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Teacher, TeachingAid to Bible Understanding
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anyone who is being orally taught the word share in all good things with the one who gives such oral teaching.” (Gal. 6:6) “Let the older men who preside in a fine way be reckoned worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard in speaking and teaching. For the scripture says: ‘You must not muzzle a bull when it threshes out the grain’; also: ‘The workman is worthy of his wages.’”—1 Tim. 5:17, 18.
Men who unselfishly sought to be overseers, qualified to teach others in the congregation, were “desirous of a fine work.” (1 Tim. 3:1) Obviously, therefore, it was not with reference to such men that the disciple James wrote: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.” (Jas. 3:1) Evidently these words were not intended to discourage men from becoming qualified to teach, but emphasized the heavy responsibility that as a result comes upon teachers in the congregation. Evidently some had set themselves up as teachers, although not being appointed or qualifying as such. The persons whom James had in mind were probably much like those of whom Paul wrote to Timothy: “Certain ones have been turned aside into idle talk, wanting to be teachers of law, but not perceiving either the things they are saying or the things about which they are making strong assertions.” (1 Tim. 1:6, 7) Evidently such men desired the prominence that came with being a teacher of fellow believers. But James placed matters in the right perspective in showing that more would be required of teachers in the congregation. They would have to render a more serious account than Christians generally. (Compare Romans 14:12.) Yet like others, they too would stumble in word.—Jas. 3:2.
How all Christians should be teachers
While relatively few served as teachers in the congregation itself, the desirable goal for all Christians was to have the ability to teach their beliefs to others, at least privately. This point was made clear to Hebrew Christians: “Although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things of the sacred pronouncements of God.” As the Jews had been the first to receive the good news about the Christ, they really should have been, not spiritual babes, but examples in Christian maturity and ability to teach others. (Heb. 5:12–6:2) Thus the inspired writer is here evidently speaking of teaching in a general sense, rather than in an appointed capacity. Somewhat similar, therefore, is his reference to the Jew who, on the basis of his knowledge, becomes a “corrector of the unreasonable ones, a teacher of babes.” (Rom. 2:17-20) Paul shows, however, that in such teaching also one’s life course must harmonize with what is taught if the teaching is to bring honor to God.—Rom. 2:21-24.
Christians could also learn from one another. Younger women, for instance, could be taught by aged women about such matters as ‘loving their husbands, loving their children, being sound in mind, chaste, workers at home, good, subjecting themselves to their own husbands, so that the word of God may not be spoken of abusively.’ Such teaching in private was effective when backed up by a good example.—Titus 2:3-5; compare 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14, 15.
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TebahAid to Bible Understanding
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TEBAH
(Teʹbah) [slaughter].
First-named son of Abraham’s brother Nahor by his concubine Reumah. (Gen. 22:23, 24) His descendants may be connected with the town of Betah (Tibhath).—2 Sam. 8:8; 1 Chron. 18:8; see BETAH.
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TebaliahAid to Bible Understanding
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TEBALIAH
(Teb·a·liʹah) [Jehovah has immersed, that is, purified].
A Merarite Levite, the third-listed son of Hosah and a gatekeeper in the time of David.—1 Chron. 26:1, 10, 11, 16.
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TebethAid to Bible Understanding
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TEBETH
(Teʹbeth).
The postexilic name of the tenth Jewish lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the fourth of the secular calendar. (Esther 2:16) It corresponds to part of December and part of January. It is generally referred to simply as the “tenth month.”—1 Chron. 27:13.
The name “Tebeth” is believed to mean “sinking” or “sinking in,” and this may have reference to the muddy conditions that prevail during this winter month when rainfall is at its peak. The winter rains are often torrential, like the one that ended the three-and-a-half-year drought in Elijah’s day or the kind that Jesus described in his illustration of the house, the sand foundation of which was washed away by the lashing rain. (1 Ki. 18:45; Matt. 7:24-27) According to The Geography of the Bible by Denis Baly, the latter part of December brings frequent frosts in the hill country and occasional snow flurries in Jerusalem. (2 Sam. 23:20) Though it is unusual, there have been times when roads were temporarily blocked by heavy snowfall. It may have been during this month Tebeth that a heavy snowfall hindered the Syrian army commander Tryphon when on his way to Jerusalem. (See Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, chap. VI, par. 6; 1 Maccabees 13:22.) The month Tebeth was very evidently neither a month for traveling nor a month in which shepherds would spend the night in the fields. For these and other reasons it could not have been the month in which Jesus was born.
It was on the tenth day of Tebeth in 609 B.C.E. that Nebuchadnezzar began his siege against the city of Jerusalem. (2 Ki. 25:1; Jer. 39:1; 52:4; Ezek. 24:1, 2) The “fast of the tenth month,” mentioned at Zechariah 8:19, was thereafter observed by the Jews in memory of this event.
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TeethAid to Bible Understanding
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TEETH
Job, the faithful servant of God, barely escaping death in his sufferings, said: “I escape with the skin of my teeth.” (Job 19:20) This Biblical statement is accurate. The Encyclopedia Americana (1956), Volume 26, page 321, comments: “On the enamel surface [of the teeth] is a highly indestructible pellicle [thin skin] or film indistinguishable to the naked eye known as the enamel cuticle (Nasmyth’s membrane).”
FIGURATIVE USE
Grinding or gnashing of the teeth is frequently used to denote rage (Job 16:9; Acts 7:54) or anguish and despair. (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30) Such gnashing may be accompanied by bitter words and violent action against the object of anger. At Amos 4:6 the expression “cleanness of teeth” is paralleled with “want of bread,” representing famine conditions.
Teeth also symbolize destructive power of a nation or a people. (Dan. 7:5, 7, 19; Joel 1:6; Rev. 9:8) David likens the wicked enemies of the righteous to ferocious lions, and he petitions God to strike them in the jaw and to break their teeth. This would render them powerless to do harm. (Ps. 3:7; 58:6) The false prophets of Israel are pictured as greedy and voracious, “biting with their teeth,” and sanctifying war against anyone who does not feed them.—Mic. 3:5; compare Ezekiel 34:2, 3; Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29.
In the days before Jerusalem’s destruction, a common saying of the people was: “The fathers were the ones that ate the unripe grape, but it was the teeth of the sons that got set on edge.” (Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2-4) By this means they tried to excuse themselves of the blame for the adverse conditions brought upon the nation because of its wickedness, saying that what they were experiencing was as a result of what their fathers had done.
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TehaphnehesAid to Bible Understanding
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TEHAPHNEHES
See TAHPANES, TAHPANHES, TEHAPHNEHES.
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TehinnahAid to Bible Understanding
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TEHINNAH
(Te·hinʹnah) [entreaty].
Descendant of Chelub in the genealogies of Judah. He is also identified
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