STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF JUDAEO-HELLENISTIC PAIDEIA

Abstract

Migration processes in the globalizing world produce a problem of communication between heterogeneous principles in the cultural and educational sphere. Turning to the past we can see that Western civilization doesn’t face this problem for the first time. Moreover, in a sense such a communication lies at its origins, especially during the rise of Roman Empire. Paideia (or education) in the Hellenistic and Roman times was considered as the basis for more or less broad and sometimes full access to the civil rights of the dominant ethnic group. But as a fee for its receiving often counted the abandonment of someone’s own customs. This challenge could be with varying degrees of success bypassed by the ways of the worldview convergence. An important precedent for subsequent history of education became the formation of Jewish paideia, the stages of which are reconstructed in this article. On the first stage there was mainly passive adoption of new knowledge and skills. On the second stage – implementation of practical need in training of own teachers. On the third an attempt to mediate two parts of Jewish education, including elements of both Jewish tradition and ancient philosophy, with the help of special literature was made. The article shows that the reception of outer forms of Greek culture by Jews didn’t lead to their cultural assimilation, but became the reason for a clearer understanding of the incompatibility of the two pictures of the world, Judaic and Pagan, including the latter’s philosophical interpretations. It directly prepared Christian criticism of the ancient worldview.