The schools now began to increase in import ance, and the intercourse of the Jews with the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks, widened their notions of education, and made them study foreign languages and literature, and Hebraize their philosophy (Eccl. xii. 12). The Essenes, who found it necessary to separate themselves from the nation because of their foreign innovations [EssENEs], also devoted themselves to the educa tion of the children ; but their instruction was con fined to the divine law and to morals (Joseph. Bell. ,cd. xi. 8. 12). Simon b. Shetach, 80 13.C., has the merit of having introduced superior schools into every large provincial town, and or dained that all the youths from the age of sixteen should visit them (Kethuboth, Jer. viii. f), in troducing Government education. So popular did these schools become, that whilst in the pre-exile period the very name of schools did not exist, we now find in a veiy short time no less than eleven different expressions for school, e.g., = 6.Xcros, or = Dtc6s (Midrash Coh. N917ON, or '111Dts1 = o-xv?vii (Midrash Shir shir, 15, a) ; NV711f) 'Z, or more frequently vroori Irz (Jebam. 24, b; Aboth. v. 14) ; I-141 161N, house of learning (Jonath. Exod. xxxiii. 7) ; 1tZ1 r1"1, the house of books (Midrash Echa, 70, b); the house of the teacher (ibid.
77, b); mn, the house of the master (Baba Bathra, 21, a) ; rrz, the house of instruc tion (Gittin, 58, a) ; or NnYnn, the seat, e., where the disciples sat at the feet of their master ; CrIZ, the vineyard (Rashi on Jebam. 42, b) ; and Z.:11 ID, an array, where the disciples were arrayed according to their seniority and ac quirements (Chulin, 173, b). The etymologies of some of these words, and the signification of the others, give us, in a very striking manner, the progressive history of Jewish education, and tell us what foreign elements were introduced into Jewish pedagogy. Some idea may be formed of the deep root juvenile education had struck in the hearts of the Jews from the following declaration in the Talmud The world is preserved by the breath of the children in the schools.' A town in which there is no school must perish.' Jeru salem was destroyed because the education of children was neglected' (Sabbath 119, 6).
As the national education of this period is that which the apostles and the first disciples of Christ received, and as this must be of the utmost im portance and interest to Christians of the present day, we shall now briefly state what the Talmud and the Midrashim consider to constitute the pro per education of a respectable Jew, and give their notions of schools and the mode of instruction. We must begin with the schools. A school or teacher was required for every five and twenty children ; when a community had only forty chil dren they might have one master and an assistant (Baba Bathra, 21, a). Schools must neither be established in the most densely crowded parts of the town (Pesachim, 112, a), nor near a river which has to be crossed by an insecure bridge (Baba Bathra, 21), so as not to endanger the health or lives of the children. The proper age for a boy to go to school is six years (Kethuboth, 50, a) ; before that time the father must instruct his son. Thus it is related, that R. Chija b. Abba would never eat his breakfast before he had repeated with his son the lesson which he gave him on the previous day, and taught him at least one new verse (Kiddush, 30, a). At the age of five a
boy had to study the Bible, at ten the Mishna. and at fifteen the Talmud (Aboth. v. 21). Great care was taken that the books from which instruction was imparted should be correctly written (Pesachim, 112, a), and that the lessons taught, especially from the Bible, should be in harmony with the capaci ties and inclinations of the children (Aboda Zara, 19, a; Berach. 63, a), practical (Kiddush. 40, b), few at a time, but weighty (Vajikra Rabba, ciii.) The parents never ceased to watch that their chil dren should be in the class at the proper time. We are told that Rabba b. Huna never partook of his breakfast till he had taken his son to school (Kiddush. 3o, a). Josephus therefore did not at all exaggerate, when, writing against Apion, he said, our principal care of all is, to educate our children' (Cont. Apion, i. 12).
Besides these elementary schools, which were chiefly intended for popular education, there were also superior colleges, at first confined to Jerusalem, under the management of the presidents and vice presidents of the Sanhedrin, the Sotherim, or scribes,' and doctors,' as they are called in the N. T., and members of the Sanhedrin, who made it one of their principal objects to train young men destined to become the teachers and judges of Israel, and the bearers of the traditions of the fathers' (Aboth. i. 1). Gradually these academies were multiplied in the metropolis, and spread over all the countries where the Jews resided. Akbara, Lydda, Ushach, Tiberias, Iabne, Nares, Nahardea, Machuza Shakan-Zib (El-Sib), Pumbadita, Sora, and Alexandria, in the process of time became distinguished for their seats. of learning. The following are the presidents and vice-presidents of the colleges, who were the de positories of the traditions of the fathers, and the supreme arbiters in the sphere of morals and edu cation, together with the most distinguished mas ters and disciples under each presidency, both in Palestine and Babylon, to the close of the Talmud, in their chronological order At first the organization of these schools or colleges was very simple. Besides the presi dent or rector, who was the chief teacher, and an assistant, there were no offices or ranks. Gradually, however, superior and subordinate ranks involuntarily developed themselves, and ultimately assumed the following form. The college which met during certain months of the year, and was generally called lifethiba (N:Nnn), seat of learning, was presided over by the chief Rabbi, who was called R.esh-Ofethiba vt.1-1), and was elected by the school. Next to this Resh Methiba or rector came the Resh-Kalla (c71.0 7.6:), the chief of the assembly, whose office it was to expound or simplify to the students during the first three weeks of the session the theme upon which the rector had determined to lecture. In later times there were seven Rashe-Kalloth (T1N1 r67), such interpreters composed of the associ ates (wilt and members of the Sanhedrin, vary ing in rank. The president or teacher occupied a raised seat, the interpreters sat next to the rector on lower seats, whilst the disciples sat below them, at the feet of their teachers (Acts xii. 3).