It would seem that ro/ioStSda-KoKoi should be trans- lated ' teacher of the law,' and SidaaKa'Kos ' teacher ' always. The Old English word 'doctor' now often signifies a title. Pope's phrase, ' when doctors disagree,' referred to teachers. fo/uKos is used once in Mt. (22^) and eight times in Lk., and is practically equivalent to po/j.oSiSdirKa'Ko!. See Rabbi, Ma.ster, Teacher, Laavyer.
A. T. Robertson.
DOCTRIHES — On the subject of doctrines in connexion with the Gospels but little light is shed by etymology.
perly an adjective and denotes ' of or belonftinfr to a teacher (iiii^traciU!), is used of the subject-matter of his teaching, as the analogous word, which is found in the NT only in the neuter form lUyya,^, 'that which pertains to an lit^yytU,-,' IS used m the sense of 'the good news,' ' the gospel.' The adjectival form h,i^a-xix,a,, which in plur. iii classical Greek means a teacher's pay, as tijxyy(?.,av means the reward given to a messenger of good news, does not oi.-cur in the NT. The word S.J«<r««x/«, as meaning that which pert.ains to a 'lihtirxaf.K, has in the NT special reference to the autliorit\- of the teacher. It IS never used of our Lord's teaching, and only seldom of that
of the Apostles. Further, it occurs in the Gospels only in those passages (.Mt 15», Mk 7') in which Jesus accuses the scribes of ' teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,' and quotes against them the Septuagint rendering of Is 291.*.
Sih«x^f the common word for the act of teaching or that which is taught, occurs more frequently. It is used with refer- ence to the teaching of Jesus in a general sense, as where the people contrast His methods with those of the scribes (Mt 7*, Mk 122), and again of His preaching, aa in connexion with the parable of the Sower, where St Mark says (42), ' And he taught them many things in parables, and said unto them in his doctrine.' Here Silaxv, * doctrine,' exactly corresponds to iiihxff-Ktv, 'he taught,' and the phrase evidently means 'in the course of his teaching,' or ' in the course of his remarks.'
In the same general sense the word occurs again in Jn 1819, according to which the high priest examined Jesus concerning His disciples and ' his doctrine.' With reference to the subject, matter of His teaching it occurs in the answer of Jesus to the question of the Pharisees (Jn 715. 17)^ • How knoweth this man letters (ypx/Auctrcc), having never learned ? ' The question refers to learning as it was understood by the scribes, that is, as theo- logical science, those methods of Biblical interpretation in virtue of which they themselves were called scribes (y/txu- putrui), i.e. professional theologians. The answer of Jesus is, 'My doctrine' (i £,u.i, 5.1«;f.7) is not mine, hut his that sent me ' ; in connexion with which Alford observes, ' Here only does our Lord call His teaching JjSaxsi, as being now among the JiS«ir«otAoi, the Rabbis, in the temple.' Elsewhere it is applied to Christ's teaching by the Evangelists themselves, in whose case it is sufficiently explained by the general use of the word with reference to teaching of any kind, and by the fact that Jesns was regarded and addressed as Rabbi or Teacher, and accepted the title. It is, however, important to note that, except where it is used in its most general sense, the word ' teaching ' {iiiotxr,) occurs in connexion with the marked contrast which
such doctrines and methods as were sanctioned only by Rab- binical tradition, and laid emphasis upon trivial questions to the neglect of the weightier matters of the Law (Mt 159 || Mk 77).
As regards the doctrines which Jesus taught in His own unique and authoritative way, it must be carefully borne in mind that He did not formulate them in the manner of a systematic theologian. They cannot therefore be ' rightly described as ' doctrine' in the technical sense of the word, and still less as ' dogma,' as that was understood by theologians of a later period ; but rather as ' ap- ophthegms,' to use the expression by which the LXX rendered the words of Dt 32", where Moses says of his teaching, ' My doctrine shall drop as the rain.' There the Gr. word airbipeeyixa, ' a sen- tentious saying,' is made to represent the Heb. npS ' that which is received.' This word ' apophthegm,' indeed, corresponds very nearly to the expression Ttt \6yi.a, ' the sayings ' or ' utterances ' of which Papias speaks as forming the kernel of the Gospels, and which, according to that writer, were taken down by St. Mark as the amanuensis of St. Peter. Such a term, moreover, would aptly apply to the style of Christ's doctrine, which, as Beyschlag remarks (NT Theol. i. 31), 'is conditioned not merely by a necessity of teaching, but rather springs chiefly from the nature of the things to be communicated. These are just the eternal truths, the heavenly things in earthly speech, which can be brought home to the popular understanding only by pictorial forms. It is therefore the mother speech of religion which Jesus uses.' As has been well observed, Christ's teaching has to do with His own unique personality, with a Person much more than with doctrine properly so called. Again to quote the words of Beyschlag (op. cit. i. 29), ' His teaching is that in His appearance and active life which is necessary to make that life intelligible to us, and without which the Apostolic teaching about Him would be only a sum of dogmatic utterances which we could not comprehend and whose truth we could not prove, — a result not a little awkward for that view which contrasts "the teaching of Jesus " as Christianity proper with the Apostolic "teaching about Christ.' Taking due account of these considerations, we may yet gather from the sources at our disposal, the simple narra- tives of the Synoptic Gospels and the more elabo- rate narratives and discourses of the Gospel of