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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Education
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Chiefly in the law of God (; ; ; ; -10; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). The Book of Proverbs inculcates on parents, as to their children, the duty of disciplinary instruction and training in the word of God. This was the ONE book of national education in the reformations undertaken by Jehoshaphat and Josiah (-9; ). The priests' and Levites' duty especially was to teach the people (; ; ; ; -9; ; ).
The Mishna says that parents ought to teach their children some trade, and he who did not virtually taught his child to steal. The prophets, or special public authoritative teachers, were trained in schools or colleges (). "Writers," or musterers general, belonging to Zebulun, who enrolled recruits and wrote the names of those who went to war, are mentioned (). "Scribes of the host" () appear in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, writing down the various persons or objects brought to them, so that there is less exaggeration than in the Egyptian representations of battle. Seraiah was David's scribe or secretary, and Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was "recorder" or writer of chronicles, historiographer (-17); Shebun was Hezekiah's scribe ().
The learned, according to the rabbis, were called "sons of the noble," and took precedence at table. Boys at five years of age, says the Mishna, were to begin reading Scripture, at ten they were to begin reading the Mishna, and at thirteen years of age they were subject to the whole law (); at fifteen they entered study of the Gemara. The prophetic schools included females such as Huldah (). The position and duties of females among the Jews were much higher than among other Orientals (-31; -3; , etc.; ; ).