the question, "Can any good come out of Nazareth, and "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."^179 He
selected his apostles from plain, honest, unsophisticated fishermen who became fishers of men and
teachers of future ages. In Judaea he came in contact with the religious leaders, and it was proper
that he should close his ministry and establish his church in the capital of the nation.
He moved among the people as a Rabbi (my Lord) or a Teacher, and under this name he is
usually addressed.^180 The Rabbis were the intellectual and moral leaders of the nation, theologians,
lawyers, and preachers, the expounders of the law, the keepers of the conscience, the regulators of
the daily life and conduct; they were classed with Moses and the prophets, and claimed equal
reverence. They stood higher than the priests who owed their position to the accident of birth, and
not to personal merit. They coveted the chief seats in the synagogues and at feasts; they loved to
be greeted in the markets and to be called of men, "Rabbi, Rabbi." Hence our Lord’s warning: "Be
not ye called ’Rabbi:’ for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren."^181 They taught
in the temple, in the synagogue, and in the schoolhouse (Bethhamidrash), and introduced their
pupils, sitting on the floor at their feet, by asking, and answering questions, into the intricacies of
Jewish casuistry. They accumulated those oral traditions which were afterwards embodied in the
Talmud, that huge repository of Jewish wisdom and folly. They performed official acts gratuitously.^182
They derived their support from an honorable trade or free gifts of their pupils, or they married into
rich families. Rabbi Hillel warned against making gain of the crown (of the law), but also against
excess of labor, saying, "Who is too much given to trade, will not become wise." In the book of
Jesus Son of Sirach (which was written about 200 b.c.) a trade is represented as incompatible with
the vocation of a student and teacher,^183 but the prevailing sentiment at the time of Christ favored
a combination of intellectual and physical labor as beneficial to health and character. One-third of
the day should be given to study one-third to prayer, one third to work. "Love manual labor," was
the motto of Shemaja, a teacher of Hillel. "He who does not teach his son a trade," said Rabbi
Jehuda, "is much the same as if he taught him to be a robber." "There is no trade," says the Talmud,
"which can be dispensed with; but happy is he who has in his parents the example of a trade of the
more excellent sort."^184(^179) John 1:46;.7:52; Matt. 4:16. The Sanhedrists forgot in their blind passion that Jonah was from Galilee. After the fall of
Jerusalem Tiberias became the headquarters of Hebrew learning and the birthplace of the Talmud.
(^180) ῥαββί from ברַ or with the suff יבִּרַ My prince, lord, κὐριος) sixteen times in the N. T.,. ῥαββονί orῥαββουνί twice;
διδάσκαλος (variously rendered in the E. V. teacher, doctor, and mostly master) about forty times; ἐπιστάτης(rendered master)
six times, καθηγητής (rendered master) once in Matt. 23:10 (the text rec. also 10:8, where διδάσκαλος is the correct reading).
Other designations of these teachers in the N. T. are γραμματεῖς , νομικοί, νομοδιδάσκαλοι. Josephus calls them σοφισταί,
ἱερογραμματεῖς, πατρίων ἐξηγηταὶ νόμων–ϊ, –ͅϊthe Mishna סימִכחֲ and סירִפְוֹסscholars. See Schürer, p. 441.
(^181) Matt. 23:8; comp. Mark 12:38, 39; Luke 11:43; 20:46.
(^182) The same, however, was the case with Greek and Roman teachers before Vespasian, who was the first to introduce a regular
salary. I was told in Cairo that the professors of the great Mohammedan University likewise teach gratuitously.
(^183) Ecclesiasticus 38:24-34: "The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure; and he that hath little business
shall become wise. How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough," etc.
(^184) See FR. Delitzsch: Jüdisches Handwerkerleben zur Zeit Jesu. Erlangen, third ed. revised, 1879. He states (p. 77) that more
than one hundred Rabbis who figure in the Talmud carried on a trade and were known by it, as R. Oshaja the shoemaker, R.
Abba the tailor, R. Juda the baker, R. Abba Josef the architect, R. Chana the banker, R. Abba Shaul the grave-digger, R. Abba
Oshaja the fuller, R. Abin the carpenter, etc. He remarks (p. 23): "The Jews have always been an industrious people and behind
no other in impulse, ability and inventiveness for restless activity; agriculture and trade were their chief occupations before the
dissolution of their political independence; only in consequence of their dispersion and the contraction of their energies have
they become a people of sharpers and peddlers and taken the place of the old Phoenicians." But the talent and disposition for
A.D. 1-100.