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INSTRUCT

I. OT

A basic OT meaning of Eng. “instruction” has to do with education in the broader sense. The Heb yāsar and its derivative mûsār have this denotation. (In Ps. 105:22 the RSV and NEB emend MT ’āsar, “bind,” to read yāsar, following the LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac versions.)

For the people of Israel God’s law served as an “educative force.” The law regulated life for the Hebrew and was passed on from generation to generation by the fathers, whose responsibility it was to guard the tradition (Ex. 12:26: Dt. 6:7, 20). Thus education is very “intrapersonal,” and yāsar/mûsār includes the whole process of “rearing” or “moral correction,” “but can also take on a more intellectual sense and stand for ‘culture’ in the sense of possession of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment” (TDNT, V, 604). Both for the individual Israelite and for his nation, “chastisement” and “discipline” were an important part of “instruction” by the fathers and by God (Prov. 13:24; 29:15; Jer. 2:19; Hos. 10:10).

This theme is common in the wisdom literature, which goes beyond the parent-child relationship to point to the marks of the “wise person.” The beginning of knowledge is the “fear of the Lord,” while “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7; 15:33). The goal of “instruction” (1:2) is that people might learn “righteousness, justice, and equity” (1:3). “Instruction” makes a wise person “still wiser” (9:9; cf. 19:20; 4:1; 8:33). It is better than silver and gold (8:10). “He who heeds instruction is on the path to life” (10:17; 4:13), while “poverty and disgrace” come to him who ignores it (13:18), since by doing so he really “despises himself” (15:32). It is the parents’ responsibility to instruct their children, but the education one receives from one’s father comes from undergoing discipline voluntarily (1:8; 13:1; 19:27; 23:12); only a fool rejects his father’s “instruction” (15:5). Children are urged to buy “wisdom, instruction, and understanding” (23:23), while the lazy man who has neglected his property is depicted as a warning example to others (24:32). Thus the picture is of a God who corrects and chastises His children, but who does so as a Father.

God is often seen as the “corrector” or “chastiser” and hence the “educator” of His people. Yahweh has persistently sought to teach His people, but they have stubbornly refused to accept any discipline or instruction (Jer. 17:23; 32:33; 35:13). Jeremiah declares that the “instruction of idols is but wood” compared to the greatness and power of the Lord (10:8). Isaiah maintains parabolically (28:26) that as God teaches the farmer what to do, his actions varying from plowing to sowing, so also God’s educating or guiding (CHAL, p. 137) of His people does not always follow the same pattern.

The verb yārâ, meaning “teach,” expresses the purpose of the law and commandments given to Moses on Sinai (Ex. 24:12). It is also used by Samuel, who tells the people that he will “instruct [them] in the good and the right way” (1 S. 12:23; cf. 2 K. 12:2). The psalmist confesses that Yahweh will instruct sinners (25:8) and those who fear Him (25:12) in the way they should go (cf. 32:8).

Derived from yārâ is the term tôrâ, which can mean “direction” and can in ordinary usage refer to parents teaching their children or to Job’s comforters putting forth their theological views. In most places, however, tôrâ is used for cultic or ritual practices and for the instruction of the prophets and priests regarding the will of Yahweh (Mal. 2:6f). In Isaiah’s day the rebellious people of Israel would not hear the tôrâ of the Lord, which warned them of the folly of trusting in Egypt (Isa. 30:9). Job 22:22 uses the term in the sense of “Divine guidance inwardly received” (Dodd, p. 32). This is one of the few places where the LXX (ezēgoría—“utterance”) deviates from the strict legal use of tôrâ as “law” (cf. Dt. 17:11).

The educative aspect of both divine and human “instruction” is further seen in the use of the hiphil of bîn in 2 Ch. 26:5, where Zechariah is said to have instructed the young King Uzziah in “the way of the Lord,” while a piel form of the verb lāmaḏ describes the instructors of Prov. 5:13 (cf. ḥāḵam in Ps. 105:22). Sāḵal used in the sense of instruction in Neh. 9:20 and Prov. 21:11, while God is the One who will give instruction (leqaḥ) to those who murmur in Isa. 29:24. Yet there is no one wise enough to give advice to Him or tell God’s Spirit that He should have acted differently (yāḏa˒, Isa. 40:13; cf. Jer. 31:19).

“Instructing” in the sense of “warning” is found with the use of zāhar (2 Ch. 19:10), while examples of its use in the sense of “command” or “give an order” are found with ṣāwâ (e.g., Jer. 38:27).

In the LXX, the Heb yāsar/mûsār was most often translated by the Gk paideúō. The oldest use of the Greek term (Aeschylus in the 5th cent b.c.) stressed the “nouishing” and “chastising” elements of bringing up a child but by the time of Plato and Isocrates (4th cent b.c.) the term was no longer limited to the teaching done by fathers and pedagogues. By this time “instruction” had come to mean “culture, the formation of the human soul”(Jaeger, III, 314). The stress was laid on philosophy as the main element of education, and the ideal became “the philosophical man, the Hellenistic cosmopolitan” (TDNT, V, 598). The effect of this on the LXX translation was that the Hebrew root meanings of “correction” and “chastisement” were in many cases subsumed under the Greek notion of “culture.” In the wisdom literature, e.g., the use of paideía patrós (“father’s instruction,” Prov. 1:8; 4:1, 13; 15:5; 19:20, 27; etc.), which is praised as “wisdom,” shows that “the interest of the Greek translators was not in discipline or chastisement, but in intellectual instruction” (TDNT, V, 609). This same tendency is found in the Psalms and some of the prophetic writings. The LXX sees the content of the prophetic revelation as being concerned with God’s education of His people. “Fundamentally, however, the concept of education presupposesin the OT the belief in election. Education by God is a gift of grace allotted only to God’s people” (TDNT, V, 611).

II. NT

ln the NT, Acts 7:22 describes Moses as having been “instructed [paideúō] in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” Moses’ instruction included the elements of a foreign pagan culture and secular learning. Josephus speaks of his superior “understanding” (Ant. ii.9.6) as does Philo, who credits him with proficiency in all branches of education (Vita Mosis i.20ff; cf. Sir. 45:3: Bruce, p. 168).

Other NT expressions of “instruction” include didaskalía, which Paul uses in Rom. 15:4 to designate the “teaching” which comes from Scripture (in this case Ps. 69:9[MT 10]). Related to this is the term didaché̄, of prime importance in early Christianity, which is used in an exceptional NT sense in He. 6:2, where it refers to an already established doctrine rather than the usual “teaching.” In close relationship with these terms is katēchéō (lit to “sound from above”). This term, from which we derive “catechism” and “catechumen,” is used for the act of “instructing” someone, particularly in religious matters. Paul uses it usually in reference to instruction in Christian doctrine, but in Rom. 2:18 he speaks of the Jews as katēchoúmenos in the law. In the congregation Paul says he would prefer to speak five words understandably to instruct others in the faith than ten thousand words in tongues (1 Cor. 14:19). Thus is seen the high importance he attaches to the preaching and teaching offices. The specifically Christian content of the teaching that was passed on, originally as oral information, is summed up in the description of Apollos as one who had been “instructed in the way of the Lord” and who spoke and taught [didáskō] accurately the things concerning Jesus” (Acts 18:25). Beyer notes that already katēchéō seems to denote “elementary instruction in the Christian faith” while didáskō refers to “the teaching constantly given to believers” (TDNT, III, 639 n. 8).

Less formal and more in line with Hebrew thought is the term nouthetéō (from noús), the usual LXX rendering of Heb bîn, with the sense of imparting understanding or having a corrective influence on someone, hence to “teach.” The teaching referred to here, however, concerns not so much the intellect as the will, the mind set, or the attitude. It involves an attempt to discipline the will and disposition through teaching and exhortation (see (TDNT, IV, 1019). The corresponding noun nouthesía (“admonition”) is used in Eph. 6:4, where fathers are urged to bring up their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” meaning that nurture which is designed to educate and correct without arousing bitterness or resentment in the child. Paul uses this same term in 1 Cor. 10:11, where he reminds his readers that the judgments of God recorded in the OT serve as warning examples, and in Rom. 15:14, where he acknowledges that the Roman Christians are able to exercise a ministry of pastoral admonition toward each other so that his own instruction need only be by way of reminder.

Another traditional Jewish usage is seen in 2 Tim. 3:15 where Timothy is told that the sacred writings are “able to instruct [sophízō—‘make wise’] you for salvation.” Here the OT concept that knowledge of the law can make people wise is transferred to a setting in the primitive Church without change. This wisdom brings salvation through “faith in Jesus Christ.” The use of symbibázō (“bring together”) in 1 Cor. 2:16 is based on the LXX rendering of Isa. 40:13 (cf. Justin Dial with Trypho 50.5); Paul asks, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” His point is that only those who have the mind of Christ are able to understand and instruct others concerning the gifts of the Spirit. One of the responsibilities of a bishop, Paul tells Titus (1:9), is to “give instruction [parakaléō—‘exhort’] in sound doctrine.”

“Instruction” in the sense of a revelation of God given to mankind is expressed by chrēmatízō in He. 8:5, where Moses was “advised” or “warned solemnly” by God to follow the specified pattern for the tabernacle. Giving precise commands or injunctions is the meaning of both entolé̄ in Col. 4:10 and diatássō in Mt. 11:1 and Acts 23:31.Parangelía has a related meaning stemming from military usage for “passing on an announcement” (among the ranks). It is used in 1 Thess. 4:2 to express apostolic “orders,” in this case ethical precepts which have their basis in the authority of the Lord Jesus Himself.

See also Education

Bibliography.—G. W. Buchanan, To the Hebrews (AB, 1972), p. 136: F. F. Bruce, Acts of the Apostles (2nd ed 1952); D. Daube, NT and Rabbinic Judaism (1956), pp. 106ff; C. H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (2nd ed 1954); NT Essays (1952), pp. 106–119; W. Jaeger, Paideia, I (2nd ed 1945), II (1943), III (1944); E. G. Selwyn, First Epistle of St. Peter (1946), pp. 18ff; TDNT, IV, sv νοέω (Behm): V, svπαιδεύω (Bertram); VII, svσοψία (Wilckens), στέλλω (Rengstorf), συμβιβάζω (Delling).

D. K. McKim

The Path to Godliness Leads through the Valley of Suffering

Rejoice in the midst of Sufferings

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