The historian Flavius Josephus, writing in his treatise Against Apion, thought he had the answer, at least when it came to the Jewish people. And it all came down to a specific approach to education and law.
Josephus, defending Judaism against its detractors in the Greco-Roman world, argues that our strength lies in the beautiful intertwining of practical life and sacred learning. He contrasts this with other societies where either practical skills were taught without moral grounding, or laws were discussed without practical application. Not so with the teachings of Moses, our great lawgiver!
Josephus emphasizes that Moses meticulously wove together these two strands. It wasn't enough to simply hear the law. It had to be lived, breathed, and embodied in every action. Nor could one simply go about their daily life without the constant guiding hand of the law. From the moment a child was weaned, even down to the specifics of their diet, nothing was left to chance. Moses created a system where every aspect of life – what to eat, who to associate with, how hard to work, when to rest – was governed by a clear set of rules. As Josephus puts it, this was so that "by living under that law as under a father and a master, we might be guilty of no sin, neither voluntary nor out of ignorance."
Now, this might sound a bit… strict. But Josephus's point is that this constant guidance, this all-encompassing legal framework, was designed to protect people. It wasn't about stifling individuality, but about creating a society where everyone knew the rules, and where even unintentional transgressions could be addressed. Ignorance, in this system, wasn't an excuse.
And here's the kicker: this wasn't a system where people were simply told what to do. They were actively engaged in learning why. Moses, according to Josephus, understood the importance of communal learning. He made sure the people had dedicated time, every single week, to "assemble together for the hearing of the law, and learning it exactly." He highlights that this weekly gathering and learning was something that other legislators seemed to have overlooked.
It's a radical idea, isn't it? That the strength of a society lies not just in its laws, but in the active, continuous engagement of its people with those laws. That a truly just society is one where everyone is both guided by and educated in the principles that govern their lives. A system designed to minimize both willful and accidental wrongdoings. It makes you wonder, doesn't it, what societies today could learn from this ancient model?
17. But let us consider his first and greatest work; for when it was resolved on by our forefathers to leave Egypt, and return to their own country, this Moses took the many tell thousands that were of the people, and saved them out of many desperate distresses, and brought them home in safety. And certainly it was here necessary to travel over a country without water, and full of sand, to overcome their enemies, and, during these battles, to preserve their children, and their wives, and their prey; on all which occasions he became an excellent general of an army, and a most prudent counselor, and one that took the truest care of them all; he also so brought it about, that the whole multitude depended upon him. And while he had them always obedient to what he enjoined, he made no manner of use of his authority for his own private advantage, which is the usual time when governors gain great powers to themselves, and pave the way for tyranny, and accustom the multitude to live very dissolutely; whereas, when our legislator was in so great authority, he, on the contrary, thought he ought to have regard to piety, and to show his great good-will to the people; and by this means he thought he might show the great degree of virtue that was in him, and might procure the most lasting security to those who had made him their governor. When he had therefore come to such a good resolution, and had performed such wonderful exploits, we had just reason to look upon ourselves as having him for a divine governor and counselor. And when he had first persuaded himself [17] that his actions and designs were agreeable to God's will, he thought it his duty to impress, above all things, that notion upon the multitude; for those who have once believed that God is the inspector of their lives, will not permit themselves in any sin. And this is the character of our legislator: he was no impostor, no deceiver, as his revilers say, though unjustly, but such a one as they brag Minos [18] to have been among the Greeks, and other legislators after him; for some of them suppose that they had their laws from Jupiter, while Minos said that the revelation of his laws was to be referred to Apollo, and his oracle at Delphi, whether they really thought they were so derived, or supposed, however, that they could persuade the people easily that so it was. But which of these it was who made the best laws, and which had the greatest reason to believe that God was their author, it will be easy, upon comparing those laws themselves together, to determine; for it is time that we come to that point. [19] Now there are innumerable differences in the particular customs and laws that are among all mankind, which a man may briefly reduce under the following heads: Some legislators have permitted their governments to be under monarchies, others put them under oligarchies, and others under a republican form; but our legislator had no regard to any of these forms, but he ordained our government to be what, by a strained expression, may be termed a Theocracy, [20] by ascribing the authority and the power to God, and by persuading all the people to have a regard to him, as the author of all the good things that were enjoyed either in common by all mankind, or by each one in particular, and of all that they themselves obtained by praying to him in their greatest difficulties. He informed them that it was impossible to escape God's observation, even in any of our outward actions, or in any of our inward thoughts. Moreover, he represented God as unbegotten, [21] and immutable, through all eternity, superior to all mortal conceptions in pulchritude; and, though known to us by his power, yet unknown to us as to his essence. I do not now explain how these notions of God are the sentiments of the wisest among the Grecians, and how they were taught them upon the principles that he afforded them. However, they testify, with great assurance, that these notions are just, and agreeable to the nature of God, and to his majesty; for Pythagoras, and Anaxagoras, and
Plato, and the Stoic philosophers that succeeded them, and almost all the rest, are of the same sentiments, and had the same notions of the nature of God; yet durst not these men disclose those true notions to more than a few, because the body of the people were prejudiced with other opinions beforehand. But our legislator, who made his actions agree to his laws, did not only prevail with those that were his contemporaries to agree with these his notions, but so firmly imprinted this faith in God upon all their posterity, that it never could be removed. The reason why the constitution of this legislation was ever better directed to the utility of all than other legislations were, is this, that Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, but he saw and he ordained other virtues to be parts of religion; I mean justice, and fortitude, and temperance, and a universal agreement of the members of the community with one another; for all our actions and studies, and all our words, [in Moses's settlement,] have a reference to piety towards
God; for he hath left none of these in suspense, or undetermined.
For there are two ways of coming at any sort of learning and a moral conduct of life; the one is by instruction in words, the other by practical exercises. Now other lawgivers have separated these two ways in their opinions, and choosing one of those ways of instruction, or that which best pleased every one of them, neglected the other. Thus did the Lacedemonians and the Cretians teach by practical exercises, but not by words; while the Athenians, and almost all the other Grecians, made laws about what was to be done, or left undone, but had no regard to the exercising them thereto in practice.
