Instruction

Instruction in the UPDV is broader than rebuke and earlier than schooling. It begins as the household duty of fathers and mothers, expands into the priestly and prophetic teaching of Israel, and arrives in the apostolic letters as the shared work of the church taught by God. Solomon, Ben Sira, and the apostles all assume the same chain: a son who hears, a parent or teacher who speaks, and ultimately Yahweh who is the source of every right word. The Sirach material, retained in the UPDV, gives this topic its longest sustained voice.

The Value of Instruction

The wisdom writers treat instruction as the audible form of life itself. "My son, hear the instruction of your father, And don't forsake the law of your mother" (Pr 1:8). "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; And reproofs of instruction are the way of life" (Pr 6:23). The corollary is sharp: "Whoever loves correction loves knowledge; But he who hates reproof is brutish" (Pr 12:1). Qoheleth ties the same point to the figure of the teacher: "The words of the wise are as goads; and as nails well fastened are [the words of] the masters of assemblies, [which] are given from one shepherd" (Ec 12:11). Ben Sira opens with the same equation — "For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction, And faith and meekness are his good pleasure" (Sir 1:27) — and develops it into a paired image: "[As] chains on [their] feet, [so] is instruction to the foolish, And as manacles on their right hand" (Sir 21:19), but "As a golden ornament is instruction to the wise, And as a bracelet upon their right arm" (Sir 21:21). The same word lands as fetters or as jewelry depending on the hearer.

Children Instructed

The instruction of children is treated as a positive command, not a household custom. At Horeb Moses charges Israel, "Only you be careful and keep your soul diligently, or else you will forget the things which your eyes saw, and they will depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and the sons of your sons" (De 4:9), so that "they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their sons" (De 4:10). The Shema makes the practice continuous: "and you will teach them diligently to your sons, and will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up" (De 6:7), with frontlets and door-posts as standing reminders (De 6:8-9). Joshua extends this to the whole assembly — "There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were among them" (Jos 8:35) — and the Psalmist invites the same audience: "Come, you⁺ sons, listen to me: I will teach you⁺ the fear of Yahweh" (Ps 34:11). Solomon repeats it in a parental voice: "My son, do not forget my law; But let your heart keep my commandments" (Pr 3:1). Jehoash is a worked example: "And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him" (2Ki 12:2). The New Testament keeps the practice and supplies its goal: Timothy, "from a baby you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2Ti 3:15), and fathers are told to "nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord" (Eph 6:4).

Sirach on Raising a Son

Ben Sira gives the topic its most sustained pastoral treatment. Wisdom herself is the first parent: "Wisdom teaches her sons, And testifies to all who understand her" (Sir 4:11). The human father is then drawn into the same role: "Do you have sons? Instruct them. And marry wives to them in their youth" (Sir 7:23). The voice that follows is unsentimental. "He who loves his son will continue to spank him, That he may have joy of him at the last" (Sir 30:1); "He who chastises his son will have profit of him, And in the midst of his acquaintances he will have glory of him" (Sir 30:2); "He who teaches his son will provoke his enemy to jealousy, And before friends will he exult over him" (Sir 30:3). The opposite practice is named just as plainly: "He who pampers his son will bind up his wounds, And his heart is troubled at every cry" (Sir 30:7). The image turns equine — "An unbroken horse becomes stubborn, And a son left at large becomes headstrong" (Sir 30:8) — and then stark: "Coddle your child, and he will terrify you; Play with him [continually], and he will grieve you" (Sir 30:9); "Do not laugh with him lest he cause you pain, And at the last you gnash with your teeth" (Sir 30:10); "Do not let him have independence in his youth, And do not ignore his mischievous acts" (Sir 30:11); "Control your son, and make his yoke heavy, Lest in his folly he lift himself up against you" (Sir 30:13). Failure is felt by the father: "Shame [there is] to the father who begets an uninstructed [son], And a daughter is born to his loss" (Sir 22:3). Ben Sira also treats shame itself as something to be taught: "Hear, O children, instruction concerning shame, And be ashamed according to my judgement. For not every kind of shame is to be retained, And not every kind of shame is to be reproved" (Sir 41:16). The book closes with the teacher's invitation in the first person: "Turn in to me, you⁺ unlearned, And lodge in my house of instruction" (Sir 51:23); "Hear my teaching, though it is little, And silver and gold you⁺ will acquire by her" (Sir 51:28); "May your⁺ soul rejoice in the mercy of God, And do not be ashamed to give him praise" (Sir 51:29). The whole book is signed as such: "Wise instruction and apt proverbs Of Simeon, the son of Jeshua, the son of Eleazar, the son of Sira, Which he declared in the explanation of his heart, And which he taught with his understanding" (Sir 50:27).

Sirach on Hearing and Receiving

Beside the chapters on raising sons, Ben Sira returns again and again to the disposition of the hearer. "My son, from your youth choose understanding; And until your gray head you will attain wisdom" (Sir 6:18). "If you will bring yourself to hear, And incline your ear, you will be instructed" (Sir 6:33). "See who understands and seek him diligently; And let your foot wear away his threshold" (Sir 6:36). "Do not forsake the talk of the wise; But even try to figure out their riddles. Because from this you will receive instruction To stand before princes" (Sir 8:8); "Do not despise what you hear among the gray-headed Which they have heard from their fathers. Because from this you will receive understanding To return an answer in the time you need it" (Sir 8:9). "Listen to me, my son, and receive my teaching; And upon my words, set your heart" (Sir 16:24); "I will pour out my spirit by weight, And by measure I will declare my knowledge" (Sir 16:25). "Hearken, my son, and do not despise me, And in the end you will understand my words, In all your acts be moderate, And then no harm will touch you" (Sir 31:22). "Prepare your speech, and so let yourself be heard, Bind up instruction, and [then] make your answer" (Sir 33:4). The hearer who follows this counsel becomes himself a teacher: "Every wise man teaches wisdom, And let them who know her give thanks" (Sir 18:28); "A well-instructed man knows many things, And one of much experience expounds knowledge" (Sir 34:9); "He himself declares the instruction of his teaching, And glories in the law of the covenant of the Lord" (Sir 39:8). Wisdom's own voice frames the whole enterprise: instruction "pours forth, as the Nile, instruction, And as Gihon in the days of vintage" (Sir 24:27); "Yet again I will bring instruction to light as the morning, And will make these things shine forth afar off" (Sir 24:32); "Yet again I will pour forth doctrine as prophecy, And leave it for eternal generations" (Sir 24:33).

Priests, Levites, and the Reading of the Law

Israel's official teachers are the priests and Levites. To Aaron's house Yahweh gives the charge "that you⁺ may teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which Yahweh has spoken to them by Moses" (Le 10:11). Moses himself models it: "Look, I have taught you⁺ statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you⁺ should do so in the midst of the land where you⁺ go in to possess it" (De 4:5). In the kingdom period, the same office continues with formal extension: Jehoshaphat "sent his princes... to teach in the cities of Judah" (2Ch 17:7), and after the exile a deported priest "came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh" (2Ki 17:28). Ezra is the figure who gathers the strands: "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Yahweh, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances" (Ezr 7:10). At the public reading in Jerusalem the Levites carry out the same role: they "caused the people to understand the law: and the people [stood] in their place" (Ne 8:7). Looking forward, Ezekiel restores this priestly responsibility in the future temple: "And they will teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean" (Eze 44:23).

Prophetic Instruction

Beside the priest stands the prophet. Samuel pulls Saul aside with the formula "Bid the attendant to pass on before us... but you stand still first, that I may cause you to hear the word of God" (1Sa 9:27). Isaiah reports a hand-on-the-shoulder encounter: "For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and he turned me away [so as] not to walk in the way of this people" (Is 8:11). Even the farmer's craft is treated as something Yahweh teaches: "For his God instructs him aright, [and] teaches him" (Is 28:26). Jeremiah characterizes Yahweh's whole prophetic ministry as instruction rejected: "And they have turned to me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they haven't listened to receive instruction" (Je 32:33). The Psalmist owns the opposite response from inside Israel: "O God, you have taught me from my youth; And until now I have declared your wondrous works" (Ps 71:17), and the psalter envisions a long catechetical line — "That the generation to come might know [them], even the sons who should be born; Who should arise and tell [them] to their sons" (Ps 78:6). The post-exilic confession at the great reading credits the same source: "You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst" (Ne 9:20).

Taught of God

The New Testament collects these threads under a Johannine and Pauline phrase: the people of God are taught of God. Jesus appeals to it from the prophets: "It is written in the prophets, And they will all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes to me" (Jn 6:45). Paul applies it to brotherly love at Thessalonica: "But concerning love of the brothers you⁺ have no need that one write to you⁺: for you⁺ yourselves are taught of God to love one another" (1Th 4:9). The same logic underwrites Ephesians: "if indeed you⁺ heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus" (Eph 4:21). The Spirit is named as the agent who makes this instruction interior: "But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God" (1Co 2:12). John writes the same thing as a settled fact in his churches: "And as for you⁺, the anointing which you⁺ received of him stays in you⁺, and you⁺ don't need that anyone teach you⁺; but as his anointing teaches you⁺ concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you⁺, you⁺ stay in him" (1Jn 2:27).

Christian Teaching as a Continuing Office

Being taught of God does not abolish the human teacher; it ordains one. Christ "gave some [to be] apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the preparing of the saints, to the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph 4:11-12). The mode is congregational: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you⁺ richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with grace in your⁺ hearts to God" (Col 3:16). Timothy is given the office bluntly — "These things command and teach" (1Ti 4:11) — and its tone qualified — "And the Lord's slave must not strive, but be gentle toward all, apt to teach, forbearing" (2Ti 2:24). The textual basis is named: "All Scripture [is] inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely to every good work" (2Ti 3:16-17). Paul even uses the Jewish synagogue version of the office, complete with its own self-confidence — to know God's will, "and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of juveniles, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth" (Ro 2:18-20) — and elsewhere reframes the whole pre-Christian deposit in the same vocabulary: "So that the law has become our tutor [to bring us] to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Gal 3:24-25). The arc that began with a father telling his son the words of Yahweh ends with a household of teachers whose curriculum is Christ.