«5 The multitude of private sacrifices required of every Jew resulted in making the influence of the temple indi- vidual as well as national. To visit Jerusalem and worship in the temple became a life desire of every Jew. Thousands of pilgrims journeyed thither each year. The three great annual festivals, the Passover, the Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles brought together Jews from all over the world. Many such returned home inspired and strengthened in their faith, and better instructed in the approved methods of re- ligious observances. Thus through the temple religion and religious education were unified, standardized and national- ized. The effect of the temple service in the first century of the Christian era upon a Hebrew child has been beautifully set forth by Edersheim and forms a fitting close to the dis- cussion of the educative influence of the temple. "No one who had ever worshiped within the courts of Jehovah's house at Jerusalem could ever have forgotten the scenes he had witnessed or the words he had heard. Stand- ing in that gorgeous, glorious building, and looking up its terraced vista, the child would watch with solemn awe, not 8* Condensed from M. Seidel, In the Time of Jesus, pp. 119-120. «5 G. A. Smith, Jerusalem: to /o A. D., II, p. 257. 108 ' EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. [ urimingled with wonderment as the great throng of white- robed priests busily moved about, while the smoke of the sacrifice rose from the altar of bumt-oifering. Then, amid the hushed silence of that vast multitude, they had all fallen down to worship at the time of incense. Again, on those steps that led up to the innermost sanctuary the priests had lifted their hands and spoken over the people the words of blessing ; and then, while the drink-offering was poured out, the Levites' chant of psalms had risen and swelled into a mighty volume ; the exquisite treble of the Levite children's voices being sustained by the rich round notes of the men, and accompanied by instrumental music. The Jewish child knew many of these words. They had been the earliest songs he had heard — almost his first lesson when clinging as a *taph' to his mother. But now, in those white-marbled, gold-adorned halls, under heaven's blue canopy, and with such surroundings, they would fall upon his ear like sounds from another world, to which the prolonged threefold blasts from the silver trumpets of the priests would seem to waken him. And they were sounds from another world; for, as his father would tell him, all that he saw was after the exact pattern of heavenly things which God had shown to Moses on Mount Sinai ; all that he heard was God-uttered, spoken by Jehovah Himself through the mouth of His servant David, and of the other sweet singers of Israel."*® «« A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, pp. 108-109. CHAPTER VI. WOMAN AND THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. WOMAN AND THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. "House and riches are an inheritance from fathers; But a prudent wife is from Jehovah." — Proverbs xix. H "A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies." — Proverbs xxxi. 10. Summary of Chapter. The evidence seems to point to the fact that woman occupied a relatively higher place in earlier than in later times. For the most part, however, in and outside the home, her place was subordinate to that of man. Her duties and her education were distinctly domestic. In Biblical times no schools of any sort appear to have been open to girls or women. Aside from the home, the institutions exerting an educational influence upon girls and women were the synagogue, the temple and festivals. That woman held a relatively higher status in earlier than in later times seems evident from the custom, then in Woman in the vogue, of tracing the descent through the Home and in mother^ and from the part played in public Society. affairs by such women as Deborah,^ Jael,^ by the "wise woman" of Tekoa* and by the wise woman of Abel.*^ But even in the period of nomadism woman was ■distinctly a chattel and a servant, first of her father and 1 The descent of Esau's children is traced through their mothers, Gen, xxxvi. Abraham married Sarah, the daughter of his father, but not of his mother. See above, pp. 52 and 55, paragraphs on Rites of Infancy and Circumcision (naming of children). 2 Judges iv and v. 3 Judges iv. 18-24. * 2 Samuel xiv. 1-23. 5 2 Samuel xx. 16-22. 112 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. then of her husband, who bought her from her father. Progress in civilization which brought an ever-enlarging in- tellectual sphere to man confined woman more and more to narrow fields of religious and domestic duties, and in each of these fields placed upon her restrictions which stamped her as man's religious, intellectual and social inferior. It is impossible to say when these restrictions began. Some of them probably date back to tribal days and customs. Amone the most conspicuous restrictions of Social Sutus. 1 , ^. xt- J t. • r later times were those debarring women from wearing the phylacteries, from reciting the Shema, from en- tering the main space of the synagogpae.® Any consideration of the religious restrictions and privileges of women must take into account the principle which finds later development in the Talmud, that women are excused from fulfilling all positive commandments the fulfilment of which depends on a fixed time or season. The reason for the exemption is obvious. Woman, on account of domestic and physical con- ditions, would at certain times be incapacitated for per- forming rites the observance of which is dependent upon a particular time. Peritz maintains that these restrictions we^e distinctly a later development. He writes : "The Hebrews .... in the earlier periods of their history, exhibit no tendency to dis- criminate between man and woman so far as regards partici- pation in religious practices, but woman participates in all the essentials of the cult, both as worshiper and official ; only in later time, with the progress in the development of the cult itself, a tendency appears, not so much, however, to exclude woman from the cult, as rather to make man prom- inent in it."^ « Carl H. Comill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 99. ''I. J. Peritz, "Woman in the Ancient Hebrew Cult," Journal of Biblical Literature, XVII, 114d. Peritz opposes the commonly ac- cepted views of Stade, Benziger, Nowack and others. It is doubtful whether the evidence he presents will be considered convincing at all points. WOMAN AND THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 113 Even if Peritz's view be accepted, the fact remains that in the home as well as in the synagogue the position of woman was a subordinate one. The father was given the chief place in religious services and rites. The training and instruction of the sons from their earliest years were in his hands. The mother might assist in the education of the sons but only as a subordinate ; her primary duties were the edu- Dauehters cation of the members of the inferior sex, her Less Esteemed daughters, and the care of her household, than Sons. Daughters were less esteemed and less wel- come than sons: "In the Talmud we find three times the saying: 'Well to him whose children are boys, woe to him whose children are girls.' In the Old Testament there is Reverence and "othing like this directly expressed, but with- Respect for out doubt this is what the Israelite of old Women. thought."® It must not be supposed, however, that love and respect were lacking. Many passages reveal the love and tenderness in which wife and mother were held. A loving wife is declared to be a gift from Yahweh,® and a worthy woman is more precious than rubies.^® To express the highest degree of sadness the poet writes, "I Ideal of bowed down mourning, as one that bewaileth womanhbod. his mother."" The following extract from Proverbs xxxi contains the most complete formulation of the ancient Hebrew ideal of womanhood.^'' "A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies. "The heart of her husband truSteth in her, And he shall have no lack of gain. * C. H. Cornill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 97a. ® Proverbs xix. 14. 10 Ihid., xxxi. 10. 11 Psalms XXXV. 14; C. H. Cornill, The Culture of Ancient Israel, p. 93. 12 Proverbs xxxi. 10-31. 114 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. "She doth him good and not evil All the days of her life. "She seeketh wool and flax And worketh willingly with her hands. "She is like the merchant-ships; She bringeth her food from afar. "She riseth also while it is yet night, And giveth food to her household, And their task to her maidens. "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: With the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. "She girdeth her loins with strength, And maketh strong her arms. "She perceiveth that her merchandise is profitable ; Her lamp goeth not out by night. "She layeth her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle. "She spreadeth out her hand to the poor ; Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. "She is not afraid of the snow for her household ; For all her household are clothed with scarlet. "She maketh for herself carpets of tapestry; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. , "Her husband is known in the gates, When he sitteth among the elders of the land. "She maketh linen garments and selleth them; And delivereth girdles unto the merchant. "Strength and dignity are her clothing; And she laugheth at the time to come. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom ; And the law of kindness is on her tongue. "She looketh well to the ways of her household, And eateth not the bread of idleness. WOMAN AND THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS. 115 "Her children rise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praiseth her, saying: "Many daughters have done worthily, But thou excellest them all. "Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain : But a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised. "Give her of the fruit of her hands ; And let her works praise her in the gates." In the above passage, the home is represented as woman's highest sphere. There is not the slightest hint of the recog- nition of any need for higher intellectual development. This is all the more significant as the passage belongs to the Greek period. The most extolled virtues of the woman here de- scribed are piety, mercy, industry, foresight, thrift, sound practical judgment and devotion to her husband's interests. She spins and weaves wool, linen, silk and tapestry. She carries on commercial enterprises such as buying a field and selling linen garments. She superintends her house- hold and is devout in the performance of her religious duties. The home was par excellence the institution where girls received their education. The schools, elementary and higher, Educational were Open to boys and men only. In some nstitutions. instances girls may have received advanced in- struction through private lessons given in the home, but if such cases occurred at all they were undoubtedly rare. Festivals, the temple and the synagogue were the chief in- stitutions which exerted an educative influence upon girls and women outside the home. Although women were not counted as members of the synagogue and were not per- mitted to lead in any of its services, nevertheless they were zealous attendants at its services. Many recorded incidents bear witness to the familiarity of the Jewish women with the Scriptures. The term mater synagogae appears as a title of honor beside the term pater synagogae among inscrip- tions found in southern Italy.^^ 13 W. Bacher, "Synagogue," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, IV, 640b. 116 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. L Woman's chief functions were to honor God, care for er home, train her children, serve and please her husband. IAim and Content The aim of girls' education was to produce of Education. efficient and industrious home-makers, obe- dient, virtuous, godfearing wives and daughters. The de- tails of girls' education varied from generation to generation with changes in habitat, modes of living, social and religious institutions and laws, but the principles determining its scope and limits were to a large extent unchanging. From earliest 1^ times it included domestic duties, music, dancing, industrial j occupations, religion, manners and morals. The importance »of many of these activities and the nature and method of the instruction and training has been sufficiently set forth in preceding paragraphs to make any further presentation here unnecessary. The sex division of labor and the ex- clusion of women from many religious duties and respon- sibilities resulted in many differences in the education of boys and girls. The domestic and industrial occupations of girls and women included cooking, spinning, weaving, dye- ing, caring for flocks, guarding vineyards, gathering har- vests, grinding grain, caring for children and managing slaves. Later times added in some cases at least reading, writing and enough knowledge of reckoning, weights, measures and money to enable the prospective wife to carry on the busi- ness of her household. It is impossible to state how early and to what extent a knowledge of the three R's became prevalent. The fact that Queen Jezebel is stated to have written letters in Ahab's name to the elders of Naboth's village^* might seem an argument for a knowledge of these arts by the women of the monarchical period. But as has already been pointed out, Jezebel may have employed a scribe, and the facts that she was a queen and that she was a foreigner, a Phoenician, forbid any general inferences. 1* 1 Kings xxi. 8. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following brief bibliography has been selected with a view to meeting the needs and interests of the general reader. It has been felt that the accounts in such general histories of education as fTom- payre, Graves, Laurie, Monroe are too well known to call for their inclusion here. Owing to the limit set to the present account only a few works dealing with post-Biblical times are given. Roman nu- merals (unless preceded by the abbreviation Chap.) indicate the number of the volume referred to; arabic numerals refer to pages; the small letters, a, b, c and d, refer to the first, second, third and last quarter of the page, e. g., I, 24d means Vol. I, p. 24, last quarter of the page. I. SOURCES. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, (American Revised Version), New York, 1898. Apocrypha, 2 vols., edited by Henry Wace, D.D., London, 1888. [Es- pecially Ecclesiasticue and the Books of the Maccabees.] The Babylonian Talmud, edited by M. L. Rodkinson, 11 vols., New York, 1900. [Not a satisfactory translation but the only Eng- lish text available.] II. GENERAL HISTORIES AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE JEWS. Barton, George Aaron, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, Social and Re- ligious, New York, 1902. Cornill, C. H. History of the People of Israel, 4th ed., Chicago, 1909. Cook, Stanley Arthur, Old Testament History in article on "Pales- tine," The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Hth ed., XX, 605c-617b. Ewald, Georg Heinrich August, The History of Israel (tr. from the German), 8 vols., London, 1878-86. Graetz, H., Geschichte der Juden von den dltesten Zeiten bis auf die 120 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Gegenwart, 11 vols., Leipsic, 1870-88. [New edition begun 1911.] Graetz, H., History of the Jews, From the Earliest Times to 1870, 6 vols., Philadelphia, 1891-98. [Not merely a translation of the author's German work, but a revision and an extension, see I, p. vi. VI contains complete Index and Tables. Footnotes are omitted in the English work.] Hommel, Fritz, The Civilisation of the East, (tr. from the German by J. H. Loewe), London, 1900. Hosmer, J. K., The Jews in Ancient, MedicBval and Modern Times, New York and London, 1889. Kent, Charles Foster, A History of the Hebrew People, New York, 1896. Kent, Charles Foster, Narratives of the Beginnings of Hebrew His- tory, New York, 1904. Kent, Charles Foster, IsraeVs Historical and Biographical Narratives New York, 1905. Kent, Charles Foster, The Sermons, Epistles and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, New York, 1910. Kent, Charles Foster, Biblical Geography and History, New York, 1911. McCurdy, James Frederick, History, Prophecy and the Monuments, 3 vols., New York and London, 1894-1901. Olmstead, A. T., Western Asia in the Days of Sargon of Assyria^ 722-705 B. C, A Study in Oriental History, New York, 1908. Ottley, R. L., A Short History of the Hebrews to the Roman Period, New York, 1901. I'eritz, Ismar J., Old Testament History, New York, 1915. Renan, Joseph Ernest, History of the People of Israel, 5 vols., (tr. from the French by J. H. Allen and E. W. Latimer), Boston, 1889-96. Sayce, Archibald Henry, Light from Ancient Monuments, 10th im- pression, London, 1909. [Always interesting but to be used with caution.] Schiirer, Emil, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 5 vols., 2d ed.. New York, 1891. Smith, Henry Preserved, Old Testament History, New York, 1906. Wellhausen, J., Sketch of the History of Israel and Judah, 3d ed., London. 1891. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. 121 III. DISTINCTLY EDUCATIONAL TREATISES. Blach-Gudensberg, Das Pddagogische im Talmud, Halberstadt, 1881. [A lecture, 26 pages.] Cheyne, T. K., and Black, J. S., Articles on "Education" and on "Government," Encyclopcsdia Biblica. Cornill, Carl Heinrich, The Culture of Ancient Israel, (tr. from the German by various writers), Chicago, 1914. [Especially "The Education of Children in Ancient Israel," pp. 68-100.] Edersheim, Alfred, In the Days of Christ : Sketches of Jewish Socio) Life, New York, 1876. [Chapters VI-VIII deal specifically with education and related topics.] Ellis, A. C, "Growth of the Sunday School Idea," Ped. Seminary, 1896, III, 375-377. Ellis, G. Harold, "Origin and Development of Jewish Education," Ped. Seminary, 1902, IX, 50-62. Ellis, G. Harold, "The Pedagogy of Jesus," Ped. Seminary, 1902, IX, 441-459. Giidemann, M., Quellenschriften zur Geschichte des Unterrichts und der Erziehung bet den deutschen Juden. Von den altesten, Zeiten his Mendelssohn, Berlin, 1891. Guttmann, J., Die Scholastik des XIII. Jahrhunderts in ihren Be- ziehungen zum Judentum und zur jiidischen Liter atur, Breslau, 1902. Imber, N. H., Education and the Talmud, Report of the U. S. Com- missioner of Education, 1894-95, II,' 1795-1820. [Interesting but not reliable.] Imber, N. H., The Letters of Rabbi Akibah, or The Jewish Primer Tzvo Thousand Years Ago, Report of the U. S. Commis- sioner of Education, 1895-96, I, 701-719. Kandel, Isaac L., and Grossmann, Louis, "Jewish Education, Ancient, Mediaeval, Modern," Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, III, 542-553. Kennedy, A. R. S., "Education," Hastings' Bible Dictionary, I, 646b- 652a. Kent, Charles Foster, The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christian- ity, Boston and Chicago, 1911. Kohler, Gudemann, Deutsch and Jacobs, (joint authors), "Educa- tion," The Jewish Encyclopedia, V, 42a-48c. 122 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Leipziger, H. M., Education Among the Jews, New York, 1890, (= Vol. Ill, No. 6 of Educational Monographs, published by the New York College for the Training of Teachers). [This monograph is mainly an adaptation of Dr. Samuel Marcus's essay "Zur Schulpadagogik des Talmud."] Levy, Clifton H., "Education Among the Ancient Hebrews," Educa- tion, XVII, 457-462. [Too general to be of much value. Prone to moralizing for the benefit of modern educators.] Lewit, J., Darstellung der theoretischen und praktischen Pddagogik im jiidischen Alter tume nach dem Talmud. Berlin, 1896. Marcus, Samuel, Die Pddagogik des israelitischen Volkes: Part I, "Die Bibel ein Buch der Erziehung"; Part II, "Zur Schul- padagogik des Talmud," 2 vols., Vienna, 1877. Raphall, Morris J., "Education Among the Hebrews, An Introduc- tory Sketch," Barnard's American Journal of Education, 1856, I, 243-246. [Too brief to be of much value. Uncritical.] Schechter, Solomon, Studies in Judaism, First Series, chapter on "The Child in Jewish Literature," Philadelphia, 1911. Simon, Joseph, L'education et instruction des enfants chez les an- ciens Juifs d'apris la Bible et le Talmud, Leipsic, 1879. Spiers, B., School System of the Talmud, London, 1898. Strassburger, B., Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unterrichts bei den Israeliten, von der vortalmudischen Zeit bis auf die Gegen- wart. Bibliographie der jiidischen Pddagogik, Breslau, 1885. Wiesen, J., Geschichte und Methodik des Schulwesens im talmudi- schen Alter tume, Strassburg, 1892. IV. MISCELLANEOUS SECONDARY AUTHORITIES DEALING WITH VARIOUS ASPECTS OF JEWISH LIFE. Abbot, G. R, Israel in Europe, New York and London, 1907. Abrahams, Israel, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, (chapters on Games and the Theater), New York and London, 1896. Askowith, D., The Toleration and Persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire, New York, 1915. Baudissin, Wolf Wilhelm, Graf, Die Geschichte des alttestament- lichen Priestertums, Leipsic, 1889. Baudissin, Wolf, "Priests and Levites," Hastings^ Bible Dictionary, IV, 67-97. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. 123 Benny, P. B., Criminal Code of the Jews According to the Talmud, London, 1880. Briggs, Charles Augustus, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, New York, 1897. Briggs, Charles Augustus, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, New York, 1899. Buhl, Frants Peder William, "Feasts and Festivals," The New Schaff- Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, IV, 287c-289b. Cheyne, T. K., Jewish Religious Life After the Exile, New York and London, 1901. Cornill, C. H., Prophets of Israel, (tr. by S. F. Corkran), Chicago. 1895. Crozier, John Beattie, History of Intellectual Development on the Lines of Modern Evolution, 2 vols., London, 1897-1901. [Es- pecially Part III, "The Evolution of Judaism," Chaps. II, IV, V, VL] Davidson, A. B., Old Testament Prophecy, edited by J. A. Paterson, Edinburgh, 1904. Day, Edward, The Social Life of the Hebrews, New York, 1901. ["The best single book in English covering the whole subject."] Delitzsch, Franz Julius, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus According to Oldest Sources, (tr. by B. Pick), New York, 1885. Doughty, C. M., Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2 vols., Cambridge (Eng- land), 1909. [Very valuable for local color.] Driver, S. R., An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testch ment. New York, 1914. Drew, G. S., "On the Social and Sanitary Laws of Moses," Content porary Review, 1866, II (May to August), 514-534. Duflf, Archibald, The Theology and Ethics of the Hebrews, New York, 1902. Edersheim, Alfred, In the Days of Christ : Sketches of Jewish Social Life, New York, 1876. Engel, C, Music of the Most Ancient Nations, Particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hebrews, London, 1864. Fenton, John, Early Hebrew Life, A Study in Sociology, London, 1880. Fleury, Claude, Manners of Ancient Israelites, New York, 1837. Hinsdale, B. A., Jesus as a Teacher and the Making of the New Testament, St. Louis, 1895. 124 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Jevons, Frank Byron, An Introduction to the History of Religion, 6th ed., London, 1914. Landau, Richard, Geschichte der jUdischen Aerzte, Berlin, 1895. Maimon, Solomon, An Autobiography, (tr. by J. C Murray), Boston, 1888. Margoliouth, G., "Games Hebrew and Jewish," Hastings^ Encyclo- pedia of Religion and Ethics, VI, 171d-175b. Marsden, J. B., The Influence of the Mosaic Code Upon Subsequent Legislation, London, 1862. Montefiore, C. G., "Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews," Hib- bert Lectures, 1892, 3d ed., London, 1897. Peritz, I. J., "Woman in the Ancient Hebrew Cult," lournal of Bib- lical Literature, 1898, XVII, 111-148. Renan, Ernest, Averroes et VAverroisme, essai historique, 3d ed., Paris, 1866. Rosenau, William, Jewish Ceremonial Institutions and Customs, 2d ed., Baltimore, 1912. Ruppin, Arthur, The Jews of Today, (tr. from the German by Margery Bentwich), New York, 1913. Sayce, Archibald Henry, The Archceology of the Cuneiform Inscrip- tions, London, 1908. Schechter, Solomon, Studies in Judaism, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1908 and 1911. Schenk, F. S., The Sociology of the Bible, New York. 1909. Seidel, Martin, In the Time of Jesus, New York, 1885. Singer, S., Annotated Edition of the Authorized Daily Prayer-Book with Historical and Explanatory Notes, annotated by Israel Abrahams, London, 1914. Smith, George Adam, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 3d ed.. New York, 1895. Smith, George Adam, Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics and History from the Earliest Times to 70 A. D., 2 vols., London, 1908. Smith, William Robertson, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, London, 1903. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. 125 Smith, W. R., The Prophets of Israel and Their Place in History to the Close of the Eighth Century B. C, London, 1907. ["Most English books on the subject are more theological than histor- ical, but a sketch of Hebrew prophecy in connection with the history down to the close of the eighth century is given by W. R. Smith."] Soares, Theodore Gerald, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, New York, 1915. Von Dobschiitz, Ernst, The Influence of the Bible on Civilization, New York, 1914. Yellin, D., and Abrahams, I., Maimonides, Philadelphia, 1903. INDEX. INDEX. Abel, referred to, iii. Abimelech, referred to, 8. Abraham, 72. Adolescence, S5-6o. Age, old, reverenced, 67, 68. Age, school, 95. Agricultural occupations, 8. Agricultural festivals, 103. Ahab's sons, referred to, 22. Aim of education, girls', 116. See also Ideals; Incentives. Alexander the Great, 43, 81. Alexander Janneus, referred to, 92. Alexandra, Queen, referred to, 92. Allegories, 102. Amos, referred to, 36. Anger, 69-70. Antiochus IV, referred to, 79. Apprenticeship, 61. Arabia, trade with, 10. Aramaic, 81. Arba Kanfot, 57. Archelaus, referred to, 44. Ark, 88. Assyrian conquest, 11. Ancestor-iVorship, 13. Anthropomorphic conception of Yah- weh, 15. Arts, origin, 8, Athletics, 24. Atonement, Day of, 104. Augustus, referred to, 44. Baal, worship of, 14. Babylonian Exile, see Exile. Bar Miswah, 58-59. Bards, as teachers, 25. Baruch, referred to, 32. Bema, 87. Benedictions: bar mizwah, 59; chil- dren's, 64 note 73; in synagogue, 88, 89, 90. Benjamin, tribe of, under Saul, 9; under Rehoboam, 10. Beth-El, referred to, 35. Bibliography, 1 19-125. Biography, 67. Birthday, 59. Blood-ties, 10. Boasting, 69. Book of Instruction, 14-15, 20 and note 2. Books of law, 27 and note 27. Books of prophets, 27 and note 29. Breast feeding, 55. Brotherhood of man, 15. Csesar, 44, Canaanites, influence on Israelites, 7-8. Canon, evolution, 26-27; adoption, 86. 'Ceremonies, see Festivals; Order of Service; Rites; Ritual. Chariot-driving, 24. Children, desired, 49; slave status, 51; naturally wayward, 52-53; life pe- riods, 54. See also Adolescence; Religious consciousness, 63-64; be- long to. God, 59. Christianity, debt to Hebraism, 4. See also Jesus. Circumcision, 55-56. See also Bar ntiswah. City> see Municipal organizations. Civic instruction, 34. Classes, size, 95. Commercial education, 61. Commerce, effect on education, 29. Composition, taught to prophets, 37. Compulsory education, 86, 92-95. Conceit, 69. Conquest, the, 7-8. Consecration, 78. Conversation, 69-70. Corporal punishment, 53, 99. 130 EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Courtesy, lessons in, 68, 72. See also Manners. Courts, instruction in, Z7- Creed, see Shema. Curiosity, 71. Curriculum, post- Exilic, outline, 60; elementary, 96-98; higher, loo-ioi. Cyrus, referred to, 42. Dancing, patriotic and religious, 24, 25; prophetic, 36; post- Exilic, 61-62; girls taught, 116. Daphne, Egypt, referred to, 46 note 10. Darius, referred to, 43. Daughters, 52, 53. See also Girls; Sex; Woman. David, reign of, 9-10; national ideal, 20; knowledge of writing, 28, 29; referred to, 108. Death penalty, 51. Deborah, referred to, iii. Dedication, Feast of, 104. Delitzsch, quoted, 102. Democracy, 44-45. Derashah, 89-90. Diaspora, 46. Dionysus, rites of, 45. Discipline, at home, 51, 52, 53; lax in school, 95. Disobedience, capital punishment, 51. Dispersion, 44, 46. Disputations, scholarly, 102. Divination, 33, 34-35. Dramatic method, 27. Ecclesiasticus, on table manners, 71; on the scribe, 82; as textbook, 98. Edersheim, cited, 54; quoted, 107-108. Education, institutionalized, 76; uni- versal, 86-89, 90. 9I-95- Elders, 81. Elementary schools, see Schools. Elephantine, Egypt, referred to, 46 note 10. Elijah, referred to, 35. Elisha, referred to, 35. Environment, 12-13; moral influence, 30. Epigrams, by Soferim, 10 1. Esther, read, 65. Exile, the, 11, 41-42; educational products, 87, 91. Exposition, 89. Ezekiel, referred to, 42. Ezra, 27, 81 and note 12. Fables, taught, 25. Family, as educative institution, 2iflf, 49-54. 62-72, 96. Family festivals, 59, 64-66. Family, woman's sphere, 115. See also Mother; Woman. Fast-days, 88. Father, as teacher, 23, 60, 66, 95, 108; as priest, 32, 113; authority, 51, 59; names children, 55; reverenced, 67. See also Parents. Fatherhood of God, 12 note 23, 15. See also Yahweh. Festivals, seasons of instruction, 64- 66, 103-104; songs, 24; directed by priests, 34; synagogue service, 88; influence, 107, First-born, education, 22] redemption, 54- Flute. 24, 25. Foreign influence, ir, 13, 41-44. See also Exile, Hellenism. Fringes, 57. Gamala's school law, 91. Gamaliel, referred to, 100. Games, 24. Gemara, 10 1 note 69. Gideon, referred to, 8, 28. Gilgal, referred to, 35. Girls, attitude toward, 113; education, II 5-1 16. Gluttony, 71. God, see Yahweh. Graetz, quoted, 22, 77-78. Greek period, 43; religion, 45; vernac- ular, 81. See also Hellenism. Grossmann, cited, 93-94. Gudemann, cited, 93-94. Guild, teachers', 81. Hagadah, 1 00-101. Hakhamim, 81. Halakah, 1 00-101 Hallel, 98. Hannah, referred to, 49. Hassan, 81, 96. Hebraism, influence upon Christian- ity, 4- Hebrew, study of, 81, 96. Hellenism, 43, 45, 46, 78, 79. See also Greek period. INDEX. 131 Henotheism, 13. Herod, referred to, 44. Hezekiah, referred to, 37. Hierocracy, 44-45- High priest, 45. Hillel, referred to, 100. History, priestly, 34; prophetic, 36 note 64; teught, 341 3