Instructive ("didactic")
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What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
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G1317 names able or apt to teach, not merely talkative or informed but fit to instruct others in a way consistent with godly character. Readers often come to this word asking about able to teach, qualifications for leaders, gentle teaching, and what Scripture expects from teachers.
Reader summary
Full entry for διδακτικός (G1317) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1317 names able or apt to teach, not merely talkative or informed but fit to instruct others in a way consistent with godly character. Readers often come to this word asking about able to teach, qualifications for leaders, gentle teaching, and what Scripture expects from teachers.
The BSB source-word alignment has 2 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include able to teach (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 3:2. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1), 2 Timothy (1).
G1317 names able or apt to teach, not merely talkative or informed but fit to instruct others in a way consistent with godly character. Readers often come to this word asking about able to teach, qualifications for leaders, gentle teaching, and what Scripture expects from teachers. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word must be read inside the sentence, the paragraph, and the local charge to Timothy or Titus before it becomes a broader teaching category.
This companion keeps the search question useful while refusing to let a search term control the text. It helps shepherds, teachers, leaders, churches, groups, families, and disciples ask what the passage is actually doing, how the word serves the book argument, and how the gospel governs the application. It also guards against separating teaching skill from character, patience, and gentleness.
The aim is not to create a shortcut around Scripture but to make the word a doorway back into Scripture with clearer questions and better boundaries.
Able to teach; skilled in teaching matters for readers because it opens the way Scripture binds doctrinal ability to the servant's life and manner.
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
An overseer must be able to teach as part of a broader character profile.
And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.
The Lord's servant must be kind, able to teach, patient, and gentle in correction.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Apt or skilled in teaching; describes a person with natural ability and temperament for instruction.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
2 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
able to teach, apt to teach
Read verseable to teach, apt to teach
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 2 lexical occurrence verses.
διδακτικός is built from this root:
Guarding sound doctrine requires both character and competence in teaching. 1 Timothy 3:1-7
Teach G1317 by starting with the local passage and the burden that caused the word to matter there. The entry opens the way Scripture binds doctrinal ability to the servant's life and manner. A faithful teacher should define the word plainly, show how the immediate context uses it, and then move carefully to related witnesses without pretending that one word proves every doctrine attached to the subject.
This matters for end users who may search for able to teach, qualifications for leaders, gentle teaching, and what Scripture expects from teachers but need more than a dictionary answer. The word should bring them back to Christ, the gospel, the household of God, and the obedience Scripture calls for. It corrects the assumption that a gifted communicator is therefore qualified to shepherd others with the Word.
Keep the tone clear and sober: enough definition to orient the reader, enough canonical connection to deepen trust, and enough restraint to avoid making the word say more than the passage says.
1Tim.3.2
The adjective describes teachability in action, the capacity to instruct. The surrounding lists show that ability must be joined to tested character.
Use the Old Testament and wider canonical background only where the cited passages or the local lexicon artifact warrant it. The Pastoral Epistles remain the controlling entry point for this batch.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain