Flippin’ Teachers

Ah at last we have a ministry that we understand, or do we? Surely teachers are those who like to preach and lead small groups for bible study.

Well the Greek word used here is ‘didaskolos’ and is found in 58 occurrences in the Bible. The King James version often translates the word as ‘master’. In an essay, James W Garrett says that the term might be better translated a master of instruction. Didaskalos is found mainly in the gospels, but of the ten times it is used in the rest of the New Testament, eight refer to this ministry of teacher.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. Acts 13:1

Apart from our references in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 the other useful occurrences are both where Paul describes his own ministry:

For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 1 Tim 2:7

For which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher 2 Tim 1:11

Clearly Paul was a teacher as well as an apostle, but what did he mean by this. In his letter to the church in Rome Paul sheds some light on the role of teacher:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach Rom 12:6f

The distinction between someone who can teach and a teacher as defined in Ephesians 4 or Romans 12 or in Paul’s descriptions of himself is that the Ephesians 4 teacher has a gift given by grace from God for that task. Lots of people are able to teach, but there are some who have a particular anointing to teach and equip the church to be teachers. Paul tells Timothy that all overseers should be able to teach as one of their skills. However, this kind of teaching isn't what Ephesians 4 is referring to, how do we know? Well look at James’ warning in his letter:

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1

You have to know that God has called and anointed you to even dare to teach with that kind of warning accompanying the role.

What the teacher teaches is therefore important to consider, clearly its not just passing on information. As 48 of the 58 occurrences of the word didaskalos refer to Jesus, we need to look at what he modelled as a teacher. The first thing to note is that many recent translations of the bible use  ‘teacher’ and not  ‘master’ as the translation for didaskalos. Although this is helpful to get to the real notion of imparting teaching, it loses the weight of the word ‘master’. In our modern society we have stopped calling school teachers ‘school masters’ presumably because its thought that the term implies something too weighty.  But gravitas is exactly what the biblical teacher had. 

We all know the Hebrew word for teacher, which is ‘Rabbi’. Jesus is referred to as a Rabbi 15 times in the New Testament. To be a Rabbi was a highly significant role. When a Rabbi entered a room everyone stood up, even that persons own father. We know from everything else Jesus teaches that this false reverence and titled position wasn't what he wanted us to adopt for teachers today. However, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water, the things taught by Rabbis had real weight. The rabbi taught scripture and interpreted God’s word for life situations. They were masters in their craft and all other teachers only passed on what the rabbi’s concluded.

Without putting teachers on pedestals and giving them authority as elders (unless a particular teacher is an elder), anointed teachers are given to us by God to wrestle with God’s word and bring authoritative interpretation for today. One of the failings of many churches in our generation is that we call people teachers just because they teach in cell groups or preach on sundays. However, for someone to be an Ephesians 4 teacher they should be anointed by God and set apart by the church to study and to reflect on the world around them. Its easy to see how we have got the role of teacher wrong. The only ministry available in paid employment in most church situations is the minister/pastor/priest idea so we don’t set aside funds to employ teachers except in bible colleges where they are taken out of the church and get lumbered with training more ministers/pastors/priests.