My pastor wants me to research for him...

.., what Paul already knew about the Scriptures when he disappeared into Arabia for three years, since nothing is really known about that time in his life.

I've done some background reading in Logos but I'm still needing clarity on something.

Specifically, he is wondering what a Pharisee like Paul would have been all about where Scripture memorization is concerned.

My own take is that his extended Scriptural knowledge (which I do believe he did have) came from his sitting at the feet of the great teacher Gamaliel, as opposed to being a Pharisee, but I want to make sure I've understood what the Pharisees actually were, as I appear to be suffering from "death by sheer amount of resources" Wink at this point and told him I'd get back to him later today.

Is it accurate to say that they were a party (and religious movement, granted) in the same sense that Republicans or Democrats belong to a "party", so that his learning/memorization of the Scriptures would thus have come from his education, as opposed to his membership as a Pharisee?

i.e. to put it in "logical terms", while Paul was a student of the Scriptures who became a Pharisee, not all Pharisees were students of the Scriptures.

As well, if anyone knows of any resources where I could learn more about the role of Scripture memorization in the time of Christ (along with examples... ie. rabbi such and such was known to be able to recite the Torah by heart), that would *really help*! Whether they are Logos resources or not doesn't matter to me.

THANKS for any quick insights you can provide. Big Smile

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Nord Zootman

This does not directly answer your question, but a search of pharisees and memorization turned up several hits including this from the Holman Bible Handbook.

In first-century B.C. synagogues, for boys about six to twelve, the Pharisees seem to have begun mandatory elementary schools called bet sefer, the “house of the book” (which taught the reading of the Torah) and bet talmud, the “house of learning” (which taught Mishnah or oral law). Adult education in the Torah had been conducted at first by itinerant priests and Levites (Deut 31:9–13; 2 Chr 17:7–9; Neh 8:7–9; Mic 3:11; Mal 2:6–7). During the late Persian period the Scriptures were read and explained in the square on market days (Monday and Thursday), a system eventually organized into a three-year cycle through the Torah. After the exile scribes, many of whom were Levites, had begun to replace priests as teachers. The most famous were Shammai, Hillel, and his grandson Gamaliel, under whom Paul studied. Some of these teachers started schools, called bet midrash, “house of study,” for promising boys who had completed elementary school.

Exported from Logos Bible Software 4, 11:45 AM February 21, 2011.

That would seem to indicate that all pharisees in our Lord's time stressed learning the scriptures.

Mark Barnes

My own take is that his extended Scriptural knowledge (which I do believe he did have) came from his sitting at the feet of the great teacher Gamaliel, as opposed to being a Pharisee,

Pharisaism is an enormous area of scholarly research, with surprisingly few first century sources available to give any certainty. But Gamaliel was a leading Pharisee, and therefore it's not possible to separate Paul's education from his Pharisaism.

If you have AYBD, read the article on Jewish education, and if you have DPL read the section on Paul's Formal Education in Judaism.

I'd also recommend reading chapter 5 of F.F. Bruce's Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit. Some brief extracts:

According to the most probable punctuation of Acts 22:3, the exordium of his Aramaic address to a crowd of hostile Jews in the outer court of the Jerusalem temple, he was (a) “a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia”, but (b) “brought up in this city” (Jerusalem) and (c) “educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God …”. The last part of this account is in essential agreement with his more general statement in Galatians 1:14: “I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of our fathers”. He would have entered the school of Gamaliel at some point in his ‘teens, but his parents saw to it that even his earlier boyhood was spent under wholesome influences in Jerusalem.

Thirdly, by his own account, Paul was “as to the law a Pharisee”. This account is consistent with his statement reported in Acts 22:3 that he was “educated at the feet of Gamaliel”, who was the leading Pharisee of his day, and with his declaration before the younger Agrippa: “according to the strictest party of our religion I p 44 have lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5). Even more emphatic is his claim before the Sanhedrin to be “a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6). The natural sense of this is that his father or remoter ancestors were associated with the Pharisees; it is just possible, thought less probable, that “a son of Pharisees” means “a pupil of Pharisees”.

Who, then, were the Pharisees? They first appear by name about the middle of the second century B.C. In his account of the governorship of Jonathan (160–143 B.C.), brother and successor to Judas Maccabaeus, Josephus says that about this time there were three schools of thought among the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, and that while the Essenes were strict predestinarians and the Sadducees insisted that all things happened in accordance with men’s free will, the Pharisees occupied a middle position in which room was afforded for both divine predestination and human choice. These in fact were probably not the most important points in which the three groups differed one from another, but Josephus was prone to speak of Jewish religious parties as if they were Greek philosophical schools, and drew attention to those features in which he thought Greek and Roman readers would be interested.…

Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/223141#Comment_223141

Thanks guys, that really helps!

Robert Pavich

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/223150#Comment_223150

I searched "Gamaliel NEAR memorize" and came up with this hit:

Following the Mosaic law, Saul was circumcised on the eighth day (Phil. 3:5). He probably was sent to Jerusalem soon after his thirteenth birthday, the age when Jewish boys became recognized as men. Under Gamaliel, Saul would have memorized and learned to interpret Scripture according to rabbinical tradition, notably that of the Talmud. It was probably during his stay in Jerusalem that he became a Pharisee. Because his father was a Roman citizen, Saul was born into that citizenship (Acts 22:28), a prized and highly beneficial asset. He therefore had the highest possible credentials both of Greco-Roman and Jewish society.

In keeping with Jewish custom, Saul also learned the trade of his father, which was tentmaking (Acts 18:3). In light of the fact that this apostle never encountered Jesus during His earthly ministry, it is likely that he returned to Tarsus after his education in Jerusalem. Because of his outstanding training, he was doubtlessly a leader in one of the leading synagogues of Tarsus, supporting himself by tentmaking. By his own account, he was a zealous legalist, a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” totally committed to the law in every detail (Phil. 3:5–6).

John MacArthur, Romans (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996).