IS
HEBREW LIFE AND CUSTOM
is no mention before the Greek period.1 We hear indeed
of disciples (Heb. limmûdhim)? but the term would be
applicable to the recipients of oral instruction.
It is, however, not improbable that we have a reference
to a spelling lesson given to children. The prophet Isaiah
states that his jeering opponents complained that he dinned
the same lesson into their ears over and over again, as
though he regarded them as mere infants.3 The curious
words saw lasaw, saw lâsâw, kâw lâkâw, kâw lâkâw, which
have long puzzled commentators, become both intelligible
and pertinent, if without any correction of the consonantal
text, and with merely a slight separation of some of the
letters now joined into words, and with the consequent
change in vocalization, they are understood as an elemen-
tary spelling lesson, thus : ‘ sâdhê wâw (i.e. the letters of
the alphabet) are for sû ’—or, as we should say, ‘ spell sû,’—
l sadhê wâw spell sû ; koph wâw spell kû, kôph wâw spell kû ’;
the syllables sû and kû being chosen as examples of spelling,
because the sound of them would suggest connexion with
the words for ‘filth’ and ‘vomit’, which occur in the
preceding verse, concerning which Isaiah says that all tables
are full of them.
We may reasonably suppose that, at all events in earlier
times, reading was a somewhat more common accomplish-
ment than writing,4 though we find writing where we
should scarcely expect it.5 It is to be noted that ‘ to read ’
sometimes means to ‘ hear read ’ .6 In any case, as in the
Middle Ages, and as is evident from the use of the word
kârâ, all reading was reading aloud.
In addition to Isaiah’s hint as to the sort of spelling
lesson given to children, the prophet’s books also contain
lessons, based on some external object, which are probably
imitations of the mode of teaching given to children in
schools. There is no close relation between the teaching of
ɪ Prov. v. ɪɜ ; Ps. cxix. 99. ’ Isa. viii. ι6.
3 Isa. xxviii. 9. 4 2 Kings v. 7.
j Judges viii. 14. 6 2 Kings xxii. ι6, compared with xxii. ɪo.
ISAIAH AND THE SPELLING-BOOK ι3
Amos1 and Jeremiah, such as exists between Hosea and
Jeremiah, yet in certain passages which have no direct
connexion one with another, they follow a formula which
in all likelihood was derived from some common experi-
ence. The prophet is asked what he sees, and his answer
when given is made the basis of a lesson.
In general the discipline of a child was mainly in the
hands of his father.2 Apparently it was always fairly strict,
but in the older Hebrew literature we do not find inculca-
tion of severity towards children such as characterizes and
disgraces the Hebrew literature of the Greek period.3
Respect for parents, nevertheless, was insisted upon to
an extreme extent, and the punishment of a son who flouted
his parents or struck them was as severe as that which in
Europe in comparatively recent days was inflicted on a
soldier found guilty of similar disrespect to a superior
officer.* It had not occurred to Hebrew legislators that
parents might WantonIyand unjustly provoke their children
to wrath.
Happily there is another side to the picture, and the
love of a mother for her children is implied in more than
one passage.5
Parental power over children was almost unlimited.
The Deuteronomic law, it is true, does not allow the
parents themselves to put their children to death :6 but
like much else in Deuteronomy, this may be by way of re-
form, and reflects the growing sense of individual rights.
Judah in an earlier period is represented as ordering his
daughter-in-law Tamar to be burnt,7 and the abominable
suggestion of Lot8 and of the old man in Gibeah 9 are
ɪ Amos vii. 8, viii. 2 ; Jer. i. ɪ 1-14.
’ 2 Sam. vii. 14 ; ɪ Kings i. 6 ; Deut. viii. 5.
3 Prov. xxiii. 13, 14; Lam. iii. 27 ; cf. Ecclus. xxx. ɪ, 2, 9-13.
4 Exod. xxi. ɪʒ, 17 ; Deut. xxi. ι8-2i.
5 ɪ Kings xvii. 17 ff. ; 2 Kings iv. 19 ff. ; Isa. xlix. 15, lxvi. 13.
6 Deut. xxi. 18-21. 7 Gen. xxxviii. 24. 8 Gen. xix. 8.
’ Judges xix. 24.