Was Jesus a rabbi?

A title of respect among the Jews, signifying 'master, teacher,' but is not known to have been used till the time of Herod the Great. It was applied to the Lord, though often translated 'master' in the A.V. Mark 9:5; Mark 11:21; Mark 14:45; John 1:38, 49; John 3:2, 26; John 4:31; John 6:25; John 9:2; John 11:8. Jesus forbade the disciples being called Rabbi, for one was their Master (καθηγητής), even Christ. Matt. 23:8. According to the Jews the gradations of honour rose from Rab to Rabbi, and thence to Rabban or Rabboni.

Let us try to picture the scene and the circumstances into which He now came. There were the Jews, who wished to compass His death. There was the crowd, recruited from Galilee and elsewhere, ignorant of that design. There were those of Jerusalem, who were fully aware of it. And lastly, there was a company, at length developed, who, struck evidently by His words, believed on Him. The Lord's sudden appearance must have taken His opponents by surprise. And His teaching caused them to marvel. "How knows this man letters, having never learned?" (John 7:15) was a testimony forced from them, astonished at His teaching. True, He had not graduated in any school of rabbinic learning. True, too, was it that He had never sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Yet He could teach, and did teach, as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Did they wonder at His ability to teach? He would clear that matter up. "My doctrine," He said, "is not Mine, but His that sent Me." He was not founding a new school, as men would call it, like some philosopher or some rabbinic professor. Yet His teaching was indeed new. Schools of learning the Jews had, as those of Hillel and of Shammai. The Lord's teaching was essentially different. Whence was it derived? He would tell them, and tell them too how each one, learned or unlearned, could arrive at a true judgment about it. "If any man will do His [i.e. God's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of [rather, from] Myself. He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory: but He that seeks His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him" (16-18). Every one knew how He always spake of His Father. To that test, which He here gives, He fully answered. Then, as there was no unrighteousness in Him, why did those, who themselves kept not the law, seek to compass His death on the accusation that He had broken it? To this question the Jews made no reply. They knew what it was they were plotting, and here learnt that He knew it.

"But there was a man of the Pharisees, his name Nicodemus,62b a ruler of the Jews. He came to Him by night,63 and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs which Thou doest, unless God be with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except one be born anew,64 he cannot see the kingdom of God."65 It was a chief man from among the most orthodox in the chosen people; sufficiently in earnest to seek Jesus for truth, and still valuing the world enough to fear its condemnation and scorn. So he came by night to Jesus; yet did he take the ground of a persuasion he shared in common with his fellows because of the signs wrought by the Lord. He knew not that a deeper work was going on within, which drew him, not them, to Jesus. He, the teacher of Israel, recognised in Jesus One come a teacher from God, and God with Him: for any others born of woman a signal honour; for Jesus the proof that His true glory was unknown. As yet then Nicodemus was astray as to himself, as to the Jews, and as to Jesus. In short, the true God was unknown.

The Lord accordingly stops him at once with the declaration that man, any one, needs to be born from the outset and origin. Not teaching is wanted but a new nature, a new source of being spiritually, in order to see the kingdom of God. No inference, however logical, is faith. It is not even a conviction of conscience. It may be a conclusion fairly drawn from sound premisses, from sensible facts of the weightiest kind before the mind; but neither God is known nor itself yet judged. The new character of life which suits the kingdom of God does not yet exist for the soul. In such a state teaching would but aggravate the danger or expose to fresh evil. The Word of God has never penetrated the heart of Nicodemus. He knew not himself utterly defiled, spiritually dead in sins. What he wanted was to be quickened, not to have fresh aliment for the exercise of his mind. And Jesus, instead of commenting on his words, answered his true need, which he too would have sought himself, had he but known it.

John 3:1-3. Nicodemus, like those referred to in the end of the last chapter, had reached a right conclusion about Christ, based upon the external evidence of miracles. He says to the Lord, "We know that Thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs that Thou doest unless God be with him". It was so far a just conclusion which the human mind is capable of reaching, but, if nothing more than the result of human reason, leaves the soul at a distance from God and without any sense of the need of Christ.

The first ray of light that enters his heart must be that which reveals to him his lost condition: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This is a revelation that lays in dust the son of Abraham and ruler of the Jews. His natural birth will not do if he desires to be in vital relations with God. He was born blind. The kingdom was there before his eyes, but he could not see it. He saw a Man doing great works of power, and of such a character that he rightly judged that God was with Him. But the kingdom of God, which was the power of God vested in Jesus for the delivery of man from the consequences of his sinful condition, he saw not that. He was thoroughly convinced of the Divine mission of Jesus, and he will not admit that anyone can have the slightest doubt on the subject. He says: “We know.” If others refuse to admit that which is confirmed by abundant and overwhelming testimony, it is a sin against light: “We know that Thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him.”

Nicodemus is presented to us as an honest man who values the miracles of the Lord rightly and owns that they confirm His divine mission. Nicodemus was "ruler of the Jews," one of the religious authorities of that day; yet at the very outset he meets with a statement which confounds him. The vail was on his heart, and he hesitates (an instance of the curious inconsistency of man) to accept a doctrine, although presented by One whom he owns "a teacher come from God," because this doctrine silenced his understanding. It is therefore possible to accept the mission of Jesus, supported as it is by glorious, incontestable proofs; but without the quickening power of the Holy Ghost it is impossible to accept the doctrine. Only he who is born again can see and believe that the same Person can be teacher and doctrine at the same time.

It is such a part as this, which the Lord Himself acts with Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus had come to Him as to a Teacher. The Lord at once turns him into another direction, and lets him know that he must come to Him as a Saviour or Life-giver. Nicodemus was seeking instruction. The Lord tells him that he needed life. And then, He so orders His speech with him as to withdraw him from every thought and every object but the Serpent of brass lifted on the pole in the wilderness. He lets him know, that he and all men, like bitten Israelites, were on their way to death, but that the brazen Serpent, the Healer or Life-giver, God's salvation, was in the camp again, and that the look must again be given, must interpose again as between the bite and death, or the kingdom would be lost, and the sinner would perish.

Both ἀγράμματος and ἰδιώτης are translated 'unlearned,' but there is a difference between them. Both words occur in Acts 4:13; the rulers of Israel perceived Peter and John to be "unlearned (ἀγ.) and ignorant (ἰδ.) men. ἀγράμματος (from a neg. and γράμμα, 'a letter') occurs nowhere else in the N.T., but γράμμα occurs in John 7:15: "how knoweth this man 'letters'?" and in Acts 26:24; "much 'learning' doth make thee mad." These instances show that ἀγράμματος signifies 'unlettered.'

Various other features of the character of our Lord mark the Tabernacle and its services. For example — "Take fragrant drugs — stacte, and onycha, and galbanum — fragrant drugs and pure frankincense; in like proportions shall it be. And thou shalt make it into incense, a perfume, after the work of the perfumer, salted, pure, holy." Exodus 30:34-35 New. Trans. None of these ingredients grew in Israel's land and it is striking that to this day, it is not known for certain where they come from. May not the divine intention be to remind us that our Lord learned nothing from man, or this world's teaching, but that all He was and did was of the Second Man out of heaven. It was said of Him, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" And again. "Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?" There was nothing here to minister to Him; He grew up as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. All was to be tempered together by the art of the perfumer.

It was a cause of wonder to the Jews that One, Who had never been instructed in their schools, should have such a knowledge of letters. This leads the Lord to give a test for all true teaching. What is its source? Is it human or divine? The Lord's teaching came from the Father Who had sent Him. Nothing moves the Lord from the position He had taken up as the "Sent One". If He goes up to the feast it is not to create astonishment by a display of learning, but to witness to the One by Whom He had been sent.