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Education in Ancient Israel: Across the Deadening Silence. By James L. Crenshaw. New York: Doubleday, 1998. xi + 305 pages. $34.95.
William Bennett should read this book. He would be gratified to learn from James Crenshaw that it central aim of education in ancient Israel was to gain true wisdom, which involved building good character through practicing the virtues of self-control, restraint, eloquence, and honesty. Then, as now, the motivation lying behind moral education in ancient Israel was in part conservatism, namely, the desire of older parents and teachers to inculcate in their younger students habits of behavior that would maintain the status quo.
In the Bible, education originated with the desire for order and continuity. To combat the powerful and seductive lure of chaos in various forms, societal or personal, older and more experienced individuals tried their best to prevent the younger generation from falling into the pitfalls confronting them in the nooks and crannies of daily life. (1)
So begins James Crenshaw's most recent book. Crenshaw is well known in the field of biblical scholarship for his contribution to the study of wisdom literature. Many seminary graduates will have read his book Old Testament Wisdom (John Knox, 1981), often used as an introductory text in Old Testament courses. indeed, he is largely responsible for having drawn attention to the neglected wisdom corpus in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical wisdom literature is best exemplified in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and job, and in the apocryphal books of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Crenshaw's new book is another worthy contribution to his considerable oeuvre.
In Education in Ancient Israel, Crenshaw offers his understanding of the role of schooling and theories of knowledge in biblical times. As he says in the introduction, "What do we really know about education in ancient Israel? Not very much" (4). In contrast to the detailed description of the...