TEACHER (בִּין, H1067, יָרָה֙, H3723, לָמַד, H4340; διδάσκαλος, G1437).

1. The Old Testament. Ancient Jewish education was entirely religious education. In OT times there was no textbook except the Scriptures, and all education consisted of the reading and the study of them. There was no recognized office of teacher with a definite title. For the Jew, the real center of education was the home, and the responsibilty of educating the child was laid on the parents (Deut 4:9, 10; 6:7, 20-25; 11:19; 32:46). The prophets were recognized to be divinely inspired teachers, and by the spoken and written word they taught the Israelites God’s will for them. The priests in early times also undertook the religious instruction of the people (2 Chron 15:3). In the days before the Exile there is no trace of schools in Israel at all. The synagogue grew out of the conditions of the Exile. When the Temple was destroyed, sacrifice became impossible; therefore the Jews in exile met on the Sabbath for prayer and religious instruction. Philo calls the synagogues “houses of instruction.” The scribes, who dedicated themselves to the task of knowing and interpreting the law, then entered the scene. It is not known just when, after the return from the Exile, elementary education first began as an organized public service. The Talmud says that Simon ben-Shetach, the brother of Queen Alexandra, who reigned from 78 to 60 b.c., enacted that children should attend elementary schools; and that Joshua ben-Gamala, who was high priest about a.d. 63-65, universalized elementary education over the whole country. Boys (and only boys received this public education) started school between the ages of five and seven. The school was usually attached to the synagogue, and was called the House of the Book. Jewish teaching was entirely oral, and education was to a very large extent memorization. The teacher was held in high esteem.

2. The New Testament. In the NT the word διδάσκαλος, G1437, is used in a general sense of any teacher (Matt 10:24; Luke 6:40; Rom 2:19f.; Heb 5:12), as the Gr. equivalent of the Heb. word rabbi (meaning my master) (Matt 8:19; 12:38; 19:16; 22:16, 36), and of certain officials in the Early Christian Church, designating those men who have received a special charisma from the Holy Spirit to instruct the community in Christian truth (1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11).

A comparison of Acts 13:1 with Romans 12:7; 2 Timothy 1:11; and James 3:1 shows that the teachers in the Christian Church—named along with apostles, prophets, and pastors—exercised their gift in congregations already established. The gift of teaching was not necessarily limited to them, but was exercised also by apostles and prophets, who, however, existed only in apostolic times.

Bibliography A. Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ (1876); W. Barclay, Train Up a Child; Educational Ideals in the Ancient World (1959); R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel; Its Life and Institutions (1961), 48-50.