ON THE SPECIFICS OF TEACHING, SCHOOLS AND INTELLECTUAL CENTERS OF PALESTINE OF LATE ANTIQUITY

Background. Late Antiquity is a specific and unique historical period that has been actively studied in recent decades, with certain topics that still require detailed researches. The educational system of this period had many transformations and remained an important part of the cultural and spiritual development of an individual. The cities of Palestine took a special place among the educational and intellectual centers of the Roman and Byzantine empires, where classical, Jewish, and Christian traditions intertwined. Purpose. The purpose of this article is to summarize the results of many researches on Palestinian educational and intellectual centers and to highlight regional characteristics of their development that have not been subject of any specific study yet. Materials and methods. This study is based on the concept of Late Antiquity, which sets boundaries for researching events, processes, and phenomena of the 3rd – 7th centuries. This concept reviews those events and processes as changes required by the time, which cannot be assessed in a one-sided negative way, and emphasizes the importance of studying the cultural aspects of the era. Results. The image of the intellectual and educational centers of Palestine is vivid, where debates and discussions continued almost until the end of the era of Late Antiquity. These centers combined the legacy of antiquity, Christian traditions, and local cultural peculiarities. This image is quite different from the information that could be found in biographies and teachings of the ascetics of the Holy Land. The people of Palestine could choose different methods and teaching styles. The popularity of rhetorical schools in Palestine was driven by several factors: the goal of the student was to acquire various skills and abilities that could be useful in a time of change; the general cultural reason – the practice of oral instruction was applied in Hellenistic, Greco-Roman education, and in rabbinic scholarly circles; and in the era of Christological disputes and the spread of different religious teachings, an important skill was the ability to speak in public, deliver speeches, and preach. Although theological traditions were often present from the beginning in the schools of Palestine, there was not a separate and strong theological school, unlike neighboring Syria and Egypt. Lacking its own firm foundation, Palestine was influenced by the religious and intellectual ideas of neighboring theological schools and often found itself at the center of religious debates. At the same time, the educational and intellectual centers represented one of the most harmonious traditions of combining and symbiosis of Christianity and antiquity. In the sharp intellectual disputes about Christianity, «soft power» of persuasion could be applied, which involved using terms and authority figures familiar to the opponent. Finally, the ability to engage in intellectual debates required the presence of libraries: one of the most famous and largest libraries in Palestine – the Caesarean library, which appeared at a historically important and complex moment, i.e. during the era of persecutions.