Teach Your Children Well
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. . . Matthew 28:20 ESV
Teaching – No, we are not going to investigate the obvious connection between this commandment and Torah. It’s so obvious we just won’t even mention it. What we want to ask ourselves is this: “What does it mean to teach?” You might think that the answer to this question is just as obvious, but you might be surprised just how many paradigm assumptions are involved in such an “obvious” answer.
Let’s start with Plato. Following Socrates, Plato suggests that phronesis is “the right state of the intellect from which all moral qualities derive. Education is thus admonition in phronesis and alethia as the knowledge of value and truth.”[1] In other words, in the Greek world proper education is instruction in insight and the justification of true beliefs. Education is the combination of experience, understanding and reason. How is this accomplished? By rational investigation of the world. The system of education is to be found within the sphere of being human. Essentially, what human beings can comprehend is real. Everything else is fiction.
This does not mean that human beings must know everything. The claim is only that whatever human beings can understand, grasp or investigate is real. If some subject is not open to human comprehension, even in theory, then it is not a subject for education. It is false. Phronesis is virtue built on human comprehension. What is rational is good. What is not rational is not only not good, it is error and must be rejected.
Nearly all of us grew up in an educational environment that embraced this understanding in one form or another. Public education is dominated by this humanistic perspective, but church education is not far behind. If we decry the current emphasis on self-affirmation, we should wake up to the direct connection between Plato’s idea of phronesis and the loss of religious morals. When Man is the measure of what is real, God is absent in the classroom.
What is the Hebraic point of view? In contrast to the Greek idea, education in the Semitic world begins with God. What God says sets the boundaries and the subjects for teaching. Nothing is more important than understanding the divine message to human beings. There is no wisdom without God. Therefore, teaching does not involve insight into human behaviors or human rationality. Teaching means instruction in obedience to the outside revelation of God, instruction that comes from outside the human realm and is not subject to human evaluation. I hear, I do. If the explanation follows, it must come via the words of God. This is why one rabbi told his student who inquired about studying Greek philosophy, “The Lord tells us to diligently seek Him day and night. Use whatever time you have left to study Plato.” By the way, this is the same view of education that characterizes the rote memorization process of learning the Quran. The Greek world thinks. The Near Eastern world obeys.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang, “Teach your children well, . . .” You might ask how you are teaching your children. Are you a student of phronesis? Or are you a disciple of Yeshua?
Topical Index: teach, phronesis, insight, virtue, disciple, Matthew 28:20
Truly manna from heaven.
All reasoning should start and end with the “word”. Against such shall Man be measured.
Tnx u Skip for a golden nugget this day. Simon
It was Anslem who wrote, “I believe in order to understand.”
Oh, if only I could go back thirty years and teach my children well….
It seems that obedience (doing) and believing (having faith) are two sides of the same coin. As I am learning, in Hebrew thought they cannot be separated. A man “does” (obeys) because he has “faith” (believes) and he has “faith” (believes) because he “does” (obeys). Therefore to add on to what Anselm said … “I not only believe to understand, I ‘do’ (obey) to understand.” We do not need to understand in order to obey. God told us to obey, not to understand. Currently we are looking at shadows in a dirty mirror. Someday we will see everything clearly and everything will make sense. For now, as another songwriter said …. “We trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” I don’t need to understand, I just need to obey the instructions God has given me in His Torah. It really is that simple….
On a separate note ( no pun intended), it’s interesting Skip what a strong hold that music has on our minds. All’s I had to do was glimpse at the title of today’s TW and the C,S,N&Y song was playing through my mind. I need to replace these “triggers” in my mind with the triggers God has given me in His Word!
“what a strong hold that music has on our minds.” Movies, too.
” I need to replace these “triggers” in my mind with the triggers God has given me in His Word!”
AMEN AND AMEN!!! Father God, renew our minds! Help me to remember YOUR WORD… and give me wisdom to KNOW what YOUR WORD (and not a translation based on a political/religious agenda) is.
Very good. I’m reminded of Genesis 1 – God sets the boundaries for all His creation,.. and we ought be no different.
All Things Considered
~ I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. “But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you”…~
~ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you ~ “I will not leave you as orphans; I (Myself) will come to you. ~
Not a great time to “teach” concerning the Tri-unity of God, but we do read in the holy scriptures (all of them testify) concerning God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Of these three, probably the least (known) of these, and maybe the most “mysterious” is God the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh (in Hebrew). For those who are so inclined. Here are some of those names: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Holy_Spirit/holy_spirit.html
By what other names is He known? There are many for He (too) is of God.
But of all these Names, my (personal) favorite is “Teacher.” May this request of the Master Teacher’s (original) talmudim: “LORD, teach us to pray,” be ours as well?
These words are from the “prayer-song” of Eliza E. Hewitt, in Glad Hallelujahs, 1887:
Spirit of God, my Teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
We all want “more..” We are made for “more.” But the real question is “more what?” More stuff and things? Solomon knew a little something about this- “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this [is] also vanity. ” (Ecclesiastes 5.10) How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
~ You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your Presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.” (Psalm 16:1)
Friends all around me are trying to find
What the heart yearns for, by sin undermined;
I have the secret, I know where ’tis found:
Only true pleasures in Jesus abound.
All that I want is in Jesus.
He satisfies, joy He supplies;
Life would be worthless without Him;
All things in Jesus I find.
Some carry burdens whose weight has for years
Crushed them with sorrow and blinded with tears.
Yet One stands ready to help them just now,
If they will humbly in penitence bow.
No other Name thrills the joy chords within,
And through none else is remission of sin.
He knows the pain of the heart sorely tried.
Both need and want will by Him be supplied.
Jesus is all this poor world needs today.
Blindly they strive, for sin darkens their way.
O to draw back the grim curtains of night,
One glimpse of Jesus and all will be bright!
And Who will “illuminate” the Light of the world to us? ~ He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you ~