THE NEW KIND OF TEACHERS, THE SCRIBES

After Josiah’s time many additions were made to this law of Jehovah.  At first it consisted of only a part of our book of Deuteronomy.  But the learned priests and prophets, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, made a careful study of all the writings of preceding generations, and they found many collections of laws and histories of Jehovah’s dealings with his people which seemed to them inspired of Jehovah and worthy to be reverenced and obeyed.  They tried the experiment of combining some of these with the law of Deuteronomy.  So it came to pass that two or three centuries later the Jews had as their sacred book the whole of what is now the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible.

=The need of other teachers besides the father in the home.=—­If this larger Bible was to be carefully studied by every Jew from his childhood up, there must be certain men who should give their lives to teaching it.  So in time there came to be a class of teachers known as “scribes.”  These men spent all their working hours reading this law of God, making copies of it and teaching it to others.  Some of these men were truly great and good.  For example, there was the gentle Hillel, who lived about a century before Christ and who taught the spirit of the Golden Rule, although in a form not so perfect as that of Jesus.

  ="Do not to your neighbor what is unpleasant to yourself. 
  This is the whole law.  All else is exposition."=

It was a scribe like this who talked with Jesus about the “greatest commandment,” and to whom Jesus said, “Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God.”

THE SCHOOLS OF THE SCRIBES

These teachers conducted regular daily schools in the synagogues.  More and more children were sent to them until in the time of Jesus all boys were supposed to go for at least a year or two.  Girls were taught only at home.  People had not yet come to realize that the minds of girls are as well worth educating as those of boys.

=The methods of teaching.=—­The boys sat on the floor in a circle before the teacher.  They repeated after him the Jewish alphabet and learned to recognize each letter.  Their only textbooks were papyrus rolls on which were written parts of the law.  They began with Leviticus and learned by heart as much of it as possible.  We can imagine that the boys were glad when they finished with Leviticus and went back to Genesis to the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.

They also learned to write.  Their copybooks were at first rough scraps of broken pottery on which with sharp nails they learned to scratch letters.  Probably mischievous boys sometimes drew pictures instead of practicing the words assigned to them.  After they could write fairly well they were given wax tablets, or even a bit of papyrus, a quill pen, and an ink horn.  Papyrus was expensive and had to be used with care.