Teacher of the law
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G3547 names a teacher of the law, which can describe respected instruction but in 1 Timothy names people who want that role without understanding what they confidently assert. Readers often come to this word asking about teachers of the law, law and gospel, Bible teachers, and why Paul warns unqualified teachers.
Reader summary
Full entry for νομοδιδάσκαλος (G3547) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3547 names a teacher of the law, which can describe respected instruction but in 1 Timothy names people who want that role without understanding what they confidently assert. Readers often come to this word asking about teachers of the law, law and gospel, Bible teachers, and why Paul warns unqualified teachers.
The BSB source-word alignment has 3 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include teachers of the law (2), a teacher of the law (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 5:17. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1), Acts (1), Luke (1).
G3547 names a teacher of the law, which can describe respected instruction but in 1 Timothy names people who want that role without understanding what they confidently assert. Readers often come to this word asking about teachers of the law, law and gospel, Bible teachers, and why Paul warns unqualified 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 using biblical vocabulary or a teaching office to claim authority without submitting to the meaning and purpose of Scripture.
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.
Teacher of the law matters for readers because it opens the difference between handling the law lawfully and using it for speculation, status, or argument.
One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Jerusalem and from every village of Galilee and Judea, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.
Teachers of the law are present while Jesus heals and forgives, exposing where authority truly rests.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a short time.
Gamaliel is called a teacher of the law and is respected by the people.
They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or that which they so confidently assert.
Some want to be teachers of the law while lacking understanding of their own claims.
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. Specialist in Torah instruction, often associated with Pharisaic legal interpretation rather than scribal copying.
Specialist in Torah instruction, often associated with Pharisaic legal interpretation rather than scribal copying.
a teacher of the law: Luk.5:17, Act.5:34, 1Ti.1:7 (NT and eccl. only; cf. νομοδείκτης, -διδάκτης, Plut.).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
3 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a teacher and interpreter of the Mosaic Law
Read versea teacher and interpreter of the Mosaic Law
Read versea teacher and interpreter of the Mosaic Law
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 2 case and number patterns. 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.
Where this word appears in Scripture: passage, original form, and sense in context.
νομοδιδάσκαλος is built from these roots:
Teach G3547 by starting with the local passage and the burden that caused the word to matter there. The entry opens the difference between handling the law lawfully and using it for speculation, status, or argument. 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 teachers of the law, law and gospel, Bible teachers, and why Paul warns unqualified 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 confidence, title, or technical language equals faithful teaching.
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.
Luke.5.17
The compound joins law and teacher. The local context, not the title alone, decides whether the teacher is faithful or presumptuous.
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