Grace
Theological Journal 11.3 (1970) 11-21
Copyright © 1970 by Grace
Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.
TEACHER AND RABBI
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT PEROIOD
W. HAROLD MARE
Professor of New Testament Language
and Literature
Covenant
Theological Seminary
Joseph Klausner1 observed that Graetz2 holds the
view that the
Name rabbi used in the Gospels is an
anachronism, the reason for this
conclusion being given, as Goodenough observes,
"because it does not fol-
low later rabbinic usage," the anachronism lying "in taking
the later rab-
binic usage as
valid in the earl period since for this period we have only
the New Testament to certify. "Of course we do not
accept as necessar-
ily valid such a conclusion
even if the New Testament were to present the
only known evidence, on the grounds that other evidence might be
forth-
coming. As a matter of fact, we believe there is other evidence from
con-
temporary literature and archaeology to verify the accuracy of the New
Testament picture of a Rabbi-teacher-pupil
complex in the early part of
the first century A. D.
Albright, in
commenting on the ascription to Jesus of the Aramaic
name rabbi (literally "my master") or the Greek equivalent didaskalos
(literally
“teacher") in John, states that the arguments that the number of
passages where such terms are so ascribed show the relative lateness of
that Gospel to the Synoptics since
"these terms are much more frequent...
in the former than in the latter" and "that a teacher
would not be called
rabbi in the time of Christ," based on the claim that this was a Tannaitic
development-such arguments are negated by Sukenik's
discovery of the
term didaskalos inscribed on a pre-A. D 70 ossuary referring to
the per-
son whose bones were interred therein.4
Albright
goes on to say that further study of didaskalos, both ar-
chaeologically and
linguistically, needs to be made,5 and it is our purpose
make such an investigation of both rabbi and didaskalos using
evidence
ch as that set forth by Sukenik.
The above article was delivered at the
14th general meeting of the Mid-
western Section of the Evangelical Theological Society, held at
11
12 GRACE
JOURNAL
THE WORDS RABBI AND DIDASKALOS
USED
IN LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PERIOD
In the New
Testament the word ~ is restricted to the Gospels6
in which it is learned that it was a title sought by Jewish
religious 1eaders
(Matthew 23:7), was employed in a popular
or semi-popular manner by the
crowds (John
(John 3:2). Jesus is addressed a number of
times as "Rabbi" by His dis-
ciples (Matthew 26:25; Mark 9:5; 11:21; 14:45; John 1:49; 4:31; 9:2;
11:8),
and even by women in Christ's group (John
preacher, such as John the Baptist, is called "Rabbi" by his
followers
(John 3:26). A caritative
form, rabbouni (rabboni)
is found in Mark 10:517
and John
That the
terms rabbi and didaskalos are
understood in the Gospels
as equivalents is seen John 1:388 and John 20:16.9
The complex of rabbi-
didaskalos and mathetes (disciple, learner),
that is, the master-teacher
and his group of fol1owers,10 is presented regarding Jesus
and His dis-
fciples in John
1:37-38;
group (John
That
Josephus does not use the term rabbi can be explained by ob-
serving that this author is writing in defense of his Jewish nation at
least
in part from a Roman viewpoint in which he stresses major military
and
political matters. He brings in religious material, as in his discussion of
the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, when
necessary explanation is
needed. It is to be observed that this first century A. D. Jewish author
does not even mention Hillel, Shammai, or Gamaliel {except, as
far as
the last name is concerned, as father of Simeon12 and of Jesus
the high
priest).13
As a
possible equivalent of, Josephus uses the term sophistes
(J.W. I, 648, 650; II, 10:Ant. XVII, 152; XVIII, 155),14
and possibly
exegetes (Ant. XVII, 214, 149). That this kind of substitution in
terms is
made is not too startling when it is realized that Josephus does the
same
with the word sunagoge which he uses
only in Life 277 and 280 (in the lat-
ter section the participle sunagomenon is employed), his normal term for
the concept being proseuche (Life
293).
Not too
frequently does Josephus employ the term didaskalos, one
interesting lwe being his reference to Jesus as dictaskalos of men (
XVIII, 63).15
Philo, the
Alexandrian Jew, does not use the term Rabbi, but this
is no wonder since the word was just coming into use in
time, and this author writes from an Alexandrian and, in part, a Greek
TEACHER AND
RABBI
13
philosophical viewpoint. He uses frequently the Septugint
which, of
course, was written at a time before the use of the term rabbi.
Philo does,
however, show understanding of the rabbi-didaskalos complex in the
em-
ployment in his
writing of the word didaskalos with manthano
(On the change
of Names, 270, 88; Special Laws IV, 107;
cf. Special Laws I, 318), and
also of sophists 16 (an equivalent of didaskalos) with manthano (Posterity
and Exile of Cain, 150), as well as the
use of huphegetes with the same
verb (On the Change of Names, 217).
The
Apostolic Fathers do not use the term rabbi, which would be
expected since the New Testament church, especially after the fall of Jeru-
occur but rather infrequently, one use being a reference to "Jesus
Christ
our only didaskalos" (Ignatius, Mag.
IX), and another to Polycarp as a
didaskalos episemos, famous teacher (Martyrdom
of Polycarp. XIX, 1).
Rabbi does not appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls material17
although
there are a number of references to rab
("much, many, great"),18 which
word also occurs in the Old Testament Hebrew text.
The Syriac Peshitta of the 5th
century A. D.19, although bearing
late testimony, interestingly translates didaskalos by rabbi
where pronom-
inal suffixes were added.20
The second
Latin recension of the Apocryphal Gospel of
Nicodemus:
The Descent of Christ Into
Hell relates that three Galilean rabbis
witnessed
the ascension of Jesus,21 but this witness is late and
proves nothing.
RABBI AND DIDASKOLOS
IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSCRIPTIONS
The evidence
for rabbi and didaskalos in archaeological inscrip-
tions can be examined
in two groups.22 First, there are those inscrip-
tions found
outside
Greek (although sometimes Aramaic found)
until the third or fourth
centuries A. D. when Latin became more and more prominent.23 The
other group consists of inscriptions found on archaeological remains
in-
side
There are
some instances in this group when two of the languages
are used together on the same stone remains.26
In
connection with European Jewish inscriptions, most of which are
located in
in or near
6th centuries A. D., while those from
turies of the
Christian era.27
14 GRACE
JOURNAL
From Venosa comes an Aramaic inscription (Frey, No. 594) with
a questionable reading which may be translated, "Severa, daughter of Ja
cob. Peace"; but the expanded Greek on the same remains reads,
“Here
lies Severa, daughter of Jacob, the teacher
(didaskalos);28 may her sleep
be in peace."
From
marble which might possibly be from the first or second centuries A.D.29
It reads: "Here lies
Eusebis, ho didaskalos nomomathes
(the teacher,
learned in the law) "(Frey, No. 333).
The
inscriptions in
numerous and revealing. One of the latest is an Aramaic inscription from
a sixth century synagogue at Beth Alpha in
in a broken text includes the word rabbi. Another Aramaic
inscription
from the fifth century in the synagogue at El-Hammeh
in
speaks of a Rabbi (rab) Tanhum, the Levite (Frey, No. 857).30 An Ara-
maic inscription in a mosaic
at Sepphoris in
fourth centuries A. D.31 speaks of Rabbi Judan,
the son of Tanhum (Frey,
No. 989), and in the same area a funeral
inscription also mentions the
same Rabbi (Frey, No. 990). From Er-Rama in
maic third century grave
inscription which speaks of Rabbi Eliezer, son
of Tedeor (Theodor)
(Frey, No. 979).32 The considerable number of in-
scriptions in Greek,
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Palmyrene, found in the Jew-
ish necropolis (dated in
the first four centuries A. D.) at Beth-Shearim in
about the third century A. D.33 Some of these inscriptions
are mixed Ara-
maic and Greek (e.g., Frey,
Nos. 1039, 1041, 1052, 1055, 1158), although
the majority are in Greek. The Aramaic inscriptions speak of Rabbi
Isaac
(Frey, No. 994) and of another rabbi whose
name is not preserved in the
incomplete inscription (Frey, No. 1055). The Greek inscriptions given by
Frey speak of Rabbi Isakos
(Nos. 995, 1033), Rabbi Paregorios (Nos. 1006,
1041), Rabbi
Joseph (No. 1052), and Samuel, the didaskalos (No. 1158).
This last inscription in the midst of the
others, which in Greek and Ara-
maic speak of rabbi,
suggests that at this date the two terms, rabbi and
didaskalos, could be taken as equivalents. As a D:latter of fact, the rather
frequent reference to rabbi in this grave complex sug~sts that here we
have buried a family of scholars.34 Among the Greek
inscriptions, of in-
terest is the
spelling rabbi35 for rabbi in two cases (Frey, Nos.
1006 and
1052).
In coastal
quantity of inscriptions (70)36 to be dated in the first
centuries, a good
number appearing to be from the second and third centuries A. D. It has
been shown that a number of the names of rabbis inscribed here are of
those known from Jewish literature.37 Of the four
inscriptions which
TEACHER AND
RABBI 15
contain the word rabbi, three are in Aramaic and one in Greek, the
for-
mer speaking of Rabbi Tarphon (or Tryphon) (Frey, No.
892), Than(k)-
oum, the son of the Rabbi
(Frey, No. 893),38 and Hanania, son of
Rabbi
[Laza ]rus, of
which the Greek form of rabbi (rab)
is to be found (Rab Juda)
is in both
Aramaic and Greek, (Frey, No. 900).39
At Noarah (Ain Duk)
near
scription with the
name of Rabbi Safrah (Frey, No. 1199), which inscrip-
tion has been dated on the
one hand as late as the fourth to sixth centuries
A. D. (by Frey and Clermont-Ganneau) and on the other as early as the
time of Herod the Great, (argued by Vincent).40
A group of
rabbi or didaskalos, are dated between
200 B. C. and A. D. 200.41
The Aramaic
ones refer to Rabbi Hana (Frey, No. 1218) and Ben
Rabban42
(Frey, No. 1285). Although the title Rabbi is not
given to the
name, reference to a Gamaliel is made in an
Aramaic ossuary inscription
(Frey, No. 1353), which Sukenik takes to be from around the time of
Christ,43
such a reference possibly being a reference to the Gamaliel
who
taught Paul (Acts 22:3).44
Two Greek
inscriptions found on ossuaries among several others
containing both Greek and Aramaic writing, discovered on the slopes of
the
abbreviated or misspelied) of Theomnas,
the d(i)[da](s)kalou (No. 1269)
and of some other didaskalos not specifically identified (No.
1268).45
Another in
the same group (Frey, No. 1266) is of particular in-
terest. Sukenik dates it at the time of Christ.46 The
fact that the inscrip-
tions on this
ossuary are bilingual, Theodotion in Aramaic being on
one
side and didaskalou on the other, suggests the possibility that
as the Ara-
maic Theodotion
is .equivalent to Greek theodotion so the
Greek didaskalos
(which does not
seem to have been used in transcription into Aramaic) is
equivalent to the Aramaic rabbi. Here is evidence that didaskalos
was
used in the New Testament period in a capacity as teacher-Rabbi.47
Of uncertain
date are Aramaic inscriptions found in and near Jerusa-
lem with the words, R. Kaleb.. .R. Joseph48 (Frey, No. 1403, El-Aqsa) and
Rabbi Jehuda
(No. 1410, from the northwest of
and a Greek inscription with the words rabbi Samuel (No. 1414, from
unknown
origin). Also of uncertain date are Aramaic inscriptions found at Naoua on
the wall of a mosque which has only a possible questionable reference
to
Rabbi Judan and
Rabbi Levi (Frey, No. 853); and another on a pillar before
a synagogue at Thella49 which speaks of Rabbi Mathiah (Frey, No. 971).
16 GRACE
JOURNAL
The
testimony to the occurrence of both rabbi and didaskalos in
Jewish inscriptions is consistent from the
sixth century A. D. back to-the
time of Christ, both in the few references in Rome-Venosa
inscriptions,
and the more numerous ones of
conclusion is to be drawn that rabbi and didaskalos are
equivalent, not
only in the later time of the third A.D. at Beth Shearim
(Frey, Nos.
994, 1055, 1006, 1041, and 1052), but also
at the time of Christ in Jeru-
scribed in the New Testament where rabbi can be interchanged with
teacher.
THE USE AND MEANING OF RABBI-DIDASKALOS
Having
established the fact that the terms rabbi and didaskalos are
to be found in and belong to the first century A. D., we then
observe that
in the New Testament one of the clearest illustrations that the two
terms
are to be taken as equivalents in meaning can be seen in Matthew 23:8
where Christ warns His disciples against their taking the title,
"Rabbi,"
because (gar) He alone is their didaskalos, and in John
where rabbi (John
equation be taken at face value in John
obvious equation between Messias and Christos in john 1:41. Sometimes,
however, kurios and epistates
equivalents of rabbi (Mark 9:5, rabbi
compared with Matthew 17:4, kurie, and Luke 9:3350 epistata; and Mark
kale compared with Matthew
In the New
Testament the title "Rabbi" was one sought by religious
leaders, evidently for its flattering effect (Matthew 23:2,7), is used by
disciples of their teacher (John 9:2), is used in a popular general sense
by
the general public (John
of one coming from God himself (John 3:2), and is a term of
endearment
(Rabboni, John 20:16).
In the
contemporary New Testament literature the "doctors" or
teachers (sophistai) were considered to
be experts in the law (Josephus,
J.W. I, 648) and they (hoi didaskontes) were to be
respected and obeyed
(Philo, On
Dreams II, 68). In the Apostolic
Fathers special attention is
called toChris.i, our only teacher (didaskalos)
(Ignatius, Mag. IX) and to
Polycarp, a
famous teacher (Martyrdom of Polycarp XIX, 1).
Although
inscriptions could not be expected to yield much in the
way of doctrine52 in relation to the fuller meaning
attached to rabbi and
didaskalos, they now and again reveal additional information as to the im-
port of the concepts and to the type of person who bore the title. In
the
third and fourth centuries A.P. rabbis were honored as having helped mon-
TEACHER AND RABBI 17
etarily with a
building (as at Sepphoris, Frey, No. 989) such as an
inn (at
Er Rama in
Rabbi Mathiah is
commemorated for having given money for the construc-
tion of a pillar before the
synagogue at Thella (Frey, No. 971). It cannot
be proved, however, that the persons were addressed as "rabbi
" for having
contributed such funds. One rabbi (Tanhum) is
identified as being a Levite
(Frey, No. 857), and one (Rabbi Samuel) on
a
called chief of the synagogue (Frey, No. 1414). On one of the early Ro-
man inscriptions the title didaskalos is enriched with the
adjective, nomo-
mathes, learned in
the law (Frey, No. 333,
In summary,
it is to be observed that rabbi together with didaskalos
began to be used for the idea of teacher-master at about the time of
Christ,
as is evidenced by the New Testament Gospels and some early archaeolo-
gical evidence
from inscriptions, and the corroborative evidence from
Josephus and
Philo in the use of equivalent terms. Then as the
transition
between the Jewish economy and Christian Church continued, the term
rabbi no longer had a place in the latter as is evidenced by the lack
of the
use of the term rabbi in the New Testament outside of the
Gospels.53
Even didaskalos outside the Gospels
is sparingly used in the Acts and the
Epistles, this latter term seeming to be
reserved basically for Jesus (com-
pare also Ignatius; Mag. IX, Jesus
Christ, our only didaskalos). This is
corroborated in the Apostolic Fathers where rabbi doesn't occur at all
and
where didaskalos is used but relatively infrequently.
But on the
other hand, as Judaism continued and developed in its own
way, the title “Rabbi” became increasingly important in Jewish practice
and tradition as is evidenced by Talmudic tradition.
How much
official technical significance the title rabbi--didaskalos
carried in the New Testament period would be hard to determine on the
basis of the literary and archaeological records. We do know that,
accord-
ing to the New Testament
Gospels, the scribes and Pharisees desired the
title (Matthew 23:2, 7), that it was used of formally unschooled
teachers54
such as John the Baptist and Jesus by their inner circle of disciples
(ma-
thetai) and by the
crowds, and that it carried with it a sense of respect
and authority. Beyond that, the early evidence does not allow us to
go.
18 GRACE
JOURNAL
Documentation
1.
Joseph Klausner, Jesus of
(New York:
Macmillan, 1945), p. 43, footnote 93, and p. 256,
footnote 16.
2. Graetz,
400; through Klausner, op. cit.,
pp. 29, 43.
3. Erwin
R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman
Period, Vol. 1, (
XXXVII,
1953), p. 90, footnote 200.
4. W.
F. Albright, "Discoveries in
John,"
in The background of the New Testament and
Its Escha-
tology, Studies in Honor of C. H. Dodd,
edited by W. D. Davies
and D. Daude
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1964).
pp. 157, 158.
5. He
states, "It should be added that the treatment of this term
in G. Kittel's Theologisches Worterbuch
Zum Neuen Testament.
Vol. II
(1935), p. 154 (and in general on pp. 150-62) needs fur-
ther amplification archaeologically and linguistically; e.g., it
should have been emphasized
that rabbounei (John
the corresponding rabbinic expression. is a caritative of rabbi
standing for *rabboni, 'my (dear [or] little) master. '" Albright,
op. cit., p. 158.
6.
Dalman observes: "The interchange of u and o in pronun-
ciation can also be seen in other cases... sousanna,
Luke 8:3
for shoshannah
and the Palmyrenian Iakoubos
for the name
Jakob. " G. Dalman, The Words of
Jesus, authorized English
version by D. M. Kay
(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1902). p.
324, footnote 3.
7. MSS.
D it. have kurie rabbi.
8. I.e.,
"Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, didaskalos)."
9.
Where the form is rabboni: "Rabboni, which is to
say, didas
kalos. " MSS.
D Q latt. have rabooni.
10.
In the Tosefta it is stated: "He who has
disciples and whose
disciples again have disciples is
called 'Rabbi'..." I. Broyde,
"Rabbi,"
in The Jewish Encyclopedia. I. Singer,
ed., vol. X
(New York:
Funk and Wagnalls, 1912), p. 294.
11.
Disciples of John begin to follow Jesus at this point.
12.
Life, 190, 191.
13. Ant
XX, 213, 223.
14. On
J.W.
and comments, "'Greek sophists.' The
Greek term originally
free from any sinister associations, for a
paid professor of
rhetoric, etc. is employed by
Josephus as the equivalent of the
XXX
TEACHER AND RABBI 19
Classical
Library, Vol. II (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons,
1927),
pp. 306, 7, footnote. It is to be observed further that the term
sophistes would be better understood by Roman audiences.
15. It
is to be observed, however, that this is a disputed passage.
16. The
term Josephus also used; see above.
17. See
Karl Georg Kuhn, ed., Konkordanz
zu den Qumrantexten
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1960).
18. Francis
Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew
and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (
Mifflin and Co., 1907), "rab."
19. F.F.
Bruce, The Books and the Parchments, rev. edition(West"
wood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell,
1963), pp. 194, 5.
20. G.
Dalman, The Words of Jesus, authorized English
version by
D.M. Kay
(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1902), p. 338.
21. E.
Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, The Gospels, vol. 1,
ed. by W. Schneemelcher,
tr. by R. McL.
Lutterworth Press, 1963), pp. 478,9; also Actas de Pilato, red.
de Santos Otero, 2nd edition (
Cristianos, 1963), pp. 455-458.
22. Following
the division given by P. J. -B. Frey, Corpus Inscrip-
tionum Judaicarum, vol. I, Europe; vol. II, Asia';Africa (
Pontificio Instituto di Archeologia Cristiana, 1936 (vol. I),
1952
(vol. II).
23. "Outside
dominantly in Greek till the third
or fourth centuries, then in
Latin." E. R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman
Period, vol. 12 (
XXXVII,
1965), p. 51.
24. According
to Frey's second volume on Asia-Africa (op. cit. ),
occurrences of Rabbi--didaskalos in that volume are to be found
only on Palestinian inscriptions.
25. Gundry
notes that from archaeological data "proof now exists
that all three languages in question -Hebrew,
Aramaic, and
Greek -were
commonly used by Jews in first century Pales-
Tine.” R.H. Gundry, The Use of the Old Testament in St. Mat-
thew's Gospel (Leiden: E,J.
Grill, 1967), p. 175.
26. Compare
Gundry, op.cit. , 176.
27. For the inscriptions of Venosa,
dating from the sixth century
after Christ, still present us with
substantially the same picture
as those of
the earliest centuries of our era." Emil
Schlirer, A
History of
wish People in the Time of
Jesus Christ, Second Division,
tr. S. Taylor and P. Christie, vol, II (
ner's Sons, 1891), p. 247.
28. Thegater Iakob didaskalou.
20 GRACE
JOURNAL
29. Frey
says that "the catacomb was certainly now in use in the
first century; but the second and third
centuries was the period
of greatest activity." Frey, op.cit., vol. 1, p. 211.
30. See
Goodenough, op cit., vol. 1, p. 24i.
31. See
M. Avi-Yonah, "Mosaic Pavements in
of the Department of
Antiquities in
p. 178; III
(1933), p. 40. .
32. Compare
also Goodenough, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 213; and Avi-
Yonah, Q. D. A. P. X (1942), plate XXVI,
8, and p. 131.
33. M.
Schwabe in his work on Greek inscriptions found at
Beth-
Shearim in the fifth excavation
season of 1953 suggests a date
of the third or the first half of the fourth
century A. D. for
these inscriptions.
34. Compare
Goodenough, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 90.
35. Compare
the remarks of Thlman: "In the time of Jesus
rabb6n
had not yet became ribbon." Dalman, op. cit., p. 324 foot-
note 3.
36. Frey,
op.cit., vol. 1, p. 118.
37. Ibid. , p. 119.
38.
Frey says in a note that "biribi is a
contraction for bir ribi
(
the doctors of the law." Frey, op.cit., vol. 2, p. 121.
39. "The
title 'Rab' is Babylonian and that of 'Rabbi' is Palestini-
an." I. Broyde,
"Rabbi" in The Jewish Encyclopedia,
ger, editor, vol. X, (New York: Funk and Wagnalls,
1912),
Rabbi, p.
294.
40. While
granting some problems regarding the paleography of the
inscription, Vincent argues
epigraphically and archaeologically
for a date not later than the time of Herod,
the Great, seeing
in the
Idumeans) and free artistic
energy in which animals and even
the human figure are portrayed in
architecture which fits in
with this time. L.H. Vincent, Revue Biblique, XXVIII (1919),
p. 558; S.
A. Cook, "The '
Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement (1920), pp. 86, 87.
Frey, op.cit., vol. 2, p. 245.
41. Compare
Dalman's remarks, "The Targumic
mode of using rib-
bon is recalled in Mark
10:51, John
to Jesus, rabbounei (another reading,
rabboni; D Mark, rabbei;
John rabbonei…)
Dalman, Ope cit., p~
Charles in a note
on Pirke Aboth
Gamaliel to indicate his being the head of the
house of Hillel.
R.H.
Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa-
Ment, vol. 2 (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1913), p. 686.
43. See
Frey, op, cit., vol. 2, p. 305, who refers for this inscrip-
tion to Sukenik.. Juidische Graber Jerusalems um Christi Geburt,
1931.
TEACHER AND RABBI 21
44. It
is interesting that in Acts 5:34 Gamaliel is called nomodidas-
kalos timos panti toi laoi.
45. The
word there is somewhat deformed , DECDEKALLOU
which
Frey readily
recognized as didaskalou. Frey, op. cit., vol. 2,
p. 267,8.
46.
Sukenik, Judische Graber Jerusalems urn Christi Geburt
(1931),
pp. 17f., through Frey, Ope cite ,
vol. 2, p. 266.
47. Frey
takes, didaskalos in Nos. 1266 and 1269 as
equivalent to
rabbi. Frey,
op. cit, vol. 2, pp. 267, 8. See also Albright,
op. cite , p. 158.
48.
The text here is uncertain.
49. See
Josephus. J.W., III, 3, 1 for the location of this place.
50. Luke
9:33. P 45 has didaskale.
51. See
Dalman’s discussion, op.cit.,
pp. 327, 328.
52.
Compare Goodenough, op. cit.
, vol. 12 (1965), p. 53.
53. Compare
the fading use in the New Testament of another Jewish
religious term, synagogue, as the
New Testament ekklesia be-
comes dominant.
54. Goodenough says, "the word
was very casually used in early
Christian
circles with no reference ‘scholarship’ of any
kind. ..." Op. cit., vol. 1, p.
90.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
Grace
Theological Seminary
www.grace.edu
Please
report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at:
thildebrandt@gordon.edu