Paideia of Understanding and Knowledge: The Bible and Ancient Education

Abstract

This article is a brief introduction to the topic of ancient education and its relationship to the Bible. The various terms for education in Latin, Greek and Hebrew are discussed and their semantic content outlined. An overview of the major findings of research on educational practices in ancient Israel, the Hellenistic world and early Judaism follows. Finally, some implications of the current knowledge of ancient education for the interpretation of the Bible are proposed. It is suggested that the biblical authors’ familiarity with a broader cultural canon must be presupposed, that patterns of educational exercises can frequently be detected in biblical texts, and that one purpose of putting together biblical books into larger collections was to establish the foundation for an alternative educational culture.