Where does the Bible first mention schools and study?

We know very little about educational practices during the Genesis period. By the time of Moses, in Egypt, there was an education system for the wealthy. We know from Acts 7:22 that Moses “was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”, and so he must have attended some kind of school in Egypt. Both Philo and Josephus also speak of Moses’ great learning. However, Exodus does not explicitly mention it.

The first explicit mention of a formal school (i.e., outside the family home) is probably the “school of the prophets” (1 Sam 10:10) which appears to have been an organized group of people who studied the scriptures together, and trained to be prophets. They are also mentioned in 1 Sam 19:20-24; 2 Kings 2:3-5; 4:38; 6:1.

Much later, Daniel and his friends were trained in the literature and language of the Babylonians (Daniel 1:4), and received intensive training from the best teachers in Babylon.

There are, of course, many references to more informal and personal study of God’s word and instructions including Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 17:19 and Joshua 1:8.