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Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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TEACHER.—διδάσκαλος, though strictly meaning ‘teacher,’ is translation ‘master’ by Authorized Version throughout the Gospels except in John 3:2. In two other passages besides this, viz. Matthew 23:8 and John 3:10, Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 gives the correct translation; and in every case where both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 translate ‘master,’ (Revised Version margin) gives ‘teacher’ as an alternative reading. In Luke 2:46 διδάσκαλος is rendered ‘doctor,’ and in John 1:38 it is stated to be equivalent in meaning to ‘Rabbi’ (see artt. Rabbi and Master).

This was the word by which our Lord was always addressed. Even His enemies admitted His claim to be a teacher. And not only was He recognized as a teacher, but the supremacy of His teaching was, and is, universally 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’ (Matthew 7:29), and ‘never man so spake’ (John 7:46). 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 relationship 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 appeal to the heart and influence the will. ‘They are spirit and they are life’ (John 6:63). They pass into the soul of man and there quicken and create new life. The discourse with Nicodemus (John 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’ (John 1:12). 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’ (John 6:68).

Dugald Clark.