January 30, 2018: A Term Paper - The Intelligence, Education & Culture of Jesus

At Park College in November of my sophomore year in 1962 I brought nine books from the library to a dorm room in Hawley Hall and began writing a required Introduction to Religion course term paper on a topic of my choice with input from the professor, Dr. Woodbridge O. Johnson. Knowing I intended to major in elementary education, we decided on a topic: The Intelligence, Education and Culture of Jesus.

Curiously, two of the books, The Jesus of History by T.R. Glover and The Life of Christ by William Bancroft Hill were both published in 1917, and the other seven in the 1940s.

Here's the way I began my paper:

I. INTRODUCTION

     A: BACKGROUND:

     If there were such a man as Jesus of Nazareth, we must, in looking upon the nature of this man, at some time bring ourselves to the consideration of the question: If Jesus really lived, taught, believed and fulfilled (to the satisfaction, at least, of many followers) his purpose, how was he able to do this? In other words, what was his faculty of understanding? What was his capacity to know? To what extent was the formal instruction that he was able to take advantage? To what extent was he endowed with knowledge, skill and competence? What was his pattern of human behavior as revealed in his speech, thought, and action, and what was his capacity for learning as provided by his cultural and educational background? And, in turn, how well was he able to transmit the knowledge with which he was possessed to succeeding generations?

     B: SCOPE

     The content of this paper, then, will deal first of all with a consideration of the extent of education in Palestine and a look also into the Jewish cultural background. For after all, a man is a product of his culture, and Jesus was no exception. We will compare Jesus' youthful education with what was available to him, and from there proceed to show how he put his knowledge into use as he went forth, through his teaching and ministry, to preach his gospel of repentance. We will examine the words, thoughts, and actions of Jesus at this time, and from here will hopefully come to a conclusion of the real nature an significance of his thoughts, including those dealing with the coming kingdom.

II.     CULTURAL TRADITION

     A. EXTENT OF JEWISH EDUCATION

     Jewish education at the time of the Christian Era began was closely connected with religion. In fact, the two were almost interchangeable, and both were based upon the Torah, which itself means teaching, that is, instruction, the thing taught.(1)

     Sherrill, in his The Rise of Christian Education, tells how the Torah originated as the guide for Jewish education: "When Jerusalem fell to Babylon, some of the people remained in their own land, surrounded by enemies, and in lamentable plight. Among the exiles, one center was in Egypt where a Jewish community was established at Elephantine, and a temple built for the God Yahu, or Jehovah. The other great center for the exiles was in Babylonia. The Jews of Palestine and Babylonia guided the development of the religion into the orthodox form known as Judaism.(2)

     "The bitter disappointments which came to a climax in the exile and dispersion, together with the sufferings which followed, served to kindle Jewish hopes and solidify their faith as nothing yet had done. They studied their own past anew, and sought to rediscover their own future. Out of this furnace came Jewish legacies to all later generations, such as prophecy, poetry, and a canon of sacred writings whose core was the written Torah, expressing the revealed will of God.(3)

     "To a striking degree the education which developed within Judaism is a mirror of the history. In order to understand the education one may view the growth of Torah or the Law, the place held by the Law as a means of resistance to alien influences, and the more influential parties which arose in Jewish life.(4) 

     Sherrill goes on to explain something of the meaning of the Torah as God's teaching:

     "'Torah' is one of the great words of the Old Testament and of Judaism. Torah itself means teaching, that is, instruction, the thing taught. It might be such instruction as that of a mother or father, or a sage, or a poet. It may mean divine instruction as given through God's approved servants. At times it appears to mean the body of prophetic teachings. Torah often means special laws, as for example regarding a feast or the Sabbath; or it may mean codes of law. In these latter uses the term Torah embodies the belief that the law is God's answer, through an approved spokesman, to man's questions about rights and duties. Torah, then, is content of teaching."(5)

Sherrill, Lewis Joseph, The Rise of Christian Education, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1944

Update: At that point, with a combination of single- and double-spaced typing, I was at the bottom of page 3. Thus I plodded along using a self-devised method of having a general idea of where I was headed. Finding in the books what I wanted to use as quotes and placing index cards in them to mark their places, I later typed the quotes from the books to support my line of thought. I watched the paper grow and grow and grow - to a final length of 50 pages. Even with spending an overnight in the dorm's trunk and suitcase storage room I was two days late turning it in and was happy to still receive a grade of A-.