Chapter 125 of 404

Disciples and Teachers

Memorization was the most pervasive form of ancient education.⁸⁹ The youngest learned by rote memorization at the elementary level.⁹⁰ Memorizing sayings of famous teachers was a regular school exercise at the basic level;⁹¹ students at various levels also memorized examples.⁹²

Although it was the youngest who learned by rote memorization at the elementary level, higher education (after about age 16) included memorizing many speeches and passages useful for speeches⁹³ — though the ultimate goal was both understanding and remembering.⁹⁴ Even at the stage of advanced education, which focused on rhetoric, students especially “memorized model speeches and passages” for their own use.⁹⁵

Disciples were expected to be attentive; thus the philosopher Peregrinus rebuked an equestrian who seemed inattentive and yawning.⁹⁶ Teachers passed on their teachings to others,⁹⁷ language that could also be used for transmission of information through written histories.⁹⁸ Sayings attributed to founders of Greek schools were transmitted by members of each school from one generation to the next;⁹⁹ the practice seems to have been encouraged by the founders of the schools themselves.¹⁰⁰ Indeed, in all schools “teaching was passed down from master to pupils, who in turn passed it on to their own pupils”;¹⁰¹ the founder’s teachings often functioned as canonical for their communities.¹⁰² Of course, disciples passed on teachings, not speeches or extensive dialogues per se (hence more like what we find in the Synoptics than in John).¹⁰³

A former student need not always agree with one’s teacher,¹⁰⁴ but respect for teachers was paramount,¹⁰⁵ and in such a setting we would expect respectful preservation of teachings even when the transmitter registered disagreement.

Whether the emphasis was on memorizing texts or the teacher’s words depended on the particular ancient school in question.¹⁰⁶ Lucian portrays an excellent philosophic student as rehearsing each of the points of the previous day’s lectures in his mind.¹⁰⁷ Some schools were known for practicing particularly diligent training of their memories, training especially prominent in stories about the Pythagoreans.¹⁰⁸ One criterion for prospective Pythagorean disciples was said to be their ability to preserve what they were taught.¹⁰⁹ As a method of training their memories, the Pythagoreans reportedly would not rise from bed in the mornings until they had recited their previous days’ works.¹¹⁰ (Pythagorean emphasis on repetition for memorization¹¹¹ reflects a relatively effective method of preserving long-term memory.)¹¹² While stories about the Pythagoreans represent an extreme, they provide a graphic illustration of the value more generally placed on memory in ancient schools.

Although the emphasis lay on memorizing teachings, students studied and emulated teachers’ behavior as well.¹¹³ They further transmitted it: thus, for example, Eunapius learned a story about Iamblichus from Eunapius’ teacher Chrysanthius, who learned it from Aedesius the disciple of Iamblichus himself; ¹¹⁴ Philostratus has oral information about a teacher two generations earlier through an expert from the previous generation.¹¹⁵ Jews also learned from the behavior of their ancestors, i.e., from lessons drawn from narratives,¹¹⁶ as students must also imitate their teachers.¹¹⁷ (This reflects a broader practice; Greek disciples also often learned by imitating teachers’ moral behavior.)¹¹⁸

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