νομοδιδάσκαλος

From the study of 1 Timothy 1:7

Range of meaning

'Teacher of the law', a compound of nomos (law) and didaskalos (teacher). In the first century it means someone who teaches and interprets the Torah, the law given through Moses, along with the traditions built around it. It is a Greek rendering of a Jewish role, close to what the Gospels elsewhere call a 'scribe' (grammateus) or what later Jewish sources call a rabbi or sage.

Against the English

Every major English version says 'teacher(s) of the law'. That is accurate. To modern ears 'law' can sound like civil or criminal statute, a law school, a legal profession. NLT spells it out with 'law of Moses', which removes that ambiguity. The capital 'L' in some editions ('Law') does the same job in print.

How it drifted

English 'law' now mainly means state legislation. Greek nomos in a Jewish-Christian setting meant first of all the Torah: instruction, covenant stipulations and the scriptural tradition, not a state legal code.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word occurs only three times in the New Testament: Luke 5:17 ('Pharisees and teachers of the law'), Acts 5:34 (Gamaliel, 'a teacher of the law, honoured by all the people'), and here. It is not attested in Greek literature before the New Testament (BDAG). It may have been coined in Greek-speaking Jewish circles to name the Torah teacher, and it was later used by Christian writers. The Luke–Acts uses show it carried prestige.

From the study of Luke 5:17

Range of meaning

A compound of nomos ('law', here the Torah of Moses) and didaskalos ('teacher'): someone who teaches and interprets the Law. It describes a role, an expert in Torah who taught others how to apply it. It does not name a separate party.

Against the English

Modern versions have 'teachers of the law.' The KJV has 'doctors of the law', which in 1611 meant 'teachers' (Latin doctor, 'teacher'). Today the phrase suggests physicians, which is especially confusing in a healing story.

How it drifted

English 'doctor' narrowed over the following centuries to mean mainly a medical practitioner. Its older academic sense survives only in titles such as 'Doctor of Divinity.'

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is very rare. Its earliest known uses are in the New Testament: Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34, where Gamaliel is 'a Pharisee, a teacher of the law held in honour by all the people'; and 1 Tim 1:7. Luke seems to prefer it at times to the more Jewish technical term grammateus ('scribe'), and he switches to 'scribes' for the same people in v.21. Josephus describes such men as experts in 'the ancestral laws' (e.g. Ant. 17.149).