In order to appreciate the Bible's distinctive pedagogical ideals, let's compare it to two, two examples of state-sponsored education initiatives from antiquity, and the first one is from Egypt in the Sixth Century BCE. After conquering the land, the Persian king Cambyses commissions the Egyptian courtier, his name is Udjahorresne, to help him with the, the allegiance of its inhabitants, with the allegiance of the Egyptians. And one of the strategies this Cortay adopts is the sponsorship of schools. He describes how he fulfilled Cambusi's orders, and he reports in his autobiographical inscription that he filled the schools, which he calls, in keeping with an Egyptian designation, houses of life. And he fills them though with only quote sons of fine people, and no sons of common men. It was the duty of these aristocratic children to transmit Egyptian culture, Quote to ensure that the names of their Gods their temples are remembered for eternity. The way in watch Oocha, Oocha Haresne restricts education to the nobility, contrasts sharply with the biblical ideals of an entire nation in culcating traditions of law and the history of wisdom. A second example is from the reign of the Neo Serian king, Sargon, and he's from the eighth century BCE. In his display description from Khorsabad, Sargon describes how he conquered Samaria, the capital of Israel, and then he sent officials from the court to teach the subjugated population proper behavior. The same goes for the masses of deportees that he stations in Khorsabad himself, he tells how he commissioned officials to, quote, teach correct behavior and the fear of God, of God and the king. Now in contrast to Oocha eressnez autobiography, we witness a program of collective civic education here perhaps, not dissimilar to what we find in the Bible See you can find this in second King 17, which describes also the Assyrian king Sending people to instruct the new population that the king had brought there, after he had deported Israel. But whereas Sargon's educational initiative fashions submissive subjects for the state, the Bible's pedagogical program mobilizes a people after the demise of the state. And and response to the very same imperial encroachment on Israel's and Judah's sovereignty, that Zargon himself so dramatically achieved. Now how should one account for the existence of these extraordinary educational ideals, In the biblical corpus. Some, like the influential Israel historian Yehezkel Kaufmann, might ascribe them to a distinctive theological principle like monotheism. Others, like the American biblical scholar Norman Gods fault, ascribe these educational ideals to a social class consciousness, like a peasant egalitarianism. And a great many of my colleagues in Biblical Studies, are inclined to attribute the Bible's educational ideals, to the centralization efforts by kings like Josiah. By undermining the power of the nobility, the argument goes, the king could create a more homogenous state. Now, such strong handed efforts of state centralization are well attested in antiquity, especially in the activities of tyrants from Greece and the [UNKNOWN] world. These rulers weakened the power of the nobility, the control of the aristocracy. They also codified laws, and enlarged stakeholder and, promoted the arts and canonized Homeric writings, and perhaps they even fostered programs, of collective civic education for their whole people's. The, for all the people within the palates, that they governed. Thus one could argue that the kings of Israel and Judah, might have done the same, in their own realms. So that the Bible's ideals of collective national education, go back to these kings political reforms. Well, there maybe something to this state oriented explanation, there is a problem with it. As we have seen, the clearest expression of Israel's of clib collectively educational ideals, appear precisely. And those biblical passages, especially in Deuteronomy, Ezra, Nehemiah that severely confine or completely dispense with the role of a native king. And has In Ezra Nehemiah, the native king is nowhere to be found, its the Persian monarchs who rule Judah. In Deuteronomy, the Israelite kings, the Israelite kings' sole task is to study the book of the law, you can see this in chapter 17. [BLANK_AUDIO] The most decisive factor in the emergence of the Bible's educational ideals, was not the work of kings like Hezekiah and Josiah to consolidate their realms. Such political initiatives, from the Monarchic period, may have laid the groundwork for what comes after that. They are maybe the necessary conditions, but they are certainly not sufficient conditions. The more direct factor, was the eventual defeat of the kingdom, the state the matter very simply, without 722, and without 586. That are the dates, that is the dates where, Israel and Judah are conquered by Syria and Babylon, respectively. We would not have a Bible, and we would not have the pedagogical program that the bible promotes of course, other circumstances and conditions and factors deserve consideration such as the delay. In the subjugation of Juda after the conquest of Israel,that period stretching from 722 to 586, there is also the very short tenure of the Neo [INAUDIBLE] that is the [INAUDIBLE] empire, it doesnt last very long and that might be another factor. And one must consider an array of internal Judean developments, that is those that take place in the Persian period. However, the most important factor that gave rise to the Bible's educational ideals and for that matter the Bible itself was defeat. The willingness to admit it and the determination to surmount it. So the Bible's model of collective national education, it's what I'm arguing, is not the result of some form of egalitarianism that many see as an inherent in ancient Israelite social life or it's not even part of the monotheistic, Yahwistic religion or anything else of the sort. Rather, it should be seen, I'm arguing, as a direct pragmatic response to the long anticipated, and then actual destruction, of a monarchic society.
