Doctor
(Luke 2:46; 5:17; Acts 5:34), a teacher. The Jewish doctors taught and disputed in synagogues, or wherever they could find an audience. Their disciples were allowed to propose to them questions. They assumed the office without any appointment to it. The doctors of the law were principally of the sect of the Pharisees. Schools were established after the destruction of Jerusalem at Babylon and Tiberias, in which academical degrees were conferred on those who passed a certain examination. Those of the school of Tiberias were called by the title "rabbi," and those of Babylon by that of "master."
Passages cited in this entry
M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 3rd edition (1897). Public domain; text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. A nineteenth-century Protestant reference: its dates, archaeology and judgements reflect the scholarship of its time and are not Imago Dei's editorial position.