A passage from the Apocrypha, Wisdom 7:17-22, gives some idea of the curriculum:
For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,
to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;
the beginning and end and middle of times,
the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,
the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,
the natures of animals and the tempers of wild beasts,
the powers of spirits and the reasonings of men,
the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;
I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,
for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
From this we see that Hebrew education is broad. But we really don't know how the students were taught.
I know that orthodox Jewish people now spend a lot of time studying the Torah and Talmud (or at least they seem to in that one novel called the Chosen...). I wonder how much of that ancient Hebrew people did. I mean, their culture seemed to be pretty important to them, but obviously not everyone can only learn about the scriptures.
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