According to Jewish writings literacy was widespread in ancient Israel (Judges 8:14). Toward the end of the First Temple Period there is evidence of formal religious instruction under the direction of the Levites (II Chronicles 7:7). The institution by Ezra of regular public readings of Torah, as well as the emergence of a non-priestly class of scribes and scholars, gave a new impetus to education. The liturgical reading of the Torah was accompanied by exposition and instruction. According to the Talmud, Simeon Ben Shetah (103-76 B.C.E.) established local schools for boys between the ages of 15 and 17, while High Priest Joshua Ben Gamala is said to have instituted elementary education for boys from the age of six. Later, higher rabbinic education was given in the Bet Ha-Midrash, which was usually close by the synagogue and tended to overlap in some of its functions. In Babylonia, non-professional scholars left their farms or trade for the semi-annual study/retreat known as Kallah. This was a month during which study conventions were held in the Babylonian academies at the time of the amoraim and geonim. (An attempt to revive the idea of the Kallah has recently been made by leading yeshivot in Israel.) Elementary education was given in the bet ha-sepher school known later as the heder, which was normally maintained by the community.

House of Study

The Bet Midrash (House of Study) was the main place for the study of the Law and all interests that surrounded its investigation. The sanctity of the bet midrash was considered greater than that of the synagogue (bet knesset), and rabbis often preferred to pray in the bet midrash rather than the synagogue (Ber. 8a). It was here that senior students spent most of their day, either in individual study or under the discipline of a rosh yeshivah (elder rabbi, later known as the academy head). The bet midrash was also a popular place for general study. Almost all those who attended the synagogue for prayer would usually spend some time before or afterwards in the bet midrash. It served as the communal library with the best of the literature concerning the Law and sages.

According to Jewish tradition, the antiquity of the institution goes back to the bet midrash established after the flood by Shem and Eber, where the Patriarchs are said to have studied. From stories told in connection with Jacob and Esau, scholars believe that the proper time for entering the bet midrash was upon completion of primary education around the age of 12 or 13. The term bet midrash is first recorded in Ecclesiasticus 51:50 but is said to be referred to in Proverbs 8:34. Possibly earlier, but definitely in later tradition, it was customary for the student upon entering the bet midrash to recite a prayer to be saved from errors of understanding or interpreting the Torah and upon leaving to recite another prayer in thanks to Heaven for having cast his lot among those who dwell in the House of Study (Ber. 28b).

Study was considered in ancient times to be one of the highest forms of worship. In the Christian writings it is seen as a means of showing oneself approved of God (II Timothy 2:15). Study was pursued both day and night, as well as on the Sabbaths and holidays. Often students who spent their time in the bet midrash were permitted to eat and sleep there (unlike the synagogue). The bet midrash was considered more sacred than even the synagogue, and the rabbis permitted the selling of a synagogue in order to build a House of Study.

Yeshua was obviously very familiar with the bet midrash and used it to illustrate His teachings. In each bet midrash there was an interpreter, known as the meturganim. This was a person skilled in languages who stood by the one reading the Law or teaching in the House of Study to translate into the lingua franca of that day the Hebrew that was being spoken. The use of the interpreter goes back to the time of Ezra, when the interpreter was said to have added the mearung. The Talmud gives many details of the interpreter’s duties in the synagogues (Meg. 4; Maimon. Tephillah, 12; Massecheth Soph. 10). It is from this concept that we understand Yeshua’s words, "What you hear in the ear, that preach you upon the housetops" (Matthew 10:27). This phrase was easily recognized by those who were familiar with the system of study in the bet midrash, where the teacher would literally speak the message in the interpreter’s ear, who would in turn then shout it out to others, both inside the classroom and out (Lightfoot Hebraica Vol. 2, p. 187).

The Scribes and the Pharisees

The scribes had a great deal to do with Jewish education, especially in the time of the Second Temple Period. The term scribe (sopherim) often signified a high administrative official. In the early Second Temple Period it came to mean the literate man engaged in the interpretation of the Torah and the transmission of the oral traditions. From their ranks came such great teachers as Ezra and the men of the Great Assembly (Kenesset Gedolah) who were still active centuries after Ezra as expounders of the Law (Ezra 8:18; Nehemiah 8:7). Although the terms scribe and Pharisee often overlap, they are not entirely synonymous. All Pharisees considered themselves scribes, but not all scribes were Pharisees. In a general sense, a scribe was a scholar and a teacher who was also a professional writer with the responsibility of copying and interpreting the Torah. The School of the Scribes is thought to have been initiated by Ezra during the fifth century B.C.E. (Babe Bathra 21b; Pesahim 50b). The tractate Sopherim, which is appended to the Babylonian Talmud, lists the many laws that the scribes were required to observe. It was the scribes who introduced an Aramaic square script which greatly facilitated writing (Tosefta, Sanh. 4:7). Ancient records tells us that carefully annotated Biblical texts were kept in the Temple court as standards for other copying (Tosefta, Sanh. 4:7; Sifre, Deut. 160-1 05b n.6). This educational work of the scribes pioneered the way for the later Masoretes, as mentioned by Rabbi Akiva at Yavneh (C.E. 130). The Pharisees, with the special help of those who were scribes, were the chief scholars of the first century and were in charge of the houses of study and Jewish education in general. From the time of Christ, the Pharisees were the leaders of education and study. Hillel dedicated himself to the principle of loving peace and drawing fellow men to the Torah (Avot 1:12). In the first century, Gamaliel had eighty students, one of whom was the Apostle Paul (Acts 22:3). Because of the success of the Pharisees in producing superior students of the Torah, study was considered one of the highest forms of worship during the first century.

Many of the ancient types of teaching were passed down to modern times. The major example is that of the acronym PARDES, representing the first letter of the four basic types of Jewish exegesis used during the first century. These methods were PESHAT (simple), REMEZ (hinting), DERASH (complex), and SOD (secret). These were utilized by Jesus and other rabbis. The meaning of the word PARDES is "orchard," indicating a place from which one gleans.

Most of the ancient Jewish writings used the popular form of parallelism repeating the same concept in a different way in the second and third lines, as is seen so often in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.

The Stages of Life in Education

The basic stages of one’s life are listed in the Mishnah Avot 5:21 which gives some idea of how the ancient individual was educated. Many of these date from ancient times. We see them applying to the life of Yeshua as detailed in the gospels. At age five one is ready for the study of Scripture. We are told that the children were taught first from the Book of Leviticus for ritual purity and how to approach God by sacrifice and then from the Book of Psalms concerning the nature of God, before they went on to other things. Possibly this is what Yeshua meant when He referred to people’s coming to Him as a child (Matthew 18:2-4) in child-like purity. At the age of ten one was fit for the study of the words of the Oral Law, and at the age of thirteen one was old enough to fulfill the commandments. Some scholars believe it was the Oral Law which the ancient boys were questioned about on the steps of the Temple, as in the case of Yeshua (Luke 2). At the age of fifteen one was ready to study of the sages, at the age of eighteen, for marriage, and at the age of twenty, for pursuing a vocation. Yeshua is called both the son of Joseph the carpenter and Yeshua the carpenter (Book of Mark). Obviously, Joseph had followed this pattern and taught his son his vocation. At the age of thirty one entered the full vigor of his ministry. It was at this point in Yeshua’s life that we see Him entering the full ministry. At age forty one reached a place where he had understanding, and at age fifty the individual was worthy to counsel others. It is in this setting that the Biblical injunction for the older (age fifty) men to counsel the younger men and the older women to counsel the younger.

The ancient Jews were so careful to treat the Biblical text as a delicacy that they instructed their young children by placing honey on the tablets as they were taught the alphabet and the Torah. This left the young student with the lasting impression of the Torah’s having the quality of sweetness. This idea of the Torah sweetness is echoed throughout the Biblical text with such references as Psalm 19:11; 119:103).