In ancient Israel all education was religious education, and Scripture was the sole textbook. Understanding it was vital, because long life, success, and happiness flowed from living in accordance with the laws of God. But the Jews did not believe that ordinary people were equipped to understand and apply Scripture without the guidance of a teacher. Gradually, certain men distinguished themselves for their eagerness to study and teach the Scriptures. These men came to be known as rabbis.
Most of the time, rabbis, or sages, were ordinary people who practiced some kind of trade—farmers, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, or woodcutters. Their work was often seasonal, leaving them free to travel and teach at other times of the year.
Rabbi, a Hebrew word, is literally translated “my great one,” and it can also be translated as “my master” or “my teacher.” In the early first century, it was used to honor someone who acted as a teacher of the Torah. Rabbouni is an expanded Hebrew form that means “my rabbi.” Some decades after Jesus’ time, “rabbi” became a more formalized title.
Unlike most rabbis, who merely taught what they had learned from another rabbi, Jesus taught with his own authority, as though his wisdom came from above—a fact remarked upon by many who heard him. Jesus counseled his disciples never to seek the honorific title “rabbi.” He alone was to be their Teacher and Master.
Another word for teacher in the New Testament is the Greek word didaskolos. Jesus was an enormously popular teacher who drew crowds wherever he went, using questions, discussions, proverbs, symbolic actions, parables, and even miracles in order to teach people the way to live. The content of his teaching is most powerfully and eloquently evident in the story of his life.
Praying to Rabbi Jesus
Have you ever tried learning a foreign language? During graduate school, I took a six-week intensive course in Latin. We were supposed to master the equivalent of two years of college Latin in a mere six weeks. The course requirements were so daunting that half the students dropped out on the first day. One classmate later remarked that oranges had become his favorite fruit. Why? Because it takes time to peel an orange, time during which he didn’t have to study Latin!
Anything worth mastering takes both time and effort. Remarkably, during the first century, ordinary people spent enormous amounts of time devoutly studying the Scripture.
Jesus, of course, was a well-known rabbi in the early first century. But how does this facet of his life affect us two thousand years later? Think of it this way. Jesus instructs us by acting like a Rosetta Stone for God.[1] The Rosetta Stone, you may remember, was an ancient Egyptian artifact that was inscribed with three translations of a single official text: two Egyptian language scripts and one classical Greek script. Its discovery enabled scholars to decode the mysterious meaning of hieroglyphic writing.
Similarly, Jesus enables us to understand the mysterious God of the Old Testament more clearly. Without him, we might come away from our reading of Scripture with a confused notion about who God is. Is he angry and vengeful or forgiving and loving? Through his words, his miracles, and the example of his life, Jesus teaches us who God really is and how we can come into a relationship with him.
The next time you are tempted to despair of God’s love or mercy or to doubt his faithfulness, think about Jesus and the life that he modeled. For it is only in looking at Jesus that we begin to see the true face of God.
[1] This metaphor originates in an unpublished sermon by Jack Roeda, delivered at the Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 10, 2010.
