A: The word "rabbi" literally means "my great one" and was a form of address for respected teachers of the Bible and Jewish law, probably beginning sometime after the return of the Israelites from captivity in Babylon. Interestingly, the oldest written use of the word is in the New Testament, but it seems to have been in popular use already at that time (Matthew 23:5), so we will probably never know who used it first about whom. The Talmud was written down later than the New Testament, but refers to many rabbis who would have lived during and just prior to the New Testament period.

Somewhere during this period the term acquired status of an official title implying one had been duly ordained by the laying on of hands to teach and make decisions regarding questions of the law. Nicodemus called Jesus "rabbi" in John 3, and he certainly behaved as a rabbi in the sense I have just described; however of his controversial views it is doubtful he would have received any official ordination from the religious establishment of the time, although his exceptional ability was recognized even in childhood. (Luke 2:46.47)

The term "Rabban" is a form reserved for the president of the Sanhedrin, and is said to have been applied first to Gamaliel the Elder, who died around AD 50. Gamaliel is mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 5:34), and had been a teacher of the Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul. After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, and with it the priestly services, synagogues and rabbis became even more vital to Jewish community life. Yet the rabbi as full-time leader of a synagogue did not appear until the Middle Ages.