Schools

SCHOOLS, or Academies of the Jews. The Hebrews were always very diligent to teach and study the Laws that they had received from Moses. The Father of the Family studied and taught them in his own Family. The Rabbin taught them in the Temple, in the Synagogues, and in the Academies. They pretend that even before the Deluge¹ there were Schools for Knowledge and Piety, of which the Patriarchs had the Direction. They place Adam at their Head, then Enoch, and lastly Noah. Melchizedek, as they say, kept a School in the City of Kariath-zepher, otherwise Hebron, in Palestine. Abraham, who had been instructed by Heber, taught in Chaldea and in Egypt. From him the Egyptians learned Astronomy and Arithmetick. Jacob succeeded Abraham in the Office of teaching. The Scripture Jos. Antiq. l. 1. c. 8. Gen. xxv. 27.says, he was a plain Man dwelling in Tents; which according to the Chaldee Paraphrast, is, that he was a perfect Man, and Minister of the House of Doctrine.

All this indeed, must needs be very precarious and uncertain. It cannot be doubted, but that Moses, Aaron, and the Elders of Israel, instructed the People in the Wilderness; and that many good Israelites were very industrious to instruct their Families in the Fear of God. But all this does not prove to us that there were any such Schools we are now inquiring after. Under Joshua we see a kind of Academy of the Prophets, where the Children of the Prophets, that is, their Disciples, lived in the Exercise of a retired and austere Life, in Study, in the Meditation and Reading of the Law of God. There were Schools of the Prophets at Naioth in Ramah; David and Samuel withdrew thither. 1 Sam. xix. 19,20, &c.Saul sent Messengers thither to apprehend David, but no sooner had they come near the Company of the Prophets, who had Samuel at their Head, but they also prophesied themselves. The second and third Troop of Officers that this Prince sent for the same Purpose, did in like manner. And when he himself went at last, he was seized with the Spirit of God, and began to prophesy as well as others.

We find more also under the Prophets Elijah and Elisha at Bethel², and in the Plain of Jericho. There was also a great Number of them in the Kingdom of Israel³. Some have thought⁴, that Elijah had also a Society of them upon Mount Carmel. These Prophets were consulted upon Affairs of Importance: People went to hear their Lessons, as appears from the Hostess of Elisha. Her Husband asks her, Why she went to see the Prophet, seeing that Day was neither the Sabbath nor the New-Moon? These Schools continued Lightfoot, Centur. p. 661. 2 Kings iv. 23. Ezek. xx. 1, 2, 3, &c. xiv. 1, 2. xxv. 31.down to the Captivity of Babylon; and it should seem, that even the Captives went still to hear the Prophets, when there were any in the Places where they resided. Ezekiel relates several Conversations that he had with the Elders of Israel, who came to see him, and to consult him several times. The People also assembled about him, as it were to hear him, and be instructed by him; but they were not very careful to put his Instructions in practice.

These Schools or Societies of the Prophets were succeeded by the Synagogues. ‘Tis doubted whether there were any before the Captivity of Babylon. Yet we Psal.read in the Psalms, that Nebuchadnezzar burnt all the Synagogues of the Country. The Elders of Israel passed the Night in Judith vi. 21, 22.Prayer in the Place of Assembly. Per totam noctem intra Ecclesiam oraverunt, asking the Assistance of the Lord against Holofernes. The Greek of Esther, iv. 16. insinuates, that there were also Synagogues at Susa in the Time of Esther and Mordecai. We are assured, that they were become so numerous in Judea, after the Return from the Captivity, that in the City of Jerusalem only, there were upwards of Four hundred, according to some, or Three hundred, fourscore and fourteen, according to others. Every trading Company had their own, and the Strangers had several also⁵.

‘Twas only after the Return from the Captivity that there was found in Israel that Distinction of Sects, of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenians. We also find that of the Herodians mentioned in the Gospel. Each Sect had their particular Schools. See their several Articles.

The Method of teaching in the Synagogues and in the Schools, is plainly observable in the Gospels and in the Acts. When Jesus Christ was of the Age of twelve Years, he was found in the Temple in the Midst of the Doctors, hearing them and asking them Questions. Entring Luk. ii. 46. Luke iv. 16, 17.one Day into the Synagogue of Nazareth, his own Country, they presented to him the Volume of the Prophet Isaiah. He unfolded and opened it, and having read a Passage out of the Prophet, he rolled it up again, and sat down to speak. He read it therefore standing, just as we now read the Gospel. St. Paul says, that he had studied at the Feet of Gamaliel. Philo relates, that in the Assembly of the Essenians, the Children sit at the Feet Philo lib. quod omnis probus liber.of their Masters, who interpret the Law to them, and explain the figurative and allegorical Sense of it, after the manner of the antient Philosophers. The Author published under Ambrosiast. in Cor. xiv.the Name of St. Ambrose, upon the Epistles of St. Paul, says, that among the Hebrews the Rabbins sat upon Chairs that were raised aloft, the Scholars, that were the greatest Proficients, were upon Benches just below their Masters, and the younger Sort sat upon the Ground on Hassocks. But the Authors of the Thalmud teach us, that antiently the Thalmud. tit. Megillah.Masters sat down and the Scholars stood up. But this Custom was changed even before the Destruction of the Temple by the Romans; and from that Time, the Master sat in the first Place, and the Scholars sat round about him in Chairs, or upon the Ground. The Master taught either by himself, or by an Interpreter. If he made use of an Interpreter, he spoke Hebrew to him, and the Interpreter explained it in the vulgar Tongue. If the Scholars had a mind to propose any Question to their Master, they addressed themselves to the Interpreter, who proposed it to the Rabbin, and reported his Answer to the Scholars.

Hieronym. in Isai. c. 8. l. 3.St. Jerome says, that a little before the Birth of Jesus Christ, two famous Rabbins, Shammai and Hillel, the Heads of two celebrated Schools, formed two Parties among the Jews, and were Masters of the Scribes and Pharisees. Akiba succeeded them, and was Master of the famous Aquila, the Translator of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Akiba had Meir for his Successor, after whom appeared Jobanan Son of Zachai, then Eliezer, afterwards Delphon, Joseph the Galilean, and lastly Joshua, who presided over this School at the taking of Jerusalem. ‘Twas thus that the Jews made out the Succession of their Doctors in the Time of St. Jerome.

The Rabbins affirm, that after the Destruction of Jerusalem, they set up a School at Japhne in Galilee, called afterwards Iveline, and another at Lydda, or Diospolis. Akiba first professed at Diospolis, then at Japhne. Gamaliel succeeded him at Diospolis, and he succeeded Gamaliel at Japhne. But the most famous Academy of all this Country, was that of Tiberias upon the Sea of Galilee. There Juda the Holy, a Disciple of Meir, Chinina, and Johanan, were Professors successively. After some time Juda withdrew from Tiberias, and opened a School at Sephoris, and there professed for seventeen Years. But it is proper to observe, that all this Succession of Masters and Schools is very uncertain. See Acts xxii. 3.F. Morin in his Exercitationes Biblicæ, l. 2. Exer. 2. c. 1, 3.

After the Fall of the Schools in Palestine, which is fixed to be about the Middle of the third Century, the Jews are constrained to seek the Succession of their Doctors beyond the Euphrates, at Sora, at Pundebita, at Nahardea, and at Perutz-shibbur; Places but little known, and of which the very Situation is doubtful. They think it was the Doctors Rab and Samuel, Disciples of Juda the Holy, who founded them about the Year 220. They subsisted, as they say, for Eight hundred Years, till about the Year of Jesus Christ 1030, when they were destroyed by the Saracens.

Upon the Ruins of these Schools were formed those of Egypt and Europe. Their Doctors chiefly made their Appearance in Spain. Moses Son of Maimon, or Maimonides, was born at Cordua, he was a Disciple of Averroes, he withdrew into Egypt, and there died about the Year of Christ 1205. Rabbi Nathan, Chief of the School of Rome, died in 1106. Abenezra, another famous Rabbi, died at Rhodes in 1174. Rabbi Solomon, otherwise called Raschi or Jarchi, a Native of Lunel in Provence, or of Troyes in Champaign, died at Treves in 1180. Kimchi was born at Narbonne, he flourished from the Year 1200, till towards the Year 1250. These are the principal Rabbins, and the Times in which they lived. By what has been said, one may form a Notion of their Schools, and of the Succession of their Doctors. We have treated of this more at large in a Dissertation concerning the Schools of the Jews.

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