DOCTOR, DOCTRINE.— Doctor is used in the old Eng. sense of ' teacher' in Lk 2" (SiiiaKa\o%) ; and ' doctor of the law ' for ' teacher of the law ' in Lk 5", Ac 6** (vop.oSi.5iaKa\o^). Cf. MelvilVs Diary (Wodrow, p. 95), ' to the Doctor is giffen the word of knawlage, to open upe, be simple doctrine, the mysteries of fathe.' So Bacon {Essays, p. 9) calls St. Paul 'the Doctor of the Gentiles,' and Latimer {Worses, i. 430) calls the devil 'that old Doctor,' and this is the use in Pope's lines —
• Who shall decide, when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me T '
Ep, to Ltd, Batkurst, L L
See nnder Scribe. Doctrine (.see next art.) is similarly used for 'teaching' in Dt 32', Job 11*, Pr 4*, Is 29** (all npS, lit. ' something received,' elsewhere only Pr V' 4» 9» 16^- "») ; Is 28» (^^o-:/.
(jToiSeia), 24^ (SiSaaKoXla.) ; and freq. in NT for Gr. SiSaaKoXla. Still more freq. for ' the process of teaching,' 'instruction' (SiSaxfi), as Ac 2" 'they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship.' Cf. Chaucer, Non. Preest. Tale, 622—
■ For seint Paul seith, that al that wrlten is. To our doctrjne it is y-write, y-wis.'
J. Hastings.
DOCTRINE, etymologically regarded, signifies the work of a doctor or teacher, from dnceo, to teach ; hence it denotes sometimes the act of teaching, sometimes the substance or matter of that which is taught. It may also be theoretical or practical, refer, that is, to either truth or duty— that which b to be believed, or that w hich is to be done.
On the theoretical side, doctrine may be com- pared with, and distinguished from, dogma or tenet. Dogma and doctrine, especially in the plural, are often identified, but the latter is really a wider conception than the former. It differs from it in two respects — a doctrine is less formal, less of a scientific construction than a dogma, and there is implied in the latter a reference to some religious community on whose authority it is main- tained. By some the distinction is thus stated : ' Doctrine summarizes the statements of Scripture on a particular point, adding and diminishing nothing ; dogma formulates ^he principles and relations involved in the doctrine, and the infer-
encea following from it. Every do;;ma, therefore, is of the nature of a theory, giving the ratioruilc of the facts.' The word dogma does not occur in KV nor in the original, except in the sense of a 'decree ' or ' ordinance ' (Lk 2', Ac 16' 17', Eph 2", Col 2", He ll^fLachm. Sdytia, but TK and WH Siirayfui.]). The modern meaning of the word is foreign to the sacred book. On its practical side, doctrine is almost synonymous with precept or principle.
In OT, doctrine occurs chieHy as tr. of nj? (mostly in Wisdom literature) ' that which is received' (Dt 32", Job U*, Pr 4', Is 29") ; it appears once only in each case as tr" of lyio ' discipline ( Jer 10*), and TffiDf 'that which is heard ' (Is 28*, RV ' message '). In Apocr. there are several occurrences of the word. It appears in Sir as tr.of raiSela, as when 16"* the writer says ; 'I will show forth doctrine in weight' (RV ' instruction by weight '), that is, as is made apparent by the parallel clause, 'with exactness.' In 1 Es5*° ' doctrine and truth ' appear for the Gr. SijKuKnt xai dX<tf«a, which in their turn represent the onm DTCI, Urim and Thummira — 'Lights and Per- fections (!) ' of the parallel passage Neh 7". In NT, with one exception (He 6', where for AV 'the principles of the doctrine of Christ' RV reads ' the first principles of Christ '), doctrine is employed to represent either SiSaxfi or SiSau- noXia, both of which words are used in active and passive sense, the active bein^ predominant in the case of SiSaaKaXia, the passive in that of iiiaxh- ' The latter emphasizes the authority, the former the act ' (Cremer ; but see Hort, Chr. Ecclesia, 191). Both words are employed in an absolute way for ' the teaching ' (SiSaxh in Tit 1', 2 Jn » RV ; SLSaaKoXla in 1 Ti 4'» 6', Tit 2'). It is worth noting that out of 21 occurrences of iiSacr- «oX/o in NT, no fewer than 15 are in the Pastoral Epistles. RV has almost uniformly substituted ' teaching ' for doctrine as tr. of SiSaxfi, but has only occasionally made the same substitution in the case of MaaKoKla. In only one instance lias it introduced the word doctrine when it does not appear in A V, viz. in 1 Ti 6' where it reails 'If any man teacheth a different doctrine,' for AV ' If any man teach otherwise.'
The intimate relation between doctrine and practice, between right thoughts and right action, 18 fully and constantly recognized in Scripture. The warnings against false doctrine and its evU eflTecta are numerous (1 Ti l'» 4', Tit 2', He 13», 2Jn' etc.). Christ's hearers were astonished at His doctrine (Mk 1^) not less than at His wonder- ful works ; while, on the other hand. He Himself indicated that His doctrine is only to be truly known through obedience (Jn 7"). The forms of teatrhing characteristic of the Bible as a whole, as well as of its individual writers, will fall to be considered in the article Theolooy.