TEACHER. — SiSdo-fcaXos, though strictly meaning 'teacher,' is tr. 'master' by AV throughout the Gospels except in Jn 3^^. In two other passages besides this, viz. Mt 23» and Jn 3"*, RV gives the correct translation ; and in every case where both
AV and RV tran.slate ' master,' RVm gives ' teacher' as an alternative reading. In Lk 2^^ StSac/caXos is rendered 'doctor,' and in Jn 1*^ it is stated to be equivalent in meaning to ' Rabbi ' (see artt. Rabbi and Master).
This was the word by which our Lord was al- ways addressed. Even His enemies admitted His claim to be a teacher. And not only was He recog- nized as a teacher, but the supremacy of His teach- ing was, and is, univer.sally acknowledged. His contemporaries felt His superiority and could not withstand the influence of His teaching, ' for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes' (Mt 7-^), and 'never man so .spake' (Jn V^). In modern times, too, even those who cannot assent to some of the cardinal doctrines of His religion bow before the majesty of His speech, and proclaim Him the greatest moral and religious teacher the world has ever seen. See Supremacy.
Christ's great bequest to the world as a teacher is His revelation of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. This twofold message is peculiar to His gospel, and forms the keynote of His teaching. Christ the Teacher is indeed Christ the Revealer. He reveals the truths concerning man's true nature and destiny, and his relation- ship to God ; and sheds an ineffable light upon all the dark and perplexing problems of life, death, and immortality.
But Christ was more than a mere teacher. His teaching is not only instructive : it is also creative. His words do not come with power to the intellect alone : they also ajipeal to the heart and influence the will. ' They are spirit and they are life ' ( Jn 6"^). They pass into the soul of man and there quicken and create new life. The discourse with Nicodemus (Jn 3) was intended to emphasize this very fact, that Jesus was not only a Teacher but a Saviour, and that the passport into the Kingdom of God was not mere knowledge, but a new life which demands new birth. Christ is not merely the truth : He is also the life. His truth liberates and saves ; and those who receive it into their hearts and minds are thereby raised to a higher and a nobler life of righteousness and holiness, and are endued with power to become ' sons of God ' (Jn V^). His teaching still exercises this cleansing and life-giving power ; and everywhere men in quest of God and salvation re-echo the assertion of St. Peter, ' Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life ' ( Jn 6^*).
Dugald Clark.
TEACHING OF JESUS.— The place and mean- ing of knowledge in the Christian religion consti- tute a question of supreme importance. It has been answered in differing ways in different times and places, and with far-reaching effects, often of the saddest character. Yet the answers have usually been of the nature of instinctive assump- tions rather than results of deliberate investigation into the grave problem involved ; indeed, it has seldom been realized that a problem existed. In our own day, however, the spread of the mode of thought known as Agnosticism — a term coined in protest against a too confident attitude of gnosis or full knowledge — has helped to bring home the fact and something of the nature of the problem under- lying the various bodies of ' doctrine ' claiming the authority of Christ. In so stating the case, our thoughts travel back to the final form of the ques- tion,* which must control all others, viz.. What sort of 'knowledge' did Jesus Himself offer to men, and how is it related to human knowledge in general and to man's religious consciousne.ss as such ? Some suggestions towards a true answer may be gained from a study of the terms found in
* In this connexion Latham's Pastor Pastonim, chs. i. and iii., offers certain regulative ideas of high value.
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our Gospels as used in this connexion, such as 'know,' 'knowledge,' 'teach,' 'teaching,' 'teacher,' 'mystery,' in the light of their originals, Aramaic and Greek. Here, on the whole, it seems needless to distinguish between Christ's own usage and that of the Evangelists themselves, for these coincide generally. The few exceptions in the Synoj^tics can be noted incidentally, while the special Johan- nine usage is treated by itself.
The characteristic Greek term •Yvdcn.s occurs in our Gospels only in Lk V ' knowledge of salva- tion,' and IP^ 'the key of knowledge' (see beloAv) ; and the intellectual interest connoted by it, as also by ' wisdom ' {aocpla) and ' the Wise man,' among the Greeks, is here quite absent {iTn<jTT}fxy) does not occur at all). All this points to the con- crete, personal, or experimental nature of the knowledge implied in the religion of the Gosjiels, as of the OT, — a fact which comes out also in the contexts in which ' know ' occurs.
' The OT everywhere assumes that there is such a thing as the knowledge of God, but it is never speculative, and it is never achieved by man. God is known because He makes Himself known, and He makes Himself known in His character. Hence the knowledge of God is in the OT = true religion ; and as it is of God's grace that He appears from the beginning speaking, commanding, active, so as to be known for what He is, so the reception of the knowledge of God is ethically conditioned. . . . It is in this sense of an experimental acquaintance with God's character, and a life determined by it, that a universal know- ledge of God is made the chief blessing of the Messianic age. . . . Side by side with this practical knowledge of God, the OT makes room for any degree of speculative agnosticism. This is especi- ally brought out in the Book of Job ' (Hastings' DB iii. 8 f.).