Exod. xiii. 9.STUDIES of the Hebrews. The chief Study of the Hebrews, was always the Law of the Lord. We see the Practice of this recommended throughout the whole Old Testament. Moses commanded, that the Law of the Lord should always be in their Mouths Day and Night; that it should be as a Memento before their Eyes, and a Signal in their Hands: He would have them Deut. vi. 7.engrave it on their Hearts; that they should teach it their Children; that they should always meditate upon it, whether sitting in their Houses, walking in the Fields, in the Night-time, while they slept, and when they awoke in the Morning; that they should wear it as a Bracelet to their Arm, and as a Pendant between their Eyes, and write it upon their Door-posts. This was the Study of the Prophets, the Patriarchs, and all good Israelites.
But their Study was not confined only to their Laws and Ceremonies prescribed by Moses: They studied their Histories, and even their Genealogies; so that the Children of the Jews, according to the Report of St. Hieron.Jerom, knew at their Fingers-ends all the Genealogies that are found in the Chronicles. From their tenderest Infancy, as JosephusJoseph. l. 1. cont. App. tells us, they were accustom’d to study the Laws of God, to learn them by Heart, to practise them; and they were so addicted to them, that they were ready to lay down their Lives for their Observation.
After they had the Writings of the Prophets, they apply’d themselves very earnestly to know the Sense of the Prophecies, and to study the hidden Meaning of them. We see it by Daniel, who apply’d himself with so much Care to unfold the Meaning of his own Revelations, and of Dan. vii. 28. ix. 2, 3, 22, 23, 24. Ecclesiasticus prologus.those of the Prophet Jeremiah, who fix’d the Time for the compleating the Captivity of the People of God. Jesus the Son of Sirach is described to us as a Man of true Learning, who, after he had with great Diligence study’d the Law, the Prophets, and the other Books that had been written in his Nation, apply’d himself to write something that might be of Use to Posterity. And here is the Description that the Son of Sirach himself gives us of a truly learned Man, according Eccius. xxxix. 1, 2, 3.to the Hebrews. “ The “ wise Man who addicts himself to Study, “ and who meditates on the Law of the “ Lord, will search out the Wisdom of “ all the Antients, and will make the “ Prophets his Study. He will lay up in “ his Heart the Discourses of famous Men, “ and at the same Time he will penetrate “ into the Mystery of Parables. He will “ endeavour to dive into the Sense of Proverbs, and obscure Sentences, and will 1 Pet. i. 11.“ feed himself with what is most abstruse “ in Parables. He will enter into the Service of great Men, and will appear before the Governors of Provinces. He “ will travel into the Territory of foreign “ Nations, to prove Good and Evil among “ Men. —— And if it shall please the sovereign Lord, he will be fill’d with the “ Spirit of Understanding: And then he “ will dispense the Words of Wisdom like “ Rain, &c. ” The Apostle St. Peter informs us, what was the Study of the Prophets. They searched what Times and what other Circumstances the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who spoke in them, had mark’d out, when they predicted the Sufferings of our Saviour, and the Glory that was to follow them.
After the Conquests of Alexander the Great, the Jews, who were mingled with the Grecians in the greatest Part of the Provinces of the East, began to have a Taste for their Language and their Studies. In Imitation of the Grecian Philosophers, they divided themselves into different Sects. Some of them, as the Pharisees, espoused some of the Opinions of the Stoicks and Platonicians; others, as the Sadducees, embraced some of the Notions of the Epicureans; others, as the Essenians, says Philo. l. quod omnis probus liber.Philo, had a Contempt for Logick, Physicks, and Metaphysicks; that is to say, whatever is useless, and Matter of meer Curiosity, in the Sciences. They only apply’d themselves to Morality and the Laws of God, which they explain’d after a sublime and allegorical Manner.
In our Saviour’s Time it appears, that the main Study of the Jewish Doctors was chiefly the Traditions of their Fathers. Jesus Christ upbraids them frequently with having forsaken the Law of God, and its true Meaning, to ascribe Meanings and Explications to it, contrary to the Sense of the Law, and the Intention of the Law-giver. St. Paul, who had been bred up in these Principles, shews also the Absurdity of them in his Epistles, always calling back the Laws to their Original; and to their true Sense. But all this was not able to cure the Spirit of the Jews upon this Article; at this Day they are more bigotted to their Traditions than ever, and they make them the greatest Part of their Study. The Reader may see what we have said upon the Articles SCHOOLS, SYNAGOGUES, and TRADITIONS.