Ángel
Manuel Rodríguez
Were there schools in Israel?
Many
specialists believe that schools began to appear in Israel after the exile of
Judah. Others argue that there were schools before the exile. The reason for
the discrepancy is that biblical data on the topic is unclear. We are forced to
deal with inferences and circumstantial evidence. I will begin with a general
description of schools in the ancient Near East, followed by a brief
examination of biblical evidence.
1. Schools in the Ancient Near East: We begin with what is accepted as historical
fact: namely, there were schools in Mesopotamia and Egypt long before there was
an Israelite. One could easily argue that Moses attended those schools. It has
been suggested that in Egypt there were temple, court, and military schools
that provided professional and technical training needed from those who would
work in those places. Much emphasis was placed on learning to write, a task
that took several years due to the complexity of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Those
who attended the schools were primarily male children of upper class Egyptians.
The Pharaohs’ daughters attended some of the schools.
The school system in Mesopotamia flourished
around 2500 B.C. for students from wealthy families. While some evidence
indicates that in Egypt the teaching took place inside buildings, in
Mesopotamia the courtyard was the main location. Students sat on pieces of
cloth spread on the ground with small piles of sand in front of each student to
practice writing. Years of training were required to learn the hundreds of
signs of the Sumerian and Akkadian script. The
schools trained temple personnel and young people to work at the royal court
and as military leaders. They learned languages, music, divination, math,
algebra, astrology, and other matters related to the well-being of the country.
2. Schools in Israel: The education of
children in Israel rested primarily on the parents. They were responsible for
basic religious instructions (e.g., Deut. 6:4-9, 20-25). Professional
instruction was the responsibility of the father, who taught his son his own professional skills. Because the Hebrew alphabet
consisted of 22 consonants,
it
was relatively easy to teach and to learn to read and write. This would suggest
that literacy in Israel might have been a little better than in Egypt and
Mesopotamia (cf., Josh. 18:9; Deut. 24:1). Acrostics were used in order to
facilitate the memorization of the alphabet. The poem of the virtuous woman
(Prov. 31:10-21) is an acrostic and contains the basic skills expected from
women in Israel. These included household administration, horticulture,
weaving, design, and child rearing. This training could have taken place at
home or at a school.
Several arguments support the existence of
schools in Israel. First, the fact that schools were common in other nations of
the ancient Near East would make it likely that there would also be schools in
Israel. Second, there was a need to instruct Levites and priests on matters
related to the Temple, such as types of sacrifices (Lev. 1–5), distinctions
between clean and unclean (Lev. 15), rituals (e.g., Lev. 16), festivals (Lev.
23), etc. Third, young people needed training to work in administrative
positions and as counselors to the kings. These positions required not only
literacy but also learning foreign languages, development of military
strategies, making weapons, and training in their use, etc. Fourth, there was a
constant need for scribes to serve the people in general and also to work for
the king in drafting official legal documents, recording the chronicles of the
kingdom, and preserving the religious books that we find in the Bible. These
schools would have satisfied the religious and administrative needs of the
people and the palace. The so-called "schools of the prophets" most probably served those
purposes (cf., 2 Kings 2:3; 6:1).
3. God as the Teacher: There was a strong
conviction in the nation that the true teacher of Israel was the Lord (e.g.,
Isa. 2:3). In that case, every teacher was an instrument of God in the
formation of the character of the students and in the development of the
knowledge and skills they needed to serve the Lord, the people, and the
kingdom.
Should we not continue to expect the Lord to
teach our young people through dedicated, consecrated teachers? Of course we
should!
6/09
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Research Institute General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists®