RABBI 'Pa/3/30, a title of honour given by the Jews to their learned men, authorised teachers -of the law, and spiritual heads of the community, and which in the N. T. is frequently given to Christ. t. Different forms, and the signification of the Title.—The term Rabbi, is the noun 11 Rat (from 111, to multiply, to become great, guished), with the pronominal suffix and in the Biblical Hebrew denotes a great man ; one guished either for age, position, office, or skill (Job xxxii. 9 ; Dan. i. 3 ; Prov. xxvi. to), only that in -canonical books it does not occur with the nal suffix. It is in post-biblical Hebrew that this term is used as a title, indicating sundry degrees by its several terminations for those who are tinguished for learning, who are the authoritative teachers of the law, and who are the appointed spiritual heads of the Jewish, community. Thus, for instance, the simple term 11, Rab, without any termination, and with or without the name of the person following it, corresponds to our expression .teacher, master, SzacfaKallor, and is the lowest degree ; with the pronominal suffix first person singular +, viz., Rabbi,'Pappi, my Rabbi (Matt. xxiii. 7, S ; xxvi. 25, 49 ; Mark ix. 5 ; xi. 21 ; xiv. 45 ; John i. 38, 49 ; iii. 2, 26 ; iv. 31 ; vi. 25 ; ix. 2 ; xi. 8), it is a higher degree, like the Syriac and with the pronominal suffix first son plural ), viz., in, Rabbon, `Pa(3por, our teacher, our master, Chaldee form like the Syriac it is the highest degree, and was given to the patriarchs (CMV)) or the presidents of the Sanhedrim. Gamaliel I., who was patriarch in lestine A.D. 30-50, was the first that obtained this extraordinary title, and not Simon b. Hillel as is erroneously affirmed by Lightfoot (Harmony of the Four Evangelists, John i. 38), and by Mr. Eddrup (in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Rabbi). This is evident from the following statement in the A ruck of R. Nathan (s. a. : ` We do not find that the title Rabbon began before the patriarchs Rabbon Gamaliel I., Rabbon Simon his son, who perished in the destruction of the second Temple, and Rabbon Jochanan b. Zakkai, all of whom were presidents.' Lightfoot's mistake is all the more strange since he himself quotes this passage elsewhere (comp. Hebrew and Talmudical lations, Matt. xxiii. 7). 111, however, which, as we have said, is the noun 11, with the Chaldee nominal suffix first person plural, is also used in Aramaic as a noun absolute, the plural of which is r?11 and n+:31 (comp. Chaldee paraphrase on Ps. lxxx. I I ; Ruth i. 2) ; pronominal suffix second person singular I:WI (Song of Songs vi. 4) ; nominal suffix third person plural (Ps. lxxxiii. 12). Accordingly 'Pappovl in Mark x. 5i, which in John xx. 16 is spelled 'Pappovvl, is the equivalent of 'In, my master, giving the Syriac • pronunciation to the Kametz under the Beth.
2. Origin and date of these Titles. —Nathan b. Jechiel tells us, in his celebrated lexicon denomi nated Amick (s. v. which was finished A.D. 1 IOI [NATHAN B. JECHIEL], that Mar Rab Jacob asked Sherira Gaon, and of his son Hai the co Gaon (A.D. 999), for an explanatiOn of the origin and import of these different titles, and that these spiritual heads of the Jewish community in Babylon replied as follows :—` The title Rab (an) is Baby Ionian, and the title Rabbi (+n) is Palestinian.' This is evident from the fact that some of the Tanaim and Amoraim are simply called by their names without any title—ex. gr., Simon the Just, Antigonus of Soho, Jose b. Jochanan, Rab, Sa muel,. Abaje and Rabba ; some of them bear the title Rabbi gr., Rabbi Akiba, Rabbi Jose, Rabbi Simon, etc. ; some of them have the title Mar ("n)—ex. gr., Mar Ukba, Mar Januka, etc. ; some the title Rab (n)—ex. gr., Rab Hana, Rab Jehudah, etc. ; whilst some of them have the
title Rabbon U11)—ex. gr., Rabbon Gamaliel, Rab bon Jochanan b. Zakkai, etc. The title Rabbi is that of the Palestinian sages, who received there of the Sanhedrim the laying on of the hands, in accordance with the laying on of the hands as transmitted in unbroken succession by the elders (npr), and were denominated Rabbi, and received authority to judge penal cases ; whilst Rat (n) is the title of the Babylonian sages who received the laying on of hands in their colleges. The more ancient generations, however, who were far supe rior, had no such titles as Rabbon ()11), Rabbi or Rab (11) , either for the Babylonian or Palestinian sages, as is evident from the fact that Hillel I., who came frOm Babylon, had not the title Rabbon (711) attached to his name ; and that of the prophets, who were very eminent, it is simply said ` Haggai the prophet,' etc. ; 'Ezra did not come up from Babylon,' etc., without the title Rattan being affixed to their names. Indeed, we do not find that this title is of an earlier date than the patriarchate. It began with Rabbon Gamaliel the Elder (A.D. 3o), Rabbon Simon, his son, who perished in the destruction of the second temple, and Rabbon Jochanan b. Zakkai, all of whom were patriarchs or presidents of the Sanhedrim The title Rabbi (+n), too, comes into vogue among those who received the laying on of hands at this period—as, for instance, Rabbi Zaddok, Rabbi Eliezer b. Jacob, etc., and dates from the disciples of Rabbon Jochanan b. Zakkai downwards. Now the order of these titles is as follows—Rabbi is greater than Rab ; Rabbon again is greater than Rabbi; whilst the simple name is greater than Rabbon. No one is called Rattan except the pre sidents.' From this declaration of Sherira Gaon and Hai, that the title Rabbi obtained among the disciples of Jochanan b. Zakkai, the erudite Graetz concludes, that ` we must regard the title Rabbi, which in the gospels, with the exception of that by Luke, is given to John the Baptist and to Jesus, as an anachronism. As an anachronism must also be regarded the disapprobation put into the mouth of Jesus against the ambition of the Jewish doctors, who love to be called by this title, and the admonition to his disciples not to suffer them selves to be styled Rabbi Kat OtXof/crt (ol -ypatyia rees)—KaTiioaL vaL .7-(.3v ,6451 'TALeZs- lb KXWijre Aapi31, Matt. xxiii. 7, 8). This, moreover, shows that when the gospels were written down, namely at the time when the title Rabbi stood in so high a repute that the fathers could not but transfer it to Christ' (Geschichte der 7uden, iv. soo, Berlin 1853). But even supposing that the title Rabbi came into vogue in the days of Jochanan b. Zakkai, this would by no means warrant Graetz's conclusion, inasmuch as Jochanan lived upwards of a hundred years, and survived four presidents—viz., Hillel . (B.c. 30-10), Simon I. (A.D. to-3o), Ga.
maliel I. (A.D. 30-5o), and Simon IL (A.D. 50-70), and it might therefore obtain in the early days of this luminary, which would be shortly after the birth of Christ [EDUCATION]. The Tosaphoth at the end of Ea'ujoth, however, quoted in the "truth in the same article, gives a different account of the origin of this title, which is as follows :—He who has disciples, and whose disciples again have dis ciples, is called Rabbi; when his disciples are for gotten (i.e., if he is so old that his immediate disciples already belong to the past age), he is called Rabbon ; and when the disciples of his disciples are also forgotten, he is simply called by his own name. This makes the titles coeval with the origin of the different schools, and at the same time accounts for the absence of them among the earliest doctors of the law.—C. D. G.