The opinion just stated, that in the time of our Saviour every place of any size in the country was provided with an elementary school, does not quite coincide with that of the Jewish doctors of a later day, unless we suppose (as is not unreason- able) that the political and religious troubles of the period injuriously aflected the provincial schools. We refer to the oft-quoted eulogium on Joshua ben-Gamala (Gamaliel), who was high priest about a.d. 63-65 :
' Verily let it be remembered to that man for good, II. 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 (alive) received from him instruction in the Law, but he that had no father (alive) learned not the Law. . . . Thereafter teachers for the children were appointed In Jerusalem. . . . 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 brouglit to be taught there. In
consequence of this, it was ordained that teachers should be appointed in every district. To tliem the children were sent when they were 16-17 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 teacliers appointed, to whom children should be brought at the age of six or seven years' {Baba bathra, 21a).*
It is not now possible to speak with certainty regarding the condition of the elementary school at the period of which one would most like to know, tne period of the childhood of our blessed Lord. The Mishna, almost our only authority, is not, as a whole, older than A.D. 200. Accordingly, we must be content to infer — and always with caution — that some, at least, of the methods '.here referred to as of long standing may have been operative in the 1st cent. But before attempting even such hesitating results, it will be convenient to give at this point what requires to be said of the education to be got beyond the synagogue schools. For the great mass of the boys — for the girls no public provision was made (see below) — these schools sufficed. Only those destined for the study of the Law were sent to the Beth ham- Midra.sh (cj^^5.^ n'3) or ' house of study,' as the colleges of the scribes were caUed. These colleges were prob- ably a development of this period. They were, naturally, most numerous in Jerusalem, where the most famous scribes seem to have had each his ' house of study.' Josephus mentions two by name (Wars, I. xxxiii. 2; Ant. XVIII. x. 5) who drew crowds of students in the last days of HeroJ the Great. But by far the most famous of these ' doctors of the law ' were the two heads of the rival schools, Hillel and Shammai, although for Christian students a greater interest attaenes to Hillel's grandson, himself the most respected teacher of his day, Gamaliel I., who numbered the young Saul of Tarsus among his pupils (Ac 22'). At these colleges the scribe-aspirant received a professional rather than a general education, for which reason the further discus.'iion of their sub- jects and methods of study belongs rather to the article Scribe.
Returning now to the elementary school, we propose to touch briefly on such of the outstanding teatures of the school system as we have rea-son to believe existed in the century preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. As regar ■'^ the age of the pupils on admission, our authority, though often quoted, is unfortunately too late to be of value for the period in question. ' At five years the age is reached for the study of the Scripture (N-ipp), at ten for the study of the Mishna, at tliirteen for the fulfilment ol the Commandments, at fifteen for the study of tlie Talmud, at eighteen for marriage,' etc. {Ab. v. 24). There is a con- sensus of opinion, on the other hand, in the Tal- mudic writings that six was the earliest age at which school life should begin. t The child had already learned from his parent to repeat the Shema (see Driver on Dt 6*), selected proverbs, and verses from the Psalms. He had also had the liistorical significance of various rites and cere- monies explained to him (see p. 647'' above).
It is extremely unlikely tnat the subjects ot instruction included more than reading, writing, and, perhaps, the elements of arithmetic. The first of these was by far the most important, and
* The above Ib Wdnsche's tmnsladon In Der babpL Txlmnd, etc,
t For the curious ceremonies observed at a later period on the child's flmt appearance at school, tee Schecbter, SttLdiet in Judaixin, p. 3(i8.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
651
the fact that the much esteemed privilege of read- ing, anJ even of exiioundin", the law in the syna- gogue was open to all, must have acted as an incen- tive to diligent study. The only text-book waa the Scriptures — hence tlie most usual name for the elementary school Tjrn n'j the ' house of the Book ' — mostly out not exclusively the Pentateuch. 'Turn it (the Torah), and turn it over again, for everything is in it' (Ab. v. 25), well expresses the attitude of the orthodox Judaism of the time to secular literature. Even bo early as the beginning of our era, it was probably usual to begin with the Book of Leviticus, as the book whose contents it was neces.sary for every Jew to know. Care would be taken that the words of the sacred tongue (for only Hebrew was allowed in school) should bo cor- rectly pronounced * and reverently read. Foreign languages were no part of an ordinary Jewish education, as Josephus expressly informs us {Ant. XX. xii. 1) ; yet few lads can have grown up in the bus-y cities of Palestine without learning to speak both Aramaic and Greek, and at least to read Hebrew. Tradition has it that a knowledge of Greek was an essential qualification for member- ship of the Sanhedrin (Sanhed. 17a). +