For our present jmrpose the final answer to our query regarding the personnel of the sages is immaterial ; for whether we hold that they are identical with the Sopherim or book-men, or regard them as forming a distinct but allied class in the pre-Maccab.'ean community, the fact remains that the sages represent a great educational force in the period under review. The Book of Proverbs is the
• This identification was flret proposed by A. T. Hartmann(/)i> tnge Verbindumj d. A T. mil d. Nfuem, 1831), and more rev-cntly ftnd indei>endentlv liv .'^nund in his Altfe^t. Hrlif/inrunjfiichichle, 1893, p. 512 tr. Ct. Miinteflore, UM. Lrct. SflOf.
t * They (the sabres) orriipy in the everyday life of ancient Israel a iK>8ition precisely similar to that of tiie scrihes in later Judaism.' Riehm is. of course, assuming the prt'exilic date of Proverbs.
repository of their pedagogic experience (see esp. P"'), and so the oldest handbook of education. Life is here conceived as a discipline (^^'0, a word occurring 30 times in the book ace. to Driver, LO'D 380). This is its central thought. ' The whole of life is considered from the view-point of a pedagogic institution. God educates men, and men educate each other' (O. Holtzraann in Stade's GVP ii. 296-97). Father and mother are the child's natural instructors (1» 4'-* S'" 13> 30") ; from them he shall first learn that ' fear of the Lord which is the beginning — or it may be the chief part^— of wisdom' (9'"). Their duty in this respect is emphasized ; they are to study tlieir child, since his character la known by his conduct (20"). To them is addressed the golden maxim, ' train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not de- part from it ' (22» RV). The child is by nature foolish, and needs the ' rod of correction ' (22"). Corporal punishment is repeatedly advocated ('he that spareth his rod hateth his son,' 13**, cf. 19" 231s. 14 29i»- ", also La 3"), yet with the intelligent child reproof is better than ' a hundred stripes ' (17"*). From the parents' care the child — of the upper classes only, in all probability, cf. 17" 4' (kV) with Sir 51^ — if he would attain to 'wisdom,' passes into the hands of professional teachers (5"), the sages, whose words 'spoken in quiet' (Ec 9" RV) 'are as goads' (Ec 12"), and whose direction (m» is ' a fountain of life ' (Pr 13"). The pupil's
Erogress in religion and morality Is the teacher's ighest joy (23'°- "), but not all are capable of receiving this higher instruction (27**). Prudence and forethought (24"), temperance (21" 23-»- "• =»"•») and chastity (7^^- 29' and oft.), diligence (6'"") and truthfulness (17'), consideration for the poor (14" 19" 22"), and a truly noble charity towards enemies (25"- *" = Ro 12*), the value of tme friendship (17" 18** 27'°), and the dignity of woman- hood (SI"'''), — these are some of the moral lessons to be learned in ' the house of discipline ' (oUi^ Traidetas, Sir 51^) from ' the lips of the wise ' (Pr 15').*
The foundin" of Alexandria was an event the importance of which for the history of Jewish life and tliought even in Palestine it is impossible to over- estimate. What would we not give to be able to trace the working of the subtle influences on the religious thought of the time, in particular, of those forces of Hellenism by which the little Jewish state was girt about on every side (cf. 1 Mac 1") 1 For something like a century Alexandria, with its great library and university, its brilliant array of scholars and litterateurs, was the capital of Southern Syria as well as of Egj-pt. How was popular education afl^ected by this close connexion of Alexandria and Jerusalem ? A solitary notice, so far as we have been able to discover, from the period in question, almost warrants us in believing that the Greek educational methods had penetrated to Jerusalem. The infamous tax-farmer Joseph (c. B.C. 220),t we are told, sent his sons ' severally to those that had the best reputation for instructing youth ' (Josephus, Ant. XII. iv. 6). The education re- quired was certainly of the Greek type, and this fact, taken in connexion with the rapid jirogress of Hellenism at this particular eiiocli, even under the shadow of the temple (see 1 Alac 1, 2 Mac 2-4), makes it very probable that schools on the (Jreek model were then established in Jerusalem. When the author of Ps 119 says, 'I have more understanding than all my teachers,' etc. (vv.*"- '""), there is good reason for thinking that he wishes
• How much, one wonders, of what is best in our Scottish char- arter to-day is due to llie use till almost the other day of thi^ threat book (ii »at,.)t,«T»< ro^t«) as the reading-book of our parish schools?
( For this corrected date see Wellhausen, op. cit. pp. 197-98.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
649