mostly given by the mother. Children were named by the mother, e.g. Jacob's sons (Gn 29, 30); sometimes also by the father, e.g. Ishmael (Gn 16'°), Isaac (Gn 21'). The long period of suckling — infants were not weaned till the second or third year — must have constituted an added bond be- tween mother and chUdren. The religious instruc- tion appointed in Ex 12^'" 13»-», Dt 4» 6'- *-^ U" would probably be given by the mother. The sayings of king Lemuel (Pr 31'"") were taught him by his mother. On the other hand, Pr constantly refers to the mAsar (RV ' instruction ') of the father, as well as to the tCrdh (RVm 'teaching') of the mother (1"). Ace. to the rank and wealth of the family, the care of the children would devolve in whole or in part on female slaves. Rebekah (Gn 24'*) and Joash ben-Ahaziah (2 K 11') had each a foster-mother meneketh (RV 'nurse'), though Rebekah, at any rate, had a mother living. Mephibosheth ben- Jonathan had an 'dmeneth (RV ' nurse,' 2 S 4*). The grandmother, on either side, would, by all analogy, have much to say about the trainin" of the children ; Naomi became the 'Omeneth of Ruth's baby (Ru 4'°). We also have the masculine '6men (RV 'nursing father, Nu 11'", Is 49^). From the analogy of the guard- ians of the sons of Ahab (2 K 10'- *), and of Nathan (2 S 12-°), tliis would appear to have been a kind of tutor or 7rai5o7ai7ii. Schools for children are first mentioned in Josephus (Ant. XV. x. 5) and Mishna (Shab. i. 3). Ace. to Talm. Jerus. (Kethub. viii. 1 1 ) the first school for children was established by Simeon ben-Shetach, a century before Christ (Stapfer, 141) ; ace. to 'Talm. Bab. Baba Bathra (Nowack, i. 172), a system of schools in every town was established by Jesus ben-Gamla, who became high priest in A.D. 64. In such schools reading and ^vriting would be taught ; any other instruction would mainly consist of committing Scripture, etc., to memory, by repeating passages after the teacher.
(d) Brothers and Sisters. — The circumstances of Israelite life — the need of labour to till the soil, and of warriors to defend the homestead from the raids of neighbouring tribes, rendered a large family a great blessing (Ps 127^'). The natural checks — war, famine, and pestilence — prevented all danger of over-population. The labour of girls in the house- hold, the price that might be obtained for them as wives or concubines, and the alliances witli power- ful neighbours that might result from their mar- riages, gave a certain value to daughters ; but the Isr. father's chief desire was for sons ; it was the first-born sons who were sacred to J" (Ex 22^). The physical token — circumcision — of the national covenant with J" is such as can be borne only by males ; a mother is unclean for 14 days after bearing a daughter, but only for 7 after the birth of a son. Daughters are very rarely mentioned by name.
Each sub-family of full brothers and sisters, the children of one mother, had interests of its own, which clashed with those of the other subfamilies. Domestic friction was specially strong in the numerous smaller households where there were two wives, e.g. Hannah and Peninnah [cf. the term nnj (Dt 21"'''), and for two wives in a large house- hold, Sarah and Hagar]. The relative status of the sub-families depended on the family relation- ships of the mother, the favour shown lier by her husband, and in some measure on her being wife or concubine. We have already seen that claims Avere sometimes made that the children of a wife should oust those of a concubine from all or part of their share of the family inheritance. But these claims are not sustained by any legal ordinance or even by any general custom. The sons of Jacob's concubines rank as ancestors of tribes. It is tnia
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that they are reckoned in a sense as children of their motliers' mistresses, but the same was true of Islimael, who was excluded from the seed of the promise. There was no dill'erence of legitimacy in our sense between tlie sons of wives and concubines ; even Jephthah, the son of a zoniih or prostitute, is brought up in his father's house, and liis expulsion is evidently regarded as an act of unjust violence (Jg 11'-') (Renzinger, 148, 135). Apparently, all a man's acknowledged children were legitimate, without regard to the status of their mother. The basUrd, mamzer (Dt 23^ [EV •'], Zee 9«), is generally re^rded as the offspring of incest or adultery (Dillm. and Driver on Dt '23-). Possibly, however, mamzer may include children of prostitutes, whose fathers were unkno\\'n or did not acknowledge them.
In earlier times polygamous sub-families were so distinct that brothers married half-sisters, e.g. Abraham and Sarah (Gn 20"). In 2 S 13" Tamar thinks that David would certainly sanction her marriage with her half-brother. Such anions are, however, forbidden by Lv 18'.
The same causes which rendered the mother more important to her children than the father, often rendered the brothers the special guardians of their full sisters, e.g. Laban of Kebekah, Simeon and Levi of Dinah (Gn 34), Absalom of Tamar. So, children often maintained a close connexion with their mother's family, Jacob (Gn 27*'), Abime- lech ben-Gideon (Jg 9'), Absalom (2 S 3', 13^').