To teach (in the same broad application)
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διδάσκω is the verb for teaching — the deliberate communication of content with the intent that the learner understand and be shaped by it. In the Gospels, it is the characteristic activity of Jesus: He taught in synagogues, on hillsides, in the temple courts, and from boats.
Reader summary
Full entry for διδάσκω (G1321) · Open the biblical lexicon
διδάσκω is the verb for teaching — the deliberate communication of content with the intent that the learner understand and be shaped by it. In the Gospels, it is the characteristic activity of Jesus: He taught in synagogues, on hillsides, in the temple courts, and from boats.
The BSB source-word alignment has 97 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include teaching (14), to teach (13), teach (12), taught (10), He taught (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (17), Mark (17), Acts (16), Matthew (14).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
διδάσκω is the verb for teaching — the deliberate communication of content with the intent that the learner understand and be shaped by it. In the Gospels, it is the characteristic activity of Jesus: He taught in synagogues, on hillsides, in the temple courts, and from boats. The crowds were 'astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes' (Matt 7:28-29). The difference was not merely style — it was that Jesus taught from His own authority, while the scribes appealed to their predecessors. Jesus' teaching was self-grounded in a way that made it stand apart from ordinary scribal instruction.
The Great Commission (Matt 28:20) includes teaching as an essential element of disciple-making: 'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.' Two things are specified: what is taught (all that I commanded) and the goal of the teaching (to observe — not merely to know). The NT teaching task is not information delivery; it is formation. The measure of successful teaching is not what the student can repeat but what the student does. This distinction between knowing and observing runs through Jesus' teaching throughout the Gospels.
In the Pauline letters, διδάσκω becomes the activity that equips the body of Christ for its life and mission. Romans 12:7 lists teaching as a spiritual gift — didaskon en te didaskalia, 'the one who teaches, in his teaching.' The repetition suggests that teaching is to be practiced with full attention to the quality and faithfulness of what is taught. 2 Timothy 2:2 gives the multigenerational vision: 'what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.' Teaching passes the content of the faith from generation to generation.
For the preacher, διδάσκω raises the question of whether the congregation is being taught the full counsel of God or only the slices of it that are most culturally comfortable. Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:27) is the pastoral standard: 'I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.' Faithful teaching does not knowingly avoid the harder parts of the apostolic witness.
The local NT index currently counts about 96 uses of this teaching verb, with a heavy Gospel concentration and additional usage across Acts and the epistles. The related noun for teaching or doctrine is also frequent in the NT. Together they present teaching as one of the central activities of Jesus, the apostles, and the church. The word covers both the act of instruction and the content being passed on.
And teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Teaching is built into the commission's completion clause: the disciple-making process is not finished at baptism but continues in teaching. The goal of the teaching is observance — actual living of what has been taught, not merely familiarity with it. 'All that I commanded you' is the scope — not a selected pastoral theme but the full content of Jesus' instruction. And the teaching is done in the confidence of Christ's presence: 'I am with you always.'
The people were astonished at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
The immediate public response to Jesus' teaching: astonishment at the authority. The scribes taught by appealing to the tradition of other teachers — 'Rabbi X says...' Jesus taught from His own authority without appealing to predecessors. The astonishment was not merely at the content but at the posture of the teacher: here was someone who spoke as though the words themselves came from ultimate ground.
This provides a model for faithful teaching: not merely transmitting tradition but speaking from the word with conviction.
And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well.
The multigenerational transmission model: Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men, faithful men to others. The chain is explicit, and the criterion at each link is faithfulness — the ability to teach accurately what was received. This is the church's means of preserving and extending the apostolic deposit: not institutional control but faithful teaching passed from person to person across generations. Teaching is the primary vehicle of continuity in the church's faith.
If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
Teaching named as a charisma — a Spirit-given capacity within the body of Christ. The instruction to exercise it 'in teaching' means with full investment in the quality and faithfulness of the teaching itself. Teaching is not a secondary activity for people who cannot do more important things; it is a gift the Spirit gives and a responsibility exercised within the community for its benefit. The person who teaches shapes the community's understanding of what God has said.
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
The Spirit as the ultimate teacher: he will teach all things and recall all of Jesus' words. The Holy Spirit's teaching ministry is not separate from Jesus' instruction but is its continuation and application. Human teachers in the church teach under this reality — the Spirit is teaching through and alongside human instruction, making the connection between the word and the hearer's understanding. This is the ground for preaching with expectation rather than merely with preparation.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Instructional transmission of content to persons; emphasizes active teaching role over passive reception.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 97 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI teach
Read verseI 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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 80 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 96 lexical occurrence verses.
διδάσκω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
Emphasizes ongoing doctrinal formation in the church. 1 John 2:24-27
The Spirit’s teaching ministry confirms apostolic truth and equips believers to discern error. Acts 15:30-35
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
διδάσκω is the activity that distinguishes disciple-making from mere recruitment. The Great Commission's goal is not people who have been introduced to Jesus but people who are learning to observe everything He commanded — and that 'learning to observe' requires teaching. Teaching in the NT is not a passive dispensing of information; it is an active forming of people around the content of what Jesus said and did.
The Markan note that Jesus taught as one having authority — not like the scribes — names the distinction that still applies: faithful teaching is not the collation of other voices but the proclamation of the word itself with conviction and clarity. A congregation not being taught the counsel of God faithfully is being formed by something else: by cultural assumptions, by the ambient messages of the age, by default.
Teaching is one of the church's primary instruments for forming people who actually observe what Jesus commanded, not merely know about it.
Mat.28.20
διδάσκω is the standard Greek verb for teaching and instruction, appearing already in Homer. Its NT use follows the LXX pattern where it translates the Hebrew lamad (to teach, instruct — the root of talmid, the rabbinic disciple). The related noun διδαχή (teaching, doctrine — G1322) appears 30 times in the NT; διδασκαλία (teaching, instruction — G1319) appears 21 times, especially in the Pastoral Epistles where 'sound teaching' (hygiainos didaskalia) is the criterion for faithful ministry.
The teacher is διδάσκαλος (G1320) — the one whose identity is defined by the activity of teaching. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is repeatedly called 'Teacher' (didaskalos). Teaching was not peripheral to His ministry; it was one of its central modes.
The OT background for teaching runs through the Levitical priestly function of instructing Israel in Torah (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10), the prophetic word declared to the people, and the wisdom tradition's call to hear instruction (Proverbs 1:8; 4:1). Moses' final addresses in Deuteronomy are extended teaching sessions — the law of God explained and applied for the next generation before they enter the land.
The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) commands parents to teach God's words to their children 'diligently,' across the ordinary contexts of daily life. Teaching is the means by which the content of the covenant is transmitted across generations. The NT inherits this understanding and concentrates it in the person and words of Jesus: 'one is your teacher, and you are all brothers' (Matt 23:8).
The ultimate teacher is Christ, and all human teaching in the church is derivative of and accountable to His instruction.
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