Jesus was a Rabbi.

Jesus is God. And God can do anything. And yet… pay attention.

Jesus was called Rabbi in the Bible. (Matthew 26:25, 49; Mark 9:5, 11:21, 14:45; John 1:38, 49, 2:2, 4:31, 6:25, 9:2, 11:8)

And that got me thinking… because you didn’t get that title of Rabbi just like that.

To be called a rabbi in ancient Jewish society was a process. You don’t just get that title lightly. Your knowledge of the scriptures, Jewish laws and traditions was necessary. Yes, over the course of history and depending on the location, those requirements have been different, but roughly speaking, I have come across the following common denominators:

• Education: A person who wanted to become a rabbi usually began his education at an early age, often with the study of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) and other Jewish scriptures.
• Study of Jewish Law: Aspiring rabbis immersed themselves in the study of Jewish law.
• Practical schooling: In addition to more formal training, aspiring rabbis often studied under established rabbis or scholars, serving as their students. These mentorships provided them with practical experience and insights.
• Recognition: Once a person had completed his education and demonstrated competence in Jewish law and its teaching, he could seek some kind of recognition as a rabbi. It was given by a board of rabbis or elders, who recognized the candidate for his knowledge and suitability for that role. So that was also tested by them.
• Common Recognition: After that type of certification, a rabbi could begin exercising his function as a religious leader. But depending on how they did it in practice and whether they could also provide the answers in practice, there was some kind of common recognition attached to it.

The title “rabbi” was not formally regulated in those ancient times. And that’s also fascinating, because nowadays everything has to be formally regulated and certified. It seems you can’t pick up pliers without having a formal piece of paper for it. That was not the case in those old times. It was then a title of respect and honor used to address learned teachers and religious leaders within the Jewish community. As such, the process of becoming a rabbi was more informal and also community-based, with recognition and authority granted by the community and other established rabbis.

And now back to today.

• Jesus is God and even though He could do everything, He spent a lot of time studying God’s word. Do we still do that today? We are not God and certainly do not know everything. But why do I sometimes get the idea that we “know everything” and just skip that study or spend little to no time on it? That’s odd, isn’t it?
• Study in Jesus’ day was not formally regulated, yet He was a rabbi. But nowadays, without a formal study of years and years… you often don’t even enter the pulpit anymore. Sorry dude, no theological university, unfortunately. Nice that you did theology study X, Y, Z, but yes, not formally “THE theological university”, so no. That’s odd, isn’t it?
• The other way around, we also see people who have completed “THE theological university”… but still do not understand, with Divine insight through His Holy Spirit, what they are talking about. But they can go straight into the pulpit. Because it is formally arranged… Oops… That’s also odd, isn’t it?

Have we not lost the Divine balance somewhere? Don’t we sometimes think of it WAY too lightly and sometimes WAY too heavy? Do we still have that same balance, even in our own spiritual life?

• For example, could Peter, Luke, John, Philip or Matthew still become a pastor these days? Or do we send them away because did not do “THE theological university”, so no?
• On the other hand… why do we sometimes allow people who did the “THE theological university” to the pulpit who we have not tested and where, with a very little effort, you could really have known that what they are saying is not Biblical? Not at all, sometimes? Also on really primary issues?

And now back to our lives and one example of how we deal with it:

We really looked at every guest we had for a Podcast in advance. Who is it, is what he says correct on Biblical grounds? And no, they really don’t have to have gone through the theological university of “name a city”, but we have a serious look at it. Because we really want to know for sure, 100% whether they are really a Rabbi… This sometimes also means that after the recordings we say: sorry, it won’t go online. Because what was said was not correct (on primary biblical issues) and we are therefore not going to spread it. And that is just one example of that assessment.

Finding that balance takes time and takes study, but that balance is oh so necessary in these times.

And yes, that also means that we do study God’s word for hours and hours a week. Hours and hours… because we are careful with that balance. Is what I think correct? Is it the same as God’s word says? If so, wonderful! If not, also wonderful! We learned a little bit more about who God is. If Jesus did that… then surely we should do it too. With a Divine balance.