The Pre-Talmudic School. We cannot speak with as much certainty of the elementary school during the time of Christ’s childhood as we can of later periods. For just about the only authority afforded us is the Jewish Mishnah, the first part of the Talmud, which is not older than 200 A.D. It is probably safe however, if we use caution, to assume that some of the methods there described as being of long standing may have been extant in the first century. It is more than probable that our Lord attended the synagogue school in Nazareth, was taught not by a learned rabbi, as there was none in that city, but by the minister of the synagogue. These teachers were in every town of Galilee and Jerusalem (cf. Luke 5: 17). There was always one of these elementary schools wherever there was a synagogue. The teachers belonged to a teachers’ guild formed by the scribes. The term of address applied to a teacher was that of Rabbi, “my teacher,” (lit., “my great one”), which during this time of Christ had not yet come to be used as a title, as in Rabbi Eliezer.
Teachers. Originally, the teachers in Israel were the priests and the prophets, until later the scribes also taught. Teachers were called the Wise Ones (ha-Chamin, and Sopherim), scribes. Later, in the third century, teachers were called Amoraim, Speakers, and still later in history were called Saburaim, Examiners or investigators. The earlier terms are much to be preferred, being biblical titles of honor. In keeping with the biblical spirit, the Hebrew words for education were: Hochmah, wisdom; da’ath Adonai, Knowledge of the Lord, and Musar, instruction, learning. From the selection of teachers, bachelors and women were eliminated. It is rather commonly known that no salary was provided the teacher for his labors. He served, out of respect for his profession, gratuitously. However, in keeping with the casuistry and subterfuge of the age, he was somewhat speciously granted a fee for “watching the children,” or for loss of his time from his secular work, by which, largely, he had to support himself.
Learning of a Trade. Study of the law of God in the synagogue-school was combined with the learning of a trade. It was the duty of the father to see that his son learned a trade that he might be able to support himself, and also it was believed that a one-sided intellectual occupation with the law was not conducive to success. We think of Elisha who was a farmer, Amos a herdsman, Paul a tent-maker and Jesus a carpenter.
Physical Education did not have a great part in the training of the Jew as it did with the Greeks. According to I Maccabees 1:14, 15; II Mach. 4:10-15, some of the worldly Jews joined with the YMHA of the day. But generally the Jew had little inclination for gymnastics. He was averse to public wrestling as beneath his dignity and self-respect. Nevertheless, it was customary for the father to provide his son with swimming lessons.
Supervision. Parts considered it their duty to supervise the school instruction to the point of visiting the teacher during the lesson to see whether his work was faithfully performed.8 We have much the same practice in our catechism classes, which are visited by the elders, and in a few of our Christian schools, although in some the practice has been dropped.
Discipline. It was recommended to teachers in matters of discipline that corporal punishment could be but slightly imposed. The elder pupils were not to be subjected to corporal punishment, for one thing, lest it wound their sense of honor, and for another, lest is arouse resistance. Only pupils showing promise, yet who were inattentive, were to be punished. If they were dull pupils incapable of learning, they were not to be punished.
Studies and Texts. Especially the Law, the Torah was the main body of knowledge revered by the Jews. They proudly trace its origin from God on Mt. Sinai to Moses, to Joshua, to the elders of Israel, to the prophets and through them to the Great Assembly, or the Sanhedrin, an academy of scholars and thinkers. The Sanhedrin chose rabbis (teachers) to educate the people and their children. Ezra the scribe is said to have organized the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.9 The Scriptures, but especially the Torah (the Pentateuch) became the text-book in the schools. The law was regarded as the summum bonum, the sum of intellectual pursuits, the aim of life.10 It was put this way in the Babylonian Talmud, “There is no love such as the love of the Torah. The words of the Torah are as difficult to acquire as silken garments, and are lost as easily as linen ones.”
The Hebrew child of pre-school age, besides being orally instructed in the whole history of Israel, was taught to memorize the Shema (Dt. 6:4), some of the Proverbs, verses from the Psalms, besides a birthday text, which was a verse of Scripture beginning or ending with, or containing the letters in his Hebrew name. He was taught to use this verse in his daily prayers. He was also familiar with some of the Israelitish rites and ceremonies, such as the commemoration of the dedication of the temple, the happy and boisterous time of Purim, Esther’s feast of deliverance, the Passover, Yom Kippur and the Feast of Tabernacles, to mention a few. Girls were excluded from the schools, being, as already noted, educated at home.
At six the Jewish child entered the elementary school and began formal training in the Scriptures, memorizing one verse daily. At ten he began to study the Mishnah. At thirteen he studied the commandments, and at that age became Bar Mitzvah, son of the commandment, thus becoming responsible for fulfilling the law! At fifteen, according to the following period of Jewish history, he took up the study of the Talmud. He was ready for marriage at eighteen. At twenty, he entered on his career, trade or business. For students destined to go on to higher learning there were the colleges of the scribes. The highest attainments in education may be ascribed to Moses, who was brought up in all the learning of Egypt (Ac. 7:22), as well as that of all Israel; to the writer of the Book of Job, who was well versed in natural history and in the astronomy of the day; to Daniel and his companions (1:4, 17); to Solomon, whose intellectual attainment was even more renowned than his political greatness (I K. 4:29, 34; 2 Chr. 9:1-8); to Paul, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
Great emphasis was placed on reading, for much esteem was placed on the ability to expound the law. The course of study began with the study of the Book of Leviticus. Every Jew was required to know the contents of that Book. One authority suggests that the reason for beginning with this Book was to teach the child his sinfulness and need of justification. This certainly is in harmony with the idea of our Heidelberger in its first part where we learn our misery, and its second part where we learn of our justification. Indeed, the Book of Leviticus could very profitably be studied from the point of view of the three well known divisions, Misery, Deliverance and Thanksgiving. Contrary to this view, Edersheim thinks such a reason for study of Leviticus quite far-fetched.11 We would answer, as we see it, that that is exactly the proper point of view to adopt in the study of any part of Scripture. But worse than far-fetched is the rabbinical opinion that since children are pure and the offerings pure, that the pure should study the pure! Edersheim presents a more strictly Jewish reason for this approach, namely that Leviticus treats of the ceremonies and rituals with which every Jew found it necessary to have an acquaintance. The first reason given is not only educative in the highest sense, but is soundly theological, God-centered and truly evangelical. The second reason is bald Pelagianism. The last is crass Judaism. After this initial study, the remainder of the Pentateuch was taught, then the prophets, and finally the Hagiographa. It is quite likely that our Lord learned His first lessons from the Book of Leviticus, that in the synagogue services he had heard Moses and the prophets read. His home in Nazareth may also have owned a complete copy of the Old Testament. For He was from the earliest childhood intimately familiar with every detail of Holy Scripture. We know that He read the original Hebrew (Cf. Mt. 5:18, Lk. 16:17), and very likely in the square characters found in the minister’s and seminary student’s Hebrew Bible. For ancient Hebrew was the only language permitted in the schools.12 At eh completion of elementary school education, the Jewish boy knew by heart most of the Pentateuch, and many selections from other parts of Scripture.
Methods and Reviews. The practice of review was thoroughly utilized, the opinion being, “To review 101 times is better than to review 100 times.”13 Therefore it was recommended in teaching the law, “Go over and over it again and again, for everything is in it.” Here you see something of the Jewish one-sided favoritism for the law. Jesus had a different evaluation. He placed all Scripture on the same level of equal authority: the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms (Mt. 5:17; Lk. 24:44). Unweariedly the teacher was to explain and explain until the pupil thoroughly understood. Yet, knowing that by incessant and laborious driving of a certain study into the mind it is possible to drive it out again, the shortest manner of instruction was to be preferred. What the pupil could learn in one word should not be imparted in three.
The Hebrew Language. Foreign languages at first had no art in the curriculum of Jewish schools. But as foreign influences gradually corrupted the purity of the Hebrew language, Jewish boys in the cities learned not only to speak Aramaic, but also Greek. Exclusive as they tried to be, God used the great linguistic ability of the Jews to prepare the way for the writing and spread of the new covenant Scriptures.
Teachers in that period were as precise as they could be in the very pronunciation of the Hebrew language. For nowhere was there absolute purity of language, not even in Judea and Jerusalem. Especially schools in despised Galilee were rather corrupt in the language. But the aim was to teach the children to read Hebrew as accurately as possible and always reverently. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet were mastered. Then the teacher taught the child to identify separate words from a text which he had already memorized. Since, at the time, the letters of the alphabet consisted only of consonants, with no vowel points, the child was not able to read syllables, as later Jews did.
However, the classroom was a babel of noise, as the pupil was constantly drilled in correct, audible Hebrew pronunciation. This was absolutely required with a view to proper study of the Torah. Reading, study, review and memorization were done orally, i.e., with audible recitation. It was strongly believed that a pupil, who learned his lessons by the silent method, without repeating them aloud, would forget all he had learned in three years. The ideal pupil of the time was Rabbi Eliezer, who was likened to a water-tight cistern which never lost a drop.
Trend to Pharisaism. The rabbinical teachers, especially of the Pharisees, as over against the literalist priests and worldly Sadducees, sought to establish the Mosaic law above monarchy and priesthood. The formula they adopted was Halachah le Moshe mi Sinai, “The way (given) to Moses from Sinai.” This was the idea that the revelation on Sinai provided everything needful. “Everything that a pupil will ever demonstrate to his master was shown to Moses on Sinai.” It would appear from this that in Christ’s time a strict adherence to the very letter and spirit o the law, giving no place to mere tradition, was maintained. But the expression, Halachah le Moshe mi Sinai, “The way (given) to Moses from Sinai,” in the twelfth century came to mean, “Valid as if given to Moses on Sinai”14 Since there was originally only a consonantal text, with no vowel pointings, when it came to interpreting the text, many sought to read their own thoughts into Holy Writ. Thus the oral tradition known as the Halakah came about. For centuries the Halakah was forbidden to be written. Prospective scribes had to commit it to memory. The Hagadah (“narrative”), another branch of oral instruction, embraced Jewish literature: proverbs, fables, traditions, history and science. These two elements of oral tradition developed into the Talmud. Thus Jewish education in the time of Christ finally parted in two directions: first, to that which was merely out of Israel without really being Israel (Romans 9:6), declining to the precepts and traditions of men (Mark 7:7f), to an early version of “Ivy League” liberalism, and then that which was the Israel of God continuing the system of true, God-centered knowledge in the line of the new covenant.15
In conclusion, it may safely be said that Jewish education in the time of Christ was originally founded exclusively on the Old Testament Scriptures as not only containing but being the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God. Education was especially based on the fundamental truth of the doctrine of creation, was at least pre-adjusted to the doctrine of the trinity, and was taught and administered within the context of a covenant life. The entire educational system was therefore preserved separate from the wicked world which lies in the lap of the evil one, and from the modern philosophies of a crooked and perverse generation. And since these schools were still connected to Moses’ seat, they were worthy of emulation in what they commanded and in what they taught (Mt. 23:2, 3). For according to Moses the aim of education was the glory of God, the standard was the Word of God and the underlying motive was faith.
Sources:
8 Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, 1803, 3, 631. —-Note: On every volume and title pg. there is a detailed illustration of a candlestick (not a lamp stand), seven-branched, with the main trunk bearing the candle of religion. The three branches on the left bear the candles of History, Literature and Jewish Life, respectively. The three branches on the right, from right to left, carry the candles of Jew-&-Non-Jew, General Subjects and Contributions, respectively. This is a modern perversion of and departure from the Mosaic and Solomonic lamp stand. This candlestick represents the manifold spheres of humanism and “common grace.” The golden lamp stand signified the Messiah dwelling in the congregation by the power of the Holy Spirit.
9 The Jewish Heritage Series, I, 94-98.
10 Edersheim, “The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.” I, 228
11 ibid., I 232; and his “Sketches of Jewish Social Life…” (130).
12 Fletcher Harper Swift, Education in Ancient Israel to 70 A.D., The Open Court—-Publishing Co., Chicago, 1919.
13 Univer. Jew. Ency., V. 43; III 629-40.
14 Gerald Abrahams, The Jewish Mind, Beacon Press, 1961,134ff.
15 Additional bibliography: Encyclopedia of Education, Macmillian, N.Y.C., 1912, art. Jewish Ed., pp 542ff. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Ed. Jas. Hastings, Scribners, Vol. 5, 198. Dictionary of the Bible, Smith, 1, Education.